I don't know where I'm going

Mr FF and I have talked lots about downsizing and finding a lock up and leave base in the UK so that we can jet off to Italy for long periods without feeling too guilty about asking friends and neighbours to look after things for us. Last year wasn't too bad as I came home early to see to this house. Unusually I've enjoyed the winter here, caught up with the garden and so far I'm not desperate to get back to Lazio.  Probably this view is influenced by the fact that while we've been away some low lives have stolen a length of copper down pipe from our Italian property.  Our neighbour spotted the theft a week or so back and has kindly installed some plastic pipe as a temporary measure. Its not a good feeling to know that people are aware the house is empty, in fact at the moment the whole of our little road is empty so we are very vulnerable.   Its not as if the copper they took was worth that much, probably less than 20 euro but all the more reason perhaps to be there more often.
So we have looked at a modern flat in Edinburgh with secure parking and communal gardens but we would get so little space for the price of our lovely house here in the countryside and I'm not convinced I want to live in a big city though I do want to be able to walk to shops instead of the current 10 mile round trip.   We've thought about moving back to Yorkshire to be near family but we've been in Scotland for almost 25 years, we have lots of friends here. When we've moved in the past it has been an upward step, this seems like having to give up and get rid of so many things wherever we go but its a step we want to take while we are fit and able, not have the decision forced upon us at a later stage if say our health starts to fail.
So decluttering continues at a pace.  Finally Mr FF has finally given up his huge collection of construction slides.  He tried to palm them off on various people and organisations but no one was interested, eventually he got the message. 

He has been through lots of folders, he even relinquished a carefully filed 1991 price list from a local quarry that closed years ago though he was a bit reluctant and got quite sentimental about the price of gravel in the olden days.
I have been taking items to the charity shop every time I go out and was doing really well, until I spotted these lovely large Poole pottery breakfast cups when I handed in my bag of stuff this week. Though I detest the massive coffees that places like Costa and Starbucks sell, I don't even want the choice of size, I am partial to a small bucket of frothy coffee for breakfast at home.  

These are destined for Italy, now I am looking forward to sitting out on the terrace with one of these, so really they don't count as extra stuff at all do they, more export items.
Once we agree what we are doing, if and when this house is going on the market, I'll let you know, meantime we keep pondering the options and sorting our stuff.  I never realised that the older you get the harder it is to make a decision.