Stuff

Once upon a time, we had a big old house. Great spacious rooms, “jungly” garden, view of Table Mountain, a small pool and lots of stuff! Really lots and lots of stuff (even if the house didn’t feel so full at the time). It is amazing to see how much we can store in a couple of hundreds square meters and how many double of things we can accumulate.

Then, we sorted out, gave, sold and kept before moving into a small 2 bedroom flat. This downsizing exercise was really good. Good to learn that we could let go and live with less. In fact, nothing was really missing.

After 8 months, we did the exercise again when we moved on board Merlin. More sorting out, more selling and keeping less and less. This time, we couldn’t extend our territory in a garden and we had to find space for all our possession, which by then seemed much much less. We kept in a container what was really important and valuable. We took with us what seemed (at the time) fundamental. We remember the smiles of our new live aboard neighbours when we crossed the Hout Bay marina with all our boxes which filled up quickly the cockpit. However, Merlin is cleverly built and is full of lockers so everything found a spot.

In nearly 4 years, we thought of our boxes in the container from time to time. We realized we didn’t miss anything in particular.

Last week, Greg visited this famous container where our “old life” is locked. It is an odd feeling to remember what is kept safely in all these boxes. We know that one day our treasures will reappear in our life. In the meantime, it is really nice to feel light and free.