Tuesday, February 19, 2008

all this stuff

what to do with all this stuff? i've gotten rid of countless bags of clothes, books, shoes, and knicknacks to the thrift store. i've sold stuff on ebay, craigslist, to friends, and still i have a ton of stuff. it's an eyeopening experience to try to fit everything you need to live in a van. i'm still allowing myself some extra storage in E's house, but not more than 3 boxes. i have to be able to fit it in the van if i want to move.
books for instance. i love them, i need them, i want them, i don't have room for them. i can keep about 20 books in the van, depending on size, and a rotating collection at E's house, but that leaves about 50 books i have to kick to the curb or send to my mom's for deep storage. and i think she might be getting full up on my stuff, so i want to be mindful of that and not burden her. many of these books i haven't looked at since i moved here a year ago, why hang on? i want a cool library someday, but i have no idea when i'll be settling down. from the looks of things, no time soon. i think i've talked myself into getting rid of them. all but the very most precious and useful. there's always the library, i tell myself.
luckily, i only own 1 dvd (harold and maude) and all my cd's are in big cd books without the jewel cases, so they don't take up much room. i mailed most of my precious pictures to my mom, keeping only one album of assorted memories. another obstacle is my artwork--i have a huge portrait of myself that i don't want to carry around, but i don't want it to get damaged in shipping or storage, and a few other pieces i don't want to let go of, but can't carry with me. i'd like to send them to my mom, but i fear the cost and risk. maybe i'll store them at E's for now, and decide what to do with them later.
it's a beautiful day, i'm gonna go ride my motorcycle while i still can, and do some errands. this house is making me crazy!

2 comments:

Just living the best I can said...

Hello, you might consider the following to pare down your belongings. Scan all your pictures into your laptop & Rip all your music to MP3 onto your laptop. Use an MP3 player to play or get an FM transmitter to transmit the MP3 audio to your van radio. You can also rip DVD's to your laptop (get a usb mass storage unit if your hard disk isn't big enough) You can also get scores of books in PDF or TXT and store electronically. I have hundreds of books on my LapTop that way.

stranger in a strange van said...

hmm.. all good ideas, except that my computer is very low tech (as am I) and I'd be scared to put all that precious stuff into it. and I can't read books on a computer screen, makes me crazy. it's a great plan for saving space though, thanks for the input!