Empty

When I graduated college at 22, I gave away about 75% of my things when I moved to Japan to teach English. It was liberating, and addicting, and totally out of character for this former packrat. Of course, due to my being a former pack rat, I still had quite a bit of belongings, though none of them were furniture- I had a lot of arts and crafts boxes, random boxes of memorabilia, too much kitchen stuff, and 8,462 books. Approximately. Upon returning to my homeland a year later I moved in with my parents for about 9 months, and then moved into a fully furnished apartment, using a borrowed bed and desk. This was where the first culling took place, reducing my 25% of belongings down further. After that year, I moved into another apartment, again with second hand furniture, and did two cullings over the course of that year. Then, I moved from that apartment into my efficiency, which of course entailed another culling...

Then, I was laid off. I sublet the efficiency, whittled myself down to two suitcases, and two laundry baskets of necessities, and flitted about the country and wrote my thesis while desperately seeking a job. After living with a fraction of the fraction of things I had, I realized yeah, most of what I had left could go as well. So, when I had to move back in to my efficiency- and yay, I got a job less than 4 miles from it!- I thought to myself "self, you've done without these clothes/shoes/accessories/books for almost 6 months, get rid of it". So, I did.

My apartment is pretty damn empty as a result- and I love it.

I already didn't have a T.V. or a microwave, and now I'm in a 545 square foot efficiency with a bed, a desk, and a table and chairs. I have empty shelves in closets, entire racks with no clothes on them, empty floor space everywhere, 3 of my 6 desk drawers are empty, there are only cleaning supplies under my sink, and my cabinets are nowhere near overflowing...

Empty. It. Is. Glorious.