Dilemma #1

Ok, I have gone through this once. I was born and raised in Europe. I have moved across this planet with just two suitcases, this should not be as painful. But I really have to get rid of a lot of stuff in order to be able to fit us into the RV. I have couple things that will be hard, if not impossible to part with. Well, to be honest it will be more than just couple things, but I will try really hard to be good about this. At the same time I feel like I need to make sure once we will settle down somewhere, that we don't have to spend the money we might have saved trying to get back what we once let go.

There are couple areas that we both knew already were going to be an issue, some that will require storing. But then there are some things that keep popping up and creating ruckus in my head. One of these things was the collection of my cookbooks. Oh dear mother of all the chefs, I shall not part with my cookbooks! And unfortunately the reasons I will tell you, will not make any sense to why I should be holding onto them. But here we go anyhow. 1) I used to cook a lot, and I used to cook lots of experimental stuff, meals I had never tried before, and how on earth do you know how to cook those unless you use a cookbook? Just asking. (Oops, never thought my list to be so short...)

But to be honest, the life kind of changed and there was less time for cooking, and we started eating more often out, so my cookbooks have been more unused than ever. But I keep thinking if we were living in an RV, I would be cooking most of the meals. This all sounded like it made so much sense, until I started looking at them darn books. I did not even remember having some of them, but I sure was glad to see so many "new" books.

I have a feeling it will be a big struggle to pair down on all the possession. We do have some time, but I think we should start already, even if our plan would never get any air under the wings. Too much junk is just too much junk, and all it does is keep us prisoners for more junk. Pairing down for the win!

I remember almost 10 years ago when I had to pack up all I had, sell all my furniture and really think which ones of my collectibles were really something I need to keep. I hate to say that I rather gave away some of the things than sold them, selling was just too painful. I don't quite comprehend right now why I thought giving them away wasn't as permanent. My mothers house has still ton of my junk in her corners, and I really need to go to visit home and sell it all on a yard sale. Most of that stuff has been unused and totally forgotten, and if so, it is time to let it go.

This hopefully will give me some tools to deal with the future attempts to skim down to basics and to the things that are there really for a reason. I am sure some of the storage on the road will be used to store stuff that we really don't want to be holding onto, but because we are on the road, we need to have in case Mr. Murphy happens to be hitchhiking near by. I'd much rather have my beautiful dishes than a box of tools, but... I guess it is just for the greater good.

Zophie