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A
full time RVer must eliminate possessions that have taken a lifetime
to accumulate.
A
column by Fran Crawford
Published in The Territorial Dispatch
February 20, 2000
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 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.
Spring
is just around the corner and 'spring cleaning' seems to be an age-old
American custom. Turn the mattress. Fluff the pillows. Shake out the
blankets. Hose out the garage. Sort out the attic (or basement).
If
you are a first class, award winning pack rat... like I am... 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, 4-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.
Think about this... remember the flood threat of the late '90s. We all
had to evacuate. Some of us sat up in the foothills stressing about
what would happen to our '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 the feeling of great freedom you get. Feelin'
good is easy when you aren't responsible for dragging your entire life's
baggage with you, up the road to the future. Experience the freedom!
--Fran
C. Crawford ©2000
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