Monday, January 7, 2013

Wait, I might need that later!

Leather bicycle seat.  Never installed for 23 years, but it could
happen next week. Not! Sold for a surprising amount. 


“The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything.” - Fight Club

To prepare for our move onto a boat, I spent several years selling and donating things left and right: eBay, craigslist, Amazon, and the Salvation Army were all familiar stomping grounds. I have minimalism in my blood and the thought of paring down our possessions to the essentials makes me happy. Matt, not so much.  Matt's take is that I'm somewhat insane. You can draw your own conclusions.


Even though Matt is not materialistic (except for the occasional lusting after camera equipment and certain other gadget-y stuff), he is--to me--a hoarder. Okay, perhaps he is just normal. But  parting with possessions that we might someday need was harder for him than it was for me. For example, to me it was just a box of random, left over screws and fasteners.  To Matt it was the potential solution to some unknown problem we'd face in some part of the world where screws and nails were yet to be invented.  There were some tears, pleading and some surreptitious trips to the garbage can, but in the end, we were left with just a few boxes of possessions (quite a few, if you ask me). Everything was loaded into one 6' x 7' x 8' moving pod, with room to spare. We'll see how much of the contents will fit on the boat.  There were some items that Matt didn't mind parting with: we had a lot of fun drinking up the extra wine he had collected through the years.

Visit The Monkey's Fist to find other posts on this topic:
http://themonkeysfist.blogspot.com/2013/01/moving-aboard-transitions.html

5 comments:

  1. I'm with Matt! You never know when you're going to need that....thing!

    So jealous of your Florida Christmas!

    Will be watching for when you set sail!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Weren't you all supposed to be coming to Florida? Is that still happening?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim is getting a promotion at work (if all goes accordian (sc) to plan). So...they needed him back too quickly for us to go. The kids went down with Kristen and her Husband for a week. Now I'm suffering the consequences of piles of homework and whining. Almost makes me wish I could send my kids to boat school (as long as I wasn't the teacher!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm writing this through a haze of laughter induced tears. My husband and I had just such a discussion about the 75 lbs of stainless steel screws, nuts and bolts that came with our boat. He wanted to trash them. I fought for them. It's not that we will be traveling to places where they have yet to be invented (giggle), it's that I have a diabolical plan to trade those little babies for beers in places where the stainless screw, nut or bolt is further away than the guy with the excess beers wishes to go for one.

    Yes, a method to the madness!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ha, I didn't think about the beer value of stuff--point well taken. Funny thing is, Matt won't go digging through the stash for stuff he needs, preferring instead to head to the chandlery because it's easier and they only cost a few cents.

    ReplyDelete

Add a comment: