We never realized how much “stuff” two people can fit into a 2 bedroom apartment … at least not until we began the process of unburdening ourselves of our possessions in preparation for our year-long trip around the world. It’s truly amazing how possessions gather up on you slowly, eventually amounting to a whole lot of stuff over the years … toasters, blenders, knick knacks, surfboards …

A friend and I have always had this long-running, unspoken, competition regarding who could be the most readily mobile at any given point and time – meaning who can move to a new apartment at a dime’s drop – and fit all of their possessions in one car. For the longest time, she had been the unspoken champion at this contest, managing to fit all of her wordly possessions in a small hatch back car. She was your quintessential nomadic room mate … always ready to go, and all in one car! She took pride in her ability to pack all of her worldly possessions in two bags, and get going.

Over the years, as she settled into what has become her longtime apartment … and she began to collect more and more “stuff”. And in a little while, a bed and a table became an entire dinner table set compete with chairs, a complete set of living room furniture capped by oversized cushions and pillows, and of course most recently … a giant arse flat screen television. At the same time, having been more nomadic in nature and managing to move around to my fair share of apartments over a course of the years she was settling in, I was shedding myself of many of what had been creature comfort possessions.

In the end, I managed to end up with a bed tailored for my spine, a massage chair that made you thank the almighty for inventing shiatsu, a couple of computers, two wonderful dogs, and a quiver of surfboards as my constant moving possessions. At the time, I was winning this contest.

Then I met my wife, and we made the wise decision of pooling our resources together and getting incorporated … well, the more romantic version of being incorporated: we got married. We formed an LLC … a limited liabity corporation (AKA marriage) where one conducts personal business by combining limited liability for all owners (called members) with taxation as a partnership.

An LLC is formed by filing articles of organization with an appropriate state official … like I said, married. When we moved in together, we had a lot of stuff all of a sudden. We. Stuff. Got it? My friend, with the stuff all neatly organized in her stationary apartment complete with desks, dinettes, dofas, and bed, was winning the unspoken competition again. BUT then we agreed to this adventure travel all over the world, and we had to make a mad dash to dump most of our collective wordly possessions.

At first, there were a few items here and there, and then over the course of the last remanining 5 days in what was our home, we managed to find our beloved items new homes! AND some items went to said friend who was winning. Now, I am up on this conetst again! The noteworthy thing here is that now, between my wife and I, we have managed to properly store all (if not most) of our remaining earthly goods in one small room. All of it. And if you somehow cracked the code and managed to look in that room, you would be surprised (well, maybe not if you actually know us) that most of our actual possessions are sports items: surfboards, bicycles, snowboards, golf clubs, etc. Clothes, sports items, the bed (I kept my favorite bed), the massage chair (yep, that too!), and the dogs!

That’s it. I win … for now, until my competitive friend gets the itch and decides to forsake all her booty and bounty just for the sake of competitive good will and reclaim her crown. But like I said, right now, this game is called “I win”.

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