The Wanderers Return

It’s been nearly eighteen months since we lived in Turkey. We’ve been back a couple to times. I had a fleeting visit when we got back from our Cambodia trip, just before I headed off to England, and I had another month here last summer. For those 18 months I’ve been living out of one suitcase, and now that we’re back in Turkey, I’m overwhelmed by the amount of clothes I have stored waiting for my return. Basically, it’s too many.

New Walk-In Closet

Before we went off traveling we tiled the basement room, which had always given us damp problems. We got contractors in to dig a french drain around the house to try to alleviate the damp problems. Our little basement has weathered two winters successfully. This is where we had planned to build a walk in closest, but needed to be sure it wasn’t going to be a festering hub of dampness. As it has stood the test of time (and by all account this winter was one of the worst seen in Turkey for many year), we decided it was time to start unpacking our eleven suitcases into the basement to settle ourselves in for the duration.

That’s when I realized how many clothes we had. The majority of our clothes have been hiding in cases for so many years, that I’d forgotten what hoarders we are. In my head, we’re living a frugal clothing lifestyle. But that’s only because we’ve been traveling for so long with one suitcase, and for our most recent trip to Spain, we only had carry on. A tiny little 10kg bag with all the things we needed for a 17 day trip to Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, and Granada. It was bliss. Red wasn’t too impressed, but truth be told, he only wore about 60% of the clothes he took, and there were many of my outfits that didn’t see the Spanish light of day.

I’m not quite sure what I’m doing with all our clothes. We’re playing the “hang up the summer wardrobe” and “pack away the winter wardrobe” game … this second group also includes the — “how on earth did I ever fit into that..”. We’re keeping those too. Not ready to admit we might not fit into those clothes again.