After working on art materials and writing a thoughtful post about moving on, I got a couple of orders in Friday's email from customers who are willing to wait the couple of weeks it will take me to make the animals they want. One is from a lady that has ordered something for her son every Christmas for the last five years. He has quite a collection! The other is from the UK, and the customer promptly reconfirmed when I emailed the shipping cost, and production time details. So I guess I'll be working on sculptures for a bit.
We had a leak there before the new roof was put on and there is some water damage. It's a good "putzy" job for a rainy weekend. It will probably take a couple of days for him to do, and then the hall will be ready for me to paint. I'd like to have that done before we leave for Christmas.
I pulled out everything that was too big, worn out, or not wanted.
I have done this several times in the last two years and although I know I still have too many, I feel I am getting closer to having the right amount of clothes.
Over the weekend I measured the length of the closet pole in the Alfa and marked off the pole in my closet in the house to be the same size. There is 24 inches of pole on my side of the closet. I have installed some plastic shelves and a shoe holder on my side that take up the remaining space. Craig gets 32 inches of pole on his side.
Now I can see what is going to fit. It looks like I still need to cut down by about 1/3. It seems that jackets take up a lot of space. I eliminated two today, but I still have more than I will have space for.
I also have more Tshirts and sweatshirts than I need. I tossed at least a dozen Tshirts into the rag bag today. We will be staining some new doors and woodwork soon and they will come in handy. Since it is winter now I am wearing long sleeve shirts every day. I know I'll need both long and short sleeved shirts in the future. I wonder if I can stow some clothes somewhere other than the closet.
I did another pass thru my dresser drawers too, and have tossed just about everything I don't wear. I found a couple of pair of shorts that I didn't remember that will fit me now, and got rid of several that don't.
Craig doesn't agree with my way of getting rid of things a little at a time. He says we can just load up the Alfa and whatever doesn't fit we will dump. I told him his head will explode from the pressure of all the things he will have to think about in the weeks after the house sells!
[From Craig: as Merikay has been talking about this, I'm about ready to go in and throw almost all of my old clothes away. It would be a lot of
fun, and I would avoid having my head explode...]
We will get through this.
Now we don't need exploding heads! I have those hanger things that you load, then drop down the sides. Works great in the RV closet. I think I might space bag my sweats. I swear this weather is weird..back to short sleeves again.
ReplyDeleteI am larning all about exploding heads. Ever since Mum died at the end of last January I've been taking stuff away little byt little ..... but how do you handle history?
ReplyDeleteI have an impossible portrait of one of my great, great aunts. I'm trying to find out who the painter is. I have a suspicion it may be of interest to a museum. Too many questions, too many decisions, too many things to check. If we lived closer to a major city it might be a little easier. I must remember to take a photo of the portrait and the painter's signature so I can get it checked while we are in Christchurch. It would be lovely to do a clean sweep but I would never feel comfortable as Mum was the eldest daughter of and eldest daughter and keeper of a few treasures. I am the eldest so the responsibility has become mine.
I wanted to cry when I thought about how I whittled most of our stuff down to necessities only and now I have a bedroom full of boxes which are full of stuff.
Life takes some funny turns. *smiles*
Blessings.
It needs to be done sooner rather than later. I had so much stuff to dispose of in the last week or two that I was going crazy. But I was also taking care of family members and not doing what I needed for myself. I think I have too many coats/sweatshirts/fleece with me but even in warm climates it can get cool at night or rainy. I have to keep only the multi-purpose ones and donate the rest.
ReplyDeleteI started in August getting rid of the stuff so I know where you are at. :)
ReplyDeleteI have a 1600 square house full of hobbies and seeing we have been in this house for 30 years it is FULL.
Men like to do things the easiest way. Women like to be resourceful no matter the cost to use personally. :)
I have been putting things up on ebay, craigslist, and on facebook for sale sites and have been doing pretty well. I just sold my upright freezer and desktop computer this week. We also got rid of our home phones and went to Straight Talk Cell phones.
It is all a slow process of getting use to having things different instead of a GUN HO lets get rid of it all and go into shock. LOL.
I enjoy your blog.
Susie in northern NY
I forgot to click "Email follow-up comments". LOL
ReplyDeleteSusie
Do you have underbed storage? We keep a ton of stuff underneath our bed.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you on not waiting until the last minute to go through stuff. But then again, Craigs idea of just tossing everything that won't fit in the Alfa sounds so much easier!
We had been working really hard to get rid of stuff but we didn't get nearly as motivated until a closing date was set. Fortunately for us the closing date was delayed a couple of times....or we would have had to used Craigs method!
One advantage to traveling solo is that I get to have the entire closet. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd one advantage to having a camper van is there is no closet.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an overwhelming task, but I think you are taking the right approach by doing it bit by bit. You'll feel so light and free when you are all done!
ReplyDeleteUse those space bags (!) for some of your cold weather gear - or will you have a vac on board?
Yes, you will get through it!! Hopefully, with no exploding heads!
ReplyDeleteI am amazed at how little clothing we have these days. (And, we've purged some this month!)
The most stressful time of our lives to date was the three weeks between a signed contract and our closing. Even though we'd been clearing things out for a year or so, we couldn't believe how much stuff we still had. And, there was a decision associated with every item - give away, sell, toss, store or keep!
Do we miss any of it? Nope!
Be patient!
I don't know...the visual of Craig's head exploding has a certain appeal... Would make for great blog fodder! (just kidding) Speaking of heads, good luck with your new orders. Does that make it harder to give up the business? You are so organized, I am sure everything will work out fine.
ReplyDeleteSure sounds like you are making a lot of progress. Even when you think you are truly downsized, you will still have to let go of more things. But, you will both get there when it's time. Hopefully you will both keep your head and not go too crazy.
ReplyDelete