AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 9, 2006 — Every time I get ready to go on a trip, I'm reminded of how much traveling has to tell us about what's necessary and not.

I work from a master list that has almost everything I or anyone I traveled with and helped to pack has ever taken on a trip. Then I pare that down for the particular trip, add specifics, numbers.

As anyone who has been reading this very long knows, I'm obsessed with possessions and their influence on us. And I've also been looking at things in a new way lately since

FFP and I have started (at least mentally) to downsize for our eventual simpler retirement. (Please quit laughing.)

Today I got packed up to go to Katy (a suburb of Houston) for a couple of days with my dad. Two nights is an easy pack. Still, it takes a little thought. Of course, you count on having things provided in the hotel. A hairdryer, a coffee pot and microwave in this case, some disposable cups, ice. I take some coffee filter packs of my own, some pillows (I don't count on pillows I like and on a road trip no harm in throwing them in) and a bottle of something to make myself a drink at night. Rain was in the forecast and cold. So a sweater, an umbrella and an anorak.

I felt like I was traveling pretty light. Of course, I'm taking along a laptop, a digital camera, a book, some crossword puzzles, a couple of old magazines.

But here's the thing. Everything you take along on a trip is disposable stuff. Clothes, toiletries, hair dryers, cameras, laptops. Not that you toss them but they are things which die, outlive their usefulness, wear out, get used up. In my drive to downsize I'm going to classify things as permanent or not. A piece of furniture is permanent. A shirt is not. That doesn't mean we don't have to deal with the fact that FFP owns several dozen shirts. (Let's not even talk about ties.) I'm going to assume that these can be dealt with more easily than a piece of furniture. I'm going to consider as impermanent all media: books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, etc. and assume that they could be disposed of and later replaced with different ones, rented ones, downloaded tunes, etc. That is not to say that we will somehow dispose of 3000 books and untold numbers of other media.

And, of course, permanent things (furniture, works of art, souvenirs, china, cutlery, glassware) can be discarded or given away. It just usually doesn't happen.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Nowhere apparently. Just rambling. I'm thinking of documenting the several years' process of downsizing that we are going to be undertaking in the next few years. And I'm just thinking about how to go about it.