Thinning Things Out

[BareFtGrl]

Oh my goodness...this is a big undertaking! I've been thinning out the "stuff" we've gathered over the years trying to prepare for a live aboard lifestyle. Well, we're buying a chunk of land too and we'll have a small bungalow built or build one ourselves. Mostly the land is to pass on to our daughter and her hubby..and the (eventual) grand-kids. So, we'll still sort of have a land base. But in the meantime I am really picking through what we have. This is not an easy or quick process and some of the items I have a bit of an emotional attachment to...but I'm working on that. Actually, I started before we even bought our boat. How much crap can 2 people have? And I thought I was pretty minimal but wow! I keep finding more to get rid of!

[svpattyd]

It is soooo much easier to move to another property than to get rid of stuff. We got to the point that whenever someone came into the house we demanded they take something with them.

[BareFtGrl]

What a fabulous idea!! That way I know a friend will get something they've been admiring and I will feel it's more of a gift then! WooHoo! You're on to something there! I loooooove it!

[senormechanico]

Before we left to cruise, we shed over 20 years worth of stuff.
It was very freeing.
After coming back from cruising for a few years, we bought a house etc.
We had been married for 27 years, and felt like newlyweds just starting out.
It was wonderful.

[BareFtGrl]

Another big thing for us is that we're recent empty nesters, so we just simply don't need or use alot of what we have anymore. Seems when the kids go off to college, get married and move on...the friends and families we used to host, kind of move on too. Not all of them...but the big to-do's we used to have with the outdoor parties and evenings around the firepit have come to a major halt. Which we're actually really enjoying because the obligations are gone and we can go off and explore places and do things we've always wanted to. Like buy a boat and go sailing. We figure in two years we'll be ready for the bigger boat to spend the vast majority of our time on. We'll keep the chunk of land because that's inheritance for our daughter and her hubby. But we might just build a small bungalow and stash a few things there so we can visit from time to time and perhaps if we become too frail in old age, we'll have a home that's not too much to handle. We'll see...ya never know. Right now...I've got a lifetime of stuff to get rid of, and yeah, it feels great...but man is it a pain in the butt!

[Krakato]

Yeah, our plans call for use to transition to liveaboard status in 4 years. We've already started thinning out the junk. It feels really liberating to get rid of a lot of stuff, but then we look at how much more we have to do and wonder if 4 years is long enough!

[svpattyd]

We started 18 months before we wanted to move on to the boat. We sold stuff, then got to the point we had a charity truck come once a month. We rented a truck a month before we moved and took a trip to recycling and the land fill. When u go to the store now u ask 'where will it fit on the boat?' if u don't know; don't buy it. Start living with less, it will help u when u move aboard.

[Cheechako]

It's very hard for sure. All those things you're just sure you'll need but never use.... and you're right, emotional attachment to things. However, when you're done, It feels so good to be rid of things you dont really need or that you forget you even have! Keep at it. Problem is.... after you swallow the anchor for 5-6 years.... you accumulate all that stuff again!

[Butler]

I sympathize, it's hard getting rid of so many years of stuff (25 yrs of it myself) but from my experience very freeing. I got down to one book-pack of photos/papers, a few books and a couple of nick-knacks.
My ex girlfreind jammed so much stuff on board I was down to one small cabinet for my clothes and we were shifting boxes of stuff out of the bunk everynight to sleep... in the end as much as she liked the "idea" of sailing away she could not let go of her shore-life with attendant amenities.
As it was the whole proccess of moving aboard was enough for her to see that cruising was not for her... too much sacrifice.
she is a good sailor but not a cruiser... it all worked out.