My family and I recently moved back to New York from London, entailing the usual house, office and school changes. As much as I was dreading the hassle associated with forwarding mail, changing bank accounts and packing boxes, I have to say it is a very healthy thing to do.
Over the last 20-odd years, my wife and I, later joined by two kids and a large dog, have lived in New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. These have each been great professional postings for me and have given our family the opportunity to explore new cultures, make new friends and expand our horizons -- in every sense.
The other benefit that a major move offers is the chance to look critically at all the possessions, clutter and detritus that one tends to accumulate over time, and then leave them behind like a snake molting its old skin. While it may feel nostalgically pleasant to keep each pair of running shoes you have owned since high school, the truth is unless you are Usain Bolt, you can probably live quite happily with only one pair.
Kids, of course, are veritable magnets for every trinket that ever lived at the bottom of a birthday party goody bag, as well as a menagerie of stuffed animals and incomplete card decks. However, adults keep up their own with copper camels that screamed "buy me" at the Giza gift shop, or the combination ice cream maker and hairdryer from Akihabara.
Child or adult, the lesson is the same: We collect a lot of junk in our consumer lives. We should be thankful that we are able to afford these luxuries, but also take the advantage of a new start to give our old possessions to any thrift store that will take them, and live a less consumerist life in our new location.