Stuff.....what to do with it.

We did a great job selling all our belongings, Craigslist really did most of the work and luckily we didn't have to deal with to many weirdos. The next thing was to decide what and how to send stuff we wanted to keep to Colombia, problem was, what do we need? We ended up packing about 19 big boxes full of stuff to Colombia with a service in Los Angeles that specialized in shipping to South America. Packing up all those boxes was a chore, so was deciding what and what not to keep. Not going to bore you with the list of things we brought but if we could do it again.....that list would have changed a bunch. To jump ahead a little bit, once living in Colombia for a short time I started to notice how hard (or impossible) it was to get things that seemed like it should be no problem to find. We have particular tastes....organic food, seeds (for such food), essential oils, certain tools, and so many more things I can't think of right now that are so easy to get back in the US. One thing is for certain, back home, you can get just about anything delivered to your door in just a few days. I've learned that just because something is common and available back home doesn't mean you'll find it here in Colombia, no matter how hard you look...and boy was that a hard thing to get used to, and frustrating.

Now that we live in a "tiny" house we've had to adjust to keeping only what's necessary, clutter builds up fast when you have no room to work with, but this is a good thing. Learning to live with less is really the way to go, we had so much stuff in the house back in AZ because we had the space, not anymore. But, when we moved we really noticed how little we needed all those things, mostly they were just comfort items that you get used to having and not really using. Oh, and one other big thing about getting rid of everything you own.....paper!! Tons and tons of paper...stuff you just tuck away really builds up when you put it all in one pile. Our shredder got the biggest workout before we left, my goodness, so much useless paper "stuff" was everywhere. Our recycle bin got filled every week....for weeks, so did our neighbors when they weren't looking;) We also donated a ton of stuff too to various places. You never really notice how much "stuff" is in your life until you try and get rid of it all. Now we're really trying to lead the simple life, uncluttered and knick-knack free and boy is it nice. Actually, we need to get rid of some of the useless junk we shipped over thinking we'd need it...sure glad we spent all that money shipping it;)

Gonna keep this one short....but here's the point I'm trying to make....slowly start eliminating all the needless "stuff" you have, don't wait until the last minute. Keep it simple;)

Next up....first few months living in Colombia, not on the farm.