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Where did you put all your stuff...?!!


Salopgal

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With 2 of us and the cat moving onto a 40 foot narrow boat, pretty much every thing had to go. Some went to our Daughter who went off to university. Some to friends and other members of the family. Lots to charity shops, freecycle etc. The hardest thing was parting with the stuff from when the kids were younger and such. After giving this some thought we figured it was the memories that these items evoked rather than the items themselves that we were holding onto, so we passed on the items and held on to the memories which were much easier to find room for :)

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I am surprised about the amount of stuff that is being binned. Charity shops can sell stuff & Freecycle gets rid of anything. Some on here must have some awful rubbish if its only fit for the tip

It is a sad state but chucking it is the easiest option sometimes!

 

Take for example, when we moved on board. I had a load of books I wanted to give to charity. They'd only been read once and as far as I'm concerned, once a book has been read I'm not going to read it again....so all pretty much brand new.

 

However, in the city centre, you can't just "give" stuff to charity. I had to set up an account, bring proof of ID , fill in a returns number Incase anything came back as "faulty"....I couldn't believe it!!! It was similar in 2 or 3 charity shops so in the end, I left the books in the communal hall of my block of apartments with a sign for people to help themselves...

 

I had a knock on the door the next day from the maintenance guy.... "Shift it or we will have to bill you for getting the books removed!"

 

So.... Yep, all brand new books I simply bagged and chucked em in the communal bins. Sorted, no hassle, stress free - but sad and a total waste!

Edited by lewisericeric
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Rely on friends and family to store stuff you think you can't get rid off. The people who bought our house kindly offered to keep on long time loan furniture made by Skipper that we couldn't get rid, just incase we ever go back to the land. Rest, charity shops are the fastest way. After 7 years, can't remember what we've got in store! And yes, it's a different mindset living on a boat which you will very quickly assimilate!

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However, in the city centre, you can't just "give" stuff to charity. I had to set up an account, bring proof of ID , fill in a returns number Incase anything came back as "faulty"....I couldn't believe it!!! It was similar in 2 or 3 charity shops so in the end, I left the books in the communal hall of my block of apartments with a sign for people to help themselves...

:o

 

So.... Yep, all brand new books I simply bagged and chucked em in the communal bins. Sorted, no hassle, stress free - but sad and a total waste!

:help:

 

I am feeling something akin to physical pain. Can't blame you for doing what you did, but can't understand the attitude of the people who left you with no option.

 

If anyone wants me, I'll be at the back of the boat, sitting in the dark, rocking backwards and forward and making low moaning sounds.

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It is a sad state but chucking it is the easiest option sometimes!

 

Take for example, when we moved on board. I had a load of books I wanted to give to charity. They'd only been read once and as far as I'm concerned, once a book has been read I'm not going to read it again....so all pretty much brand new.

 

However, in the city centre, you can't just "give" stuff to charity. I had to set up an account, bring proof of ID , fill in a returns number Incase anything came back as "faulty"....I couldn't believe it!!! It was similar in 2 or 3 charity shops so in the end, I left the books in the communal hall of my block of apartments with a sign for people to help themselves...

 

I had a knock on the door the next day from the maintenance guy.... "Shift it or we will have to bill you for getting the books removed!"

 

So.... Yep, all brand new books I simply bagged and chucked em in the communal bins. Sorted, no hassle, stress free - but sad and a total waste!

 

That's odd. We give books to charity shops all the time - the last batch was two big bags with about 40 books last week. Walked into PDSA, handed books over, filled out Gift Aid declaration then walked out.

 

Most of our belongings went to charity shops when we moved aboard - we've never had to show ID and never had any problems.

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To save cluttering up the boat, Cath and I buy dvds from charity shops, and when we've seen them we give them back to the next charity shop we go in to buy more.

 

On those days when you can't get TV reception I think that £1.99 is a fair price to get comfy and watch a film, and then turn it back into a donation later on.

 

We do this with books as well so we have a small bookshelf about 2' long that never fills up despite reading more and watching more films then I ever did in our house.

 

It's the mindset you get from living on a boat you see.

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Yep binned it.

 

If its in a box and or even if its been in the Wardrobe/cupboard/whatever for 12 months and you've never used it, you'll never use it in the next 12 months, so BIN IT!!

 

People have so much cr@p that you really don't need it's unreal!

 

Thats the mandate we used and then looked at it again and if not used for 6 months binned it......................tools were went through scrupulously and only those considered important saved and 2 new tool boxes bought to keep them in..............same with clothes etc etc

 

 

 

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We do have the luck of having parents with a bit of land, one which we've got a lorry body with stuff of ours in. We do intend to go through it and get rid of a lot of it, but we're keeping the big furniture from the house because we don't want to start from scratch again when we move back on land. We invested quite a lot of money in some lovely pieces of furniture, plus we've got the solid oak table that Dave's mum and dad gave us for a wedding present.

 

Assuming we will go back on land at some point!

 

Like I say, we're lucky that we get free storage.

 

ok...I have a confession to make....

 

we have 7 acoustic guitars, 1 banjo, 1 bass guitar and an electronic keyboard on the boat, and this year I'm hoping to get a bongo drum, a violin, and an electric cello.

Ah but you've got a widebeam now - you're allowed :D

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We are in the same position as the OP (Salopgal) and Homer123 in that we are clearing out ready to live aboard in April. After having lived in this house for 33 years and me being a hoarder it's proved to be a massive task. Luckily because we've been planning this for a number of years we have'nt been buying new furniture for a while so all of it will go either to charity or the tip.

 

Other items have been going to either the tip, charity shops, friend and family, or ebay.

 

Books have been replaced by Kindles. My 950 CD collection is now on an ipod. Holiday/family videos and photos I'm transferring onto DVD's and/or memory sticks.

 

It helps that we're renting our house out so we will be able to store the few things we have left in a corner of the loft, and if there is anything 'private' we can store them in my son's loft.

 

Somebody once advised on this forum what I thought was very good advice that you should initially take on board what you would need for a 2 week holiday and then bring aboard other items as and when you find room for them, and this is what we plan to do.

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ok...I have a confession to make....

 

we have 7 acoustic guitars, 1 banjo, 1 bass guitar and an electronic keyboard on the boat, and this year I'm hoping to get a bongo drum, a violin, and an electric cello.

 

I must admit, this is where I'll struggle when it comes to moving to a boat. I can't resist guitars and currently have <counts on fingers> six electrics, two amplifiers, an acoustic and an electric mandolin. I know some will have to go, but I can't think which ...

As for other stuff, I'm in the process of Kindlerising all my books. My music is mostly digital these days, stored on an Ipod and a Brennan, and my vinyl will be Ebayed as soon as I get around to it. Like others on here, I'll be going through my automotive tools and ebaying about half of them. Other stuff will be charity shopped: we took bags and bags of stuff and gave it away last year and it's surprising how cathartic giving stuff away is! Furniture will be sold or charity shopped. We'll keep a bicycle each, from our collection of, er, six. One of the reasons I want to move onto a boat is to simplify things a bit ... as Jerome K Jerome said, the trick is not to think what you could do with, but to think what you can't do without.

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A quick word of advice - don't be too hasty about getting rid of tools.

 

You need tools on a boat. Lots of them.

 

I was thinking more about stuff like my bench grinder and my compressor. Hand tools are practically sacred and I can see I might need them!

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Daft thing is that some of the 'essential kit' I'm worrying about most is the computer hightower/monitor/keyboard/printer combo and where to put them. I don't have any money to buy a laptop so must stick with current setup(all 4 items).

 

I've been trying to dream up all sorts of clever mobile storage ideas like swivelling desk in cabin, but my creative ideas are either sadly lacking or I'm missing a trick!

 

I wonder whether anyone else had to stick with traditional computer hardware and found solutions to locating them on their boat (ours is just 51 foot long). I need a computer for many reasons, so it's a high priority.

 

Anyone else found a natty solution to this dilemma (other than binning it!)?!

:cheers:

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The pc hightower doesn't need to be sited right next to the monitor (flatscreen?), so use of a vga extension lead offers more opportunities to hide the pc away. Similarly, a wireless keyboard and mouse combo would be advantageous and if the printer is wifi compatible so much the better.

 

Anyway, pc + monitor = tv/dvd.

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The pc hightower doesn't need to be sited right next to the monitor (flatscreen?), so use of a vga extension lead offers more opportunities to hide the pc away. Similarly, a wireless keyboard and mouse combo would be advantageous and if the printer is wifi compatible so much the better.

 

Anyway, pc + monitor = tv/dvd.

 

Yes, it's a flatscreen (pretty old tho') and the printer's a bit hefty. Mouse is wireless, printer ancient so not wifi (HP PSC 1510). Sorry I don't know how to make this image smaller, but it gives you an idea...

 

equipment003_zps356b43ff.jpg

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It's an interesting subject, I'm currently thinking of building my pc into the dinnette in such a way, that I only have to move the monitor when I want to use the table (by plumbing in an extension box that the leads just plug into), hiding away the tower unit either under the seats, or in a kitch cupboard as that's next to the dinnete also.

I don't find laptops are particularly great at high power hardware (for my work), and have a limited life span, so I'm keeping the computer. Just working out how to fit it all in!

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Hah! I've got exactly the same monitor. Delete the desk stand and wall mount it. Under the label on the rear you'll find the screw holes for a vesa mount. No need for a desk then.

 

Ditch the printer when the ink carts run out and get a new one - a very quick google turns up a wifi Canon for 33 quid. Freecycle, charity shop or ebay the old one.

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I'm still climbing up a steep learning curve with the dreaded leckery but we were told that a desktop would be too power hungry, so we gave ours away. Fortunately we already had a lappy so it wasn't such a big deal. I know powering even the lappy was quite a challenge when we first moved aboard, especially when we were using the inverter rather than a gizmo from Maplins. I'm thinking a desktop would need to be run through the inverter all the time which would be a big ouch unless you've got an umbilical cord, in which case it's no big deal.

 

Our printer sits in a cupboard just above the lappy. One of the few times we switch the inverter on is when we want to print or copy something,

 

The other times are when we want to watch the TV. Which is daft because we have a 12v TV. We still have to figure that one out.

 

Like I said, still climbing the steep learning curve - at least it's levelled off a little now - it was almost vertical when we first moved aboard!

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