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BandB said:
Show off. lol.

None of our cars could be sold for what we paid.

None of our boats could be sold for what we paid.

Our house couldn't be sold easily for what we paid as it sat on the market two years before we bought it. The previous owners were speculative investors and they found out the hard way. We had a friend by a house near us that had been on the market 3 years. It was owned by an LLC with 7 members. The managing member had talked the others into the investment and didn't want them to know what it was worth. So, he just turned down the offer without letting them know. Our friend called a meeting of the members and presented his offer and it's basis. The vote was 6 to 1 to sell with the managing partner calling them a lot of names. Finally the managing partner relented and signed to make it unanimous.

We don't look at cars, boats, or our house as an investment and don't ever try to financially justify them.
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I financially justify just about everything... except my lovely wife and our relatives.
 
Art said:
I financially justify just about everything... except my lovely wife and our relatives.
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There is no financial justification for boating unless you do it for a profit, such a fishing charters.

However, I can't name any form of entertainment for pay that can be financially justified.

I know you do look at potential losses or profits on the property better than we do. We never go in thinking of selling something. We know we will some day, except for hour house. We strongly believe it to be our forever house.
 
Art

You need to teach a seminar on keeping cost of vehicles (wheels and water) down. None of my hobbies like boating can I do on you yearly budget for a month. I must be doing something wrong! LOL
 
Bigsfish said:
Art

You need to teach a seminar on keeping cost of vehicles (wheels and water) down. None of my hobbies like boating can I do on you yearly budget for a month. I must be doing something wrong! LOL
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Keep eyes and ears open. Then at right time... Buy low, Sell high... make sure items purchased don't need too much restoration soon after purchase. And, do not buy new items, or even nearly new items... unless the sale price is a really super deal. Which it usually ain't on new or near new items. :popcorn:
 
"Buy low, Sell high"

Damn, I've been doing the opposite all these ears.:banghead:
 
Well, maybe just a little. LOL
 
I guess I am arriving late at this dance.
15 years ago I moved aboard and put some stuff in storage. 2 years later I woke up to the fact that it was mostly my kids stuff and what I stored was worth less than what I had paid for storage. I gave the kids 3 months to collect what they wanted. I should have saved the three months locker rent as they ignored me. it all went to goodwill except several small things I moved aboard.
If you have not used something for a year you probably don't need it.
 
The Other Gary said:
I guess I am arriving late at this dance.
15 years ago I moved aboard and put some stuff in storage. 2 years later I woke up to the fact that it was mostly my kids stuff and what I stored was worth less than what I had paid for storage. I gave the kids 3 months to collect what they wanted. I should have saved the three months locker rent as they ignored me. it all went to goodwill except several small things I moved aboard.
If you have not used something for a year you probably don't need it.
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I grew up in a house with a large attic, with a very strange mezzanine storage area that was large, and with a full basement. When we moved, the movers were astonished. I recall my cousin's wife looking at stuff they were taking to the attic in our new house. She said something and the worker said, "You ain't seen nothin' yet. I sure home if they move again I'm not doing it."

Sometime after my father died, I took on the task of cleaning the attic out. I moved tons of stuff to the street for pickup the following day. The next morning my mother had moved 80% of it back into the basement. I asked her when the last time she'd been in the attic was. 15 years. So, nothing up there you needed for 15 years. Ultimately it all went back to the street. I'm fine with having somewhere to store decorations you use once a year, but not stuff you never use.

I think parents hold items thinking their kids will really value them and then the kids generally are like yours were. They had what they needed in their homes, didn't need old "junk" (Sure to you it wasn't) from storage.

Businesses do it too. I once went to an auction at that Belk Department Stores had. They had an entire warehouse full of displays of all sorts. Rounders, tables, cabinets. All pulled out of stores at some time when they updated things. I asked the manager had anything ever gone back to a store. He said, not in the ten years he'd been there.
 
B&B

I have a similar story and I have always believed my grandmothers storage of stuff she didn't need was due to the fact she grew up during the Great Depression and valued stuff she would never use or need. A different generation!
 
Bigsfish said:
B&B

I have a similar story and I have always believed my grandmothers storage of stuff she didn't need was due to the fact she grew up during the Great Depression and valued stuff she would never use or need. A different generation!
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Yes, my mother grew up in a very small town that had been devastated by the depression. Their largest employer was the converted to military supplies and struggled after the war going back to making rugs. My mother was young during the depression, but definitely was impacted by it. Unfortunately, maybe a bit too much because things and financial security became more important to her than other aspects of living. Even near the end of our life, she was scared of going broke. I'd remind her she was safe and had more than she'd ever spend, but then she'd worry about it cutting down on what she left me and I'd tell her I did not care a bit about that. I head a great job, making good money for my age, I didn't need an inheritance. It really impacted her life making money the almost singular focus, staying with a man she didn't love because of that. She even had my career all planned and when I graduated from college and told her I wasn't following the path she'd planned it was not a pleasant time at all.
 
B&B

In many ways our lives are similar concerning our parents. Of course I never knew the depression but family told me that no natter how much money one had items were not available so I concluded that because of that my family became hoarders, just in case?
 
Waste Not - Want Not!! That was drilled into my brain by folks that lived as teens in depression. I still abide by that smart thinking. Our current 93 yr. Matriarch mentions depression needs quite often in regard to 21st Century wasteful actions.
 
Was re-reading this thread trying to remember ideas. So am resurrecting this thread after a few months, just a little. Just cleaned out my mom's house a couple of months ago. Similar experiences to others here.

Couldn't get the grandkids to take hardly anything. Gave away or sold what was there for next to nothing. Much of it was quite expensive to buy. There was tons of cookware and Tupperware, unused and in original packaging. She had good and expensive taste. All was basically worthless.

It was a lesson learned for me. Stand at any point in your house, turn around and look at all the stuff that you spent so much on, furniture, electronics, decorations, and realize that if you sold it it is all worth next to nothing. It doesn't matter what you spent on it, it is now worth pennies on the dollar.

I definitely look at the shopping experience differently. If it doesn't have an immediate and real use, I don't want it. If it is some type of decoration or collectible, it would only be a piece of junk for my kids to someday throw away. It changes your perspective in ways I still haven't fully figured out. He who dies with the most toys definitely doesn't win. He just leaves a mess for his kids.
 
Kaz said:
It was a lesson learned for me. Stand at any point in your house, turn around and look at all the stuff that you spent so much on, furniture, electronics, decorations, and realize that if you sold it it is all worth next to nothing. It doesn't matter what you spent on it, it is now worth pennies on the dollar.

I definitely look at the shopping experience differently. If it doesn't have an immediate and real use, I don't want it. If it is some type of decoration or collectible, it would only be a piece of junk for my kids to someday throw away. It changes your perspective in ways I still haven't fully figured out. He who dies with the most toys definitely doesn't win. He just leaves a mess for his kids.
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Wise words.

While never having bought things that were expensive (we are huge LBYM folks), we are nevertheless in purge mode, planning to move aboard full-time this fall. We are down to very little - stashed in some office-tote boxes that we really "need".

It is amazingly liberating, though, to go through this and realize what you wrote so well above. Walking through stores or looking online at "stuff" feels entirely different when you realize what really matters - and what matters not.
 
I asked my dad, "Are you going to clean out the attic and garage before you die?"
His answer, "Nope.", and he didn't. LOL
 
I to really appreciate the input here. My wife and I have cruised quite a bit over the years; but no long stays on the boat. We're planning to stay in Florida in the winters and go back home to the Albany, N.Y. area in the summers. We're not sure of leaving the boat in the south when we go back home or cruise it back and forth. We are rebuilding a 34' Marine Trader at the present and I've been wondering about modifying some areas for more storage and creature comforts. I like to keep things original; but that may be out weighed with comfort. About how long is the cruise from say; New York City to Jacksonville at a slow 6 knot pace; not sight seeing, but traveling on.
 
Traveling via ICW, daylight hours, stoping to fuel up, renew a few stores, best guess 7-10 days.
 
It takes me at least a month doing 25 to 50 miles a day and stopping a few places to see friends and family...plus those pmaces you like to expkore and a few days to just relax.

Heck, it takes me seven days just from Cape May, NJ to Porstmouth, VA in late Fall with the days shorter and trying to enjoy the trip.

Plus a couple weather days unless they coincide with explore/rest days.

All day driving ....day after day.... starts to seem like work rather than fun.
 
We purged two households and three garages to move aboard Shangri-La. We did it in three weeks. A week after we got on board we realized we'd given away both toasters. We have a small walk in storage shed, but can't remember what's in it. Smaller and less has been cathartic for both of us. Some weeks ago we purged unneeded clothing from the boat. One on - one off as they say. Looking back, as noted above - it's just stuff. We're much happier with less.
 
OldDan1943 said:
Traveling via ICW, daylight hours, stoping to fuel up, renew a few stores, best guess 7-10 days.
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At 6 knots? Double that.
In my experience, that journey is better than either of the destinations, so a month or more is much better.
 
caltexflanc said:
At 6 knots? Double that.
In my experience, that journey is better than either of the destinations, so a month or more is much better.
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I didn't say or suggest they would enjoy the trip down the ICW. SMIRK

I like your idea better, take time to smell the roses and enjoy the sights and side trips.
 
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poczatek said:
I like to keep things original; but that may be out weighed with comfort. About how long is the cruise from say; New York City to Jacksonville at a slow 6 knot pace; not sight seeing, but traveling on.
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768 nm. Add 10-20% for inlets and courses, so say 900 nm. At 6 knots, 150 hours. At 8 hours per day, 20 days of travel. That's without stopping long enough to enjoy any place.
 
Hey folks, this is an excellent thread about the "philosophies" of living aboard. Let's not get sidetracked by how long it takes to cruise up and down the ICW. If you want to do that, start a different thread!!!

As you were....Baker
 
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In 2017 I spent 120 nights at anchor, without really going all that far from my marina. I spent a few nights on board there as well. This year I might double that, as I intend to go 1500 nm north along the coast. As much as possible will be on the outer section of the Great Barrier Reef that weather will allow for comfortable nights at anchor. But I am not a liveaboard, I have a dirt base.

I've just got back from trucking one of my daughters stuff 300km as she is starting fulltime work. We managed to get enough things together from home to provide 70% of what she needs, so that was a useful de-clutter at home and a help to her as she starts out life away from home. It mostly came from the downstairs area I use as a base when not aboard. The base is really for tools. clothes and a bit of stuff that has so far survived several purges. Upstairs is furnished normally, mostly with my stuff, as my other daughter is living there.

I will keep some kind of dirt place since at some point (in 10 years?) I will be ready to move on from cruising, and have just a weekender type of boat for the bay. Like others have said, effectively giving away things that will need to be replace at full cost, including an SUV, makes little sense.
 
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