Downsizing -- first thing is the books...

One of the tough things in this has been deciding to get rid of most of my personal library. I have taken pride in accumulating hundreds and hundreds of books. But there is not much space for a bunch of books in an RV. So it boils down to, "Do these things own me, or do I own them?"
My process has been to move a group at a time from their place on the bookshelf to the floor. After that, I stare at them for a few days, then I eventually put them into boxes and finally dispose of them.

I have given some to friends and some to my weekly men's group. I have donated some to the 'Mud House' which is a coffee shop for soldiers in Iraq. I have donated some to charity. I have sent boxes to my brother, some to a sister-in-law.

There is more to go but we are getting there. The bookshelves are spoken for so they will have a new home too.

More than you would think

We don't know a lot of people who have sold their home and hit the road. As we read more and more about the RV full time life style, we find that there are a lot of people that live that way.

Recently, Time magazine published an article on the subject: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1682288,00.html
Interesting article but it has a few inaccuracies:

• It starts out with a picture of a National RV Dolphin and says RVs have Jacuzzis.
• The Dolphin is a nice gas motorhome, but it does not have a Jacuzzi.
• It says Howard and Linda Payne sold their 5-bedroom house and bought a 400 sq ft motor home. They bought a fifthwheel.
• It says Country Coach is increasing sales of their luxury motorhomes. Last month Country Coach laid off several hundred workers due to declining sales.
• It says RVers are turning to upscale parks that offer country club-like amenities for $50 a night. Resorts like that start at $100 a night and go way up.

Still it makes the point that there are a lot of people out there in RV land...