More on downsizing

I'd like to elaborate a little more on my post yesterday about whether or not to hold on to "stuff" when leaving a sticks & bricks for an RV, or downsizing for any reason.

In 2000 I moved to Ireland where I lived in a rented Irish farmhouse for 3 years.  I didn't know how long I'd be there, so I listed everything I had, including furniture and furnishings, and sent copies of the list to each of my 4 kids.  I told them they could have anything on that list, and they responded quickly.

My oldest son had just moved into an apartment in Tuckahoe, NY and asked for mostly furniture items - a bedroom set, gorgeous maple corner china cabinet, etc.  The ones in CA took a lot of the smaller things that I mailed in lots of big boxes through a shipping company.  I left a few things there in the basement storage area and rented out the condo.

I returned to the U.S. in 2003 and sold my Virginia condo, deciding a few months later to move to North Carolina, where I rented a furnished apartment until I could find and buy a suitable house.  I bought everything new for that house - all furniture, linens, decorations, small appliances, etc.  I loved that furniture, purchased from a local company that had been family owned for decades.  I loved that house and everything in it, and spent 5 happy years there.

Because it was on the side of a mountain in a heavily forested area, I reached the point that I couldn't keep up with the maintenance required no matter where you live, so I decided to sell the house, buy an RV, and live in it full time.  I sold all the furniture and most everything else in the house, leaving personal items in storage in Asheville.  Two and a half years later I didn't feel satisfied with the RV life and ended up in an apartment, and now in a small mobile home, needing furniture. 

That is why I wish I had stored more of my belongings.  Many people who downsize into an RV stay in it for longer than I did, but I gave it a good try and don't feel anything but satisfaction that I did the right thing, selling the house as well as the RV a few years later.  But when I think of the furnishings I had bought and then sold, of course I wish I had them now.

I had a nice visit with Arianna this morning.  We ate breakfast together and then she started pulling toys and more Barbie dolls than you might find at Toys R Us out of the toybox.  She played and I watched mostly.  Anyone who has spent time around little girls knows that the first thing they do when they get a doll is to take the clothes off.  She had me putting dresses back on those silly dolls!  And Ken, oh my.  He was also unclothed until I finally asked her to put his clothes back on him - she handed me the clothes and I had to dress him.  I commented to myself something about him being such a dork, and she looked at me wonderingly and asked me "What's a dork".  I toned it down a bit when I told her about dorks!  Surprisingly she picked up every toy and doll off the floor and put them away, and then I read books to her until my voice was nearly gone.

When Jeannie, Donald and Autumn got back from the field trip they told me that Autumn had lost another tooth that morning.  While we were having lunch, darned if she didn't lose another loose one.  All four of her top front teeth are gone although the two middle ones are starting to come in. 

It's always a great time being with the grandchildren, especially one on one.  I'm a lucky woman.