Decluttering & Our Backyard

Hi all, it's been a busy week here, I took my son to the movie's for the first time in a very long time and we saw "Paddington." Well we laughed SO much!! Well worth the cost and we'll definitely be getting this on dvd when it comes out.

We continued our decluttering tasks in between our regular weekly stuff, it was very satisfying to fill the large wheelie (rubbish) bins here a couple of times, as well as take another carload to the Op Shop. We have quite a selection of Op Shops in this town by the beach, plus a few others in the main town 35 k's up the road.

I take my stuff to a few favorites, the reason I have chosen these particular ones is that they always have a friendly attitude and say thank you. It makes me happy when people are friendly.

I'm getting down to the harder stuff to part with now, the things I am more attached to. I had a lovely big owl figurine collection. I went through my huge collection a while back and got rid of over half. I kept my favorites and when all wrapped in bubble wrap I still had a reasonable sized tub full of them. It was too much, so I had to go through them again and was even more ruthless this time around. It was HARD. BUT, I don't have anywhere to display them and I have to keep asking myself, "Do I want to travel?" or "Do I want to sit around with a place full of stuff??"

And this really helps me part with some of my favorite things.

The other thing that is helpful in this process, is that I love playing with my art supplies. I will have limited space in the next caravan, plus we'll need to be aware of the weight of our things too. So do I want to use up my share of that weight lugging around things wrapped in bubble wrap in a tub? Or things that I will use and get a lot of enjoyment and relaxation out of?

And this helps me a lot.

We have been looking at caravans on the internet and haven't found quite what we're looking for as yet, but it's a very useful process because it's giving me a good idea of just how much space we'll have, as to how much we need to downsize.

Although it's sometimes a hard process, it's also very freeing getting rid of things that are no longer needed, loved, or we have space for.

When we moved from the main town to the beach here, I was quite surprised at how much had to go into the caravan for travel. When we arrived here, it all had to be unloaded before we could get into the caravan and start setting up. That REALLY bothered me.

Since that day we have kept on plodding along downsizing and everything fits more comfortably and easily now because we have gotten rid of so much more.

When we move again in four weeks, we will only have to put the barbeque (that we will be replacing later on with a smaller one), the boys bikes, the outdoor chairs and a couple of small clothes horses into the caravan. We can hitch up and be on our way.

We'll be staying longer at the next stop so will be putting up the annexe for the winter, this makes life a lot easier when it's bad weather as wet jackets and shoes can be left out there rather than inside.

We have huge winds here near the beach at times so I'm not confident to put the annexe up here, I'd rather go without than have to worry about it blowing down or getting damaged.

This next week is a busy one, the boys have horse riding for the disabled, swimming lessons, Doctor's appointments, and lapidary club.

Here is some pictures of our back yard this evening:

 

 

 

Catching Up

It's been a long time since I had the urge to blog, but as the day where my dream to travel comes closer, I get the urge to share my experiences again.

Since I was last here, we lived in a country town caravan park for a while, then that got closed down by the Council due to lack of profit and flooding risks.

So then we were offered a government house as we couldn't find another caravan park who took permanents and could fit my big caravan in.The area looked rough.

I knew in my guts it wasn't the right decision to take the house, but I felt pushed into a corner and that I had no other options at the time. I tried to discuss it with someone close to me but they weren't very interested in the discussion at the time. So I felt I had to go with it.

Well this turned out to be a major screw-up, it was the most awful rough area I have ever experienced. People drugged and drunk at all hours of the day and night, fighting, screaming, domestic violence, theft, destruction. I begged the housing officer to move us somewhere else, but was told that I "should be grateful to have a house."

Well I might not have a lot of money, but I am not that desperate, so we hired a storage unit, sold what we could and moved back into our caravan! What a relief!!

I learnt my lesson, LISTEN TO YOUR GUTS!!!!

We went to a lovely caravan park by the sea for a couple of months, almost got blown away a few times, but it gave us time to calm down from the terror of wondering when we'd be broken into or attacked.

Then we went back to the town where we'd had the house, but at a caravan park at the other end of town, where we stayed for 6 months and are now back by the sea again where we were last year.

We love it here, it is calm and peaceful, water is so healing. My life is quite difficult raising two boys with autism and other issues on my own. The support services for people with disability are being cut left right and centre. I have no supports now, all the autism groups we attended last year have been shut down.

So I have realised that I can only do what I can only do. It's up to me. If I want to be happy and I want things to happen, it's up to me.

I have been looked down upon a number of times by people who judge me because I choose not to live a traditional life in a house with a mortgage and all the trimmings.

I think I am a gypsy at heart because traveling makes me happy, seeing new places makes me happy, and meeting new people in new places makes me happy.

So at the end of this year when my older son finishes special school we are going to travel, we are going to potter around Australia from place to place wherever the urge takes us.

I already homeschool my younger son so there will be no change there.

This blog will be musings about our stories and adventures.