The striking mountain village of Morella, Spain
You do not realize how much you will forget.
I returned from nine months around the world with a giant grin and a million hugs for loved ones… and then proceeded to not be able to find a thing.
When you are getting ready to leave the country, you assume you will be able to find your favorite shoes multiple months and a head full of Asia, Africa, and Europe later. Trust me: you will not be able to.
Here are some glimpses of how this looks, with lessons attached:
Thursday (one day after returning from Around the World): Gleefully about to leave the house to meet a friend in Harvard Square for burritos when I realize: “Where the heck are my keys?” Thirty minutes later I found them, blessedly hanging by the door.
Lesson 1: Leave your most important stuff in extremely obvious or well-labeled places, or you will freak out! I repeat: You do not realize how much you will forget.
The view of Morella, Spain as you drive in!
Thursday to the Present: “I know I had two fully loaded train cards and two fully full bottles of face lotion. But where oh where are they? Am I going crazy? I’ve looked everywhere!”
Lesson 2: Some things you will never find. Maybe you stored them in a place so “safe” that it’s also safe from your new brain, or maybe some well-meaning person thought the items needed a new owner. Either way, move on and buy a new set. If you really wanted to keep the thingies, you should have labeled ‘em clearly and put them in a logical place! Now I know.
Friday: “I HAVE NO PANTS OR SHOES!” Then, after three hours of ruffling through every nook and cranny, I finally had the bright idea to climb up to the attic. Oh, smart self! Before I flew out in August, I had apparently carefully folded all my pants and stacked all my shoes into two boxes, each of which was labeled with a paper stating the exact specifications and colors of the contents! Yay! Clarity!
The winding Medieval roads of Morella, Spain
Lesson 3: It seems stupid now to label what you leave in ridiculous detail, but you will love yourself for it when you return!
Sunday: “I don’t remember half of these trashy shirts. Did I raid a dumpster before I left? I knew I was unfashionable, but this is ridiculous.”
Lesson 4: Since you won’t remember your clothes when you return home, the month before you leave is the perfect time to donate the majority of your ratty wardrobe. It’s much more pleasant to come home to very little and be forced to do some fun shopping (or clothing swapping) with friends than to realize that the clothes in your musty backpack are classier than what’s left in your drawers.
To summarize: After traveling around the world, your mind will be full of Asian temples and African sun and European pastries and the crazy people you met and the ridiculous things you did… not with your left-behind material possessions.
Hence, before you leave, label things dumbly well, put them in obvious places (maybe even make a master list of where everything is!), know that some stuff WILL disappear before you return, and make the mediocre stuff disappear yourself, before you leave!
Getting rid of as much stuff as possible early on is great advice. Chances are you’re not going to want a lot of your stuff when you get back. When I first went traveling, friends at home encouraged me to keep stuff “because you’re going to need it when you get back”. Now each time I go back home I try to get a rid of a little bit more, but at the same time I think OMG I can’t believe all this stuff is still sitting here. Craigslist, Ebay and donating to charity are essential pre-RTW trip activities!
Yes!!! High five!
Thanks for the tips. I hate that panicky feeling of not being able to find something when I know I was really careful about what I did with it. I’m pretty organized, but traveling takes your mind to so many places it is hard to remember the little stuff. Glad to hear I’m not alone.
After unpacking my storage unit after being gone a year, it still took me 13 months to find my second set of car keys. That was a LONG time to worry about locking my keys in the car — never again! I will definitely be more organized next time…
LOL! So glad to learn I wasn’t the only one with this issue!
So true! I’d add: email yourself the instructions for un-forwarding your phone. And leave your ultra-important papers ( checkbooks, birth certificate, healthcare proxy) with a trusted person in case they’re needed while you’re gone.
Hahaha – this is so topical! The padlock combination for our storage unit is currently lost in the ether – we thought we sent it to John’s mother but she swears she doesn’t have it. And I only left one copy. Hoping it’s where else we think we might have left it
Ahhh! So frustrating! Good luck!
This are very good tips. I think that they won’t work for me because even though i put things in obvious places i still cant find them anyway.
Another lesson: You are smarter than you think sometimes. That statement is to complement Lesson #3.
Great posts! I donated a ton of stuff before I left and as for what I left behind, I hope I put it all into the boxes I put into storage. I’m pretty sure I didn’t label it very thoroughly, though.
Going traveling for the next 4 months- just doanted 2 huge bags of clothing to good will- very liberating
Good advice! I’m going to bookmark this.
Noted