u/penartist

My husband and I are currently on a ten day trip in the mountains as a much needed respite trip, while my SIL is in country to take care of my MIL(88) who lives with us. I am just overwhelmed by how much stuff we ended up packing.

We have rented a home, with a gorgeous view of the mountains, 18 minute drive to town, with a full kitchen but no washer and dryer. This resulted in us each packing a full duffle bag just with clothes so we don't have to spend too much time at the laundromat while we are here.

We also have some work to get done while we are here as well. My husband is rebuilding the website for the organization he volunteers with. I need to submit my intent to teach forms and contact department heads to keep an eye out for my submissions, due the last day of our trip. i2T submission window opened yesterday, the day we were traveling, and closes the day we leave. So my husband has his portable keyboard and tablet and I have my laptop bag and a folder full of notes.

We plan to do some hiking on the AT while we are here and I am using this time to gather new reference material for my Nature illustrations (I am a professional artist/arts instructor). My husband also enjoys sketching while we are out hiking, so we each have our hiking packs, hiking shoes, trekking poles, a couple of sketchbooks, our sketch-kits (pencils, ink pens, etc.) and a packable stool for sitting on trail.

The weather report calls for rain for a couple of days we are here so we also packed a cribbage board and a deck of cards, a book of card games/rules, my kindle, 2 paperbacks for him and my knitting.

Our 50 lb dog is with us as well. That meant packing another backpack (toys, food dishes, hiking harness etc.) plus his food bin, his crate, the matt for his crate and his blanket (his nickname is Linus due to him carrying his blanket around everywhere).

Our car felt stuffed to the brim.Three duffle bags, two backpacks, one laptop bag, one hiking pack, a crate, crate mat, blanket, dog food bin and two paper sacks of grocery items from home to see us through until we go to the market to shop. Plus a collapsible beach wagon to move it all easily.

These are times when I don't feel like much of a minimalist. It just felt so overwhelming.

Has anyone gotten rid of their couch in favor of a couple of nice reading chair/ottoman sets? I am thinking forward a few years when we will be moving to a new state for retirement. 99% of the time it is just my husband, myself and the dog on the couch. We will be retired at that point in life as well. I was thinking it would allow us to have more flexibility in terms of furniture arrangement as well.

Right now we have the couch and a rocking chair in the living area.

Has anyone done this? Does it save space or take up more space?

Also if you have not done things, please give me your thoughts on it.

I don't crochet often as I am primarily a knitter, but I know what a difference having really good tools has meant to my knitting process. I want to get into mosaic crochet as I near retirement and I my husband said he'd love to set me up with a really good set of hooks and a holder for Christmas this year.

So my question is what is your top choice for crochet hooks and what do you love about them?

Thanks

My husband and I are less than 6 years away from retirement.

We have no debt, we have our emergency fund, we are investing our 15 % and the kids are done with college.

We do not own a home and will be moving in retirement to a different state to be closer to our kids.

We got a late start on retirement due to some serious medical stuff. So we are playing catch up.

Dave says not to get a mortgage in retirement.

Dave says not to use retirement money to purchase a home.

Dave says he doesnt want us renting in retirement.

There is no way we can save up enough to purchase a home in cash right now.

So what would Dave say to do?