2017: The Year of the Collosal Downsize

And so it begins.  In our quest to simplify our lives and realize our dream of full-time Airstreaming, I have determined and successfully convinced my hubby that we need to downsize.  We need to get rid of “stuff” to free ourselves from the excesses and the work that invariably goes along with having too much.  Let me give you a little family history…

From my earliest memory I was raised to be a collector.  My grandmother, Grammy, was an antiques dealer.  A woman entrepreneur, rare in her time, and a savvy negotiator as well.   I recall our family visiting my grandmother in Maine during the summers and visiting her shop, which sat along the old Bath Road between Bath and Brunswick, Maine.  My grandmother had tons of antiques – figurines, glassware, dolls, miniatures….you name it.   One of the most amazing things about Grammy was that she knew every item she owned.  She had a mind full of inventory – like a computer – and if something had gone missing, she wouldn’t rest until its location was discovered.  I recall one year during our annual summer stay, that Grammy determined a small basket made from a peach pit was missing from her China cabinet.  I thought to myself, “With all the stuff crammed into that cabinet , how on earth did she notice this tiny item missing?”

My mother inherited Grammy’s passion for antiques and also became a dealer of antiques and collectibles.  Not only did my mother inherit that strong entrepreneurial spirit, but she also inherited the collecting gene, only tenfold that of my grandmothers! I am so blessed that both my parents are living and for the most part healthy, as I write this post.  I thank God for that every day.  While I do love my parents dearly, I have come to see how she and my father spend most their time caring for their “stuff”.   My mother collects nearly everything under the sun and has been financially able to feed her passions for more than 50 years!  Trust me when I say she has a lot of stuff – you can’t imagine the stuff!  But, it’s all “good stuff” – things you rarely can find today.  Each time I suggest she consider downsizing by selling an item, her response is the same – “that’s part of my collection.”  And so it goes.  Good for Mom.  She gets joy from her things.  If you visit her, she is thrilled to show you all her antique tin toys, dolls, miniature tea sets, crocks, figurines, advertising items, and more!  Honestly, her collection is amazing.

Since I was raised to be a collector, I have amassed my fair share of stuff as well.  However, in the past year or so, I began to evaluate how I want to live my life and determined that for me, simple is better.

It’s fortuitous that I discovered my newest passion – Airstreaming!   My loving hubby, Major Airhead, and I have the hopes of eventually becoming full-timers.  Every full-timer knows there is limited room in an RV, particularly an Airstream, for those items deemed as non-essential.  The Major tells me that we will be limited to 100 items total that we can bring along when full-timing.  I guess he read that on a forum somewhere.  He ribs me whenever I buy something new to make our Airstream cozier, “That counts as one of your 100 items!” It’s a running joke for us.   Whether its 100 items or 1,000 items that we can take along, it’s clear that we have amassed far greater than we need in our home and it’s time to downsize and simplify.   Thus, we have declared 2017 as the “year of the down-size”.   To be sure, it’s a mammoth task and will take great determination and diligence. To help us remain accountable to our goal, we are taking it public and blogging our efforts.

Downsize 2017
Taking a truckload to the Rescue Mission.

The activities to downsize completed in January include: cleaning out the storage area in our detached garage and taking multiple boxes to the local Rescue Mission; selecting furniture and other unneeded items from around the house and selling them on eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Online Yard Sale groups; taking several boxes of collectibles and household items to a local consignment shop; and going through books and getting rid of those we no longer need on Freecycle.   We are off to a great start and we’ve made some money along the way to add to our savings account – another action that will help us to achieve our goal of full-timing.

Major Airhead likes to repeat (almost daily), “There are only 3 things we need to do to become full-time Airstreamers:  1) Sell everything we own  2) Secure Health Insurance and 3) Buy a lot at Hilton Head Marina and RV Park” (our dream home base).   He’s over simplifying, I suspect.  Regardless, we are on our way to our goal – day by day, bit by bit.   Be sure to follow our blog to watch our progress as we downsize!

~ Libby