612 days

612 days, or 1 year, 8 months, 1 day until ?

(I have adjusted the month/day numbers from what the duration calendar tells me.)

Added to Rummage Sale Table: Picnic basket.

Dumped : Several inches of old papers

Boxed - Sealed - Stored: Box of fabric for dinosaurs. (if I don't need to open this box in the net 600 days it will go somewhere unopened.)

I find putting some things in boxes and sealing them with tape a step toward getting rid of them. I have done this before with clothes I was reluctant to get rid of. I have time, so it is a reasonable step. This way I won't have to see these things again and have to make decisions about them.

Husband progress:

Installed drywall on holes in laundry room walls.

Needed new drill

613 days, or 1 year 8 months, 6 days until Medicare!

Added to Rummage Sale Table: Five cookbooks, one tired cordless power drill.

Husband's progress:

Removed old cat door in Laundry room, (across the torn up hallway from the bathroom so it's part of the project.)

Trimmed up a hole in the wall of the LR he had cut a few years ago to look for wires in a dead space behind it.

Trip to hardware store to buy drywall and new drill. Trip to hardware store to buy a different kind of drywall. Each trip is about 25 miles round trip.

Small steps, but the first in a long long time. I'm happy.

No more pets.

615 days, Or 1 year, 8 months, 8 days to Medicare Coverage!

I've changed my countdown to the day I will be first eligible for Medicare rather than my 65 Birthday, seventeen days later, because it is the reduction in Health care Insurance cost that is meaningful, not my age.

My contribution to the Rummage sale table for today is a pair of good dog bowls and a hummingbird feeder. I also put the left over cat food cans in a bag and will drop them off at a food collection bin. Kittys need food too! My last cat disappeared 18 months ago, and my old dog died las spring. As much as I love animals, I decided not to get anymore for awhile.

I have several "dreams." Dream A, Dream B, Dream C, and finally the nightmare of Dream D. I will write about them sometime soon. All of them start with getting this house fixed up and cleared out. That is all I can do for now.

Every item I put on the Rummage sale table in the garage is one less to deal with in the future.

I also filled all three garbage cans.

Friday is pick up day.

Inventory idea good for virtual sorting

1 year, 8 months, 25 days until my 65th. Birthday!

Today I put five champagne glasses and a few nicknacks from the hutch in a bag and put them on the Rummage sale table. I added a tortilla warmer and casserole dish from a kitchen shelf and several old flower pot things from on top of the hutch.

I thought of starting an inventory of the rooms. Then I could do a "virtual" sort, noting which things would go when.

I mentally designed legs for a table riser for a workbench on the road.

I stopped at Tap Plastics yesterday and was happy to see they had many types of tiny containers. When the time comes I might want to use them to space down my spices.

I'm reading back dates of Travels with Miranda I'm at winter of 2008.

I've got art work to do this afternoon. Better get going!

3 garbage cans

1 year, 8 months, 26 days to my 65th. Birthday

I am determined to do something every day towards getting out from under a huge house and six garages full of stuff! Yes, I said six garages, plus a large collapsing shed on the property that also has "stuff" in it.

We have been married 44 years. Except for the first few moves in Milwaukee, each time we have moved someone else (an employer) has paid for the move and we have moved into larger and larger properties. Our present home is four thousand square feet.

My dear husband rarely throws anything away. Early on I learned that he would get very upset if I tosses anything of "his" without permission. I tossed some of his old college books ten years after his graduation and heard about it for years after.

I am an artist and have tons of art materials. I will hang on to most of them until it is time to move into a rig, but I also am trying to take a very critical look at everything and see what I can get rid of TODAY.

We pay for three garbage cans per week. Often they are not full. I am committed to being sure they are from now on. This morning I tossed a can full of old VCR tapes. Movies we taped in the 90's and never re-watched. With DVDs and movies on Netflix we don't need to keep them. I have set aside a box full of old sports events for him. Things like the 1988 Olympics. These will all go eventually, but he has to do it.

I found a few that are family treasures. Tapes of several TV interviews I have done and my daughter's wedding and PHD presentation. I will get these transfered to DVD's eventually.

I also have a box full of good children's movies that are commercial tapes. I think these might sell at a Rummage sale. I have started a Rummage Sale and Goodwill table in the garage. I should have saved some of the stuff I took to Goodwill for a Rummage sale. Oh well, I'm just glad it is gone.

I have art work to do this afternoon. Sometime soon I will blog about my art and where it fits into this dream.

A little at a time

634 day to 65th Birthday.

I took a load off to the Goodwill today. Yesterday I added my daughters prom dresses. (She is 42 and probably won't need them!)

I looked at some tub and containers at K Mart. I was tempted to buy some of the Christmas tubs that were on sale, but resisted. Just because they are on sale doesn't mean they are exactly what I want.

I also looked at Space Bags, but decided they were to expensive. I'm going to do some experiments with removing air from standard bags and see how much compression I can do on my own.

I also put sticky circles on the bottom of my spices. I plan on marking them when I use them. Any without marks on after a year will get tossed. Spices get stale anyway. I have been trying to buy only the 1 ounce sizes in the last year or two. Even if we don't go RVing this is a good thing.

Something learned, something to do.

2 years, 1 month, 11 days to the target "GO' date.

As I read entries on blogs today I realized the importance of taking your time picking out a rig.

On one blog " Wanting what you can't have" the young couple is regretting their choice only weeks after moving in. It seems they fell in love with a rig very early on and found they didn't consider everything. She writes about not having a "polar package," and about trading in their rig after only living in it for a short time.

I need to understand what a "polar package" is. I would think it has to do with using the RV in a colder climate. Seems like a good thing to me.

I Sorted two drawers that contained papers and other stuff. Now the few useful papers have been moved to a file and a few lonely pens, calculators, address labels and stamps are left.

A few days ago I sorted my clothes closet, removing many things I no longer wear or were to small.

I find this a quite useful thing to be doing whether I make it to full timing or not.

Reading blogs is helpful

I have been thinking about Rving for a long time.

Since I cannot just go out and buy an Rv and hit the road just yet, I am starting to do my homework, learn as much as I can, and in a way live the life vicariously by reading RVers blogs.

I have found so many sites on the internet that give information about rigs for sale and such. I have also found several interesting clubs and groups that offer both get-togethers, information, chat groups and so much more.

So to start I am reading blogs written by people who have made it to full time RV living, or are still working toward it. I have found it quite interesting to first sample a blog by reading a few current entries, and if I like what I see, I go back to the beginning of their blogs. This way i can get a view of the things they have gone thru to get to where they are today, and also get to know them.

I must admit I tend to skim over the blogs that are about their holidays or grandchildren at this point. I'm looking for "how they did it" or ""useful hints" or "problems I might be able to avoid."

Likewise, I hope in this blog I will be able to contribute useful information for anyone who might read it in the future.

for now the countdown is :636 days until my 65th. birthday.

I am going to go clean out one drawer.

First post

This is my first post.

I want to start a blog to mull over the whole idea of going full time in an RV.

I've been reading blogs of others that are either on the road or working toward it.

My first step is to set a goal date, and a countdown.

I have two goal dates.

November 17, 2011 (My 65th birthday)

1 year, 8 months and 30 days

and May 1, 2012 (The target GO date.)

2 years 1 month 13 days

Plans are written in smoke. Always subject to disappearing into thin air.