Assessing the value of things

This is going to be a series of blog posts about my move on to a narrowboat and my experience.

I’m moving onto a canal boat. It has been an ambition of mine for many years to own and live on one, and now it looks like I am going to get the chance to try it.

I am not coming to this completely blind, I have been hiring boats for over ten years, many of the weeks being in October time. This boat comes with a residential mooring, so I am not going to have some of the issues that a continuing cruiser is likely to get, especially in winter.

As I prepare to make the move, one of the key things which I have to do is a serious amount of downsizing. I don’t travel light, I haven’t for a long time – it takes several van loads to move me. I can’t do that with the boat, so I have to really cut down the amount of stuff that I have. This is more challenging than the last time I moved as I have also been acquiring stuff from my parents.

So I have made a start with things just in my bedroom. At the moment there are three piles – rubbish/recycling, selling/give away and items to keep. It is roughly split into thirds, although this is will probably change in the coming weeks, but it is a good start. I spent three hours this evening just sorting through paperwork, and managed to get rid of two boxes full of paper! It is feeling quite liberating. I have a lot more to do and it will get harder but I think long term it will be a good thing to have done. In fact it was something I was going to have to do this year even if I wasn’t moving.