Living arrangements in our 2000 sq ft house

Our house is 2000 sq ft.  There are two stories.  Upstairs we have 2 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and living room; downstairs (our basement) we have 2 larger bedrooms, bathroom, and laundry room. And we have our backyard, with a one car garage and attached room where our pets stay. We are moving onto a boat that is less than 300 sq ft, and no garage. Needless to say we have much change to go from 2000 sq ft to 300 sq ft.

Right now we are living upstairs, and using our basement to clean and store our sails, make projects like cushions for boat, and a play room for the kids. Our dining room is converted to our get rid of room, things we either know we are getting rid of or we are not sure what to do with. Our kitchen is really bare, we emptied most of our cabinets, and have only a stove, fridge, and child table in there. Our living room now consists of foam to lay on, boxes, couple lawn chairs, a tv, and a couple end tables. Our bedrooms each contain air mattresses, clothes, and toys. We keep going through the toys, bedding, and clothes; we have to whittle down to very minimal clothes, toys, and bedding. I keep thinking to myself I only need what is necessary a few sweaters or pants, and to let go of those things I have kept for years because I may or may not fit into them again. There is still much to downsize, however, we have gotten rid of so much already it is amazing.

It seems like we have been downsizing and selling our stuff for years. In reality, I think its been almost a year we've been doing this. And finally, we are getting to the hard stuff - our pictures, paintings, and other memorabilia things. Sometimes it is so hard to go through that stuff and figure out what to do, and other days I just easily do it. Thank goodness we have had many months to do this, I feel like it has been a blessing to be allowed to go through each box, drawer, cabinet and decide to keep or get rid of. Then go through the keep pile again and decide again to keep or get rid of. We almost feel right now to just get rid of everything left over because we are so tired of deciding what to keep, and we really don't want to have a cluttered boat. And we have to move soon, so we now have to be fastidious.

Our relatives think we are weird cause we live in a house that is bare and we are getting rid of everything. Well these are some tough decisions we have had to make, and we will keep making them and plugging along. We cannot wait until we leave this big house. I cannot imagine I am saying this because years ago I had to have a big house. I cannot imagine also that I have accumulated this stuff all these years, just moving from one house to the next, what a waste of time, energy, and money to keep all this stuff.

Oh, what a change of mind we've had!!