Claycat suggested I start my own thread, and to avoid confusion or distraction from Mrs. Mack's amazing thread about her move to Japan, which has been a great source of inspiration to many!
My Story: I met a nice guy from the Netherlands completely randomly on ChatRoulette. This was about 2 months before my already planned trip to London, Paris and South of France. He was funny, well traveled, and cute. We talked every day from the evening we met, chatting about everything under the sun, when about a month before my trip, he asked if he could meet me in Paris. I hesitated a little bit, but agreed.
After an amazing 5 days in Paris(Versailles, Eiffel Tower, Cafe du Amelie), we decided to travel Benelux together for two weeks, ending up at his apartment outside of Amsterdam. Hiking the caves and forests of the Ardennes, trying all the local foods of Belgium and Luxembourg, going to Disneyland Paris (I am a huge Disney park nerd), kayaking through the canals of Edam, wandering around the amazing Bruges, smelling the tulips of Keukenhof, it was a terribly romantic and whirlwind journey. We very much fell in love, but what about the crazy distance?
This was in March-April. He visited me in June here in Florida, and after another amazing, crazy busy two weeks (Dry Tortugas, Bonnaroo, Tampa, Key West) and we knew that we had to be together. Now which one of us was going to make a huge life change?
Because I have always wanted to live abroad, and the rules in the Netherlands are much more open about non married partners, we decided that I should come to him.
So, here I am, my flight is October 24th, but everything else is very much up in the air.
So! Unclutterer Forums, I turn to you and your amazing communal knowledge. You helped and supported Mrs. Mack so much, I hope you will do the same for little ol' me!
I have already begun the purge, because his apartment is rather tiny. While I don't live in a large home now, I rather like the homey/cozy, french country decorative style and have a lot of THINGS, and I know I cannot take much. Additionally, the expense of moving it all would be really prohibitive. Luckily, I am not terribly attached to much of it. It is just stuff, and I am not sentimental, but I also am very reluctant to just toss things if I think it might find a good home.
So far, I have rid myself of nearly ALL of my three bookshelves of books. We are talking over 300 books of all shapes, sizes and subjects. I have a number of good ones up on half.com but the rest went first to the used book store, and then to the library donation pile (they recognize me now!)
Please follow along, I look forward to sharing the beginning of this exciting journey with you!
71 DAYS!!!
