Day 84 / 281 Let That Stuff Go

Saylorville Lake 82 Degrees Sunny

“You can’t take it with you.”  Since hitting the road I’ve talked with basically two types of people. Those who sold everything ( none of whom regretted it)  and those who put in all in storage only to have it decay, get infested with mice and basically become junk. All while they shell out good money for the storage unit. Some have, since I’ve known them got rid of it all anyway, saying they wish they’d sold it when it was still worth something.

How much stuff do you have? What will you do with it all? How attached are you too it, REALLY. Those are the $64,000 questions. I read many stories on other blogs about this subject before we went full-time. It was a huge emotional hurdle for me. The walls of my home were filled with my photography. A huge collection of pottery bought from local artists on dozens of trips and my shamefully large collection of shot glasses from everywhere I had travelled the past 25 years were displayed. I also had several pieces of antique furniture that I had been entrusted with from 2 generations before me. Like you, my stuff was mine, it meant something to me, it had history, my history, and I had to look deep and think hard about the unrelenting attachment we humans have with our stuff.

I wrote a post early on in my blog about the details of getting rid of everything. Now, nearly two years later, I can say I have rid myself of several things I thought I wanted with me and found I didn’t when we did our one-year anniversary purge. I have also repurchased a few things. Champ put much  thought into what we would take from his garage. Like most life long mechanics, he had a well-equipped shop. There are some tools he decided he still needed and repurchased. You won’t get it all right the first time. I can say though, that after 21 months we have what we want and no more.

At the beginning of our sale, which went on for 5 days as we sold everything to the walls, we both had some anxiety watching strangers cart our things off smiling broadly at the deal they just got.  By the end of the second day we were both feeling quite liberated for shedding the weight of having more than we needed. I would trade that anxiety for worrying about all my stuff across the country in a storage unit and paying the bill each month. The few moments of angst at the beginning of the sale beats the heck out of what I’ve seen people go through realizing their things got ruined sitting in boxes.

Sometimes I go in someone’s house and see something that used to be in mine and I smile, knowing it got a good home. My advice, in case you haven’t figured it out yet is an emphatic, “Let that stuff go!” The void it leaves will be small and quickly filled with all the great experiences you will have as you explore the world and sink your teeth into this awesome, minimalist way of life.

Until tomorrow…