Breaking the bonds with shore

I have spent the last week going through all my files and papers to reduce my files to the absolute minimum. I've been down sizing for years. I once reached the huge file size of 9 file drawers. I remember thinking to myself--this is taking up too much space. So I took everything out of my ugliest two drawer file cabinet, toss it out, and then starting getting rid of stuff until I could fit everything in 7 file cabinets. Still too much I told myself. I picked out another two drawer file cabinet and repeated the process. This is not that hard I realized. I should get rid of more of this stuff--even five file drawers is too many. So I set a goal of three file drawer. My five drawers consisted of two rather nice paneled oak, legal size file cabinets. One of these suffered from the backs breaking off. I decided to use those two drawers to store other things--no paper allowed. So I did it. I even had some space left over in my third file draw which was attached to an oak rolltop desk.

I thought long and hard about getting rid of that desk. It is heavy and must be broken down into four pieces to move, the largest of which is a pain in the ass to move. People how have helped me move it, have sworn never to do it again. Well for now I'm keeping it.

What did happen over time is I accumulated paper in boxes. That is what I'm doing this week--cleaning this stuff up. I have been shredding paper, and thinking hard about what I need to keep and what I can toss out as it comes in the door. So now there are many, bags of shredded paper in my car ready for taking to the dump, along with other items I'm getting rid of. My paperwork in in hand and the end is in sight--a good feeling. Honestly, I don't want all the headaches of paperwork and bills. I'd rather be self sufficient, energy independent, able to opt out of the many daily bills that come in. I don't want cable TV, wired telephone, wired internet--I can do just fine with a cell phone, wireless internet, and WiFi. I have enough movies and books stored away to keep me occupied for a long time. Satellite TV, might be nice, but truthfully, even with a DVR, there are too many commercials for it to be interesting to me. I don't want to be advancing through 5 minutes of commercials to continue the program.

In any case, I estimate a few more days, I'll be done with the difficult part of my paperwork. After this I plan to put a big blanket down on the dining room table--to protect the table top, and place everything I want to sell on there, tag it with starting auction price, and take pictures of each item, followed by starting an eBay listing.

I am tempted to just give some of this stuff away, but instead I'll be patient and sell whatever I can. If it takes too long, I will just give this surplus away.

I have lots of photo's...these too are a burden. Pictures, boxes of photo's, framed photos, are all a nuisances unless you have roots. Even then I want to start scanning these and putting them on DVD disks and into computer databases, so I can look at them whenever I want--with no weight penalty.

So as I sit here, I think about what I want to keep. Books--I have too many of these. I have been re-reading some, and then tossing them out. I have been just tossing other out. Some I donate to the USO, or give to friends. I have a huge selection of electronic books--much better. I have an iPad an iPhone, and an iPod Touch. Any of these can be used to read books. So I will sell any books of value, and get rid of the rest, perhaps keeping a few that I need for Navigation or reference. Some of my sailing reference books are destined for my floating library--mostly because I want my crew to read certain of these books and be competent as well.

I have four laptops. I need to give some of these away, at least one, perhaps it will take me a while to get rid of the three I rarely use. I use one for programming radios. I would need to add a Windows XP partition to my MacBook Pro to enable this on my primary laptop. The bottom line is I can reduce the number of computers I own, but at a cost that I don't want to incur at the moment.

My desktop computer. It is unbeatable for video editing. I don't think I can part with it. I might if I can upgrade my laptop to a faster machine. This will be the last thing I will consider. Techology might solve this for me in a few more years...

Boat gear: I have tons of this stuff. The solution is to sell it on eBay also. Another thing I can do is install the gear I have not yet installed. That solves two problems. It gets it out of the way, and puts it into service--perfect. I have actually been doing this for some time. I've also been better about throwing out, things that "I might need later" but probably won't.

The last category is clothing. I have more than I need. So I plan to box some up and bring it down to the boat to be used as work clothes, and then placed into the rag pile. I'll need lots of rags once I start fiberglass work again. I presently have 2.5 closets. the 1/2 closet is used to store books and radio equipment. So I have two closets, a dresser, and 5 under-bed drawers to store cloths. They are all full and I have clothes piled on top of my dresser. I have to toss out or box up some clothes too. If I can't make space in my apartment, then I will never fit this stuff on my boat! This may be more difficult than shredding paper. I find it difficult to throw out nice clothes.

So finally, what is left over. Satchels, tools--many tools, cleaning products, materials--all this can go into my workshop, and vehicles. I also have to realize that I might have to move these things at some point in the future. So I need to consider how I will move the things I will keep. My idea is to purchase an enclosed automobile trailer. If I can haul all of my personal goods in one trip, and my car or motorcycle in another, then I can move everything I own, including boat trailers and other boats in no more than four trips. That works for me. If I never move, then I'll still be that much better off, being free of all the encumbrances that tie us down.

Now it is time for my nightly bike ride to run the dog. Life is good, I'm making forward progress.