Tonight, my youngest asked if we could make cupcakes for dessert. That request sent me down to the basement to retrieve the last of the unpacked kitchen boxes.

I dragged the box upstairs and started to pull out stuff in search of those cupcake tins, which were stacked at pretty much the bottom of the box, of course. I took a moment to survey the contents of this final box, all of which–just two months ago–seemed like essential items that should not go into storage. Now I was seriously wondering: What was I thinking?

The cupcake tins? Absolutely. The two 9-inch cake rounds? Well, I’m not sure I’ll be baking any layer cakes anytime soon, but I’ll say those two tins are relatively “essential.” But most of the other stuff–I simply don’t need.

I went through the piles and tried to select out only those items that had a definite use–and a use I could imagine getting to within the next year. The batteries and the small flashlight? Keepers. The bag of twist-ties and random selection of business cards (all with Atlanta addresses)? Those went off to the trash.

And so on.

But then there were those mementos. The photographs that had been on our fridge back in Atlanta. That heart-shaped magnet with “believe” written on it. A query from the British Yearly Meeting, cut out from a pamphlet, that served as a point of reflection for me for the first half of this year, every time I opened the freezer door.

Most of that stuff I had to keep–for now, at least. I packed what was worth saving into a quart-sized plastic bag and tucked it away for the time being. And some of those meaningful keepsakes I decided it was time to let them go.

And a select few made it onto our new fridge.

I am aware that it’s an ongoing process, this shedding of unnecessary things. Still, it’s amazing to see just how much my perspective can on what I must hold onto, in just a few months.

I can imagine what those four pods are going to look like come next year!