It was pretty late last night by the time I carried in the bags of clothes and boxes of books and the one new bookshelf. I unpacked the books and put them in their new home, but I left the bags sitting on the floor in the bedroom for the next day.

So this morning, I unpacked that first bag–the one that I proudly packed last week–and promptly filled up two and a half drawers of a four drawer dresser. That takes care of the sweaters, I thought to myself, but where am I supposed to put the rest of my clothes?

I knew that we would be moving to a smaller house, but it certainly doesn’t feel too small for us. Clearly, though, we are going to have to live at a different scale. What appears “minimal” in one house may well be “more than enough” in another. I’m not talking about privation or austerity here–it’s just that without the extra space to stow away extra stuff, it becomes a lot easier to see just how much of that stuff is entirely unneeded.

I’m leaving all the sweaters up here for now–I’m sure I can find a donation site in the mountains just as easily as I can in the city, if it comes to that. But I’ll be taking back to Atlanta with me a different standard for just how much is enough–along with a renewed sense of freedom to let go of more than I think I can do without.