Monday 28 February 2011

Escaping the Tyranny of Stuff - tips and musings

One of the biggest barriers to getting started on our cruising life has been the mountain of goods we have acquired over our combined century or so on the planet. At the start, this was quite overwhelming, and it has taken us the best part of three years to be almost totally de-cluttered. I thought it might be worth sharing a few drops of wisdom I've managed to distill from the process. There are many books and other sources to advise about the practicalities, but really, the main barriers are psychological and emotional - sometimes even spiritual - so here are a few tips on managing the emotions of detachment from your stuff.

1. Often the emotional attachment is much more important than the inherent value of the thing. This is particularly true of photos, children's artwork, cards and letters, mementoes and souvenirs. If the piece is not special enough to be displayed or carefully preserved to store, just take a photo and save or scan it into your computer. That way you can still look at it and all those memories (the really valuable part of the thing) will still be there for you.
2. Share the love. I found it difficult to get rid of books in particular, as they have always been important in my life and I associate them with pleasure and learning. I found that if I was generous with my books, giving them to people I knew would appreciate and enjoy them, they gave me another kind of pleasure. I especially enjoyed giving my professional library to younger colleagues and student teachers, and my literary collection to students who would enjoy the works. Many of my books had sat unopened on shelves for twenty years; now they have a second life. Selling books cheaply at local markets was also fun.
3. The other thing that made it easy to give away the books was, of course, the purchase of a Kindle. An electronic reader really is the only way to take a decent library with you on your travels.
4. Actively imagine other people enjoying your stuff. For example, I gave a miniature workbench my father made to a friend's son, and it was great to see another child having fun and learning with it, rather than seeing it accumulate dust and rubbish in the shed.
5. Just leave it behind. When we sold our 1 acre property, we offered all the machines, tools and gadgets necessary for its upkeep very cheaply to the new owners, who were delighted not to have to go out and do it all for themselves. We'll leave much useful stuff behind for the family who rent our new place. It's good that it will be used, and if it isn't there when we return in a few years, who really cares?
6. Enjoy the feeling of liberation. You don't realise how much of your mind is occupied by responsibility for stuff - that internal inventory of what you've got, where it is, when it needs cleaning or servicing, who you've lent it to, keeping it secure, how to acquire more of it - until it's gone. It feels good.

Thursday 24 February 2011

Saying goodbye to it all...

I suppose every virgin blogger faces this moment, confronting the blank box and summoning the courage to make a mark and expose themselves to the world. Well, now I've got that over with, I can start what I hope will be a long and fascinating story about how Terry and Carol managed to extricate themselves from their ordinary lives, abandon all the possessions they'd spent half a lifetime acquiring, find a yacht to call their home and sail away to parts unknown.

We are now just two weeks away from flying to Los Angeles, where we plan to hire an RV, drive across the country and set up in Florida where we'll have a close look at some of the beautiful boats we've been watching on the net. The house is rented out, all our furniture has been sold or given away, visas have been applied for and granted, finances are in order. In the hours I have spent carefully packing away special things - the few books retained from the nearly 2000 I once had in my library; my children's precious baby toys and early drawings; family photographs - I have felt that sensation they say happens when you're drowning and your whole life seems to pass in front of you. Now comes the really hard part where, over the days ahead, we have to say goodbye to all the people we love and care about - perhaps for a very long time.

For all those friends who are following our story, we are sincere in hoping that you will keep in touch, and especially that, should you find your travels converging with ours, you will let us know so that we can welcome you aboard.