Moving house – to boat!

• Thoughts

We are well under way with the business of moving.  Of course, most of you will have experienced it yourselves, but it is somewhat different for us.  Although we are moving, basically nothing is coming with us.  All that we will be taking onto Brandy Pad will be stored for a short period in a small storage unit. Everything else and I mean EVERYTHING else has to go.  Those of you who saw our garage, with a lifetime’s collection of tools etc, will appreciate some of the problem.  All my tools (with the exception of the few that I am taking onto the boat) have to go.  Air compressors, tile cutters, chain saw, power washer, ladders, chop saw, axle stands, winch, ramps, the list of stuff I have accumulated goes on and on.  One good thing about it has been that I discovered loads of bits and pieces I thought I had lost but were buried.  We took a lot of stuff to a very well organised car boot sale last weekend.  That got rid of a huge amount of it.  The trouble with car boot sales is that although we weren’t really doing it to make money, rather that things went to good homes and not landfill, people don’t want to spend more than 50p or £1.  So, it was hard work and we met a lot of “characters”.  We also made about £160 on the day, so that wasn’t too bad.

Then we get to the contents of the house.  Given that we bought this house not least so that we could host large family gatherings, we had a LOT of bedding, cutlery, crockery, you name it.  It has almost all gone.  All we are left with is enough to make sure the house does not look empty to buyers, although as we currently have one it is to be hoped we won’t have to impress anyone else!  Beds, wardrobes, dining table, coffee table, office desks, settee, armchair all have to go.  Even the TV.  The weird thing is that you would think it gets easier as you go along.  It doesn’t.  The decisions become more and more refined.  The early decisions on obvious things like junk are relatively straight forward.  Yesterday we cleared out three chests of drawers (down to three drawers – one each and a bathroom/medicine one).  So, it was down to the recycling centre this morning to get rid of the spare socks, pants, handkerchiefs  and general bric-a-brac that was eliminated before we have time to change our minds.  It is astonishing how many bottles of vitamin pills and the like we found.  A huge bag of now redundant towels went to the dogs home.  The dogs will love the scented smells of the washing liquid.

Looming now is selling the trailer and then my much loved Land Rover Discovery (I’m open to sensible offers).  Once that has gone, we will be completely without a vehicle and will just hire one as and when we need one.

Eventually, of course, we will be moving back into a land based home.  Have no idea where or when, but when the time comes, we will have the fun of reversing all this off loading.  By then, we will have become so used to minimal living, that we will not need to buy much to replace what we are now getting rid of.

As a last thought, take a walk around your house.  See if you can work out what you would get rid of when you have to downsize (and I don’t mean the kids/grand-kids).  It is not as easy as you might think. 😉

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