Welcome to the first posting of “Casey’s Corner,” my reveries and ramblings about our adventures as the less adventurous co-pilot of this whole Odd Overlanders thing.
When we left our short-term rental in Bellingham about a week after our weekend-long wedding celebration. I’m one for preparedness, so over the last few months I’ve accumulated household and personal things I deemed as “essentials” for this trip.
The time had come to pack up our rental and our car, which has approximately 150 square feet of space not entirely devoted to just me. Packing began and quickly escalated to Corin emailing our AirBnB host to ask for extra days and me establishing two cardboard boxes marked with a sharpie as, “this shit don’t fit.” The boxes filled up super quick, and no, we didn’t get those extra rental days.
Corin and I are very different, especially in one particular way—our relationship to stuff. I was on my computer a few days ago digging for my mailing address and I found that list of essentials I thought Corin and I “needed” for the trip and quickly saw how those two inappropriately named cardboard boxes came to be. Did I still feel justified in my purchases? Kinda. What about Corin? Nope. He’s the man of the single black backpack for a two week trip to Europe.
Here’s the compromise. Behold! My front seat closet (no, I am not reading “Deadly Connections” as pictured below).
Is there a deep marital lesson to be learned here? Maybe. Perhaps someone can advise, I’ve been married for about five whole minutes.
Hey, a girl finds space where she can and holds on to the items she can’t live without!! If you have enough room for your feet then that’s a winner!!!!😉
And this is totally what I have been wondering all along, how could the person I have known all of her life, narrow her entire list of essentials down to around 2 dozen or so things? So now I know....the front seat closet. My first thought was, well that's one way to do it (Haha). Next I thought about how much time you spend in the car actually traveling, well maybe those aren't so essential...cramping your space for you to relax and be comfortable. But then I see your amazing cookbook, that I am sure you are using so many recipes from. I also see the two large rolls of yarn you are planning to knit into a beautiful warm scarf. I see so much lovely intent and purpose. There is nothing like holding on to things that are near and dear to your heart. There may be hidden advice here, but none with intent; this I realize and know is who you are. The amazing things that make you, you!! And if you cannot part with a few things that just don't fit, so be it!!! You have come a long way, so enjoy each and every item in those containers that now live in your front floor space. I am sure at some point you will be glad they are there! I love you and will look forward to more posts of you and Corin's inspiring journeys! And I must go now to plan just how I will go about narrowing my closet space down to only one closet....haha, while I examine how the apple falls from the tree. Love you both BIG!!