To furniture or not to furniture…

Speaking of furniture, again, here is where having such dear friends on the island has been invaluable.  A friend knows someone who owns a furniture store.  We’ve also received numerous recommendations from other friends living on the island for places to look.  And a resource that has proven to be worth more than all the gold in Ft. Knox?  Recommendation to join all the “buy, sell, trade SXM” boards on Facebook.  Thanks to my dear friend, Liz for that recommendation!  I’m fairly certain that advice alone will save my sanity 😉

Ultimately the decision to ship your furniture or start over will be a personal one.  I can tell you that the shipping rate from Miami is about 77¢ per pound over 1000 pounds.  Less than 1000 pounds is about 98¢ per pound.  And you have to add the cost of getting your furniture to Miami.  For us, and because we had the goal of downsizing tremendously we chose to sell everything before moving and start over on the island.  If we leave the island everything will be sold or donated again.  We’ve made the personal decision not to acquire many possessions anymore as we intend to honor our nomadic nature until we retire to the nursing home 😁

It has been interesting watching my psyche deal with this process.  I would have guessed things like my living room suit, or my bedroom suit would have been hard to part with.  But no, it’s small things like picture frames (not even the picture inside, just the frame), or kitchenware.  Ultimately of course, it’s not the thing, rather the memories associated with them that are requiring my heart to let go.  It’s happening.  But slowly.  Apropos of my previous post, this complete paradigm shift from, “No, I need that,” to, “Yep, that can go,” is ongoing and most definitely a process.  I’m trying to be gentle and not force anything.