I had a small 3 bedroom home packed full of stuff. For those of you who know me, I love art and craft and my house used to be filled with yarn and fleeces and spinning wheels and tools and art supplies by the boxful. Plus all the stuff that I made for friends and our home.
My boys had bikes, scooters, green machines, skateboards, cubbie houses, outdoor building stuff like nails, hammers, saws, wood, homemade bike jumps and tracks. They had numerous electronic gadgets, computers, game consoles, water toys - kickboards, donuts, lifejackets, balls, frisbees, footballs.
We had pets, furniture, whitegoods, clothes, books, plants and all sorts of gadgets.
I had already been decluttering for months, but now it was time to get really serious. I decided I would not pay for storage for anything, if it didn't fit in our van, it was out, gone. I LOVE all the stuff I read about minimalism.
I sold a few things on ebay, gave away a ton of stuff on Freecycle, took a couple of dozen stationwagon loads of stuff to all the op shops near the house, had the biggest hard rubbish pile we ever had, and made two trips to the dump.
My boys sold a few of their things on ebay too and made a good amount of money! They were thrilled watching people bid.
We went to the van twice and cleaned out all the stuff in it that we used for holidaying, and took it straight to the op shop.
It was then ready to be filled. We took two stationwagon loads up to the van the week before we moved, and then had two cars full on the day we moved.
My friend (with my son 15) towed the van in his 4wd and I followed behind with my younger son and all our animals.
My friend brought up the spare barfridge (that I will give away as we got given a bigger fridge for the van when we got here), my barbeque and a guinea pig cage up for me in his trailer, the following weekend when he visited.
We went back to the house for a couple of days to clean and finish up, then handed in the keys on the 8th of November and here we are!!
Do you know there are SO many wonderful things about living in a caravan??
- I NEVER have to mow a lawn again
- I NEVER have to clean a toilet or bathroom again
- housework takes no time at all
- as long as you don't let clutter in it's really quite easy
- I bought some pots and some flowering plants and have my own mini-garden next to the drawbar which doesn't even need weeding
- because we cut back on so much stuff, what we have is what we love and use
We are mostly unpacked but still have a few more boxes to go. And I'm still organizing where things go, I'm learning where to keep things used most often and store away those used not often.
My boys have settled in amazingly well. They are loving the freedom to ride their bikes all around the caravan park and getting to know all sorts of people and kids.
We have been out to all the local small towns exploring and taking lots of photos. We've joined the local library and got a huge pile of books on the local area. We are right near the high country mountains and keen to go exploring all through ther in my friends 4wd on the christmas holidays.
We go to the local pool a few times a week and the botannical gardens playground a few times a week too.
My older son was a bit of a mess about starting his new school but they were fabulous with making him welcome. I drove past and saw him playing footy with the other kids on his lunchbreak on the first day, and stopped in. He was happy and smiling, and when he got home he said how much he enjoyed it, and even likes it better than his old school. (He loved his old school before the bullying).
I think he was so afraid he'd be bullied again, but all went really well and he's settling in really great. His two teachers have been incredibly supportive and have kept me updated. I feel really happy he's happy, things were really rough for a while.
to be continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment