Managing the Pack Rat Within

For the past month or so I have been caught in the push to expand my space and the pull to stay where I am.  I have been living in this RV for more than six years, that's three times longer than I had planned.  I find myself wanting more space and a place to spread out.  Sorting mail is a challenge because it requires making a decision on whether to keep it and if so where to file it away so I can find it later.

With temperatures over 100 during the day the only cooking I have been doing has been in the crock pot.  Using the crock pot requires little effort and does not produce a great deal of heat.  The only thing I have been cooking has been a weekly pot of beans, which requires some forethought.  Several years ago I cooked a pot of black beans for well over 24 hours and they never got soft, like beans should.  I learned then you have to soak them for them to turn out right.  In the last couple of months several of my neighbors and I have gotten into some heated conversations over beans and how to prepare them.  Recently we had an impromptu bean cook off.  I have lots of other pots and pans that are not getting used as a result.

Next month my classmates will get together for a class reunion.  Our senior year I was a photographer for the year book.  I had a box of photos I had been saving that may have been good for a portfolio or a trip down memory lane.  Some of these photos were of friends, classmates and depicted student life.  That role was a great one for me as I learned a lot and got to use some of my hidden talent.  When I moved out of storage I remember my brother asking me if I still wanted to hang on to the photos.  I remember the photo that was on top of the box.  With the reunion coming up I have been looking for this box of photos and I have not been able to find them.  I have looked in my hiding places at my RV and in my other storage and have not found them.  It is my hope that when I have the opportunity to spread out and be more investigative I will find them, yet I assume I made a rash decision and threw them out.

Being in the RV has been hard for a pack rat like me.  There are things I want to hold on to for sentimental reasons, like the photos, and yet, I do not have space and have difficulty deciding what to hold on to.  I keep hoping I will get better at managing the pack rat, but all I have to do is look around me to realize I have yet to manage it.