One of the issues that has come up for us as we work through the kinks in our new lifestyle is similar to a story I told on our most recent trip to Cuba.

It was a perfect morning as we set out and we were soon at our chosen spot. We had seen the spear fisher bring many colourful fish from the water near here so figured it was a good place to try our luck. We had purposefully brought no electronics or valuables with us today, having been warned by several people that it was not a good idea to leave things unattended, and to be honest, this would have been our practice anywhere while we were going to be in the water away from our things. One thing we had to do something with was the keys to both the bike locks and our room. Jim didn’t want to bring them into the water, figuring if they fell off that would be the end of it, which would certainly have been the case. We weren’t sure what to do, but finally decided to bury them in the sand just under the corner of Jim’s towel, thinking they would be out of sight but we would know where to dig.

That accomplished we waded out into the slightly cool but perfectly clear water. Once we had our goggles on and were submersed, the water felt just right. It was still early, so we didn’t put on sunscreen, not wanting to pollute the waters here, but we both wore shirts as well to protect our backs, having had the unpleasant experience of sunburns from one of our other snorkel adventures. We found many little fish (which of course I have no pics of) and just really enjoyed the altogether relaxing experience of floating along without a care in the world. What a perfect way to be!!!

After a time, we came in for a snack and a rest. The towels were laid out in the shade and we were a little chilly, so we pulled them forward into the sun. Oops! It didn’t occur to me that there was a problem until I looked over to see Jim digging in the sand. Oh no!!!!! We had done the exact thing that we had laughed about as we walked into the water – we had lost our keys in the sand!!! We spend a few frantic moments digging, digging and then digging some more. It felt like an episode of Survivor and we were the clueless idiots who couldn’t get it right! At long last, Jim held up the precious keys and we were able to sit and laugh at ourselves. What a sight we must have been to anyone observing those crazy North Americans!!!

Now that we are home, we find ourselves looking for things – lots of things – things that we put in a “safe” place so we would find them when we got home only now that place is so safe we can’t find them!!!

So, “the key”. The key to finding what we need when we travel and when we come home will be to organize our stuff! Right now, everything is in blue bins and each bin has a label of some sort on it. For example, “Sue’s clothes” or “computer and Sue’s clothes” or maybe “printer and Sue’s shoes”. I have a lot of clothes still! The plan is now to take everything out and sort through the bins once again. We will hopefully send more things away to Value Village but what remains will be prioritized into numbered bins – the most important things (computer, important paperwork) will be in the first bin or two. Clothing will be separated into winter and summer bins with the accompanying shoes in each. Before sealing them up for storage, I will make a DETAILED list of what is in each bin to be kept on my ipad with copies sent to both our email addresses. This way, when we come home, we can just bring the bins we need out and leave the others in storage.

I have two hopes from this process. First, I am hoping that when we return we will feel so much more relaxed about getting our stuff. And the second hope? I am hoping that during the process of organizing everything I find the stuff I am still missing!!!! Wish us well and if you have any handy dandy ideas for keeping organized, please do tell!!!