Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Blogging from A to Z: T is for Take a Tenth of Your Tools and Toys (and get some help from Technology!)


During the month of April last year, I participated in the A to Z Blogging Challenge - one alphabet-themed post per day (except Sundays).  I had such a good time with it that I'm doing it again this year.  I'm loosely organized on the theme of downsizing, minimalism, and small-home living that I've learned in 14 years of living on a small boat.  I'm starting with A is for Anchoring Out, Anger-ing Out, and ending with Z is for Zout and Zwarte Peper (Dutch for salt and black pepper). Click on the A to Z logo on the lower left sidebar for links to many other bloggers participating in the challenge.

Moving aboard, we were able to take about a tenth of our possessions


We got a letter from our then seven-year-old godson, asking us to describe what life on the boat was like. We told him that it was like being a turtle, 'cuz we went really slow, but we got to take our home with us everywhere we went. And that even though it was very small, it had everything his home did: a place to cook, a place to sleep, a place to hang out with friends, a place to sit an think. He got a charge out of hearing that our bed -- a.k.a. V-berth -- spanned wall to wall so we could never fall out of bed no matter how rough the seas got. (We didn't go into the fact that in rough conditions we'd actually sleep on the settee in the main salon with a lee cloth; too much information.)

But what really got him was when we explained that we didn't have room for very many things.   One in ten, we told him.  For every ten toys you own, you get to pick one to take with you.  Same thing with books, and t-shirts.  And we had a conversation about what you'd pick, and why; and if two small toys would be as good as one big one.

That simplification closely mirrored what we actually did. We had moved from a 2,800-square-foot house, to a boat with less than 280 square feet. And when we did the extreme downsizing we called "shopping at our house," for each category of possessions, we ended up with close to a 10:1 ratio of things we had to get rid of to things we could keep to bring aboard. Tools, we ended up with a bit more than 10%, and kitchen gadgets a bit less, since we only brought hand-operated things and big electric items like a waffle iron or popcorn popper or stand mixer wouldn't be practical.  Clothing was right on, and most toys.

Things that could be replaced simply with cash, like a sofa or a car, we sold. For the sentimental or meaningful stuff, we got a storage unit. Technology was going to be our ultimate savior, we reasoned. All the music we owned, plus all we could borrow from friends or the library, would take the exact same amount of space -- essentially, none -- if we were willing to rip CDs to the computer or iPod. Every family photo could come with us, if we took the time to scan it. Every book I could ever read would take the same negligible amount of space on an e-reader if we were willing to repurchase it in digital form.

Interesting that our sorting rule for those things became, "Do I want to take the time and effort to scan/rip/digitize this?" The process gave a totally concrete meaning to the downsizing advice to look at each item and ask yourself if you saw it in the store today, would you buy it again if you had it to do over again?


11 comments:

  1. Put on the sorting cap. Tough choices. Any regrets??

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    1. Interesting question, Joanne. My biggest regrets are over the digitizing. With the music, it was too much, not edited. We tried to grab everything we could, and ended up with such a poorly organized mass of albums, many that we hadn't listened to first in our haste, that we ended up with a collection that was hard to listen too. With the photos, it was the opposite -- in some cases we spent almost as long trying to decide whether to scan a picture, as it would have taken to actually do it. Now, 14 years later, I wish I had more pictures of my parents and grandparents. (There are some, still boxed, in our storage, but inaccessible.) And I wish I'd saved a few more things when we closed out my father's house after his death. That was as much about grief as it was about downsizing, though.

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  2. I love the idea at "shopping at your own house"! I found that I had favorite clothes that I didn't wear - because I didn't want to ruin them. Now I only wear my favorite clothes- when they get ruined, I'll find a new favorite. - Lucy

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    1. Truly wise, Lucy. I also have some 'favorites' that I'm saving ... for what, I'm not certain. In some cases I suspect they'll go out of style before I wear them out!

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  3. I have enjoyed hearing how you processed your choices...give one a lot to ponder.

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    1. Thanx! Writing about the process, and getting feedback, makes me feel less crazy about my obsession with downsizing. ;-)

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  4. Because we moved down to New Zealand to buy our boat, we stored anything with sentimental value, packed up a pallet and had it shipped of things we thought we'd need (tools mainly), and gave what was left to David's sons who were both just starting off in the world. I don't remember what we missed in particular but there were so many things that we had to re-buy for the new boat that we already owned and should have brought with us. Live and learn!

    Cheers,
    Stephanie

    http://www.svcambria.com/2016/04/v-is-for-vista-15-easy-ways-to-improve.html

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    1. Oh, agreed! All the planning in the world couldn't replace the actual trial-and-error!

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  5. I think the storage unit idea is really smart. We do something similar keeping some things in my sister's house. Although, I don't miss anything we keep there, but as she's kind enough to give us space to store things, I feel better not chucking them out, especially some sentimental items.

    Cheers - Ellen

    PS My computer appears to be back in business, so I'm able to check in on blogs again and comment :-)

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    1. When I realized what a tiny proportion of our monthly income would go to storage, and what a difference it would make for us, it really wasn't a very tough decision at all. The more so, as we'd need storage in any case for off-season stuff, so we'd have to have ties to land "somewhere." The additional incremental cost to include our treasures was even less intimidating.

      Glad your computer is back up and running. Now we know you will be able to write Nancy out of danger by "Z"!

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  6. Most space on our boat was taken up by tools and spare boat parts. A whole hull, as a matter of fact. There would be days I didn't step foot in that hull!

    Liesbet @ Roaming About – A Life Less Ordinary

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