On Packing (Chapter the Second)

I did it. I emptied out my closet. I have a basket of clothes to give away, a smaller basket of clothes currently in use, and a loosely-packed suitcase of clothes going to Abu Dhabi with me. And I gave away one purse and a few pairs of shoes.

I tried to decide between two *very similar* pairs of brown heels, but to no avail. I really like them both.And one pair I've only worn once or twice since buying them. So that leaves me about 10 pairs of shoes to pack. I think I need to get that number down further, or add another piece of checked luggage. And I really don't want to do that. I reallywant to get in under the luggage limit.

Sigh.

Sure, some shoes should be an obvious donation: the knee-high black boots, the tap shoes, the truly awesome gold glitter Dorothy shoes... but the less practical shoes are the pairs I love best.

In addition to the impractical shoes, I have 2 pairs of flip-flops, a pair of sandals, a pair of ballet flats (with sequins in order to alleviate the sensible-ness) and, sigh, a pair of Crocs. Those are the shoes I wear to work now. They may stay behind, as they are aggressively practical, with no whimsy allowed. (I admit they are comfy though. Even for a retail job.) Also a pair of running shoes and a cute pair of knock-off Chucks.

Other than the terrible shoe dilemma, I have a narrow bookshelf of journals, some stuff that needs to go into a scrapbook (I need a scrapbook), my computer, a few toiletries, and some miscellany. I think I can cull my small book collection to five without too much angst.

Put like that, this packing thing shouldn't be so hard. Ask me next week, though, and I bet I'll be about an inch further along the packing trail than I am now. And there's still the issue of putting stuff on memory sticks, ipods, nooks. And backing up my computer, which I'm not totally clear on. AND downloading a VPN.

And solving once and for all the shoe dilemma.

Maybe next week.