DO WE REALLY NEED ALL THAT STUFF?

Living in a 20′ Airstream makes you very conscientious of things. Buy something new something old needs to go. Selling a three-story row house in Washington, D.C. to begin the Road2Reinvention, I sold, donated and just gave away most of my stuff. Doing so I felt like I was throwing hundred dollar bills out the window. I wish I had bought Nordstrom stock instead of all those shoes.  At the time those shoes look awesome. Bad decisions all around. Shoes, clothes, and stuff didn’t make me happy. I am so very happy now.

The self-storage industry in the United States boasts more than 50,000 facilities and roughly 3 billion square feet of rentable space making over $38 billion annually. The Millennials seem to have their “stuff” together, they don’t want stuff!

I am so very grateful niece Rachel and Adam were happy to get my Christmas ornaments and fly fishing gear.  I haven’t had a Christmas tree since I left Anchorage in 1995, or put a line in the water.  More boxes GONE!  Rachel was born to fish, here she is with her 1st King Salmon caught at the King Bear lodge.

I have been paying $56 a month for a 5’x5’x12′ storage unit, thinking someday I might want walls again. HA!

You do the math. After 4 years, I could buy that stuff ten times over. A Cuisinart food processor, Kitchen Aid mixer, favorite kitchen utensils, some small furniture, and who knows what else? I went to the storage unit for the first time in 2 years. Visiting stuff you haven’t seen in 2 years isn’t fun — it is downright depressing.  Should I just stop paying the bill and maybe see my stuff on that reality TV show where weird people buy storage units hoping to find a forgotten treasure? Very tempting.

The plan is to take pictures and put stuff on Facebook Market Place and maybe Craig’s list. I hope to get $20+ for each item of stuff that cost me much more.

It is the personal stuff I don’t know what to do with, pictures, etc.  What does a single woman with no kids do with pictures? Toss them into a dumpster? I have posted some old photos on my Facebook page, so they will live forever on the world wide web after I am gone. Not that anyone will care.  Before leaving D.C. I sent a box to an outfit that converted photos and slides to a CD.  But, kids these days don’t even know what slides are.  OK, boomer.

All I have to say to anyone reading this, don’t buy that stuff! Remember when President W told us all “to go shopping” after 9/11. That made me stop shopping for several months. But, I was still working and those Nordstroms shoes looked so marvelous. I just left two of my favorite pair today at the Hospice Thrift Store in Stuart, FL. In Florida, there are Thrift stores on every corner and in every strip mall. You can furnish many homes shopping thrift stores in Florida. And, I am not talking Goodwill. There are consignment stores with stuff that originally cost big bucks. Michelle and I went down to Palm Beach the other day and she got two Persian rugs for $300 each. They are huge rugs that would cost $3,000 or more in any rug store. Florida is where people go to die.  So donating to the Hospice Thrift store should mean something.

I am committed to getting rid of whatever the Fu*k is in my storage unit, saving $56 a month. If I can live without it for four years, I don’t need it, whatever it is? 

I have everything I need in my 20′ Airstream.  In fact, I have too much stuff, even in Scout.  Walking on the beach every day, playing golf, and just enjoying life.  The Three G; Gas, Groceries and Green fees.  What else does a single woman need?  Certainly not stuff.