Going fulltime? How do you get rid of all your “stuff?”
By Fran Crawford
It seems to me there are some things a person who lives in a house with no wheels could learn from full time RVers. Even if you plan to live out the rest of your life where you are now, I bet you have more ’stuff’ than you need.
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A full time RVer must eliminate possessions that have taken a lifetime to accumulate… furniture and household goods, souvenirs, photographs, paperwork, mementos from your youth as well as your youngster’s childhood, knickknacks …and way, way too many shoes.
If you’re a first class, award winning pack rat like me you may discover the meaning of frustration. I even have stuff from my parents’ home. Guess I thought if it was important to them I owed it to them to keep it! They’re probably having a big chuckle over that.
If you live in a ‘foundation house’ and can fit both cars in your garage and still get to the washer and dryer my hat is off to you … and you may stop reading this now. If you can’t even get to the second frig for a cold beer… continue. You are not alone.
Downsizing from the remains of two retail stores and a 27-year, four-kid home to a 32′ fifth wheel was frustrating in progress, but I found the end result to be a great feeling of freedom.
Eliminating stuff in a regular house doesn’t have to be as extreme, but a certain amount of downsizing as you move along through life could be the greatest gift you can give your heirs. It will spare them doing it.
Unless you are truly psychic you don’t know what will be valuable to future generations. Sure, I wish I’d saved that Superman comic that’s worth a million… I’m sure I had one! But even if I could dig it out of my attic, could I find someone who would give me a million bucks for it?
“Oh,” they’d say, “the corner of the back cover is torn off. I can only give you ten bucks for it!”
It’s hard to let go of the past, but it is GONE forever. The future is where we are headed.
Keep meaningful things that bring back good memories …and photographs of family and friends.
‘Out of sight, out of mind’ works for you here, so if you have stuff you want/need to remember get out the camera. Video tape or photograph things you don’t use and have just stored away. You can look at the tape and remember stuff without having to worry if mice or termites have destroyed them.
Seriously consider what your kids would do with your stuff if you died today?
Books accumulate and are hard to eliminate. You always plan to read more than you do. Ask yourself if you can find the information on the Internet, or if you can get the book from the library when you finally have time to read it. Make a list of those you want to read some day and donate your books to the library or if they are art/craft books, to the Arts Council.
Stop when you are tired sorting and beginning to ’save’ more stuff than you unload. You can get back to it later. Don’t rent a storage place for stuff you don’t use or have room to save. Those places are for storing stuff you will use in the bigger house you plan to get in the future.
Remember, when you downsize you are no longer responsible for what you have eliminated. I recall the big flood threat of the late 90s when we lived in northern California. Along with our neighbors we had to evacuate. Some of those who fled sat up in the foothills stressing about what would happen to their ’stuff’ if the levee broke. Others of us who had downsized into full time RVers hitched up our houses and were living in them with no stress about what could happen to our possessions.
The prize for downsizing is a feeling of great freedom. Feelin’ good is easy when you aren’t responsible for dragging your entire life’s baggage with you up the road to the future.
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January 29th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Your article convinced me that I can do this. I have so much stuff we thought of a big public auction. I think my biggest fear is can I do this??? Also where do u go for the winter months that is affordable??
January 29th, 2008 at 9:19 am
We are planning to start fulltiming in 62 days. The amount of things to do is so scary & overwhelming! We have a 30ft Jayco Feather Light Trailer. It is just a beginning. We plan to up grade sometime when we truly know what we need & can afford. What do I do with my collectibles. I have about 50 Books Hardbacks sind by the authors that took many uears to collect. Special presents from my husband about 15 items.Is it stupid to hang on to these for a while! We are going to store about 8 pieces of antique furniture. We have nobody to give them to or store them for us so we plan to rent a space. Is this a waste of money? Can I store my books, pictures & mentos with the furniture? Do you know a good check list I can follow?
Thanks, DeeDee
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 am
I was a widow for several yeara living in an apartment.
Met a widower and we started full time three years ago.
We had both downsized several time but we still have a storage trailer full at friends.
Every summer we go home and get ride of some more “things”.
What is hard we are from Canada where it is cold so have to
keep to sets of clothes. This is our first winter in Harlingen, Texas and really enjoy it. So we will go home and clean out alittle more.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:20 pm
We have been fulltimin’ for 10 months, still getting used to the routines. Everything we had was up for sale to friends, then to public. Everything else went to freecycle, then to dump. Not necessarily in that order.
Think about this scenario. Your house burns to the foundation. What are you actually going to buy to put in the house when you build it again? When somebody says that something is irreplaceable, I think “Good, less to have around”. While we are actually going down the road, there is nothing in the trailer that is needed. Computers and 2 way radios stay in truck during travel. If the trailer rolls over down a hill, we are walking away from it to nearest dealer and buying another, insurance or not. The trailer already has:1) furniture 2)appliances 3)fixtures. Just add your clothing and entertainment, and you are ready to go.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
We full timed for a year and are now just wintering. I actually found that throwing out years of accumulated stuff was one of the fringe benefits of full timing! My rule of thumb: if I hadn’t worn it, used it or thought about it in a year - out it went!
Only you can decide if it’s worth paying storage fees. But, I’d ask myself, “Is this really something I’m going to want in the future?” And, if so, “Why?” (My husband and I are both psychiatrists, so yes, we probably over-analyzed this, but still, it truly amazed me how often the answer was “no.”
February 12th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I am in the process of converting my memories (photos, old family tapes and important documents to the internet. Google offers tons of free space and tools to help do this. I got the idea from an article about google’s head organization manager. Who manages hundreds of employees and dozens of weekly meetings via having all his info at his fingertips on the web. He said the aim of google is for all of us to live in the ethernet — “the clouds” as he called it.
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March 10th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
[…] Going fulltime? How do you get rid of all your stuff? By Fran Crawford It seems to me there are some things a person who lives in a house with no wheels could learn from full time rvers. Even if you plan to live out the rest of your life where you are now, I bet you have more ’stuff’ than you need. A full time rver must […] […]