Need less stuff

For a smart guy I’m a slow learner!  Pure and simple.  I’m a slow learner.  Repeat with me:  “I’m a slow learner.”

One might think that downsizing from a house/office with 6500 sq ft to 230 sq ft, and then, so what if we bought an RV just a little bigger and now live in 300 sq ft — that in the process of all that downsizing that I’d learn my lesson.  But I stand here (or actually I’m sitting here typing away…) once again facing the reality that I have to get out of the RV and sort out the basement so that we’re ready to move in a week.  I hate it because — just like a house — the basement storage area can be just as unsightly as the unfinished basement in a sticks & bricks home!  In a real basement you may have to duck your head on the way down — I have to get down on all fours to get into the storage bay doors.  In a real basement things may be scattered around helter-skelter — and our storage bays are pretty helter-skelter-y too!  Organizing a basement — whether a stationary one or one on wheels — never seems to be any fun, or the least bit rewarding — it’s something you have to do from time to time.

A year and a half ago I thought we’d have those sliding trays installed in our basement.  But after I thought about it a little, I realized that the drawers sit proud of the basement floor far enough that we’d lose a good 30% of storage space in the process.  The “cost” in lost space was more than I was willing to suffer and I cancelled that plan.  Good idea, not good implementation. I have seen RV’ers who have made their own sliding trays, but unlike the RV’s where that has worked nicely, our bay floors are not flush with the bottom of the door, so we’d still have to lose a lot of space — once again torpedoing my goal for more organized storage.

The big problem though — and I guess I’ve known it all along — is that we simply carry too much ‘stuff’ along with us.  I’m sure that other RV’er share the trait but there is something psychological about getting rid of so much stuff — and then remembering what it was like when you lived in sticks & bricks and all the maintenance and breakdowns you lived thorugh in your life and you just think you need to carry some of those tools and gadgets along with you even if you are rarely going to use them.

I carry two small 10 ton jacks — just in case I ever have a flat.  But that’s stupid.  If I ever have a flat I’m not going to change the tire myself.  And if I have something else that needs fixing I’m not all that handy with a wrench — so getting underneath the coach is not like it’s something ought to be doing!  I think I’ll give them to Michael — he could probably put them to use.

I carry a 140′ long water hose.  Why?  I don’t know.  I bought it when we lived in the school and we had only one water bib outside.  I didn’t want to sell it or give it away, so I brought it along just in case we ever were forced to park more than 50′ from a drinking water source.  Of course in 5 years that has never happened, and I have probably spent as much in diesel fuel carrying that extra weight around as the hose cost in the first place.

I know RV’ers who carry a whole machine shop in their RV — some of them are actually handy with tools and save themselves a lot of money on repair costs — doing a lot of their own maintenance.  That’s not me.  I’m a klutz with a capital “K”.

Even inside the coach I keep things I don’t need.  Computer cables — it seems that I’m not satisfied with a spare this, and that; I suspect that there are some cables I might have 4 or 5 of — I just don’t know it.  I threaten to take a day or two and just sort out all my cable and get rid of the excess, but in 5 years I’ve not gotten around to it.  Maybe in S. Texas?  Don’t hold your breath.

I’ve been known to procrastinate. When we were living in the apartment on 14th street for 35 years I remodelled a bathroom.  Did a nice job for a 1980’s remodel, even if I do say so myself.  I panelled the bathroom in teak veneer and built a custom indirect lighting fixture when we couldn’t find what we wanted in the store.  But I finished up everything in the bathroom except for installing the vinyl mop boards.  And I ignored them.  For 5 years.  And finally after 5 years I finished the ‘remodel’ by installing them in about 2 hours.  Why did I wait 5 years?  I have no idea.  The job didn’t take long — I knew it wouldn’t.  I just couldn’t get myself convinced that those silly mop boards were all that important to stop what I was doing and get out the tools all over again.  It made no sense, but humans aren’t always logical. Me in particular.

I don’t know… maybe if I think about this subject long enough I’ll finally get mad enough with myself to actually change.  Thus far when I have followed through and gotten rid of things I realized we weren’t using I have not had to replace them.  That old adage about “if you haven’t used something in a year, you don’t need it” is pretty much gospel.  Whether it’s tools or something else I can’t tell you how many times I have gone out and bought something I already owned because I couldn’t find it.  Too much stuff just gets lost. The brain, no matter how good one is at remembering, simply misplaces things.

It’s supposed to rain again today.  He says even though we are below average for the month.  Maybe I’ll get down in the basement and tackle some of this instead of just talking abou it. 😳😳😳

Thanks for stopping,  I’ll be here tomorrow if you want to stop and check out what’s up.