midlife drive

Facebook | Kevin Seney Author of “midlife drive”

That’s all you need in life, a little place for your stuff.
That’s all your house is: a place to keep your stuff.
If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house.
You could just walk around all the time.
A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.

~ George Carlin

I used to have a pile of stuff with a cover on it. But, then my “estranged wife” decided that it was “her cover” and I needed to remove my stuff. Suddenly, there I was… I had a lot of stuff, and no cover!

So, I rented a storage unit for my stuff. I had lots of stuff. And, I paid $330 per month to store my stuff.

Two years later, I figured out that the cost of storing my stuff had exceeded the replacement cost of the stuff, and that it would be cheaper to just give all my stuff away.

It sounded like a simple solution, but it was not as easy as I expected.

You see, you attach a lot of emotional value to your stuff. To rationalize the attachment that you have to your stuff, you remind yourself of the original cost of the stuff, and you find yourself thinking, “I might need this stuff someday. I had better keep this stuff.” Well this went on and on.

I was getting nowhere.

I started going through my boxes one at a time. Many of the boxes had not been opened for years! But, I was determined that there might be something I would miss terribly, if I just dumped the boxes in the dumpster.

After a few hours of sorting, I was a mess. I just could not let go of my stuff.

What is the hang up we all have with our stuff? Memories? Well, I discovered a solution to that…

I started taking pictures of my kids kindergarten artwork, and stupid trinkets of the past, and then throwing them away. I decided that if the value of that scrap of paper, was in the memory, then I could store the memory on my computer, and throw the paper away! This got me moving forward again. But, I still had a mountain of stuff.

I started giving some things away, and quickly the word spread, that there was “FREE STUFF” and without much effort, a crowd of strangers appeared and started carrying my stuff away. What this resolved for me, was the “value dilemma” because now someone was going to use my stuff, and it was not going to waste. More progress.

I started with a 10 x 30 storage unit full of stuff. My goal was to drive away in my RV and leave nothing behind.

It was difficult. It was emotionally draining. It was like erasing my past. Not sure why it was so hard, but it was.

The one thing everyone seems to miss most after a fire, is their pictures. So I kept the photos, and finally said good bye to my stuff.

I drank more than my share of the cooler of beer. I even broke down and cried over something really stupid. It did not seem fair. But, in the end it was over. All my stuff was gone.

It took a few days to recover, but as I got beyond the experience, I began to feel a sense of freedom, that I have never experienced before. I felt light. I felt like I could go anywhere! There was nothing holding me back.

I guess I do everything to an extreme. That is just me. But, the experience of unleashing myself of the burden and responsibility of all of my possessions, and feeling for the first time such an amazing sense of freedom, left me wanting to getting rid of even more stuff! The less stuff I have, the better I feel.

There is a valuable lesson here.

Less is better. Try it!

Facebook | Kevin Seney Author of “midlife drive”

“Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.”

~ Jerome K. Jerome

I have traveled extensively, and the one lesson I have finally learned, is the benefit of packing light. A few years ago I went to Paris for my birthday, and only took a small carry-on bag, not a suitcase, just a shoulder bag. I was only going for 4 nights, so I figured if I needed anything beyond what I was wearing, I would just buy something there.

It worked great. It was an amazing sense of freedom, compared to constantly worrying about your bags and your “stuff.” Instead, as soon as I arrived, I was freely wandering the city in search of adventure.

How many times have you gone on vacation, only to return home and once again discover, that you did not use half of what you packed? Every time, I would assume.

Over the past year, I have expanded this concept to my everyday life.

Living out on the road, in a small RV, has taught me many lessons, but the best one is that “less is better!”

It not only works, but the benefit of simplicity continues to expand with the less “stuff” that you have! Life becomes simple. Your life becomes simple. It is a relieving concept. It expands your day. It slows down time. With less to worry about, you have more time to do what you want to do.

Simplify your life. Get rid of your crap! You will be glad you did!

Next post, I will share a recent experience I had, when I finally got rid of the last of my crap. OUCH!

Facebook | Kevin Seney Author of “midlife drive”

“The test of an adventure
is that when you’re in the middle of it, you say to yourself,
‘Oh, now I’ve got myself into an awful mess;
I wish I were sitting quietly at home.’
And the sign that something’s wrong with you,
is when you sit quietly at home and wish for adventure”

~ Thornton Wilder

I cannot remember, specifically what triggered the idea, but one day last January 2010, I was sitting in my RV, parked in my brother’s back yard of all places, and realized the obvious, “this thing has wheels.” My first thought was, “well, if I am going to live in a box, and it has wheels, I might as well point it down the road and go somewhere!” I was going stir crazy, and decided that a “road trip” might be the perfect cure, at least for the time being.

I tend to think big, no matter what I am considering, and just a simple road trip, to who knows where, was not “big” enough. The more I thought about the idea, the more it became clear that what I needed to do was go on a BIG Road Trip! Where? Well, who cares! I am sitting on my ass in San Diego, going crazy. It is winter. Why not head East to Florida!

That same day, I saw a news item, that the Space Shuttle was launching in March, and there were only a few more missions to go before the shuttle was retired. That was it! Now I had a destination. But, where from there? Why worry, just go!

So, I realized that if I was going to just head out into the unknown, and was thinking 3 to 6 months, and then thought even more, that I had better do some preparation, and get my RV in “expedition ready” condition.

I also got the crazy idea to start a blog, and tell my story as I drove, randomly around the country. “Why not,” I said? A friend had proposed a similar idea months before, but I never thought much of it, but I decide on “Midlife Drive” as the name for my blog. The random adventures of the “Midlife Dude!”

I was a bit slow at disconnecting myself from my comfort zone. Too much preparation, and multiple excuses. But, after a few weeks of procrastinating, one day I just drove away. February 23, 2010. Not much better prepared than I was the day in January, that I decided to go, but at least I left.

I drove all the way around the USA, from San Diego to Florida to Maine to Nashville, Dallas, Wyoming and on to Seattle, WA and back to San Diego. It took me 5 months, 5 days and 5 hours to complete the 15,003 mile trip! I lost my engine, I blew a tire, I camped in some pretty crazy places. I met hundreds of strangers, and many are now my friends. Overall, it was an amazing journey. Now, I am ready to tell my story.

Thanks for riding along with me…

Facebook | Kevin Seney Author of “midlife drive”