Well, we’ve got stuff…lots of it. We have over the years grown from a rented room…to a rented flat…to a one bedroom flat…to a three bedroom flat…to a three bedroom house…with a large garage. And we have managed to fill those places with “things”.

So where do you start?

Before the camper dream started to become a reality in 2015 Dave took 3 weeks out to cycle the Tour de France, I joined him for a couple of stages, but in my spare time at home I discovered Marie Kondo and her KonMari method – and began de-cluttering our house…hoping to minimise all of our possessions.
The KonMari method tells you to gather all possessions together in one go – ie all clothes, shoes and accessories at once; hold each one asking yourself “Does it bring joy” – if it doesn’t, out it goes. You only want to be surrounded by things that bring you happiness.
I also added to this question my own little question – “And does it fit in the camper?”

In early 2018, as the dream of the camper began to turn into a reality we began really streamlining, and in doing so, we realised that material possessions are just that – material possessions.

Knowing that the house was due to go on the market in spring 2018, we started to prep our belongings for sale. Unnecessary furniture/larger items were put onto Gumtree.

Once the house sold, we began getting rid of our ‘stuff’ in earnest.
We went to car boot sales – the best one in Bristol we found was the Clifton Car boot sale – well organised, well attended.
What we had to accept with all of this selling was that as much as we valued our possessions and we felt they were worth something, we must also accept that we just needed to get rid of everything that didn’t fit in the van.
This means toughening yourself up to get rid of items that you have attachments with.

The scary thing is – as I’ve got rid of one thing after another, I’ve slowly started to enjoy myself…”what can I put up for sale next??” I realise that as I’ve got rid of things, I haven’t missed them all. Yes there are a couple of bits that are going to stick in my memory, but you know what, most have vanished out of my memory and into the ether of “used but no longer needed things”.

We’ve managed to minimise all of our possessions so we can fit it all into the back of a large van to move out of our house…but maybe not in a van to live in – so I’m going to keep minimising as we build the van.

Top tips for getting rid of your stuff:

• Read “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying” by Marie Kondo.
• Sell online – Ebay, Gumtree, Pre-loved
•  Face the public with your stuff and try out some local car boot sales – if you’re a bit wary, then go along as a ‘buyer’ just to check out the atmosphere and what’s being sold.
• Accept that no matter how much you value something, it won’t fetch the priceless value you’re after.
• Enjoy the freedom of less material clutter.
• Donate to charity shops and other charities i.e. local bike projects, sofa projects.