Until I entered my flat, that is. After the neutrality of the Sydney apartment, my place seemed at once dark and bright, an Aladdin’s cave of… stuff. So. Much. Colour. Strange.
After 24 hours, my flat began to feel familiar again. Nonetheless, it’s apparent that being in Sydney, not surrounded by my possessions, has made me realise how much I don’t need a lot of the things I own. I kind of knew this before, in a theoretical sense. Now I know it for realsies.
It's kind of hilarious. I find the concept of minimalism appealing but I am… a maximalist? Definitely a collector. Hopefully not a hoarder.
Anyway. Living a less materially cluttered lifestyle in Sydney had all the advantages that minimalist bloggers talk about… it was so easy to keep my home clean, I didn’t run late because I couldn’t decide what to wear… the usual. Decluttering is fashionable right now, and there are plenty of people out there espousing it’s many (undeniably true) advantages.
So I admit it, I’ve jumped on the decluttering bandwagon.
Fear not, however, I am not about to jettison all my worldly goods. Whilst I enjoyed by brush with minimalism in Sydney, I also learned that there are some possessions that make my life so much better.
And so I bring you, in no particular order, Material Things I Missed While I Was Away:
1) Legwarmers. Oh I longed for these, especially at 8.10am as I turned the corner into (Antarctic) Crown Street. Why did I not bring a pair of legwarmers with me? Who can say.
2) Music in my car. I was lucky enough to have the use of a car in Sydney but it had NO MUSIC at all. No radio, certainly no USB port. Not even a tape deck.
3) A television that has a program listing. I know. It's bad (even sad) that I missed this, but I did.
4) My sewing machine. Ok, Claire’s sewing machine (I am “looking after” it while she lives in Berlin for a few years).
5) My toilet roll holder. Or rather the position of said toilet roll holder in relation to toilet. The toilet roll holder in the Sydney bathroom was so far behind the toilet that I had to do a yoga-like twisting manoeuvre to reach it.
6) My bicycle.
7) My ironing board. I know. Possibly worse than missing the toilet roll holder (position). I have a mini-sized ironing board that is super easy to unfold. At the flat the ironing board was large and clumsy.
8) My shaker thing - you know, one of those plastic things you make a milkshake in. I use it for overnight porridge making.
So there you go. If I undergo a complete personality change and decide to be a true minimalist, these are the non-essentials that I will be keeping.
PS – While I really did enjoy the simplicity of my capsule wardrobe in Sydney, I also did so much shopping that I was obliged to buy two 5kg postpaks to accommodate what would not fit in my suitcase.