Throwing off the CHAINS ... (Shoot me where I stand lol)

[T.he I.nvisible M.an]

I HATE MOVING!

I'm not sure which is worse moving or downsizing ...

Not too long ago I had a place just over 10,000 sq ft.
Then I moved and downsized to a place about 3,500 sq ft.
Then I moved again to mini storage with 3 units that totaled up to 750 sq ft. (plus two outside parking spaces)
NOW I am moving again to 2 mini storage units total of 400 sq ft. (and hope to sell two unused vans and have zero parking spaces)

I worked so hard the other day moving I had to take off the next day off to rest ... lol.
I can see more picture taking and Craigslist/eBay posting, is in store. My eventual goal is to have zero storage space.

Has anyone else been through this EXHAUSTING (Mentally as well as Physically draining) exercise?



JUST SHOOT ME WHERE I STAND ... (And put me out of my misery),


And now you know ...


T.I.M.


(and of course now it's raining outside as I sit waiting for the shower to pass)

At least now I can play hooky from working and stop by CRVL to read, post and relax ... lol

 

[Queen]

I've done it a couple of times but never found it draining other than the physical labor, mostly it was exhilarating, being free of so much crap!!

 

[SoulRaven]

I'm going through another downsizing spree myself. The physical and emotional exhaustion is certainly draining! But as you know, it's well worth it otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. Hang in there!

 

[ramblingvanman]

I have nearly downsized to the point that everything I own fits in my van. The only exception being most of my tools which I store in my mother's garage.

 

[DannyB1954]

If someone stole all of my stuff, I doubt that I would replace 10% of it.
When I was living on a boat in the San Francisco Bay, I rented a shop space for my tools and camping stuff.
After about 10 years, I figured I would have been money ahead to buy a tool if I needed it and then throw it away when I was done.
Monthly storage fees will far exceed the value of what is stored there over a period of time.

 

[GotSmart]

My kids are talking about moving again.  I have enough stuff to put in a 5x5 unit.  Mostly books and papers dating back many years.  Things the next generation will find quite interesting.  

I gave most of the rest of the stuff away last year. That was exhausting.

May I suggest an auction?

 

[T.he I.nvisible M.an]

I'm planning on taking loads of pictures and putting items for sale on Craig's list and eBay.

 

[dragonflyinthesky]

I'm heading west to NM AZ around the 18th of this month from Ohio along sr 40/66. I've downsized again. Took almost everything out of my little camper and it's sitting on the ground right now. It looks like I can consolidate and get rid of even more stuff. I've done this 3 times since living full time starting Feb of this year. If I have to much stuff I get confused. I may go potty in a bucket but I sure feel wealthy and free with this lifestyle.

PS I was in a bad way mentally getting ready to do this life change back before I left. Yes, it was incredibly draining and emotional. I spent time I could have been organizing and selling with crying and sleeping. Now it's all behind me. I didn't think I could ever do it but I did and now I'm happy and at peace. Keep on truckin', its worth it for your soul.
Dragonfly

 

[GotSmart]

I'm planning on taking loads of pictures and putting items for sale on Craig's list and eBay.

Keep in mind that ebay and pay pal fees can run 20% total.  

Then there is shipping~~~

That is how I financed building my van, by selling off my excess.

 

[Patrick46]

10,000 sq feet of stuff???

Good Heavens...did you own your own warehouse???

 

[GrantRobertson]

I feel ya buddy. Here's a suggestion: invite your friends over for a "Make an Offer" sale. Let them gather up as much as they want, then make you an offer for the whole lot. Then you ask for half that AND they take you out for pizza. They will remember that gesture far longer than you will remember why you had that stuff in the first place.

Also, for everything that still has UPC codes, like books (and, I don't know, action figures maybe?) I found it was much faster and easier to sell stuff on Amazon. I also found that, if the going price was less than about $12, it wasn't worth my time to bother with. In that case I just donated the books I had left to the local college or public library. All I had at the time was a scooter, so I would stuff a duffle bag full of books and show up at the librarian's desk with 40 pounds worth of books. It took about eight trips. Talk about a weight off my shoulders ... Literally!

 

[GrantRobertson]

Mostly books and papers dating back many years.  Things the next generation will find quite interesting.

Have you thought about scanning all of that. In the year that it took me to save up enough to get out of Tucson I would come home almost every day and scan stuff for a couple of hours while waiting for dinner to cook and then while listening to podcasts and audio books. I even scanned most of my books. though I have a scanner designed for scanning books. Can't remember the name well enough to Google it for you right now. Will do so later tonight.

If you don't want to do all the work yourself, and you have some extra money, there are services that will scan stuff for you.

This way, you can bring all that stuff with you, save the money on the storage, and work on indexing all those interesting papers for later generations when you are stuck inside your van (or at a coffee shop) on rainy days.

 

[GrantRobertson]

That is how I financed building my van, by selling off my excess.

At first I thought you said, "selling off your exes." [emoji12]

 

[highdesertranger]

ha ha ha, At first I thought you said, "selling off your exes." I think there is a law against that. lol highdesertranger

 

[missnout]

Yep, I just had my estate sale, (they robbed me blind) and now im down to bunches of little stuff, and a tractor. Glad its over!!

 

[GrantRobertson]

I have a scanner designed for scanning books. Can't remember the name well enough to Google it for you right now. Will do so later tonight.

Here's the link: http://plustek.com/usa/products/opticbook-series/

The 3800 is closest to the one I have. Yes, it costs more than most scanners, but it is worth it for the features. I got to where I could scan 200 pages of a book in an hour. I converted them to .PDF then did OCR so I can search for text within them. Now my entire library and all my documents fit on my laptop. If you want to know more, we can start a separate thread.


And here's a picture:

See how the book lies over the corner, so it can scan almost up to the binding and the page is perfectly flat.

 

[T.he I.nvisible M.an]

10,000 sq feet of stuff???

Good Heavens...did you own your own warehouse???

I was leasing it for about 4500 a month and had an option to buy. I had the opportunity to get out of the lease (and I did).

Just 20 miles south of where I am I saw a slightly smaller place go for 20k a month (on a main street of course).

This downturn we have had since 2007 with the market crash of 2008 is the longest one I have seen in my 37 years being self employed. I was taking a gamble that I could lock in a price then lease out part of the building after I subdivided it into smaller units. This was a few years ago that I "gave up" waiting for the economy to turn.

Now I don't really see the economy coming back like it had in the past. If anything our economy is so leveraged right now one major "bump" in the road is going to send everything crashing down. Since the Fed has the interest rate at or near zero right now they really don't have any wiggle room to try and keep things afloat.

THE NEXT CRASH WILL INVOLVE THE "DOLLAR" ITSELF! Since the dollar is the world reserve currency if the dollar crashes it will be chaos of the likes nobody alive today has ever seen.

I want to be mobile a.s.a.p. so that I am not stuck somewhere nasty when all this happens. (as it surely will).

I want to be GLOBAL so when this happens so that I won't be drawing income locally.

I truly hope I'm wrong about this but most likely I'm right.

And now you know ...

T.I.M.

 

[T.he I.nvisible M.an]

I feel ya buddy. Here's a suggestion: invite your friends over for a "Make an Offer" sale. Let them gather up as much as they want, then make you an offer for the whole lot. Then you ask for half that AND they take you out for pizza. They will remember that gesture far longer than you will remember why you had that stuff in the first place.

Also, for everything that still has UPC codes, like books (and, I don't know, action figures maybe?) I found it was much faster and easier to sell stuff on Amazon. I also found that, if the going price was less than about $12, it wasn't worth my time to bother with. In that case I just donated the books I had left to the local college or public library. All I had at the time was a scooter, so I would stuff a duffle bag full of books and show up at the librarian's desk with 40 pounds worth of books. It took about eight trips. Talk about a weight off my shoulders ... Literally!

GREAT IDEA!

I have way too many books lol ...

 

[GotSmart]

Have you thought about scanning all of that. In the year that it took me to save up enough to get out of Tucson I would come home almost every day and scan stuff for a couple of hours while waiting for dinner to cook and then while listening to podcasts and audio books. I even scanned most of my books. though I have a scanner designed for scanning books. Can't remember the name well enough to Google it for you right now. Will do so later tonight.

If you don't want to do all the work yourself, and you have some extra money, there are services that will scan stuff for you.

This way, you can bring all that stuff with you, save the money on the storage, and work on indexing all those interesting papers for later generations when you are stuck inside your van (or at a coffee shop) on rainy days.

Much of what I have is WWII documentation.  Scrapbooks that my father made while flying in the 15th Air Force. Books of pre war post cards,  Original editions of Stars and Stripes, propaganda leaflets, aerial photographs,  Collections of first edition Science Fiction. 40 large boxes.  What I need is a newspaper size scanner. 

I will seal them up in waterproof boxes, and store them where it is safe for a few more years.  Then when my legs give out, I will have something to do writing a couple books.    

Now back to the T.I.M. channel!

 

[Patrick46]

37 years being self employed.



I want to be GLOBAL so that I won't be drawing income locally.

I've been self-employed for over 30 now myself.

Wha'd you do for a living??

I own and operate my own vehicle customizing, graphics, and sign shop.


oh, and living in a small coastal town, I too am working on towards having a full time on-line business myself, and getting away from relying on just the locals for my customer base.