After nearly two years, yesterday I took a step into our past. With the help of our friend Marc in the form of brute force, I stood back and watched as two huge metal doors parted to reveal the land belongings we had kept in storage when we decided to take off sailing.When we left for that adventure we put a lot of our stuff into bins, bought a 20ft sea-can, plopped it on our friend’s acreage, stored our belongings in there, and sailed away.
In this shipping container we had certain pieces of furniture, a couple of beds, a lot of kitchen stuff, some clothes, tools, and things that were dear to us that we couldn’t bare to part with. Or so I thought…
The reason, what brought me back to the sea-can, was the fact that it’s the end of August and it’s already starting to get chilly here in Alberta. My one pair of jeans and flip flops weren’t cutting it anymore. I was getting cold, and was only expecting it to get worse. So I was on a mission to go through our many many bins, in search of my old “winter” clothes.
Watch out cold weather, I am coming for you!
I did find warmer clothes, but I also found a few (and by a few I mean many) other things…apparently I wasn’t sure if I was done having babies last time we left Canada. In the shipping container I had loads of baby toys, clothes, diapers, maternity clothes, and even a carseat! It made me laugh, and shake my head, at the things we chose to hold on to, the things we feel we can’t let go of.
1 of 2 large rubbermaid bins filled with baby stuff!
After three hours of sifting through several bins, I left the property with a car PACKED with stuff to bring with me. I had divided what I could get my hands on into three piles, 1) bring to use in the upcoming colder weather, 2) bring to sell or gift, 3) bring to donate…and the carseat, to dispose of since it has long passed its expiration date.
My disorganized/organized mess.
With having packed every inch of our car with this stuff (the trunk, the passenger seat, below both girls feet, everywhere) I unfortunately didn’t have any room left for much of Eben’s stuff (I did get him a couple of jackets and some boots), or any tools for the future Eco-home build. I didn’t even open 3/4 of the bins in there! I am sure once we do we will be shacking our heads once again asking ourselves “why did we keep this!?”.
I found it to be an intriguing look into the “mind of me” of two years ago. The mama who clung on to baby items, questioning what our future may hold. Well those two years kept us on our toes and moving across the Caribbean on our sailboat, no “surprise” baby joined our family, and so although that door is not permanently closed yet, for now I will pass on these baby items to someone who could use them right away.
I am exciting to head back there with Eben and see what other funny and weird treasures we held on to in our big metal box.
Can you tell me a bit about how you found your sea-can? What did you pay and how did you get it placed on your friend’s property? We are at the stage of doing the same – trying to get out to sea!! Did it keep all creatures out during the two years? Thanks! Lisa
Can you tell me a bit about how you found your sea-can? What did you pay and how did you get it placed on your friend’s property? We are at the stage of doing the same – trying to get out to sea!! Did it keep all creatures out during the two years? Thanks! Lisa
Hey Lisa, I can’t quite remember how much we had paid for the seacan and transportation, but there are many companies out there that sell new and used shipping containers. We got a 20ft used one, damage free, from a company that ensured it was leak-proof. The company can and delivered it to our friends’ property, for an additional fee. We have owned it for 6 years now and have not had any issues with leaks or animals. It was a great investment.
We would love to help with your future container needs.