Downsizing and Life: the 80% 20% Rule

[connorsa]

I am in the same place. I have discovered when coming back I am a 'stuff magnet' and it takes no time at all accumulate it all again. I am going to a ministry school in northern Calif soon and will be fulltiming for my time there. I am so looking forward to the simple life, leaving my years of stuff either at a yard sale or in a very small storage unit at home.

[Cathy Libby]

The more I get rid of the better I feel. It gives me a rush when I part with something that I once thought was important. Objects and posessions hold you back from feeling free.

[connorsa]

Yes, I like to call it 'stuffless'. Makes me lighter for the journey.

[stanwilder]

I really have to go along with George Carlin about guys needing their stuff.
Casting off un-necessary stuff is a positive event and I’ve done that to a point that I can still return to being myself with the things I’ve held on to.
I’m currently sharing a Condo with my Fiancé. This was a big move from a home with a two car garage and lots of opportunities to play around with my Airstream Trailer, Porsche car etc.
My Porsche got vandalized and I could have fixed it if I had my “Tools and Stuff” and a place to work. But it got sold off at discount price because it was unsightly with the top ripped apart and a broken window.
Not much chance at a Condo where I get chastised for minor oil leaks from my 911 and absolutely not any chance of ever washing my car in or near the condo. I’ve just had to bite the bullet and take a cleaning from auto repair shops, car washes, oil change shops.
I’m really not much of my old self anymore since I no longer have my stuff. I just live with her stuff and can’t see any signs that I’ve ever moved in or occupied the Condo for over three years.
As a saving grace I bought a small storage lot 40 miles away, with a 4 car garage on it. I store my tools, airstream trailer, deck boat, spare car there. There are clearly some things that a guy shouldn’t sacrifice for love.
I’m very glad to say that I had the insight to save some of my favorite things even if everybody else thinks my stuff is trash.
Every time I go to the storage lot to cut the grass, I’m totally refreshed by the smell of newly mown lawn and the clean air of a small town.
So take it from someone that thought it out! Hang onto your favorite things, granny was right, someday you’re going to need that cigar box, those buttons, that axe handle and that Walkman tape player.

Stan Wilder
76 Airstream 31

[Lily&Me]

Stan,

You poor thing! Surely there are SOME advantages to living with your fiance'? My husband had the same feelings, moving into our home. His lack of order couldn't really infiltrate the bulk of this small house, he has now taken over the back bedroom for his gun stuff, piles of papers, etc., etc., and unless it gets too bad, never a word is said. Perhaps you can negotiate a deal for a corner somewhere. Good luck.

[Gene]

We've got stuff we've been carting around for decades, but it seems to take too much time to go through it and figure out what to do with it. There's those old record albums that I'd like to transfer to CD's, even though CD's are going out of date. Sets of dishes no longer used, but full of memories, some bad memories too. I keep lumber because there will be some day a use for it. When we moved here, the property came with an 1,800' "shop". A shop in Colorado is a big (ugly) metal building that can be used as a garage, workshop and place to store stuff. It got filled fast. About 20% got transformed into a heated workout room, so that was a good thing. But I need some of the space for tools and work benches to maintain the Airstream, property and house. Family photos, some of them transparencies that I have no way of viewing, go back 80 or more years, but I never have time to look at them. Books that I'll never look again look nice in bookcases, but maybe I'll ship them to eubank with no return address. I've got a 1992 computer that I'd have to pay someone to take, so it stays in a closet. Anyone interested in a 1985 Panasonic 13" TV? It works. Cash and carry.

Someday we will probably make one more major move. I dread it. The idea is to sell our property, tow the trailer somewhere we want to buy and live in it for a while, and ship all our stuff to store it wherever we end up. After we check out the market, we'll buy a house and bring our stuff to our new house. But what if we find we don't like it there? Ship tons of stuff all over the country over and over? That's the thing of nightmares.

Since there are scores of places we'd like to live, this could take decades to figure out, and then we'll be too old to either move or remember why we wanted to. But someone will inherit all this stuff and they'll have to figure out what to do with it. So, we get the last laugh.

It sure is easier to buy stuff than get rid of it.

Gene

[eubank]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

... Books that I'll never look again look nice in bookcases, but maybe I'll ship them to eubank with no return address...
Gene

Don't even think about it! We're drowning in books.

Oh, and Mark and MJ unloaded 12 huge boxes full of VCR films that they picked up for cheap from the Denver Public Library sale. Each box must hold a hundred of the things. And all twelve are now smack in the middle of our living room. I have no earthly idea what to do with them all.

Tell you what: Send them the books. They sell them over Amazon.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by eubank

Oh, and Mark and MJ unloaded 12 huge boxes full of VCR films that they picked up for cheap from the Denver Public Library sale. Each box must hold a hundred of the things. And all twelve are now smack in the middle of our living room. I have no earthly idea what to do with them all.

Some friends! You should have impounded their 345. I'm sure we can find some stuff here for your living room next time we're in Angel Fire.

Gene

[eubank]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

Some friends! You should have impounded their 345. I'm sure we can find some stuff here for your living room next time we're in Angel Fire.

Gene

The 345 is still here! Maybe I should haul the boxes out there. Nah. I'm too lazy.

In any event, I'm not planning to put up with this mountain of boxes too much longer.


Lynn

[Gene]

Give them away to customers with VCR's, but hurry, there aren't many VCR's left. Or, put them on the doorstep of the local library at 2 am. Wear gloves so there are no prints. Or watch them next winter. That ought to take you through quite a few blizzards. Don't try a bonfire—that stuff is so toxic the EPA will make Monte Verde a Superfund site.

Gene

[lenmaul]

Here is my favorite quote from Sterling Hayden. Here is a man who had it all and still understood.

What does a man need -- really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and
shelter, six feet to lie down in -- and some form of working activity that
will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all-- in the material sense.
And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end
up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous
gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the
charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie
caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is
sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be:
bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?"



Len

[darlingbooks]

Our box of favorite of favorite cookbooks is just a box, and we shipped off over 12,000 hardback books, this equals 12 pallets of boxes stacked shoulder high.

Number One Son is not returning home. We have listed the house for sale, and at the Real Estate folk’s encouragement, it was listed before any major projects were completed. Now after several weeks, we are down to three rooms left to go through, and these may take a week to sort out.

An offer is pending on the house, and we have started to sleep in the Airstream. Anne-Marie is vacating the bedroom and is expected to be done before the weeks end. The major remodel (kitchen, floor) items look to be done by the August 31, 2009 dead line. If offer is agreed upon, we will be on the road in seven weeks.

Our stuff has been reduced down incredibility, but we may need a storage unit for a few items, and I’m afraid that I may be tempted to save a few extra tools.

Tools will be the most difficult to down-size, as I have to make a choice of at what level do I want to continue working with them, as larger tools seem to improve your skill levels. I could fill a small semi-truck with the tools that I have. I do like the thought of being perpetually on vacation though. I have to make this decision in the next month and I do know that if I let them go, I can buy them back where ever we relocate to, after we tire of traveling.

Steve

[Boondocker]

When I started full timing three years ago, I got rid of an enormous number of books along with the rest of the "stuff". Sooner or later I will move back into a home without wheels, those books are going to be the only thing I will wish I had back.

[stanwilder]

I camped out about 30 weekends a year in a VW Westfalia Camper for 10+ years.
I found that down filled sleeping bags compress for tiny storage and remove the need for heat on cold winter nights. Same goes for down filled pillows / comforters
I found that square food storage containers could double your food storage and if you buy the correct sizes you can double deck your storage.
I found that installing large frozen water bottles in the refrigerator the day before a trip can double your water supply over the 4.5 gallon Westy on board fresh water and pre-cool the refrigerator for your trip.
I consider the 31 Foot airstream to be about equal to one of the garage apartments I rented during my college days. It’s not all that difficult to get by as long as I can step outside once in a while.
I’ve just completed buying a new set of tires / new A/C / new window tint and a veritable kaleidoscope of small repair parts getting ready for some 90 day trips to more scenic areas in Colorado and north.
I’m ready to start my shakedown local 300 RT routes to find out what else might need a little tweaking before I start longer trips.
I plan to drop the AS at a nice location (Private Park) and go back on weekends in my car that gets 35 MPG rather than pull it and go through the drudge of 12 mpg in my 250 Ford.
I’ll be addressing my Wi-Fi requirements for use with a laptop computer with a cellular card. (I’m open to recommendations on this one).

[Silverwanabe]

In general, I feel we like to hold on to things.
"We might need it one day" type of thinking.

Then we have the "collectors": Hummels, comic books,ball cards, Dept. 56, collector plates, that type of thing. My Mother and brother are those types.

The 80/20 rule does not apply here or does it???

Besides that is why God created full basements.
If you could see my Mother's basement.
It was once empty in 1968...

Mom tells me, "do not through anything out and stay out of the guest bedroom".

It sounds like a psychological issue to me.

[AzLandshark]

Ditto...I, too, am downsizing towards a life that can be sustained with a minimum of effort, clutter, and stress. Retirement, divorce, whatever the reason (I have them all), my goal is to get down to the two lettuce boxes I could pack and move in when I was in my twenties. Everything else is just collecting dust, and in Arizona, there is plenty of dust! Wish you all the best in your reduction--no, better to call it your re-birth. Sounds more positive--something to look forward to and embrace. Enjoy yourself. that's all that matters. landshark53