When you declutter and organize your home, sometimes it’s helpful to play a little game called “Let’s Pretend We’re Moving Overseas.” Armed with this mental filter, you analyze every item in your home by wondering if you’d pack it in your tiny luggage space. You ask yourself, Is this thing worth hauling 6,000 miles across an ocean and in to a new home? Is it providing that much meaning and value to my life? If not, why bother having it now? Well, four years ago, my husband and I asked those questions, but it wasn’t for a game. We moved out of our apartment in Austin, Texas in the fall, lived with friends for a few months while we finalized our plans, and then boarded a plane for the Middle East the following February. In that process, we held a yard sale and sold most everything we owned. We saved a few sentimental things for a storage unit, and the rest — 15 cardboard boxes, ultimately — went with us. I didn’t know it at the time, but this event was a stake in the ground for us. Here, we made a big change. We jettisoned almost all our physical […]