We have moved a lot. Like every 1-3 years for the past 10 years. When you move a lot you really get the chance to de-clutter often. I have been known to goodwill or throw away many an item that I later wished I had back. On top of this I am completely not sentimental when it comes to Things. I honestly cannot tell you where my leather bound/framed college diploma is. This does actually sometimes bother me but I haven't ever lost sleep over it or anything.

So then, how is it that we were able to still need 2 storage units in Oregon for all the Things we won't need for at least 3 years? One unit has the contents of the garage including a car. The other is climate controlled and has the Things like furniture in it.

I am pretty sure that Americans have too much junk because they have too much space to keep all their junk. (By the way I use the word junk not in the literal sense. It could be interchanged with the word treasure if it makes you feel better.) But I think it's like a goldfish in the fishbowl theory. The fish will get as big as the bowl will let it. And if the fish get happen to get too big for their bowl they can just go ahead and pay rent for a storage unit.

Everything here in Hong Kong is smaller. Our apartment is about 1100 square feet which is big by local standards. We are in an area populated with expats so things are a little different here. For example, M currently works for a Chinese family. That family lives in a 550 square foot apartment on the 23rd floor of a high rise. Can you imagine hanging your laundry out the window on the 23rd floor?! Vertigo!

Compared to any place I have lived in The States, my closets are way smaller. They aren't even real closets. Technically they are wardrobe cabinets and we were thrilled this apartment had them at all! My fridge, oven, washing machine--all smaller. (Fridge and oven are same size as big city/tiny apartment living in the USA but in those situations I never had my own laundry.)

Our "master bedroom" is the size of an average kids bedroom in an average house in the USA. And when we saw it in the midst of our apartment hunting we both thought it was big compared to others we'd seen. Our kids have teeny tiny bedrooms. G's is bigger than D's. D's seriously is taller than it is wide. It's like 8x8 with a 9 foot ceiling. And his wardrobe cabinet takes up space within that 8x8.

I have mentioned in a previous post about food being packaged in smaller quantities so I won't go all through that again...

And don't forget the people are smaller. Everyone is so petite and tiny. When we are on the train, B is a head taller than the crowd and even I feel average/tall. I'm 5'2. And the women carry huge purses. To hold things they buy throughout the day. I don't carry a purse. I don't even own a purse. I need to get one though. Actually I think the bags are normal size but they just look really big on the shoulders of these tiny women.

And G in her class? She looks 2 years older than everyone in there! When we went for the tour and they showed us her classroom we both had to look to double check they were showing us the right grade because the kids looked too little!