#bovn

  We arrived in Oliver BC  at 7 pm and after parking our travel trailer perfectly, exactly one inch away from a huge tree, Moonfyre asked me to fulfill her craving for Chinese food. So I drove out of the RV Resort and immediately got lost. Why? It was 7:40pm and way darker than Edmonton. Eventually I found my way to main street and the found that the 4 1/2 star, "Urban Spoon" recommended, local Chinese restaurant was closed. It was an hour before their posted closing time. The other Chinese food place across the street that was supposed to be open till 8:30, had one customer seated, but when I got to the door it was locked. That was a full  35 minutes before their posted closing time. So now what? 

That was exactly the response texted to me from Moonfyre.  All that was open was the Murphy's Pub and the Pizza joint.

                              "Some locals call it Smalliver" 

We were so hungry from our 12 hr drive, we decided on pizza. Luckily, the local pizza place decided not to close early and took my order. A large vegetarian for Moonfyre and I, an Hawaiian for Tijana, a  cheese pizza for the little ones and an order of chicken wings. $62. Wow. There I sat practically starving......waiting, so to take my mind off my stomach I decided to write this and share the experience.

It didn't seem to take that long before I heard a voice from the kitchen announcing "Dinner is served". I looked up to see the owner with his friendly small town smile holding two boxes and a bag towards me. I thanked him graciously and headed for our new home. The voice of Google Maps navigated me home through the dark quickly and without incident.

I don't know if it was our hunger or the preparation, but the food was very good when we all finally sat down to eat.

So I took another of moms other ideas and wrote down everything I had for the different possibilities. One of them wasn't going anywhere, so I switched. I initially thought I didn't have much for that, either, but it soon turned out otherwise.

I'm still working on figuring it out (I keep being interrupted.) but so far, I think I know where I'm going to start. It will be interesting to see where it goes. I know that planning is good, but these kinds of things usually end up with a life of their own.

There we stood, looking at all our belongings, shaking our heads saying: Stuff, stuff Look, my love What are we going to do With all of this stuff! So have a look around your home and check out all the  "stuff"  you own. On the surface it doesn't look like much does it? What if you had 3 days to move out? Does that give you a different perspective? How much stuff do you have, or the better question is how much of it do you really need? Every week we go out to get groceries and other needed things and come back with more than intended; victims of impulse buying and the simple human attraction to shiny items. Ten years go by and you have collected - one big pile of "stuff".

Perhaps it's not that easy to see until you are truly in the process. When we decided to get rid of most everything we own and only take what we really need, to fit it into our travel trailer, it became a daunting task. We had a house outfitted for 6 adults 2 children and 3 cats. To reduce our stuff that filled a 3000 Sq ft house down to fit into our 360 Sq ft travel trailer for 3 adults, 2 kids and one orange cat wasn't going to be simple . We had to figure out what was "absolutely" necessary to have along for our travels.

The house was full of  beds, night tables, dressers, couches, tables, chairs, bedding, toys, games, teacups, coffee cups, drinking glasses, wine glasses, Martini glasses, dishes for all occasions, forks, knives, spoons and every other utensil,  small appliances for all possible kitchen uses, vacuum cleaner, broom and dustpan, office supplies, computers, printer, tablets, phones, arts and crafts supplies,  a music studio c/w instruments,  a library of books, cleaning supplies, boxes of cables and assorted outdated electronics, towels, washcloths, bathroom gear for each person,closets full of  clothes we wear, clothes we haven't worn in years, oh and shoes, boots and more shoes, and more boots, and some extra shoes and boots and shoes, costumes, props, a closet full of Xmas stuff, boxes of things we hadn't looked at in 5 years, TV'S, bikes, CD's vehicle parts and accessories, a garage full of wood, a collection of hardware store stuff (just in case), a lawn mower, weed trimmer, gas cans, paint cans and  tools, tools and more tools . In other words we had a lot of "stuff" we had to sort through.

After making the decision to " travel the world "  the first thing we did was set up a garage sale. Moonfyre named it The "Stuffectomy Garage Sale". There we got rid of a fair amount of "stuff".

The next thing we did was order a big garbage bin that was about 8 ft wide, 20 ft long and about 5 ft high. We received a great deal on it. It was 7 days for the price of 3 and we filled it  in 4. We didn't realize we were storing so much garbage and useless " stuff". I decided I would reduce my personal footprint in the trailer and sell everything in my home music studio and do all my recording on an iPad in the trailer. Alesis makes an audio interface that houses the iPad.  So I was going to buy a new iPad the interface and software. I would still do the final mixdown on my MacBook.  Then Moonfyre points out that since I'm taking the MacBook anyway why not just record on "it". Brilliant!! It's nice to have a partner that keeps you sensible.  So I went online and found a simple audio interface used for $80 an I was set. Yeah, I can get caught up in the whole newest gadget craze and lose my logic. Now on to the "one ton truckloads"  of  "stuff" we couldn't use or take with us, that we brought to the Goodwill. After the initial ten bags or so we filled at least a bag a week. Many items went to our grown children who weren't coming along. We also gave away "stuff" to friends who could use them. And then there was Kijiji the online classified ad site where were able to sell a lot. Slowly over the next year and a half we managed to purge the house of most of our "stuff". Some days I'd come home from work and notice a piece of furniture missing, only to be informed that it had been sold and gone for a week and a half. Now the house is empty and the last of our "stuff" is in the garage. The house still hasn't  sold , but that is another story.

What we absolutely want to keep is being put into a 6x12 utility trailer and will be stored. That would include a few pieces of furniture dear to my wife, her rare books, heirlooms for the kids, photos, some vintage musical equipment I seem to be attached to, a few boxes of our unsold CD's, and plastic tubs full of other important things.

Meanwhile we have been purchasing "stuff" for the our new home in the travel trailer. We have realized we have to be very conscientious of what we are doing. Now, having space and weight considerations, we can only buy lightweight things that make the best use of the limited  room we have. That is my wife's department. She is extremely good with space and so far she's done a wonderful job,with our daughter Tijana, in getting the trailer ready. We have moved into it completely to test out the practicalities, while we are still in town and able make any needed changes.

 So yes, the topic was " stuff" and we had a lot of it. I have a whole new appreciation for what we call our belongings. I now think twice before buying anything new.

Do we really need it? How much does it weigh? Where do we put it? Those are now the main considerations with the first question being the most important. Because if we do really need it, Moonfyre will find a place to put it and I'll find a way to justify the weight even if I have to throw something else out. Our travel trailer has its own set of controls on our "stuff" situation and it's parameters suit me just fine.

So what are you going to do with all of your "STUFF"?

We got rid of so much Stuff when we moved into the trailer it was quite amazing to see. We got rid of boxes upon boxes of things we didn't need. And, I honestly could not tell you any of the stuff we got rid of off the top of my head besides furniture.

So, after all that, and moving into the trailer, how is it possible that we still have so much Stuff? Mom and I were organizing the outside kitchen the other day and all we could think about was how much stuff we have. We even considered another purge. To get rid of more stuff. I think if we did we'd easily find a few boxes of stuff to get rid of.

Even while moving into the trailer, we got rid of a bunch of Stuff while finding places for Things. It's really quite amazing.

When you come right down to it all you NEED is food, shelter, and clothes. Cleaning supplies are nice to have, too. (blankets fall under shelter in my book.) So all the other things we have are just privileges. I don't need my books, my games, or my costumes. I certainly don't need my posters and stuffies.

But I know that I will not get rid of those things. Because this is Home. And I think every Home needs Stuff. Otherwise it's just a house or, in our case, a trailer. So while some stuff is silly to have, I still like having it. Of course what this stuff is changes from person to person, and as people get older.