In the beginning~
The beginning of Our fulltime RV life starts in Our house, before we even own the rig.
We have to clean this place out and give away all of Our unwanted things. We were initially going to sell everything but after finding a great website called freecycle.org, we decided that it was much more fun to give away all of Our stuff. I looked back over the last several years and realized that many of Our material belongings were aquired through friends and family as gifts. We spent very little money on furniture and kitchen ware. Our expenses have been things such as educational materials, Our mac computer, camera, toys, and basic monthly expenses. Even when it comes to clothes, the kids are showered with gift cards every Christmas and birthday. So logic sais, we’ll never need for clothes, toys and basic material necessities.
Giving away all of this stuff is harder than I thought. We all have moments of sadness, frustration, and complete confusion. For instance; I have this awesome collection of National Geographics that I have treasured over the years. Some issues go all the way back to the beginning of distribution. They sit on this beautiful wood shelf and they look so pretty. I feel intelligent every time I walk past them. Once in awhile I pull one off the shelf and marvel at the awesome photos. I’ve already read them all so I rarely re-read the articles. They are a status symbol. That’s all they are. (It turns out you can get the entire archive on CD and it’s easier to search for specific subjects of interest).
I recently bought travel cases to hold all of Our CDs and DVDs. As my daughter and I went through each and every movie case, with it’s shiny movie poster on the front of it, we had a sad moment. We pulled every DVD out, placed the movie in it’s new organizer, and put the movie case in the give-away box. Another oddity, to realize that those cases were a symbol of Our families status. People walked into Our house and saw a shelf loaded with movies, music CDs, and GameCube Games. No more. The original cases are gone and we don’t miss them.
On the subject of stuffed animals; All I can say is “Oh my God!” I didn’t know that two young children could own so many! Our youngest son is still having separation issues with this material possession, so we are taking it slow.
I had no idea that I owned 16 wine glasses. I don’t even drink! Stuffed deep in my oldest son’s closet was a perfectly good Braun coffee maker. Where did that come from? I found a silicone bunt cake pan. We bought this 3 years ago and the cake tasted so funny that we stuck the pan back in it’s box and hid it in the kitchen cabinet. Three. Count them, 3 speghetti strainers. Am I insane? 15 coffee mugs! 16 place settings! So much silverware I just threw it all in a box and gave it away. I planned to get a more managable set for the RV and bought one box of plastic ware. Within 2 days of using the plastic ware, we found a small, manageable set of silverware burried in a box in the kitchen drawer. I had forgotten about those, so I gave away the plastic ware.
I have spent so much time and energy cleaning and organizing a house full of excessive stuff. Most of it’s not even used. It’s been there for comfort. It’s there to say “We have arrived! We are a family and we own stuff.” What a waist.
Gotta get back to work. So much to give away, so much space and time to gain.
~we had to clean out the house.
