Packed For A Change

For two weeks during a recent vacation I had to live out of my green canvas duffle bags. It was an eye opening experience sharing limited space with family in their home of less than 250 square feet. This home is a year round residence situated 1/4 mile from the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The beach overlooks Barkley Sound, which lies in the Pacific Rim National Park Area. Bald eagles can be found nesting in the tallest trees along the shore line and black bears wander throughout the small resort village looking for clover, berries and cast offs from the local fishermen.

My belongings had to stay packed while I visited so that the five of us would not be tripping over my shoes and books and toiletries. Now that's five humans I'm talking about, there were also four house pets. I was constantly tripping over them. The bed had to be made up first thing in the morning to have a sofa to sit on during the day. It was interesting to note how many items were multi-functional like the sofa. The more an item could do, the more it was used. The kitchen table wasn't just a table. It was a baking center to mix and roll out dough. It was a writing table and in a pinch it would fold down into another sleeping area.

Since organization was needed for functionality I wondered how much clutter I would see around me in such a small space. There was clutter but it didn't hang around for long. When an item has no significant purpose it has no place to stay. It's either given away to someone else in the community who can use it and if no one needs it and it's flammable it's used as a fire starter. Very little is simply thrown out. The community has built a nice library from shared resources of video cassettes, books and magazines. Tools pass from one set of hands to another. Even the day's catch from the sea is pooled together for feasting.

Perhaps when you can watch young bald eagles learning to fly your priorities are set differently. With so much to experience in the isolation of this area I found myself picking up many lessons about clutter. It didn't have to be surrounding me for study. It was in it's absence that many things became clear. I brought home many vacation treasures but the knowledge to share resources with community, to push functionality to its limit and to use well thought out storage is what I value most.

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