What was your hardest 'thing' to give up?

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by miss-m

I was wondering what everyone else's nemesis possession was to get rid of?

The hardest thing to give up was the attitude. I mean the attitude of having to have 'stuff'. Try going naked and the first day you won't know where to put your keys. After a while you just won't carry the keys

Give away / sell / put in the trash everything of your older life and then remove everything off your boat and get on your boat (naked!) and sail away for a weekend. Then you can come back and put the things on your boat you really do need.

Our boat is a 2 cabin jobbie. Most boats we have been on have one cabin full of junk. But we have 2 cabins so have a variety of places to sleep It makes the boat look and feel bigger! And it keeps our lives simpler.



Mark

[Roy M]

A real Japanese hot tub, called an ofuro. Something I can sit in up to my chin in HOT! water, turning into Jello. My last one I built of redwood, with a copper sheet bottom and a teak grid to sit on. That's what I miss the most.

[Jesse]

What I missed the most was my shop and tools. I could no longer make what I needed or fix what I broke. But I really didn't get rid of anything, I simply passed it on to my son a little earlier, with the understanding that he, my grandson and I would share the 'stuff' when and if I returned. Jesse

[SVDistantStar]

Pretty much everything in the bow is tools and tankage. Youve got to take into account that there is no motor in the boat, also no batteries, fuel tank or pretty much anything in the cockpit lockers.

No ground tackle up there, all that is in the water holding the boat in place.

[miss-m]

You'll be pleased to know we've done it! The lock-up is no more. We now officially have all our stuff on the boat, and in the boot of the car. And on the backseats. And there's my artwork at my mothers. And Jay's motorbike is at his mothers (yep- he chickened out! )
But generally, it's all right here with us! And we're saving ourselves a fortune not having to pay for the storage, and made a fortune through all the car boot sales I did!
There are some brilliant stories on here- keep 'em coming!

[wingNwing]

Been living aboard 6 years now. When we first moved, the most disorienting thing was saying goodbye to the souvenirs and knickknacks we'd collected over the years. A lot like losing your past. There were rationalizations: these wedding goblets that we drank our toast out of? Well, if we have each other, we don't need them for reminders, and if we lose each other, possessing the goblets will surely be bitter. Sold! At a garage sale for $10, and we threw the story in for free.

Basically what remains in storage is only the things money can't replace. That means the sofa was sold cheap, the quilt my late grandmother made for our first anniversary and her parents' wedding album we kept. We traded our cds for an ipod and cookbooks for a Word file. No regrets!

[WallyBryant]

I've spent the last five months sifting through a lifetime of stuff, and can understand what you're going through. The first iteration was getting rid of everything that wasn't boat related, and that took a couple of months. I'm a pack rat. Shucks, I found the keys to my first car -- and the car was crushed in 1978!

Today, we're fortunate that technology is so cheap. You can get a 250 Gig Laptop drive and external USB enclosure for $150. So I scanned all my photo albums and ripped all my CD's to mp3, and they fit onto a single drive, the size of a pocket calculator. For backup, I duplicated the entire drive and sealed it in a FoodSaver vacuum bag.

Books were sold, although I kept about 200 paperbacks and built bookshelves on board. Trading paperbacks when cruising is a big thing. (I'm wondering if a Kindle is worth it...)

To answer your actual question -- well, I still have my 46 year old teddy bear. (grin) But, the closer I get to putting my home on the market (great timing, huh) the less sentimental I become. Perhaps I'll make a little wood boat, with a little sail, and send the bear sailing west... of course given the prevailing breezes and currents he'd probably just wash up in Big Sur. Oh well.

Wal

[Ex-Calif]

It is a good thing that all our "memory" stuff can be digitized and shrunk to the size of a cigarette pack. I have also scanned all my photos, ripped all my music, archived all my email, scanned all my "papers" and don't really have a hard time dumping the physical stuff.

For me it is weird but it's t-shirts. T-shirts are memories. Every concert, motorsports race, vacation, presidential campaign, bar opening, bar closing, etc, etc, is captured in some sort of t-shirt.

Many have holes, are too small, faded and worthless, to anyone but me. My wife knows not to go near the t-shirt archive...

[starfish62]

The physical stuff wasn't too bad for me (didn't have that much). Photos, of course, and a few "keepsake" family things that I was loathe to get rid of. The thing I missed most was watching my Florida State football team. FSU! FSU! FSU!

[off-the-grid]

I haven't left yet, actually don't even have the boat yet. Planning on moving aboard in the spring.

I'm the polar opposite of a pack rat. Something collects dust for more than a few months and it hits ebay, no matter how bad I "NEEDED" it when I got it. With the exception of my bed, I've already gotten rid of everything that isn't coming with me.

I say by far, the hardest thing to give up is going to be my Rangers tickets
I go to 20-30 games a season. On the other hand that's a lot of money I'll be saving every year.

Selling my rebreather is going to be kind of hard too. But I never finished the training anyway. With the logistics of diving it while cruising, plus higher potential for solo diving, I'm thinking a compressor or just a few tanks on board and getting fills at a shop is a much better idea.

I'm sure my disdain for diving air on OC will quickly subside as I get used to the idea that I can hit the water any day at a moments notice.

[ksmith]

A comfortable chair. But I am working on it. Still have a storage unit for winter clothes, tools. guns, ammo, pictures before digital cameras (now there is a opprotunity converting to digital all those priceless pics) and DVD's. Funny the DVD's are not getting used much, really odd cause when I was on land loved to watch a movie in the evenings. Do find I read a lot more.

Guess the stuff in storage does not really count cause I have not given it up yet. So a comfortable chair.

[off-the-grid]

Originally Posted by ksmith

A comfortable chair. But I am working on it. Still have a storage unit for winter clothes, tools. guns, ammo, pictures before digital cameras (now there is a opprotunity converting to digital all those priceless pics) and DVD's. Funny the DVD's are not getting used much, really odd cause when I was on land loved to watch a movie in the evenings. Do find I read a lot more.

Guess the stuff in storage does not really count cause I have not given it up yet. So a comfortable chair.

Are you doing the converting yourself?

I have a pretty good scanner and Photoshop, but it's SO time consuming.
Started over a year ago, and barely took a chunk out, of course I haven't worked on it in a while.
Really throwing around the idea of sending them out, but it's not cheap,

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by grunzster

Are you doing the converting yourself?

I have a pretty good scanner and Photoshop, but it's SO time consuming.
Started over a year ago, and barely took a chunk out, of course I haven't worked on it in a while.
Really throwing around the idea of sending them out, but it's not cheap,

If you find a reasonable price please let us know.

[off-the-grid]

Originally Posted by Therapy

If you find a reasonable price please let us know.

This is about the cheapest I've seen.

What's going to kill me is the that extra charge, because I've cut most of my old negative strips to toss the bad shots.

But when I factor in the time it will probably take me, especially with at least a few hundred that probably need color correction it may be worth it.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by grunzster

This is about the cheapest I've seen.

What's going to kill me is the that extra charge, because I've cut most of my old negative strips to toss the bad shots.

But when I factor in the time it will probably take me, especially with at least a few hundred that probably need color correction it may be worth it.

DANGGGG!!!

""Each image is reviewed individually and adjusted accordingly with the options above.""

I guess I don't want that much service.
The pics in the album look like old pics. Maybe I could live with them on screen with the prints and scratches just like the original??

I do remember trying to fix up an old pic my grand father with little success.