We're In Cabazon and A World of Stuff

We got through the heavy Friday afternoon traffic and arrived at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon, California a little after 5 pm.  Things went fairly well until we turned onto the 210 Freeway heading towards Pasadena.  Well, it was Friday afternoon.  Bruce did the usual stop and go driving until we got way past Pasadena...San Dimas...Rancho Cucamonga to connect with I-10 heading east. 

In the beginning the air was clear and crisp and the traffic looked like this:

By the time we got well into the Pasadena area, the haze and smog was showing itself and the traffic looked like this:

We got settled into a spot in the RV parking lot at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon, north of Palm Springs.  Within minutes there were 3 other RV's making their way to a spot of their own.  It'll do for one night.

I was reading in the paper the other day that a woman named Annie Leonard has written a book about stuff.  The exact title is The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities and Our Health--And A Vision For Change.  Wow, long title.  Fellow Blogger, Kim, made mention of the "Stuff topic" today.  Click here to read Kim's post.

I've always been interesting in the subject of "stuff" myself.  One of the great parts about the fulltime RV life is that you really cannot keep a lot of stuff around.  Bruce and I have never been very sentimental about accumulating much stuff and then keeping it for generations.  We moved to a few different homes over the years, and that was always a time to purge ourselves of extra stuff.

I did have a couple of collections of stuff, but I got rid of them, too.  They weren't important in the big scheme of things.  In 2008 when we decided to become fulltime RVer's we got rid of almost everything that we didn't want to take in the motorhome with us.  There were a couple of family heirlooms that I did keep and packed away securely in our daughter's garage.  I kept about 10 scrapbook photo albums I'd made with family photos.  Everything else....and I mean everything else.... went to a garage sale, Goodwill or we gave it away. 

We did not want to pay rent on a storage facility of any kind.  We did not want the extra expense of it, but also, what would we put into it?  We didn't own expensive art work, furniture, glassware, dishes or things like that, nor did we want to.  It didn't make sense to pay money to store a bunch of ordinary things for who knows how many years.  Here's an example:  We met a couple last summer down in Wachula, Florida.  They were fulltimer's going on 8 years.  They also had originally been from Washington state and when they moved into their RV they put a bunch of things into a storage facility.  The man told us that they had this storage place for 7 years and they hadn't even been back to Washington in over 5 years.    He said, "I guess we really should go back up there and get the stuff out and get rid of it."  Ya think?  My guess is if they haven't even looked at the "stuff" in over 5 years they probably don't really want it anymore.  But they keep paying that monthly storage bill. 

As a society, I think we are a little obsessed with stuff.  I know people that can't get through a week without doing some heavy duty shopping.  Relatives...but I'm not giving out any names!  How much does any of us really need?  In our RV we keep our winter and our summer clothing.  I just change out the heavy coats for the light weight jackets when the weather dictates.  We keep a bin in the basement just for this purpose.  For clothing Bruce keeps 3 pair of jeans, about 6 pair of shorts, 10 knit shirts, 2 pair of dress slacks plus a suit, 1 dress shirt, and 2 nicer knit shirts for church.  He also has a couple of flannel shirts, a swim suit, 1 pr. of sweats for cold winter walks, 3 hats, socks and undergarments (of course!), and 4 pair of shoes.
I keep a little bit more (of course...I'm a woman!) -- 10 total pair of jeans or slacks (including dress slacks for church), 1 suit, 1 skirt, 2 nice blouses, 6 pair of shorts, about 10 sweaters or sweat shirts, 3 nicer sweaters for church, 8 long sleeved t-shirts or turtle neck shirts, 10 short sleeved t-shirts or knit tops,  a swim suit, warm clothes for cold winter walks, 3 sun visors, socks and undergarments (of course!), and 8 pair of shoes. 

We don't buy too many other things either.  We only have 1 cell phone, 1 computer with a printer, 1 camera and some scrapbooking supplies, including my Cricut machine.  We keep about 50 paperback books on hand and trade them or leave them at RV parks along the way.  We don't have lots of pictures hanging in the RV and we have no knick-knacks.  They'd just fall when we drove anyway.  I know we have a lot more stuff, but it is all for everyday living and we use that stuff everyday!

I guess we are very low-key kind of folks that don't need a lot of stuff.  We still seem to fill up the hours in the day with some type of activity even without a lot of excess stuff.  I guess it makes sense for our way of life as fulltimer's.  Not having a lot of stuff to worry about gives us a real feeling of freedom.  There's nothing left behind to worry about....except the kids....I always worry about them!

Until next time.....so long for now!