Easy rule of thumb, "If you haven't used, worn, etc and item in the last 6 months pitch it" you'd be surprised at how quick you can cut down the pile of stuff.

After the kids took what they wanted, garage sale after garage sale, giving stuff to friends, many trips to Goodwill and Fifthwheel loaded we thought one day would give us enough time to clear out the rest and be ready to go. Ended up taking three days to clear the house. Several move trips to Goodwill, several trips to the dumpster and we still ended up renting a small (5'X5') storage unit. We finally hit the road and after like the wagon trains going west along the way we have dumped things we found we really didn't need. In fact after 2 years we still are clearing out things we have found we never use.

To be fair my wife realized this past winter that she got rid of too many of her warmer clothes and ended up picking up a few things from Goodwill. It was an unusually cold winter.

Getting rid of those last few things is hard but if you can't take it with you someone else might as well use it.

Trace,

I know the giving up the clothes thing. Like you, I purged and purged (and still pulled down the closet clothes rod which Jesse reinforced 😞) and then purged some more. We're still purging clothes. Make donations along the way. It makes us happy to know that someone who might need a great skirt, sweater or pairs of heels can get them cheaply. Focus on that.

It's just stuff.

Sherry

the hardest part of purging is not finding what you really need.....but finding that lost item you really needed and now having to get rid of it !!!!!

(It's a guy thing!)

Or to paraphrase what the guy said in "Jaws", "I think we need a bigger trailer!"

Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. were good sources for anything that didn't go in the one big garage sale we had.  (That was a neighborhood garage sale where several were opened up.  Lived in a neighborhood out in the country, so the neighborhood garage sale drew a lot more people than what a single family garage sale would have done.)

If it didn't go to family or sold on Craigslist, it went into the garage sale.  In the last months prior to selling the house, we had our bed, two recliners, two tables and table lamps, and my computer desk and one small table at which we ate.  Those last items were given to a native American co-worker who was collecting things for folks still living on reservations out in New Mexico and Arizona.

Jo agonized that all the stuff she was putting in the coach was going to overload us with regards to our GVWR on the trailer.  She was actually 700 lbs under weight.  However, after three years now of "static" full-timing, it is time to purge again.  Our temporary fencing and storage building are going to our landlady, who is giving us our lot free for our last three months.

As far as the process, you will be surprised how little you need things after you've gotten rid of them.  My philosophy is that there are only 7 days in a week.....why would I need so many clothes?

Terry

Im not certain you rally have to get rid of anything.....................maybe the coach you bought is to small....they make them bigger every year......65 footer anyone!!! complete with multi-quad slides and a tag axle HDT

We're still purging!! 9 months on the road and we have yet another bag ready to go to Goodwill. Our first 2 months on the road we were literally purging stuff at almost every stop along the way trying to get to the point where we didn't need a second car. Then a couple months later we were staying at a county park that had a "campers exchange" and we left several other items that we found we just weren't using.

We arranged, re-arranged, again and again and now realize we need to totally rearrange the basement before we have the solar install done in May so we can make room for 2 more batteries, plus get rid of a few more things so we're not overweight after the solar panels and new batteries are added.

This summer when we're back in the area where our storage room is, we're working on redesigning Dale's art booth display again to shrink the space needed in the truck so we'll be leaving stuff behind in storage.

It's an ongoing process.

I have just started to fit things in and organize and am feeling challenged as well. How am I going to get along without my Kitchenaid mixer and my bread machine. I can give up the dresses and suits I no longer wear. But what about my clothes in two other sizes that I hang on to because -- you know -- I am going to get back down to that size again?

We're still a few years away and we've already started the whole downsizing thinking process and it's gonna be hard to let go of some things to be sure. 

On the other hand, we'll just keep it all, stow it in the rig and sleep in the driver's seat, eat in the drivers seat, fool around in the drivers seat, hook up a tube for body fluid disposal from the drivers seat to the toilet etc. until we can't stand the arm rests getting in the way of everything we do. At that point something's gotta give or go as they say.

My personal purging obstacle is going to be my huge pile of model trains. Not the actually selling of them, but the @#$!% attachment I have to them. Damned consumer society koolaid. 

 

 

We purged and re-purged several times, and fortunately, had space left in our rig. Over the last year we got rid of some things and added a few more, always having more nooks we haven't filled.
We both live in mostly in shorts, Ts, and flip flops and only carry a few casual dress clothes, nothing dress or formal.
We are pretty minimalistic, using many items that do double duty, especially in the kitchen. I have one adjustable alum pole that screws on a broom, a mop, window squeegee, and a couple other useful things, stores just under 4'. Things as simple as this can save lots of space. All the attachments fit in a square bucket that stores easily and has many uses also.

Even little tricks like turning folded skivvies with the folds opposing will save space in the drawer. Seasonal things like extra blankets, and jackets get squeezed down in plastic bags (trash bags), tied off, and boxed under the sofa storage. The insulated canvas windshield covers store flat under the mattress, along with other reflective window covers.

Purging doesn't hurt as much as one might think. Lighten the load, live with less junk, and soon you you'll wonder why you had all that extra stuff.

I'm quite a few years from retiring and full-time rving, but wow, the stuff thing is huge.
I'm in the process of getting rid of things I don't need first. Things that just sit and haven't been used or even looked at in years.
I have this bone china cup from Victoria BC, had it for almost 20 years. I think, "Oh, my Christmas cat cup from Victoria."

But this is a whole new lifestyle we're taking on. In a lot of ways it is like the pioneers of the westward expansion. They had to agonize over what could fit in the wagon, and left stuff along the trail. You had to think about the "practical" and not keep useless stuff that didn't have a real use.

Yeah, a lot of times it's not the thing, its our attachment to things. That's the hard thing. I imagine myself missing everything. I just have to believe all the stories the pros here say about the freedom of having little.

Ah, the enormous, and emotional roller coaster many refer to as purging....LOL. My family and I started FTing in November of 2012 and it was a crazy trip to get ready for the change. My family of 4(my husband, myself, and two young boys) and our 2 fur kids had accumulated a lot of...well, for lack of a better work, junk! Our 4 bd/2.5 bath home was full to the brim. We had 2 living rooms (one bonus room over the garage that served as family room for kiddos and the main living on the main floor)....and oh yeah, the garage.....Then there were the 3 patios of furniture and grills and fire pits and.......OH MY THE STUFF!! ok ok...back to the subject....it took about a month to "purge" most of the stuff in that home and move into our new home (our 5th wheel). I think the process was easy for me because I just convinced myself, it was this or deal with only seeing my husband for about a day or 2 a month (we full time to be with my husband due to his job that takes him all over). When put like that, all the stuff in the world couldn't even measure to as important as the time I would be getting with my husband. The kids didn't want to live apart from their step-dad and quite frankly, i could tell the dogs weren't too fond of it either. So, I went around my house and basically inventoried it all and started making piles of stuff that we absolutely used every day and couldn't live without. All the other stuff, I gritted my teeth and posted it on all the "for sale" sites in the area that I knew of. It was super hard watching stuff that we had just purchased 6 months prior (living room furniture, tv's, etc) go, because at one time, not that long ago, we had really wanted that stuff and really loved it. But, like someone stated earlier, in the end it is all just stuff. Stuff that at some point in my life I lived just fine without, so I'm sure I could do it again .
Now, fast forward a year and a half later, as I begin the "purge" process again to move into our new 5er, I find that it is much easier to let things go. I'm almost positive at this point that I'm moving into my new bigger home and i won't come close to filling up all the spaces and it feels good.....gives me hope of shopping in my future ...haha...don't tell DH. Now, I must admit, I do have a small climate controlled storage unit back in our hometown in Tennessee that I put all of my Xmas decorations (handed down from my mom and stuff that I have been collecting for longer than most people can believe...i love decorating for xmas), our family keepsakes and all of my painting supplies (i'm a novice acrylic painter and there was just no room in this unit for it and that was one of those "purge" items that made the cut. It's expensive to buy all of that stuff again and I hoped to have the chance to do it again soon, and it looks as though I may in my new home). We also just recently bought a 6'X12' enclosed cargo trailer to put stuff in while we are traveling. So I guess my point is that purging is an ongoing process and no matter how long you have been doing this, I think it will always be an ongoing process. And if all else fails, watch a few episodes of the hoarders show and you should have no problem "purging" away!
Good luck!

-- Edited by DenJen12 on Tuesday 15th of April 2014 03:35:51 PM

-- Edited by DenJen12 on Tuesday 15th of April 2014 03:42:14 PM

biggaRView wrote:

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 But I need my stuff, I'll be a bad consumer! Must... stimulate.... the... economy.... Need more stuff!

Arrrgh! My bbbbbrrrainnnnn hurts! So confused!

 

Brian 

 

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 oh, don't worry about stimulating the economy.  We do plenty of that as fulltimers.  we just buy smaller, but usually more expensive "stuff" like tablets, smart phones, digital cameras, solar panels, water filtration systems, airbags for the truck, air HORNS for the truck,  etc etc  You get the idea.  Heck, we even bought a "vacation home" -a Lance truck camper, so now we have to outfit THAT too!

 

Sue