10 Things I Left In The USA

If you are like me when you read a post that has a title of “XX Things..” I look for an easy to glance at list so, for my kindred spirit readers here you go:

Not Pictured: The other 2 large suitcases I took with me

1. Physical Books

2. Hard Copy Photographs

3. Any Clothes That I Hadn’t Worn During The Summer

4. Shoes I Can’t Walk Around The City In

5. Small Purses

6. Tarnished/Broken/Costume Jewelry

7. Travel Water Bottles

8. All Our Camping Gear

9. Blonde Hair Products

10. Alarm Clock

Here is the why behind the decision to leave these items in the USA.

Physical Books

Don’t get me wrong I love reading. If I could I would live in a library. However they are without a doubt the heaviest thing to move. Since this move was just what I could pack into luggage for a plane I was forced to reevaluate and buy a Kindle. I was an avid anti-Kindle advocate for years but, moving to a country where English isn’t the primary language made me change my thinking. I wanted to have access to a vast library of books not just the back table in a store. (I will preface the rest of my reasoning by saying that before I but my books out into the universe I took a photo of them in case I wanted to repurchase on Kindle later). Most of my books were second hand meaning that I paid less to acquire them than I was going to have to pay for my luggage, they were the first to go. Secondly, were the books that I held on to all summer and never read. If I hadn’t read them in four months by a pool then I was clearly - in my heart of hearts - not going to read them. All my other books i.e. books I bought in other languages, signed books, books that I received as gifts with thoughtful letters in them I left in storage for later. Those are the ones I truly can’t part with.

Hard Copy Photographs

Now before you go thinking that I tossed all my photos into the bin or put them all in storage never to be looked at, know that I didn’t. I paid less than $50 and had over a 1000 digitized. Growing up my family had the 35mm camera that went to all the big life events with us. Every dance recital, holiday, and birthday party were there on film. These photos are priceless so priceless in fact that I don’t trust any storage unit in holding them. The choice to FINALLY digitize them was an easy one. I did a TON of research - these are the only copies after all - and went with ScanMyPhotos.com. While the site looked sketchy Forbes vouched for them and who was I to argue. I boxed them up and sent them off. A few weeks later I received a USB with all my photos on them. Some looked even better than the original! I created several shared folders on Google with my sister and my mom and we were all able to enjoy these memories. Having everything digitized just works when you move a lot or have only one set and want to share those memories with family members.

Any Clothes That I Hadn’t Worn During The Summer

This decision is pretty straight forward. In the words of Marie Kondo the items that hadn’t ‘sparked joy’ when I was in Oklahoma weren’t going to ‘spark joy’ in Chile either. Moving to a climate that is transitioning into summer after just finishing up a summer in the US made the choice extra easy. As always a majority of my items were second hand from Goodwill. I sold what items I could and then re-donated the rest back to Goodwill. If Goodwill ever deicides to do a Rent-the-Runway style subscription service I am in!

Shoes I Can’t Walk Around The City In

Everything is so close to our apartment in Santiago that we want to walk everywhere we go. This lifestyle doesn’t mix with my 5in black patent leather pumps so, sadly I left them behind in the USA. When I was evaluating my shoe collection I made sure to only bring shoes that I could walk 10 blocks in if needed. This doesn’t mean that there are no heels in my collection. The 5in pairs have simply been swapped out for the more reasonable 3in pairs.

Small Purses

This ties back into the point of everything being walkable here. When you are walking to the market, mall, and coffee shop in the same trip the last thing you want is a ton of bags dangling off your arm. Every time I move I bring a small purse that can be used to dress up an outfit for dinner and then tote bags. Tote bags are really underrated for their utilitarianism. I purchased a new tote from GAP on sale for $7 before I left since it had a cell phone pouch - that’s the move.

Tarnished/Broken/Costume Jewelry

I reevaluated my jewelry collection before I left in an effort to make sure I am truly using the pieces that are important to me. I had several missing earrings and green tinged necklaces that had to go. If I had a costume version and a ‘real’ version of the same piece i.e. pearl earrings, I donated the costume version. This not only minimized my collection but ensures that all my items were quality and meant something.

Travel Water Bottles

Now this one hurt. I love my sticker covered water bottles but I wouldn’t be able to use them here. While the water in Santiago is technically drinkable for someone coming for North America the mineral content is a lot higher than we are used to. This leads to some pretty upset stomachs. While it’s not enough to make you completely sick. It is an inconvenience. As a result, bottles of water here are much cheaper than the US.

All Our Camping Gear

As much as we love camping, getting out of Santiago and into the mountains to camp is not as easy as jumping in the car and taking off. First we don’t own a car so transportation would take a bit more planning. Plus finding a place and going off the grid for the weekend is not something that we can swing professionally right now. Overall, the decision was made to leave it all in storage for when we return.

Blonde Hair Products

Most people are surprised to learn that there are blondes all over Latin America as well as every other color of the rainbow for hair being here. In Santiago blue seems to be the most popular. Blonde hair products can be found at all grocery stores here. Sally Beauty is also in the city so it was not something I needed to waste precious luggage space on.

Alarm Clock

Ah my dear alarm clock. At the beginning of the summer I purchased one of the alarm clocks that slowly gets brighter as it gets closer to your alarm going off and I LOVED it. (Here is the one bought on Amazon). Despite my best Tetris like efforts I simply could not get it to fit and decided to give in to the Apple gods instead and use my iPhone to save space. I can’t wait to get one again.

If you were moving what are 10 things that you think you could leave behind? Are they items that you would need to repurchase or just realize you no longer need? The answer in actuality might surprise you as much as it did me.