Downsizing

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Mon 31 Mar 2014 17:09
Today we will hoist Salsa out f the water. It is almost exactly a year ago she came out of the water in Panama.
Feels incredible that only a year has passed since then!
The sails are ready and fixed by Ellinor. They were in surprisingly good shape. Just a few extra stitches here and there.
Today is the 1st of April and the kids have 17 days left in school.
It is 30 days to go when we leave for Sweden!
Salsa is going to remain on the hard while we are gone.

Another chapter from the sailing nomads:

Downsizing
There was a day when we had sold everything and there were no more bills coming in that had to do with the house or life ashore. Ellinor said “even if we don’t get away this experience has been rewarding enough”.
Have you seen how much people smile when they leave a recycle station? Much more than when they leave a shopping centre. It is such a relief to just think, “what do we need this for?” and not buying anything. Just stop adding; just wear out what we had.
Look at things and ask yourself “what value has this to me?” Read Feng Shui and about how much energy stuff takes from you. Well that was the motivation part…
Nobody really needs a lesson or advice on how to get rid of things, but if you want to sell stuff be prepared to have some work to do.
If you give stuff away it might be better to have some charity organisation picking it up. When we advertised on the web that we had things for free we drowned in answers and rudeness. Somehow people smile more when they make a good deal than when they get something for free.
Everything you love and have a hard time to get rid off, take a picture, now you have it!
When I look at the pictures I took of things to be advertised I just wonder why I was attached to these THINGS!
Stop automatic payments of bills in good time, that makes it possible to check your deadlines when you have to stop a contract. Some have 6 months in advance! Make a calendar with alarms, when you have to call and thank them for many years of service…
As you downsize there will be a mess, and finally you have all you have to save in two boxes per person…
The family chair, well it belongs to the family, let somebody else have it!
You end up eating on the floor and the kids LOVE it!
If you sell your house you might have to move to the boat. Perfect start. Uncomfortable, but perfect. Actually moving into the boat is terrible. T E R R I B L E. Be prepared. Unless you have a 150 foot yacht waiting for you, life is going to be miserable until everything is settled. You will hate to dig into the deepest holes to get THAT screw. But it will settle, believe me.
Before you move into the boat make sure you have organised equipment etc as I will suggest later.
Make also sure you have organised toys, books for the coming years. The kids will outgrow things before you know it. But now I’m getting out of the subject. This is about downsizing…
Things you definitely do not want to bring on board.
Leather, believe me, leather rotten and attracts mould. End of story.
Zippers. Everything with zippers tend to stop working on board. Zippers can’t take the salt-water atmosphere.
There are special made zippers for that, of course, but usually not on normal clothes and bags!
Jewellery, especially not the family gold bracelet…
In our case we have left wedding rings clocks etc. at home in a safety box at the bank, together with a hard drive that has all the pictures.
Everything you bring on board that can rust will rust, and if it can be lost it will be lost…
Count on it. If it does not happen it is a bonus.
There is a saying that it takes 5 seconds to bring steel wool on board and it takes 10 years to get rid off it.
Rubber bands, if you let them lay around somewhere (in the bottom of a drawer) you will find it glued to the surface.
If you use ring binders for your papers, look for the ones with plastic mechanism, hard to find but there are some out there…