When you decide to embark on a location independent, mobile lifestyle, there is some unwinding to do. The longer you’re in a traditional lifestyle, the longer it takes to unwind from it.
We talked about much of this in the garage sales posts where we had to get rid of much of the stuff we accumulated over 30+ years of marriage. Well for us we still have some things to unwind even after all that work last year. Now that we’re back “home” we will be working on our sailboat, getting it ready for launch and to put it up for sale. It’s currently in storage, on the hard, as they say in the boating world. We keep it indoors for the winter at a local boatyard in northern Michigan because the winters are pretty harsh on boats stored outdoors. Even after selling the house and most of the things in it, we still have this large asset to sell. We just didn’t have time to deal with it last fall when we were selling the house so into storage she went.
Boats take a lot of maintenance and large boats take lots and lots of maintenance. We have a lot of buffing and waxing to do on the hull and deck and being up in the air on its cradle makes this job harder since it’s all ladder work. We also need to re-varnish the teak this year so that’s one more task not normally on the spring maintenance list. Since the boat sits in the water all season the bottom of the boat needs special paint and that needs to be done this year as well.
Once the boat is all ready for launch some impressive equipment is used to move it from indoor storage to launching it in the water. Below is another boat the marina was launching the day I snapped these images. It’s a power boat of course but you can see the special trailer the boat is on while an ungainly machine called a Travel Lift is driven over the top of it. Large straps are then placed under the boat and it’s lifted off the trailer. The Travel Lift is then driven over to a special boat slip and the boat is lowered into the water. When time comes for us to launch the sailboat I’ll get pictures of ours going in.
Once the boat goes up for sale, we need to shift our attention to some more unwinding. Last fall when we sold the house, we simply ran out of time to get rid of all our stuff. Even after three very successful garage sales we still only got rid of about half. Half of 30 years worth of accumulation is still a lot of stuff. For us it’s enough to fill a 10’x30′ storage unit and spill over into a small 10’x10′ unit.
Our goal for the summer is to work this down to just the 10’x10′ unit. It will be a tall order since having another garage sale is not an option. We no longer have a garage! We have some ideas on how to do this but will need to work on the strategy for this a bit.
So unwinding from the traditional lifestyle can be a bit daunting if you’re doing it later in life. By then you typically have accumulated a lot of stuff and may have more than one house as was our case. I am sometimes envious of the millennials that have chosen to go mobile as they are starting from a much smaller base. Much easier to unwind. Nonetheless, we believe this new lifestyle is worth the extra transition time it is taking us. So a word to those like us that are considering making the switch when they retire. Start getting rid of stuff now. You don’t need most of it and you probably don’t use half of it. Keeping it in storage is expensive. Once you hit the road you won’t miss it. Good advice we’ve heard from others who have gone before us is to make three categories of items out of all your stuff. One, things you definitely want to take with you. Two, things that are a maybe. And three, things you definitely won’t take with you. Start getting rid of category three now.
