Moving House

Why does stuff have such an emotional hold on us? Why can't we just let it go?

In a previous series for The Essay, Joanna Robertson took us to some of the international cities she's lived in and told us the Shopping News. Now, she takes on the consequences. Stuff Happens - not just to shopaholics but to all of us. It's the seemingly inescapable curse of 21st century consumerism - however hard we try to declutter and resist. In this edition, Joanna Robertson relives some of her frequent house moves in Europe. Once, when relocating from Rome to Berlin, Joanna and her stuff got perilously stuck in the snowbound Alps, in almost the same spot as Hannibal and his elephants over two millennia earlier.

Producer: Arlene Gregorius.