Fulltimers how do you do it- Its soooo difficult. (1 Viewer)

[FullTimeDreamer]

Prior to fulltiming we are making lists of what we need to keep (should be very little) and what we need to sell or dump. The trouble is we are finding it hard to get rid of anything. So much stuff like furniture has been in the family for years, tons of clothes and ornaments and that have been with us since, well forever. Even silly things like 25 year old xmas lights, which should be easy to get rid of, have us welling up!

A large storage bill every month won't do. so we have to be ruthless, But it is so hard, is it just us or did you other fulltimers suffer the same?

 

[scotjimland]

Yeah it is hard ... need to be ruthless.. trouble is, nobody wants even good stuff ..

Contact a charity who will collect furniture etc .. the rest you can boot sale or take to the council recycling amenity .. ( or the skip as we used to call it ) ..

Now here is the irony ..

we are now going back to a house after 3 years full time and are looking at buying second hand stuff .. it's amazing what you can pick up for a few quid .. perfectly good dining sets, lounge suites etc all at a fraction of new cost .. but even doing that it costs a right few bob to furnish a house from scratch.. :Sad:

One example ..

A TV for your lounge..

a half decent size LCD and your looking at £400 -£500 . ,
I picked up a 28" Flat wide screen Panasonic CRT set for £25 .. ok, it's not an all singing dancing LCD jobby but it's got a great picture, and even if it only does 6 months.. owes me nothing .. and it has a 28day money back guarantee .. well pleased


good luck with your plans



jim

 

[Ant&Debs]

its not that difficult!

Prior to fulltiming we are making lists of what we need to keep (should be very little) and what we need to sell or dump. The trouble is we are finding it hard to get rid of anything. So much stuff like furniture has been in the family for years, tons of clothes and ornaments and that have been with us since, well forever. Even silly things like 25 year old xmas lights, which should be easy to get rid of, have us welling up!

A large storage bill every month won't do. so we have to be ruthless, But it is so hard, is it just us or did you other fulltimers suffer the same?

Hi

We have just gone through the same. House sale just gone through, completes on monday. We sorted out into 3 piles (so to speak) Bootsale/Storage/Get Rid.

we did 4 boot sales with 2 cars and prob made over £1000.00 (which we used to pay for Gaslow System for 5ver and 2 inflatable kayaks.

We have rented a self storage box for £10.00 per week, for just boxes of items we cant let go.

Everything that we could not sell at Bootsale we gave to the local cancer charity shop and all furniture and white goods sold to second hand dealer.

We just sold one of the cars and are now living our static caravan till our 5ver arrives in uk. Then the second car will be sold along with the static.

Then just couple more boxes for storage and then we are off!

Good Luck,

Regards

Ant & Debs

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[ourcampersbeentrashed]

stick the christmas lights on ebay, the older vintage ones may make you a nice profit especially if they are outdoor lights or blow moulds.

Dont worry about welling up - its part of the course. Moving home is one of the most stressful things in life regardless of whether its to a new property or into a motorhome.

Anyone who moves home always has problems on what to keep and what to get rid of.

Just remember they are only possessions. Keep anything that it really - and I mean really sentimental - anything else you can always buy again.

Good luck xxxxx

 

[FullTimeDreamer]

Thanks all for the tips. It is not the practicalities of getting rid of our posessions, but rather the emotional effect that we are having. We did not expect this would have such an effect. Hopefully it will be shortlived.

 

[bald eagle]

Hi Fulltimedreamer
When we went f/t we had the same trouble of letting go, the furniture was easy ,we had some one come in and buy the lot it was all done in a day so we did'nt have time to think
about it.
The sentimental stuff was a bit different,but we got round this by giving it to the families on
both sides, so in a funny sort of way it is still with us.
I hope this is of some help to you could luck f/t may see you on the road some time.

p.s keep those christmas lights for your motorhome in the festive season.

regards
bald eagle

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[davehuge]

Yes you have to be ruthless but if you really want to do it you will make it and I'm sure you'll never look back.

Once you get full timing you'll realise all the places you see and the people you meet are worth far more than those possessions that you got rid of.

We sold all we could on Ebay including our cars, gave away items to friends, what was left we took to the car boot sale and what we didn't sell we dumped outside the charity shop.

Just a few boxes of sentimental stuff in the mother in laws loft now.

GO FOR IT!

 

[ArenqueRojo]

Yes, been there but hadn't got room for the tee shirt
Two things we did which helped:
1. Scan all photos and send the originals to the people who were in them. We can still look at them and we made some great aunts very happy...
2. We got rid of a lot of stuff on our local Freecycle website. People come and take the stuff away and they tell you why they will treasure your junk. Made us feel a whole lot better than getting a few pence for it
Patrick

 

[vwalan]

all i can say is when you have done it you think its ok .furthur down the line you will wish you had not done it. being a full timer is a mugs game .never worth the stress n loss of all the nice things you wish you still had. if you cope in a few years about 10 let me know i,m wrong . but if i dont tell you now i would feel bad saying it then if i,m right. cheers alan.

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[ArenqueRojo]

all i can say is when you have done it you think its ok .furthur down the line you will wish you had not done it. being a full timer is a mugs game .never worth the stress n loss of all the nice things you wish you still had. if you cope in a few years about 10 let me know i,m wrong . but if i dont tell you now i would feel bad saying it then if i,m right. cheers alan.

Lot to do with age, Alan.
Having horded all my life (who really needs three lathes?) now about to be 70, I realise that all most of the junk was for was "just in case" or "it might come in handy" and that I want less and less of it.
The more we travel around, the more we chuck out
Patrick

 

[vwalan]

yes it may suit some .i.v met more thats tried and changed their minds than ones who carry on doing it . thats from all ages right up into the 90,s. like i say i try to tell the truth .lots encourage others to do it but hardly ever travel anywhere or meet real fulltimers . for many it just ends as a wet dream. if it suits enjoy it but its only fair to warn others its not all driving off into the sunset in cloud coockoo land. cheers alan.

 

[6pm Cowboy]

We need another name to describe those who want to 'full time' but only do it for a limited time. I would love to do it for three or four years after I retire ( soon ) but I don't think temporarily full timing after retirement and doing it when your younger are quite the same thing.

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[Landy lover]

Been full timing now for 18 months and still thoroughly enjoying it - must admit there is a storage container with a lot of stuff in it but much of the big stuff has been given away - agree with Jim there is a lot of cheap and good stuff out there to get started again if you need to but what to take and I have a stock answer that I have made public many times. so here goes again

Well once we had decided what we thought we needed then found what we actually needed you then go down the route of what you really need and the variation weighs a ton -. literally. Once you have this cracked then there is too much space One great controlling factor to remember is that you are paying for the fuel to haul stuff around if you don't use it and cannot think when you last used it why carry it - if you cannot think of a good reason to carry it then there probably isn't !!!

It really is surprising how little you need to survive happily.

Good luck with your plans

 

[damondunc]

We have been paying good money to store items for 5 years now , having just moved on again we have had a clear out and i must say it feels good , i have donated some things to a lurcher dog rescue tabletop sale and to see them being sold and know the money will help the dogs is a great feeling .
If something is going to spend years in storage You don't need it and the reality is you will probably never miss it when it's gone .

Chris

Best of luck with fulltiming , we have been doing it for 5 years and have no regrets

 

[Sundowners]

This is the second time around for us. If it was so bad why we go through it again.
The only reason we stopped last time was to let the children finish their education. We travelled full time in a converted coach for 6 years until the children reached ages 10 & 11

We have now been living in our fifth wheel since last June and unfortunately have almost been static due to our business commitments, but not by choice. Hopefully the time is almost upon us when we will be free to live our dream once again.

As far as possessions are concerned, what didn't fit into our fifth wheel had to go, we opened up our house for the weekend and sold almost everything the rest was given to a local organisation to sell at boot sales to make a little something for their charity.

We kept only a couple of family heirlooms which are being looked after by our daughter.

Everything has a home in our fifth wheel and if anything else is purchased, something must go in order to give it a home.

We were asked by some of the people who were buying our bits and pieces were we not sad at the prospect of getting rid of everything and we said definitely not, as it meant we were going to live our dream.

Our possessions are only 'THINGS' when all said and done. They can bereplaced should you ever get into that situation again and you will gain the pleasure of replacing them as you did first time around. You only have to visit some third world countries and realise that you don't need all these possessions to make you happy.

We know of others that have spent a fortune storing 'stuff' for many years.

As some have said 'it's not the life for everyone', if you have any doubts in your mind about this type of lifestyle, then we would suggest you not do it. Having said that, wouldn't it be nice to regret the things you did than not having tried it at all, because you will certainly have some happy memories to take with you.

Nigel and Pamala

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