De-clutter De-clutter De-clutter

We've been motivated once again to de-clutter our shed Rick's shed. When we retired 13 months, 8 days, and 6 hours ago we dropped off "stuff" at Goodwill and gave what we could to family. For a few days this past week, we worked with Rick's family to de-clutter his parent's garage. We had 3 fun days working with Rick's sister and her husband, and his parents, to organize and weed through their closets and cupboards. And boy, does their garage look good! Very motivating!

Well, since we've lived in the motorhome for a year and have now been home for a few weeks, we've got a whole new idea of what we need to keep for the motorhome and what we can leave at home. Rick took almost all of the stuff out of the motorhome storage bays and is organizing what we need for the next trip. He's building shelves, installing 'J' hooks, building compartments, and moving stuff around.

I know it's common to over pack for a trip and RVers are no different. Especially when you're going to live in the RV for a while. We both brought things along last year that were never ever used. Rick brought all the extra sewer parts, connections, and hoses that he owned, thinking that if he ever needed it, he'd really need it. That makes more sense than me bringing along the wire shopping basket on wheels. You know, the wheeled-basket with a handle that you take to swap meets to haul all your purchases. Or in my case, I thought I'd need it to haul dirty clothes to the laundry center at the campgrounds. We were always camped close to the laundry so I never got it out from under the bed. Yeah, it'll stay home next time. (What am I thinking? It needs to find a better home through Goodwill.)

Another thing that we kept under the bed with the wire wheelie-basket was a single oak TV tray. I thought it would make extra counter space for when I use the printer, but we've got the nice wooden table from Quartzsite now. So the TV tray stays home. And I definitely need to use the printer more often. Rick refills the ink cartridges and they dry up before I can use them. So I need to print more photos. With all that photo paper that I packed in the overhead cabinets.

We brought too many clothes, extra books that didn't get read, wood carvings that didn't get carved, and afghans that didn't get crocheted. Rick did tie lots and lots of flies to fish with and I hope to tie some myself. We've learned how to pack well and we have a motorhome that can carry much more weight (thank goodness). We'll probably take too much stuff again. I guess if we fished less we'd have more time for other hobbies and time to use all the stuff we bring along. But you know we aren't going to fish less. That's not gonna happen.