My gf and I have been looking at the future. And we have come to a few conclusions regarding my hobby and the space it occupies in the house and elsewhere.
First off, I'm a lucky guy. I've spent the last few years buying and gaming what I liked, and only had to worry about myself. But tbh, it did not really make me happy. Hopping from one project to the next left large amounts of unpainted miniatures in its wake, not helped by volume buying models cause I like the period/scale/mood of the day. Paint 5, get a new interest, move on. I was and still am, up to a point, living with the Ooh, Shiney! bug.
Now my gf, psychology major and all that, says it is natural to have passing interests, so she wasn't surprised when I gave it all up 6 months ago. The depression sure wasn't helping either. But with the recent reduction in medication I've been able to think more clearly about me and the hobby.
So we had "The talk"
Where do we see ourselves in 5 years from now, not just the kids, the house and the relationship, but the hobby too, cause it means so much to me. And I got to some interesting conclusions.
1. It is ok to like new things. It doesn't mean you have to buy them though. If you have so much stuff, look at it and grab something that tickles your fancy, and paint that. That should supress the urge to buy something new cause you can now focus on painting something.
2. The hobby isn't 24/7. I can now leave my hobby room alone for a week and spend the entire weekend with my daughters without thinking "Gosh, I wish I had more time to paint/model/buy stuff". (next thing to learn is to actually leave a clean room and not a table full of projects behind me when I close the door, so when I do have time next week it is actually inviting to paint/model (and NOT buy!)
3. Having stuff in 6 scales and in 3 periods is a bit megalomanic. Having stuff in WW2, Modern, Sci-Fi spread over 1/3000, 1/600, 1/300, 15mm, 20mm and 28mm is nothing to be proud about. it just shows how things got out of hand over the last few years. This isn't a contest to see who has the biggest <ahem>, in this case pile of lead.
4. I have a large hobby room, a full attic and I'm renting a storage unit. All of these places have a lot of hobby stuff in it. So much so I'm somethimes (pretty often tbh) surprised when I open a box and wonder "When did I buy that?"
So, we ended the talk.
In comes the long term planning.
1. Within 12 months, terminate the lease for the storage unit. This saves 60 euros a month, and means I have to sell off my old furniture (or give it away) from my old flat, and check all of my hobby boxes to see what can go and what can't go.
2. Within 3 years, the girls turn 4, they are going to get my hobby room as their room, and I will have to move into their room. Their room is half the size of my current hobby room, so there is no room for 2 desks, 3 cupboards and 7 bookcases. This means:
- Lose 1 desk and get a joint pc instead of the 2 desks and 2 pc's (with 2 printers) we have now, and maybe get a laptop on the side for when my gf wants to use the computer and I want to paint.
-Lose 3-4 or more bookcases, sell off books and sort the cases out, atm there is a lot of stuff in it that I have no plans for using anytime soom, and for storing scenery they are quite unecomical, lots of wasted space.
-Keep and maybe expand the 3 cupboards. They are from Ikea, called Alex, and when you leave the wheels off they stack quite nicely. Got 3 of them now, 6 drawers full of armies, 6 drawers full of projects and 6 drawers full of crap. Much more space efficient then the bookcases . I love them.
3. Within 3 years again, clean up the attic and sell off all of those model kits I have been hoarding. According to my last count I had over 200 and these days I'm a resin vehicles man cause it is much easier and quicker to build for the same cost. We agreed I'm allowed to keep 15 large containers the size of moving boxes and this is where I will keep my scenery and boardgames. The rest can go.
This means I'm now cleaning my hobby room, boxed up all of my projects and made a neat pile of stuff that I want to sell in the coming weeks. I'm trying to collect at least 10 items in a certain scale so I can post that on hobby fora, that should increase the chance of people buying it. All too often I look at lots on for instance the Lead Adventure foum and see 3 of this scale, 3 of that scale and a scenic piece thrown in, and then the shipping costs just get too much.
Not buying new stuff is propably obvious, but apart from a house, some paint and 1 box of models, all less then a 100 euros, I've bought nothing this year, and saved a considerable amount of money. I'm motivated to get out of the red numbers first and get me a healthy bank account and start saving again, something that I have not done in years, and as a result, I have no backup if something goes wrong.
So in short, I could sum it all up as clean up your act, sell what you no longer need, paint whet you have left and save the money for later.
Funny how taking a pill a day leass has actually cleared my head and made me see the light (again), and I'm actually looking forward to the day I can quit the pills and live a, not more normal, but a more stabil life. As long as I remember my priorities (clean, paint, sell, not buy)
So, anyone wants to buy some Linka Moulds off me?
Johan
