wardrobe capsule, travel edition

I realized yesterday that in order to have my life wrapped up and ready to move on to my next adventure, I'd need to start planning what I'm bringing approximately now. First and foremost, of course, is clothes. I'm no fashion blogger. My poor attempt at a capsule was all preparation and no follow through. I recognize that most of the time I'm going to be hot and sweaty with no need whatsoever for pretty clothes. And yet... there are things I have that I can't bear to leave behind. My skirt with the blue flowers. All four of my very similar but just different enough flannely button downs. "You're allowed one pair of pajamas and that's it," I tell myself, giving my cat onesie some seriously tragic side eye.

But - I looked at my closet and went through my drawers and made a list of tops, bottoms, shoes, dresses, and accessories, and I am not so very sad about it.  I don't know that I could bring myself to get rid of my horcrux shirt or my sunset dress or my rather excessive pajama bottom collection, but knowing that they're not gone and just in storage makes it okay, and after I've lived in just one outfit for three months and picked olives in Greece and strawberries in Argentina, maybe the material items I put on my body won't matter so much.  I went through and tallied the number of outfits I could make with the clothes I was planning to bring, and the marks went all the way across the page and then some, and that seems both excessive and comforting.

And what do I need besides clothes?  Assorted toiletries, not much.  I won't need kitchen supplies - no pots or pans, no ladles.  I'll probably bring my little camping cookset and one of the bowls I made and my Swiss Army knife and maybe a spork or something, but those things are so little and such a small percentage of what I own.  I am such a hoarder, keeping every tiny memento: movie tickets in a plastic zip-loc, birthday cards in a file folder, every little thing that reminds me of someone or something squirreled away to look through later (and to be fair, I do).  All of which I will not be hauling with me halfway across the globe.  My furniture stays.  My snowboard and my bicycle.  Bix's crate will return to the person who lent it to us.  A few favorite books might make it with me, but books are heavy and take up space.  I will not be bringing my toaster oven or my blender.  All of my possessions should fit in a couple of bags, and that prospect excites me to no end.