Now, first, y'all have to realize the apartment in Paris is around half the size of my HDB.
So there's not that much spare space cos after taking into account the bed, sofa, dining table, cupboard, toilet space, kitchen space, etc... there' isn't really much spare space left.
So now that 11 boxes have come in... I really have no space to unpack the stuff.
Some of the stuff I packed are consumables, like toilet paper, tissues, wet wipes, etc...
I bought a lot when I was in SG and they are cheaper in SG. And since the company doesn't give us any cash if we don't use the shipping, so we thought we might as well ship over some consumable items which would be cheaper to buy in Singapore.
I even brought over plastic/paper bags (I got these for free in SG), cos in France, plastic bags aren't free. You have to buy plastic bags carry stuff back from the supermarket, or to throw away stuff.
Ok so what's in the 11 boxes that I can't really unpack?
1. Clothes for her
2. Clothes for me
Ok so boxes 1-2, I don't really need. I've lived here for 5 days and I feel that I don't need any additional clothes YET.
We realized that she doesn't need much going out clothes, cos we can only go out on weekends. So basically she needs clothes for work, and 2 sets of going out clothes and maybe 2-3 sets of home/sleep wear.
3. Winter clothes for both of us
Probably winter clothes will be useful in future.
4. Some electrical stuff, neck-back massager, plugs, wires, clock
My neck-back massager is a good to have, I have some neck-back issues especially if I don't sleep well, so that's useful. But the other misc electrical stuff is once again unnecessary.
5. Bags, shoes, reusable bags
I do need some reusable bags, and spare shoes for her, which we bought at a good price in SG so it's worth bringing over, cos she will eventually wear out her shoes and will need to replace at least once in the 2 years here.
But once again, we brought some unnecessary going out bags and probably too many reusable bags for the time we will be here.
6. Towels, linen, pillow
We already have 1 set of towels, but we shipped another set. Probably useful when we wash our towels.
Linen and pillow are provided for by landlord. We shipped just in case the condition of the stuff wasn't good, but since it's clean and usable, we probably won't need to use any of these.
7. Plastic bags, newspaper
Disposable items, will eventually finish using these. I brought newspaper and plastic bags so that I can easily throw away stuff. As said above... it's quite stupid to ship this if I needed to pay for it. But if I don't ship, then I'll need to buy it in Paris.
8. Toiletries, toilet paper, wet wipes, tissue paper
More disposable items. Eventually will use finish.
9. Misc box 1 - stationary, envelopes, wrapping paper
More disposable items. Eventually will use finish.
10. Misc box 2 - Gifts to give away during Christmas, basically re-gifting items
More disposable items. Hopefully eventually will use finish. But if she gives presents to her colleagues, there's a chance they give something back and we end up having more stuff on hand.
11. Fan, vacuum cleaner, marketing trolley
Ok so the fan and vacuum cleaner, I'll probably leave them in Paris when I move back to SG. I found the fan at my void deck. It's old and rusty, but it works, and it's actually quite hot in Paris during the summer.
The vacuum cleaner is my old one. It's not working well anymore but it should still be ok for my time in Paris.
So anyway, as you can see, what we have done during our move to Paris is pretty much what most people do their whole lives. We brought stuff over here, cos we kiasu... Duno leh, maybe I need this, maybe I need that, etc etc... So we just ship everything over. But in the end, we ended up cluttering up our place and it's quite messy now.
And it's quite common. As we live our lives, we collect a lot of stuff. But in the end, there's only very little items that we really use well and often. Most of the other stuff is just kiasu stuff, we need it maybe once per 3-6 months and if we don't have it, we won't even notice it. We'll just work around it at that point in time.
AND GUESS WHAT! That's not ALL... I still have another 6 more boxes coming in via ship.
So I think we really messed up with our packing cos it's pretty obvious now that we don't have the space for all the boxes. Even IF some of the stuff will eventually be consumed, it's going to take a few months before we use them up, which means we'll have to live with a lot of clutter and boxes all over the apartment.
I think it's really part of human DNA... Cos we are programmed to be kiasu. Think about it. In the olden days, food is scarce, resources are scarce, people aren't certain when they can obtain certain things. So for survival, people tend to hoard, or just keep first, or take first, so that maybe next time it will be useful.
It's the same as when I get free food these days. I collect way more than I can eat, and to prevent it from being wasted, I eat more than normal. And I get my free food once every 2 days, so I need to learn how to take less or don't go and collect every 2 days.
So it's quite interesting that humans always want to accumulate. That there's never enough. Cos of a lack of security so we always tend to keep grinding at the hamster wheel, cos... kiasu ma. What to do right?
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