How we downsized

Downsizing was probably one of the more difficult things I've had to endure. It's very much a mental game and if you want to be successful then you'll need to know it!

We knew that living on a sailboat meant we had to downsize. We knew it would take a little time and we sort of figured it was going to be simple. We were so wrong!

Cut and dry we began timidly by holding a yard sell. Quickly we found out that it was a slow, labor intensive event to hold all at the mercy of nature. At first our prices were high and second the yard sell items were like every other yard sell we've held, sell stuff that did not have much emotional attachment. It was not a success, but not a compete failure either. We learned yards sells don't bring the dollars home like Craigslist and eBay can and we needed to exclude nature, so no more yard selling. We also learned that in order to let stuff go, we got to keep the prices low. Making deals was part of the fun so we learned to make deals with whom ever dared.

Next we devised a plan to help us stay on course and on time with our schedule. This plan was to designate an area in our spare bedroom where we placed all the items we wanted to bring with us to the sailboat. The first several months the designated pile was very large and overwhelming at times. It offered a fantastic visual feedback so over time you could soak in whats truly needed and begin to win the mental war, to begin shrinking the pile. Even tough we had no idea of what type of sailboat we were going to have, the designated area provided us the ability to sort, keep or swap, or let go of things, and time to build up the courage to let an item go after being in the family for years.

For some of the precious items like photographs, music, and movies we took advantage of the digital age. We purchased a good scanner and it came with equally as good software that allowed us to scan multiple photographs in one session. Even with the good stuff it still took us over a year to scan all the files, photographs, finger paintings, and documents. For the old movies we purchased a DVD and VCR player recorder and converted all the VHFS into DVD's. We also decided to make copy's of it all and did so with an external hard drive.

While all this scanning, Craigslist, and eBay activity is taking place we also did significant budget cuts to save money. We grew tired of watching commercials, informercials, and religious handymen wanting us to donate our cash for a seat in paradise. It also seemed about four times a week we received phone calls from politicians, hackers, salesmen, and other not for profit companies wanting our money. We came to realize that we are paying for services that bombards us with ads and offers while playing rerun's with little if anything new and fresh content. Such a waste of money! We also cut out many other unnecessary expenses and began living simpler.

All in all, with the selling and saving our downsizing plan was a huge eye opener. We learned we had collected piles and piles of stuff with little to no significant meaning. We had lost a lot of cash on things that had no real value like cable TV (rerun's), home phone, microwave, toasters, blenders, exercise equipment, etc. We learned that a day is still a day with or without these things, and, if given enough time a plan can work.

A few tips:
Allow time, it takes a lot of time.
Sell things on Craigslist.
No yard sells.
eBay things that ship cheaply.
Remember its time to sell, so don't expect full prices.
Place all the keeper stuff in a spare room. It provides a visual perspective.
Cut living expensive and saved as much as possible each pay period.