This post is mostly about stuff. The stuff we fill our houses with and think we need for daily living. The stuff that is useful and nice to have, and the stuff that we only use once a year or have “just in case”. Then there’s the stuff we use so many times a day we don’t even think of it as “stuff”, it’s part of us (laptop anyone?).
My camper is 120 cubic feet. That counts height as well as length and width (for those of you who don’t remember much about geometry from 20-30 years ago).
Living in that small of a space isn’t an issue when you’re camping for the weekend or even a couple of weeks. You can live without your stuff because you know you can catch up when you get back.
But living in that small of a space full-time is a different thing.
Of all the things I have gotten rid of, my books are what I miss the most. Many of my books are math, science, foreign language, philosophy, and how-to instruction books. These types of books typically have diagrams, equations, pictures, and graphs. These books don’t translate well to digital copies; most of them haven’t been produced in ebook form. I use these books. They are my comfort, my security, my livelihood. Right now they are in the storage locker. I know that in the next few months I’ll need to go through those boxes and get rid of most of them. They won’t fit in my camper, they weigh too much. But I haven’t been able to face doing so yet.
What would be (or was if you’ve had to do this) the most difficult item or group of items for you to give up?
Homeless Adventures 
Anonymous
/ September 24, 2011Hi Rachel!
Jack Lewis
/ September 24, 2011After my Great Dane woke me up whining and scuffling around at 0300 for the forty-fifth time and I had to take him out and shoot him, I’d miss him a lot. Probably. For a little while.
As a writer, I should say books, but I can usually find very nice books at the library and, sadly, I have a hard time getting through a novel anymore; just keep losing the thread. Writing is different, of course, as the thread is already inside me. If I lose it, I just start something else. Something short, preferably. What were we talking about again…?
Oh, yes. What would I miss?
Would mostly miss access to my tools. Not that I use them enough (or well enough) to justify owning them, but it’s a comfort to me to be able to root through, find the right tool and make something happen. It contributes to my delusions of control… Some of them are woven pretty tightly into my life, having arrived as gifts or bequests or long saved-for totems of craftsmanship.
It feels good to have tools around me. There’s no lending library for tools, unless you have close friends close by. That’s a piece of security for which I would pine.
Homeless Adventures
/ September 24, 2011Heya Jack, the books I can’t seem to let go of are not books you can find in libraries, generally speaking, though some university libraries would have some of them. And most certainly can not find in the libraries of this state, the most dismal library system I’ve ever encountered.
Jack Lewis
/ September 24, 2011Y’know, for a delicious moment there, I’d forgotten what an illiterate state you’re living in.
Thinking about moving home soon? And I mean your home, not your birthplace.
Homeless Adventures
/ September 24, 2011I would love to move back but I don’t think my SSI would go very far up there; assuming that it actually goes through at some point in the next year. Nothing is settled, all is in flux.
Probably the soonest time would be after I get whatever degree, associates or bachelors, I manage to get in chemistry. If I can stay on that path.
I can’t move back to my birthplace until I’m 80, I think it’s a law there now. : D