Getting a quart into a 'pint pot' meltdown!

[Jennifer McM]

I'm sure most people who've decided to leave the 'land' know where I'm coming from.

 

Having only been a live-aboard just 10 days; yesterday developed into a meltdown. The moment could be classed as one of those overdue 'spiritual' lessons.

 

Our journey began with us taking possession of our 'new home' a week last Sunday from Longport on the Trent, where we sailed her to the Ashby, arriving on the Thursday. We had a fantastic time despite the hard work of learning many lessons, the experience was almost utopia!

 

Then last Saturday everything changed, our 'downsized' possessions arrived, and it's caused us nothing but chaos and unhappiness since. We soon found a good local charity where we donated the results of yet another 'downsize', and I fear there's yet another 'downsize' in the offing.

 

It was during my 'meltdown' that I realised that these possessions were causing nothing but misery and unhappiness. FGS why do I need the trinkets picked up from past holidays, such as my name in hieroglyphics which used to hang on a wall? Do I really need 4 changes of bed linen; 6 saucepans when there's only 4 burners on the hob; the volumes of clothing that 'I hope' to fit into once again?

 

Do I really rate myself by the amount of possessions I have?

 

Rant over, and phew..... feel so much better!

 

[pquinn]

I think this is a constant. We no longer collect books etc, When they are read they go back to the charity shop, all the music is on ipods and computers, all the dvds that we want to keep are out of the boxes and the boxes have gone back to a shed. Actually, we have two bloody sheds filled with junk that is going to have to go in a skip or somewhere.

[matty40s]

I no longer visit ikea

[dazzlar3]

This is from personal opinion......

 

I have found during my life that I have aquired possessions just because I could ! not because I needed them...you know how it goes...something catches your eye and you immediately think 'I want it'.....after years of doing this I am now in a state of mind that is currently seeing me giving away things and selling things for the narrowboat pot.....the only things I shall keep are the obvious living items and things that truly remind me of family

 

You almost have to do a full circle to realise that all those things were really not that important after all......it sounds like your realising that good for you

Edited September 7, 2016 by dazzlar3

[manxmike]

I had a meltdown recently for much the same reasons.

My wife started emptying out the storage spaces to re-fill them with mains powered kitchen implements (no inverter!) enough clothes to fill a charity shop, every sort of pot, pan and container you could imagine, hairdryers, handbags and shoes ...

She decided that the tools, jump leads, tin of grease, spare bulbs, etc etc were rubbish and could be thrown away.

Eventually after she had filled every space available with her stuff, leaving my clothes in a small heap on the floor, I exploded.

She has now "thinned" down the number of outfits on board, most kitchen implements are gone (only the useful ones that don't need mains power are left) and a small number of my clothes are now hung up - the rest live in a box under the settee.

 

Phew, I feel better now as well!

[BruceinSanity]

You've probably done this already, but every six months, go through the clothes you've been wearing that season and give away any you've not worn. Then pack away the ones you won't need for the coming season and get out the ones you will. Make an exception for bad weather clothing if it's been a cool summer or warm winter.

 

Oh, and keep just one set of smart stuff for weddings/funerals.

 

HTH.

[dor]

I remember the days my partner and I would move flats in a single trip in a mini traveller. I would need that just for my tools alone now.

 

I guess you just need to be ruthless. Some friends of ours spent six years travelling around on their boat and they were spending over £1,000 a year for storage of stuff ( a large part of which was for several thousand vinyl LPs!).

 

We could pretty well live on our boat as it is and, apart from a few clothes, never need to go to the house again. We could, but would we want to? It would be difficult for me to give up a lot of things as they invoke strong memories of people and places. I guess you could just take photos of these things but it wouldn't be the same.

 

I suppose you could get rid of as much as you can, put the rest into storage and then see if there is anything you really need and after a year get rid of the rest.

[Phil Ambrose]

We reached "meltdown" again this week even though we have lived aboard for 15 years. Chris bought a new saucepan to join the 8 we already have.....there is nowhere for it to live, we both cook and favour different pans so our pan cupboard is now overloaded, also have 4 frying pans, a mahoosive wok and 3 kettles.

Clear out time is back.

Phil

[Alan de Enfield]

As far as 'pots & pans' we find these very useful - we also have a 2-pan (half pan) set so we can actually use 5 pans on two-rings if we need to.

Saves gas as we don't need run two or three rings to do different veg.

 

[Bod]

3 kettles....boiling....warming...filling.....problem nah.

 

Bod

[Naughty Cal]

We have all of this to look forward too in the not too distant future.

 

Oddly the one thing that is upsetting us both that we won't be able to take afloat with us is our rather nice dining table and chairs.

 

Not sure why. The rest of it we have no real sentimental attachment too. We will thin out our clothing, get rid of the CD and DVD collection and probably leave the furniture with the house if wanted/needed.

 

We tend to have a three monthly cull of unwanted items and home and on our leisure boat anyway. Can't be doing with clutter.

We reached "meltdown" again this week even though we have lived aboard for 15 years. Chris bought a new saucepan to join the 8 we already have.....there is nowhere for it to live, we both cook and favour different pans so our pan cupboard is now overloaded, also have 4 frying pans, a mahoosive wok and 3 kettles.
Clear out time is back.
Phil

We have two on NC!

[dmr]

All possessions are just potential trauma and heartache for your children to have to deal with you die, they might even feel obliged to take on some of your trinkets as their own millstones. Only own things that your children will really want to inherit, tools and model railways and stuff like that!

 

..............Dave

[Dave_P]

I have a big clear out about once a year. Car boots are good for this. Many of the things I sell are pointless trinkets which people have bought me which would be 'nice for the boat'!!!

[magictime]

As a wannabe liveaboard, the big declutter isn't something I'm really looking forward to. I've started buying all my books on Kindle and ripping all my CDs to MP3, and I don't think I'll struggle to keep clothes and most other general 'stuff' to a minimum... but I'm still accumulating Blu-rays and, worse, musical instruments! I don't want the lifestyle change involved in moving aboard to mean giving up my hobbies/interests, and the big two are music and movies/TV. I've got used to a large-screen TV too, which probably isn't great...

 

It's thinning out the instruments that's going to be the real challenge. OK, I don't need two electric guitars or two fretless banjos, so some decisions will be easy enough, but what about the various instruments I only own one of - am I ever going to be ready to say "oh well, I'll just never play the X again"? Especially as I like to kid myself that if I ever had the time, I'd be using all these things to record my own music.

[pquinn]

Get a veg steamer.

As a wannabe liveaboard, the big declutter isn't something I'm really looking forward to. I've started buying all my books on Kindle and ripping all my CDs to MP3, and I don't think I'll struggle to keep clothes and most other general 'stuff' to a minimum... but I'm still accumulating Blu-rays and, worse, musical instruments! I don't want the lifestyle change involved in moving aboard to mean giving up my hobbies/interests, and the big two are music and movies/TV. I've got used to a large-screen TV too, which probably isn't great...

 

It's thinning out the instruments that's going to be the real challenge. OK, I don't need two electric guitars or two fretless banjos, so some decisions will be easy enough, but what about the various instruments I only own one of - am I ever going to be ready to say "oh well, I'll just never play the X again"? Especially as I like to kid myself that if I ever had the time, I'd be using all these things to record my own music.

Well, be sure to bring the grand piano. I never go nowhere without mine.

[Alan de Enfield]

Get a veg steamer.

 

 

Not quite so effective when I'm having baked beans on toast, and SWMBO is doing rice and a curry.

[Trillian]

As a wannabe liveaboard, the big declutter isn't something I'm really looking forward to. I've started buying all my books on Kindle and ripping all my CDs to MP3, and I don't think I'll struggle to keep clothes and most other general 'stuff' to a minimum... but I'm still accumulating Blu-rays and, worse, musical instruments! I don't want the lifestyle change involved in moving aboard to mean giving up my hobbies/interests, and the big two are music and movies/TV. I've got used to a large-screen TV too, which probably isn't great...

 

It's thinning out the instruments that's going to be the real challenge. OK, I don't need two electric guitars or two fretless banjos, so some decisions will be easy enough, but what about the various instruments I only own one of - am I ever going to be ready to say "oh well, I'll just never play the X again"? Especially as I like to kid myself that if I ever had the time, I'd be using all these things to record my own music.

I know where you are coming from, we have a full size electric piano (fully weighted keys - a joy to play!), one guitar, one electric and one acoustic violin, three flutes (one made by my husband) and a timple on our 40 foot boat. Funny how we managed to make space for the musical instruments, who needs clothes etc! We don't have a TV but listen to music via the laptop through Harmon Kardon soundsticks (http://www.harmankardon.co.uk/computer-speakers/SOUNDSTICKS+III.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjw9b6-BRCq7YP34tvW_uUBEiQAkK3svVu5_SAYRwPsXpiRniA3CtWsZZ05ufaNyti6AnAc39UaAryM8P8HAQ) which covers the listening side of things.

[magictime]

I know where you are coming from, we have a full size electric piano (fully weighted keys - a joy to play!), one guitar, one electric and one acoustic violin, three flutes (one made by my husband) and a timple on our 40 foot boat.

 

OK, that is pretty impressive! Mercifully I don't play anything as large as a piano. It's more the sheer quantity - as of right now I own two electric guitars and one bass; an open-back banjo, a mountain banjo and a gourd banjo; a mountain dulcimer, an electric mountain dulcimer and an electric stick dulcimer; and a bowed psaltery. And it's only a matter of time before I buy myself a bansitar.

[Trillian]

 

OK, that is pretty impressive! Mercifully I don't play anything as large as a piano. It's more the sheer quantity - as of right now I own two electric guitars and one bass; an open-back banjo, a mountain banjo and a gourd banjo; a mountain dulcimer, an electric mountain dulcimer and an electric stick dulcimer; and a bowed psaltery. And it's only a matter of time before I buy myself a bansitar.

I will send a pic of the timple (made from a gourd!) later on, it is fixed to the wall. I doubt we will ever stop collecting instruments either, they are central to our life. Let us know when you are cruising and we will see if we can ever meet up - it could be fun lol

[magictime]

I will send a pic of the timple (made from a gourd!) later on, it is fixed to the wall. I doubt we will ever stop collecting instruments either, they are central to our life. Let us know when you are cruising and we will see if we can ever meet up - it could be fun lol

 

...or I might just embarrass myself completely! I'm no great musician and never perform or even play with other people; I just like messing around with these things at home. But yes, it could be fun! Alas, we sold our last boat a couple of years ago and are still a couple of years away from (hopefully) buying our liveaboard, but maybe one day...

 

Anyway, if we're swapping gourd-based instrument pics, the best ones of my banjo will be those on the maker's Facebook page...

 

https://www.facebook.com/CrawfordBanjos

[Phil Ambrose]

We have all of this to look forward too in the not too distant future.

 

Oddly the one thing that is upsetting us both that we won't be able to take afloat with us is our rather nice dining table and chairs.

 

Not sure why. The rest of it we have no real sentimental attachment too. We will thin out our clothing, get rid of the CD and DVD collection and probably leave the furniture with the house if wanted/needed.

 

We tend to have a three monthly cull of unwanted items and home and on our leisure boat anyway. Can't be doing with clutter.

 

We have two on NC!

Thanks for that, It's made me feel a whole lot better but there still remains the problem of the new pan. LOL

Phil

 

Get a veg steamer.

Oh forgot about that one, it lives in a different cupboard along with the poacher.

Phil

[Dave_P]

 

OK, that is pretty impressive! Mercifully I don't play anything as large as a piano. It's more the sheer quantity - as of right now I own two electric guitars and one bass; an open-back banjo, a mountain banjo and a gourd banjo; a mountain dulcimer, an electric mountain dulcimer and an electric stick dulcimer; and a bowed psaltery. And it's only a matter of time before I buy myself a bansitar.

I used to have an old electric guitar, a new electric guitar, an electro-acoustic, a nylon strung acoustic and a uke on my boat. I now have the nylon strung and the old electric. Compromises are sometimes needed. Your choices are 3: Sell some instruments, live in a cluttered up boat, don't buy a boat.

Edited September 7, 2016 by Dave_P

[Trillian]

I used to have an old electric guitar, a new electric guitar, an electro-acoustic, a nylon strung acoustic and a uke on my boat. I now have the nylon strung and the old electric. Compromises are sometimes needed. Your choices are 3: Sell some instruments, live in a cluttered up boat, don't buy a boat.

Cluttered up boat it is then

 

...or I might just embarrass myself completely! I'm no great musician and never perform or even play with other people; I just like messing around with these things at home. But yes, it could be fun! Alas, we sold our last boat a couple of years ago and are still a couple of years away from (hopefully) buying our liveaboard, but maybe one day...

 

Anyway, if we're swapping gourd-based instrument pics, the best ones of my banjo will be those on the maker's Facebook page...

 

https://www.facebook.com/CrawfordBanjos

Here is hubby with the timple, you can just see part of the holder he made to put it on the wall on the right hand side. Where there is a will there is a way. We may need to get a bigger boat one day though.

[pquinn]

Cluttered up boat it is then

Here is hubby with the timple, you can just see part of the holder he made to put it on the wall on the right hand side. Where there is a will there is a way. We may need to get a bigger boat one day though.

wow!His sweatshirt really blends with the poster on the back wall.

[Catnip King]

Don't get me started on it. Its why we ended up back on land from last boat. Try having lots of pets and carrying all your business stock on a 45ft cruiser stern... it wasn't good and the boat was much narrower internally than others for some reason. Now on bigger boat and its happy days although we haven't actually moved any of our possessions onto the boat we just bought what we needed while we moved her and now I feel like why bother going to the house to get what I can't even remember is there?