We’ve been back in the States for a couple of weeks now, visiting Florida and now Maryland for our perfect granddaughter’s birthday. While we were here, we decided to deal with the elephant in the room: The Storage Locker.

When we started this lifestyle (as our Spanish tutor calls it, well really she says estilo de vida), we didn’t know if it would last longer than our initial four months in France. We packed up all our worldly possessions and dumped them in a 30×10 storage locker (called a bodega in Mexico, which is completely different from a bodega in New York).

We would “go shopping” in the storage locker every time we returned here, dumping off souvenirs and clothing for the wrong season and picking up essentials for the next leg of the tour. After a while things got a little famished (read FAmished, it’s Yiddish for mixed up and not the English meaning really hungry). For entertainment (when we were really bored), we would talk about going through everything to see what we still wanted.

After three years, things have shifted. Here I’m talking about my body. Do any of my clothes fit me anymore? Do I need them? Do I like them? How many sweaters, long underwear, tights, pairs of wool socks, winter coats does one need when one avoids the cold? Why heels – ever?

Steven’s wardrobe questions are simpler: Will I ever wear a tie again if I’m not attending a wedding or bar/t mitzvah? Is one suit and button-down shirt enough? (Yes!)

But the clothes barely scratch the surface of the decision-making. We own: four couches, two queen-size bedroom sets, two desks (one is really a small kitchen table masquerading as a desk), two semi-functional desk chairs, two end tables, two (no – three or maybe four) bedside tables, a kitchen table and chairs, a coffee table that has a top that lifts so you can eat at it without bending down (courtesy of Grandma Rita) and a giant breakfront that was in my house when David and I were kids. And that’s just the furniture! (Anybody need any furniture? Please need furniture.)

Then there are the table and floor lamps and area rugs that may or may not fit any new place we land (plus mattresses that have been in storage for three years and who knows what else).

We gave one of the movers our gas grill and fire pit plus a TV, a cooler to Josh and Liz, and threw out a lamp that broke somewhere along the way.

Here’s a list of all the things we’re just laughing about having saved (although it seemed logical at the time).

• Laundry basket
• Laundry drying racks
• Cleaning supplies
• Garbage cans
• Old sporting equipment such as tennis rackets that we haven’t used in the 10 years we’ve know each other
• Four step ladders
• Old computer monitors and an old iPad Pro
• Miscellaneous cords and plugs for electronics we don’t own anymore
• Assorted toiletries
• Camping equipment (Steven thinks it’s camping if there’s no concierge at the hotel)
• Then, I opened a box of clothes and what did I find? An opened box of tissues. What?????

But perhaps my favorite boxes are the ones that contain kitchen spices. Wow. Those must be delicious after sitting in a storage locker for three years. Spices have a half life of of four score and seven years, right?

We are very excited to announce that when we return to the Baltimore area in the fall, we will be going through all the boxes and tossing, giving away or donating everything we don’t want or need. Our goal is to get down to one 15×10 storage unit, because we still don’t know what we want to do in the eventuality that we choose to settle down.