Sarah and Nicola talk about how emptying cupboards in the little house in Shoreham is going. Want to see them live on Facebook in their next video? Like the Swagger And Soul Facebook page >>
Read the transcription:
Nicola: We’re jolly well off! Shame you’re not in it [laughs]
Sarah: Yeah, what is it with [Facebook] Live that it keeps doing that?
Nicola: I don’t know, it makes it very tricky.
Sarah: Oh no, I’ll have to sit up straight.
Nicola: Yep, sit up straight. There we go! Little and Large.
Sarah: I don’t know, I’m not that little.
Nicola: Little & Large go to Greece [laughter]
Sarah: So, where shall we start?
Nicola: Why don’t you start by telling everyone about your relentless cupboard clearing.
Sarah: I love how you keep describing it as such. Yes, I was tasked to help Nicola empty her house and it’s really funny because she keeps saying, “Oh I haven’t got much you know, after that big clear out I did when I moved off Shoreham Beach” and its all lies because there’s been like LOADS of stuff just. And she keeps saying there’s nothing left… And I’m thinking, yes there is…
So I love a good tidy out, I’ve done it a few times myself and of course my major one was back in 2011 when I cleared out MY house full of stuff. And you just don’t realise how many things you’ve got just lying around in cupboards that, you know,
you haven’t looked at in years
Nicola: Yeah, and it makes you wonder why you keep stuff doesn’t when you start clearing it out.
Sarah: Yeah. I mean what I found when I released all of my stuff out into the wild, to other people …
Nicola: I love the way she puts that [laughs] …it’s not throwing junk away, she
releases her possessions into the wild
Sarah: Yeah, share them with people, other people who love, love it because most of it, to be honest, we can give away or sell and… rather than putting stuff into the tip because I don’t really like to do that, I like to repurpose things as much as
possible
Nicola: I like the expression pre-loved as well.
Sarah: Yes.
Nicola: Yeah, just for myself [laughter] but we did have a bit of a win because I did buy something off Dan Thompson for £10 which was a Chartbuster game from the 70s and Sarah, what did it go for in the end?
Sarah: £61
Nicola: You see, I wouldn’t have bothered but she puts things on ebay and you know, it’s quite exciting watching the bids tick up
Sarah: Yes and it’s not that hard. A lot of people get put off at the thought of having to package things up.
Nicola: Yeah, and having to go to the post office.
Sarah: It’s not that hard though is it really. But I tell you what’s been the best! And if you’re on Facebook…
Nicola: Look I think we’ve got some comments [on Facebook Live] but I can’t see them from here though…
Sarah: Alex saying ‘Hello my lovelies”
Nicola: Hello to Alex who’s our brother in Australia
Sarah: Yeah look it’s actually sunny here today, sort of, Alex. Yeah, Indian summer.
Nicola: Yeah 500 billion crane flies on the way apparently, any day now.
Sarah: Well, you’ve been saying that for weeks
Nicola: …any day. Well The Telegraph said it was true, so it must be true
Sarah: Hmmm… So yes, on with the cupboards. Facebook pages, Selling groups actually. There are Facebook selling groups, if you are looking to clear stuff out – locally – whether you want to sell it or give it away, you just want somebody to come pick it up and take it, do a search on Facebook for your local selling groups – loads of them
Nicola: Yep, we’ve had all sorts of strangers coming up, turning up at the door, taking away our most unlikely possessions but one evening she left me in charge, which wasn’t a great idea, as Sarah’s been dealing with all of it because I don’t really like even talking to people and I was watching an autopsy one evening – don’t ask me why it was absolutely fascinating – and the house is so that the front door opens straight on to the living room so anyone standing at the front door can see what you’re watching on TV and we have got a very large TV…
So this autopsy is going on and three times people turned up to pick things up and I paused it and it was ok because it just paused on a quite normal, you know, talking head person because, much like this is, two talking heads [laughs] and
yeah the fourth time wasn’t so lucky as this woman was just lifting out a great swathe of organs from the body and I paused it just at that point, as she’s standing there and it looked like something really bad and I opened the door and he said “Hi” and then he looked across my shoulder at what was on the telly and he said, “Uh!” and I said, it’s alright I’m just watching an autopsy [laughs]
He went.. “Oh, ok”. I’ve never seen anyone try and get away as fast in my whole life. He must have thought I was a complete psychopath practicing at home or something. Yeah.. “Just give me my ear buds and let me out of here!” Yes that’s right, he came round for a packet of £15? £19? £15? ear buds. Anyway I’d bought them and I just couldn’t get them in my ear, they just wouldn’t stay, I must have really strange shaped ears but he was lucky he got a brand-new pair of earbuds for £15.
Sarah: For a fiver.
Nicola: A fiver? Ah ok.
Sarah: They were about £15 new.
Nicola: That was well worth getting traumatised for then isn’t it.
Sarah: Yes [laughs]
Nicola: So what else has been happening? I’ve got over myself, I’m not so emotional about it all again now, I’m actually quite enjoying it now
Sarah: Yeah, let’s touch on that because things were… Nicola asked me to clear out the house and then once I started doing it, it all got very tense for a little while and we did have a little… a little ermm… how would you describe it?
Nicola: A massive great argument [laughs]
Sarah: Yeah alright
Nicola: It came out of nowhere actually. Heather was round and Eileen, our Step Mum, was visiting from New Zealand and I think Phoebe was here as well and Heather said something, I can’t remember what it was that triggered all off now…
Sarah: No, I offered to help Heather by stripping wallpaper.
Nicola: Oh that’s right, yeah. And I was not only seeing all my possessions disappearing around me but about to face my bedroom being stripped around me and I can’t cope with mess and untidiness although I’m not very good at cleaning. Well let’s say, actually very negligent at cleaning [laughs] I don’t like untidiness, visual untidiness, I can’t cope with it, and I
was sort of in a right old state by then so it all went off didn’t it.
Sarah: Yeah.
Nicola: It’s the only one we’ve had though isn’t it.
Sarah: Yeah and since then actually, since the whole process of letting your stuff go, you’ve actually gotten more into into it
haven’t you?
Nicola: Yeah I’m really starting to feel, you know, lighter – which is always a plus – and yeah freer somehow, I mean it’s, it’s scary you know. I was saying to Judith on the podcast this week [OwnItThePodcast.com] It’s really interesting how it
throws up feelings of scarcity in you [me] because you [I] immediately assume that when you [I] come back, you’re [I’m] not going to have any money.
I think growing up in, you know, relative poverty does that to you. It was boom and bust when we were kids.. yeah.. and also Mum used to come… I’ve just remembered this. Mum used to come through and just clear everything out. She used to clear cupboards out. She used used to throw all our old toys away. She used to really… You had to be very very very very very very strong with her to resist her throwing everything away on a regular basis, so that’s obviously what was coming up as well.
Sarah: Yes she did actually didn’t she.
Nicola: You [I] never felt safe to come home from school and a) find you were living in the same house, because she did used to move while we were at school .. You know, she came and got us from school which was quite lucky [laughs] but we often ended up in new houses, didn’t we. And then we’d come home from school and your [our] bedrooms would have been changed around so you [we] weren’t in the same bedroom that you [we] were when you [we] went to school and then you [we] came home and found that she had gone through cupboards and thrown a load of stuff out and obviously that’s… I’ve just remembered that… and that just really used to make me feel not safe.
So obviously this whole thing of, you know, getting rid of my stuff which I would have left to the last two weeks obviously, has thrown up lots of feelings of not feeling safe for me and going to a different country as well, is you know, although we’re going somewhere I know, and I stayed in last year, and I’ve been to so many times… So I’m feeling safer than I would
going somewhere I didn’t know… Obviously this whole thing about giving everything up, possessions wise, is making me feel
very unsafe.
Sarah: But that was at the beginning of the process, how are you feeling about it now? Now we’re further into it?
Nicola: Yeah I’m feeling pretty good now because I’ve recognised that the whole scarcity thing of assuming that you’re [I’m] not going to have enough money when you [I] come back to buy all the things that you’re [I’m] getting rid of…
LOST CONNECTION
a) you know the reason we’re going is to.. well lots of reasons we’re going, lots of emotional reasons but one of the
reasons is to live six months pretty much rent free and that’s only gonna improve your financial situation isn’t it? So you’ll be able to come back and buy whatever you need.
Sarah: Well, it’s not rent free it’s very low-rent, but yeah.. I know that.
Nicola: It’s interesting how growing up poor affects your thinking and emotions…
WE NOTICE THE LOST CONNECTION
Nicola: It [the video]starts again, there we go, we’re back! I wish I could read the comments, don’t you?
Sarah: Yeah, it’s just too far away.
Nicola: Sorry, we’ll reply to the comments afterwards, we just can’t see them from here.
Sarah: Too blind.
Nicola: Yes, so yeah, growing up poor affects your thinking for a lot longer than you think it does unless you catch it, and I think that’s what I’m doing now, is I’m trying to catch it. And I was saying to Judith [OwnItThePodcast.com] about
this whole scarcity thing because she grew up on the move, she was in a military family and everything was provided for them, so she doesn’t have the same issues around it that I do.
Yeah so because she’s about to go to France any day now, we’re still holding our breath after five months but she’s about to go to France, and then to the Caribbean and she’s been going through exactly the same process. If you’re not a listener to OwItThePodcast.com you should be, it’s jolly good fun. And she’s going off to the Caribbean and we’re going off to Greece so it’ll be an interesting update every week of how it is from the from the point of view of working as digital nomads, which is what we’re going to be in isn’t it.
Sarah: Yep.
Nicola: Yeah.
Sarah: Yeah because there’s going to be broadband out there isn’t there [laughs]
Nicola: Yes we hope, crossing fingers.. Yvonne who owns the house that we’re going to live in is actually here today and we’ve just got to remind her about the broadband. No i’m sure she remembers because it was one of our only requirements. What else do we need to talk about?
Sarah: I feel slightly twitchy that you think that everything’s more or less done because it isn’t.
Nicola: When you say isn’t done, what do you mean? Do you mean things still to get rid of?
Sarah: Yeah.
Nicola: Yeah but they’re beds and sofas and we need those for the next 3 weeks.
Sarah: Yeah but you’ve still got stuff in the cupboard and..
Nicola: Yeah I’ve got a load of #GaryVee books to get rid of. I think I’m going to have to do a competition of some kind but I can’t think of what that could be yet, it’s just 12 books it’s not going to..
Sarah: 11 books.
Nicola: You’re getting twitchy because of 11 books.
Sarah: Well no, if you open the cupboard there’s more stuff
Nicola: Yeah.. It’s not gonna take three weeks to get rid of “the other stuff”… but she’s a completer finisher that’s
what’s going on here. She cannot bear it that it’s not finished.
Sarah: That’s really funny because you normally.. I’ve never heard you say that about me before.
Nicola: Well you like to get things don’t you. You like to finish things and you don’t want to concentrate on anything else until that one thing is done.
Sarah: That’s true. Yeah.
Nicola: That’s why you’re twitchy, because it’s not done. It’s not done. And it won’t be done because we’ve still got three weeks to go and we need something to sit on and something to sleep in. Otherwise we.. [laughing]
Sarah: Details shmeetails.
Nicola: I mean, her bedroom is a bed now. That’s it. She’s standing up to work in the kitchen because she’s dismantled the desk but we’ve got another 2-3 weeks to go yet.
Sarah: Standing up working is much better for you
Nicola: Even on the microwave which is the lethal, lethal thing.
Sarah: Yeah but it’s not ON is it [laughs]… for gawd’s sakes
Nicola: I’m surprised that microwave hasn’t disappeared in the night, I tell you..
Sarah: [laughs] I’m so twitchy. If it wasn’t Heather’s, it would have gone by now I’m telling you.
Nicola: Yeah exactly. So Heather’s keeping a few bits as this is her house, so she’s keeping a few bits and that’s
good because Sarah’s sleeping on…
Sarah: Heather’s our other sister [HeatherCairncross.com] in case you didn’t know
Nicola: Yeah so Sarah’s sleeping on a bed that Heather is keeping. Which is good otherwise Sarah would be sleeping on the floor by now, wouldn’t you?
Sarah: Yeah.Yeah I think I would have done actually.
Nicola: Mental. [laughs]
Sarah: Yeah but what’s interesting about the whole process for me because of course I’ve done it once before, but I also do it every time I go on a house sit and a pet sit… is I go through my possessions and there’s ALWAYS something I can part with. But because I’m not able to… Well, I’m storing one small box of stuff, which is mainly books actually – why are books so hard to part with? I don’t know. Anyway, my daughter’s going to have those for me, thank you Chloe, but apart from that, everything I own is going to be with us.
Nicola: And how does that feel?
Sarah: Umm, it feels really liberating actually I mean, I managed to get it so all of my possessions were fitting in my little Renault Clio but now they’re pared down even more.
Nicola: That’s up for sale now!
Sarah: Yes that’s up for sale if anyone wants to buy a really nice little 2002 Renault Clio – make me an offer
Nicola: It’s very gold.
Sarah: Exactly! Great colour!
Nicola: Yeah you stand out in the crowd that’s for sure. Very prosperous. Okay okay good and what else is there we need to cover? Oh yes! Why am I ginger?
Sarah: Yeah good question. You’re looking a bit Friar Tuck today, I have to say [laughs]
Nicola: What? With the old black? [outfit]. Yes, so here’s the theory right. I went up to see my best friend Kim who, we’re both traditionally dark brunettes. Well she’s getting gray very quick so she’s moving to blonde, also she had a very bad reaction to her dark hair dye, so she had to move to a different color.
So she’s apparently got the same base color as this and she’s got gold highlights in it and I walked in the other day and I said
“You look really good” and it did look really good. Really really good and she said, “Well you’re going somewhere that’s very sunny, why don’t we take you a bit lighter as well?”
So we’ve been going down in base color for a while now and this is the latest iteration the next time I see her before I go away I’m gonna have gold highlights in but I’m not convinced yet.
Well this is going very ginger now isn’t it [laughs] Well I am partial to a ginger, as anyone who knows me knows. But yeah, I don’t really want to be one myself
Sarah: So how many appointments have you got before you go?
Nicola: I’ve got just one more…
Sarah: You know again, this is really interesting because you know the things you panic about, like having your hair
done and actually there are hairdressers in Stoupa, whether they’ll be open all Winter is another matter entirely but people must get their hair cut somewhere in Stoupa, mustn’t they, or Kalamata. Don’t worry I have some hairdressing scissors…
Nicola: Oh, now that’s shades of our mother that is [laughs] Let me just trim your fringe – next thing you know it’s up here somewhere. Yeah. Actually the fringes… Yeah I haven’t blow dried today as you can see. I’m going for the more casual look on a day when I’m not meeting my public. I’m just blogging and Facebook liveing how many..
Sarah: um Alex is still commenting. Can you read that?
Nicola: No I can’t read any of it, so you’ll have to read and reply afterwards. Ok. So yes what about what else about it?
Yeah we’re contacting all the utilities
Sarah: Isn’t that quite a nice feeling though, letting go of those kind or responsibilities?
Nicola: Yeah it is… I loved it when I did it.. but again it’s a fearful feeling for me I’m such a scaredy-cat about everything aren’t I. Again it’s the fear that you’ll [I’ll] come back and you [I] won’t be able to get electricity [laughs] I don’t know why I feel like this.
Sarah: Is it because that’s the question people keep asking you?
Nicola: Yeah yeah it is. People project their own fears onto you, definitely when you’re doing something
like this.
Sarah: So would you say that’s the main question?
Nicola: What?
Sarah: What are you gonna do when you get back?
Nicola: Yes! That’s exactly the question everybody asks. Everyone says, what are you going to do when you get back?
Sarah: And what have you said to them? You don’t know when?
Nicola: I’ve said you know I’m going to be coming back when I feel better
Sarah: Yeah, also you’ve got other options haven’t you.
Nicola: Yes there’s lots of digital nomad spaces you can go and live for $1000 a month anywhere in the world now
Sarah: Yeah was it something like on a ship or something you were looking at?
Nicola: No, no, there was two different options, one was digital living spaces around the world, there’s one in San
Francisco, there’s one in London. You know this kind of stuff is happening so much now that people are, business people are going in and creating spaces which are a bit like really nice hotel rooms.
But then you have communal living spaces and broadband and all that and there’s five or six around the world – I’ll
put the links in underneath this live video to the two or three resources I’ve come across and of course there’s AirBnB
which is you know… there was a programme on the telly last night about AirBnB umm nightmares, both from the point of view going to stay places and from the point of view of being an Airbnb host but actually I’ve never heard anything bad about it.
I mean Yaro Starak is travelling around America and Canada at the moment staying in Airbnb’s and they all look absolutely lovely to me and I know someone in Australia who is just redoing his – the ground two floors of his house because he wants to be able to go independent and not work for anyone else anymore. And so they’ve got a three floor house and he’s turning two floors into B&B studio lets.
Yes, so there’s lots of ways to to stay places without having the responsibility of the bills and mortgage or the rent and I just, in between the kids. You know our kids grown up now but they haven’t started having their own children, so I think this is the time for me to go and try living in other places.
Sarah: Yes, you’re getting quite adventurous now aren’t you.
Nicola: Well you say that while I’m still in my own little house in Shoreham [laughs] I don’t know how adventurous I’ll feel once we walk out that front door but we’ll see won’t we, we’ll see. And we’ll be documenting it all here on Swagger And Soul so I hope Like the page and give us lots of loves on this video because if you give them loves on the video [on Facebook] rather than likes on the video apparently it goes a lot further and we’ll get some new viewers yeah.
Sarah: And so we’re just starting up on Instagram and we’ve got Twitter as well, so yeah just look for SwaggerAndSoul.
Nicola: Yeah, we’re going to be turning our individual blog posts and the audio from these broadcasts into a podcast. Hopefully by the end of the week yep?
Sarah: Yeah? I didn’t think we were doing that for this.
Nicola: Yeah, podcasting! Of course we are.
Sarah: No, I didn’t think we were turning these [videos] into a podcast.
Nicola: Yeah, why not. Weekly updates from us together and reading our own blog posts out loud for the podcast.
Sarah: Yeah. That’s the plan. Yeah. Okay.
Nicola: Ok, let’s crack on with it then.
Sarah: We sort of know what we’re doing.
Nicola: Sarah is going to be blogging on Mondays and I’m going to be blogging on Fridays [Thursdays], just to put a bit of commitment around this [laughs] and we’ll see you soon bye.
Sarah: Bye…
Nicola: Now how do you turn it off now?
Sarah: I dunno. I’ll have to go over here. Oh there we go – there’s a little finish button.
Nicola: Marvellous
Leave a Reply