When I was a kid, I wanted all the newest and coolest toys, like most kids I didn’t get my wish here, and usually had more fun with the big boxes.

As a preteen I wanted a big closet with all kinds of clothes and shoes, so I cold never say “I have nothing to wear!”.

As a teen a big house so I could have huge rooms that could handle all the cool stuff I would buy when I started earning money at the great job I was certain I would have, love and be great at.

Now I’m in my twenties (lets face it, mid-twenties) and all I want is to downsize to the point where I can basically carry everything I own in a backpack, so how did such a big shift occur in such a short time frame? That’s a fairly simple answer but a complex explanation.

Growing up, I lived in a house that was overflowing with stuff, and many people I knew we’re the same way, so I figured that’s what we we’re meant to do, collect stuff.

I went camping for at least a week every summer starting when I was about 11, so I’m familiar with packing but since I was never going far with my bag (between the car and the tent was never far) I never paid much attention to weight. As I got older and started travelling I started to understand how to pack for weight as well as fitting my gear in my pack.

Slowly, as I got older I started seeing different things on social media about how much space our homes have compared to houses 50 years ago had, but yet we weren’t happy and wanted more space. Then I saw the show “hoarders” for the first time. It finally clicked, and as I watched and listened to the therapists and experts talk about how you don’t really need the stuff you’re holding on I started to think about the possessions I had for no reason other than to have them.

I didn’t think much of it until I travelled to Europe for the first time when I was 16. Going to a high school where uniforms were worn I never really had to have clothes to wear every day but being out of school for two whole weeks gave me the opportunity to wear the clothes that sat in my closet all year except for the ‘free dress days’ when we could donate to a charity to wear something other than our uniforms, or during the summer vacation when no one really saw you anyway as most people went away.

I packed meticulously for both my trip to Europe and for my first cruise three weeks before, planning out what I would bring individually and what I wanted on both trips, making sure to wash and repack my Europe gear as soon as I got home so I wouldn’t forget anything.

During those two weeks in Europe I wore only about half of what I brought with me. I realised that while I stayed under the weight limit by about 15 kilos (around 33lbs) I packed things I didn’t really like and ended up wearing the same few pieces over and over, just accessorizing differently.

When I graduated later that year I did my first major purge of what was in my closet. I filled about 3 garbage bags with stuff and donated it to a local woman’s shelter.

Around 3 years later, as I started planning on going to Australia, I started the process over again, only this time with everything I had. I started getting rid of the scraps of paper I could no longer remember why I had kept, I recycled my old school assignments, sold books I wasn’t going to read or reread, I left no stone unturned or disposed of.

Once I was done this second purge, I looked around at what I had and was happy with the result, packed my bag and left, carrying things I truly loved and wore during my trip.

When I came home I realised that I had spent 3 months with only 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts and 5 shirts but yet I had survived for 3 months only buying 1 additional shirt as a souvenir from my favourite hostel chain and 2 new bikinis at a Roxy outlet for 46$ (instead of over 150$) because my 7-year-old Walmart one was falling apart.

I’ve now been home over a year and continue to get rid of the stuff that I really don’t need. Travelling has shown me that if you haven’t used something you probably don’t need it, and if you need something there’s almost always a way to get what it is you need.