Packing and leaving

Shoes and the RV

Packing up your house to move it to the next location has been a constant in my world.  I sat down once and figured out that I have moved 32 times over the course of my life. A number of the early moves can be attributed to my mother's habit of moving. She moved so often she became known as the "gypsy". I think I have inherited this tendancy.  Therefore it is perfectly logical that I should finally give up living in a brick and mortar house to move into an RV.  In this way I do not have to hire movers, pack up furniture and all my belongings and schlep everything from one home to the next, one town to the next. It was either this or live aboard a sailboat, which would be wonderful and which I gave serious consideration to, however an RV gives me alot more flexibility in places to go. Yes, I am now free to move about the country!

Deciding on what to take was a bit harder.  It is amazing how much "stuff" accumulates over the years.   I tried to sort things out by category: 1-things needed just to live a daily life in the RV, ie: kitchen stuff, cosmetics and health care needs, electronics (computer, cell phone, camera, ipod---yikes! I have a bunch of this stuff), linens, and clothing and shoes (harder decisions, particularly the shoes). I rented a storage place to hold those things that I wanted to keep for the "future", culled through items I would need to take along with me in the RV, held a series of yard sales and finally donated several car loads of the "stuff" to local resale shops. Limited by the size of the storage space, there were many decisions on what stayed and what went.  There were, of course, the usual sentimental items I could not part with--pictures drawn by my daughter when she was a child, mementos of travels, and family heirlooms.  I decided that a number of these items could be given to my daughter now that she had her own home and family, which kept me from feeling guilty about getting rid of things that belonged to my mother and grandparents.  If SHE gets rid of these items that is on her not me. ha ha  The hardest decisions were on clothing (I would need two seasons-summer and winter) and shoes. Now shoes have always been a big part of my life. I have hard to fit feet so when I find shoes that fit I buy several pair. Seriously I must have 50 or 60 pairs of shoes.  No kidding.  I know, I know, we women like to have shoes and I am sure you are wondering why one needs so many.  Well that's easy to see when you start to categorize them: flip flops, snow boots, sneakers, sandals, rain boots, deck shoes, muck boots, dress shoes--whew! the list goes on.  Of course the flip flops, sneakers and boots are necessities.  The dress shoes seemed excessive but I didn't want to have purchase new shoes in case I needed to attend a wedding or funeral (well, OK I LIKE to buy new shoes, but really I already have alot). I pared down to 30 or so pairs.  Yikes!  Still too many.  OK, flip flops do not take up alot of room-they can all go--I bought 3 new pair and they are soooo cute!  Boots are bulky but then I anticipate needing them once the winter arrives. YUCK-winter! UGH!  But no way around it, I will be trudging through snow at some point this year. OK, boots get thrown in as well.
That left 8 pair of dress shoes.  I started to sort them out.  The little silver metallic sandals go really well with several of my dresses and can be used to dress up a casual outfit. They stay.  The black heels are needed for funerals (which it turned out I did attend) and other more dressy affairs. They stay. See? Not so easy to dismiss these shoes. I managed to cut down to 5 pair of dress shoes. FIVE PAIR!?!? Sigh, I just can't get rid of them. I will need a trailer for the trailer just for the shoes.

I found that paring down was a wonderful feeling. I felt FREE! FREE of STUFF! Life in an 18 foot travel trailer can really demonstrate what items you NEED and what you DON'T. Well except for the 22 pairs of shoes which I can't seem to leave behind.