Not had a car since my parents got shut of theirs when I was a kid 30 years ago.
Now like you I live in a rural area, approx four miles from the nearest town (although about 2 miles from the nearest shop/doctor's surgery etc). Also, it helps we are on a bus route. Actually two - one bus stop is about 1/4 mile away, and the other will actually stop outside our door if flagged down. A godsend for the missus. She also has an electric bike because she's not that fit due to illness (and a touch of laziness too) and there are some blooming steep hills around here. We are also 1/4 of a mile from an surfaced off road cycle route all of the way into town.
When I was a teenager I too had a bunch of gardening jobs. The furthest was about six miles away. As you say, customers have their own tools although I used to carry a couple of favourite hand tools and my own knife.
Long lasting and heavy groceries are ordered online. As are most other non perishables. We had a ton of compost arrive the other day. Fresh food is carried in panniers/backpack. Bear in mind, you will get extra wear and tear on the bike - and you might want a sacrificial one for this job. I also have a couple of spare bikes that are ready to go in case my main bike has a problem. If I have an early morning train at 6.30am to catch and one of the tyres is flat - I simply pull out a spare bike.
We have a bike trailer for occasional loads, as well as Pashley Add-1 for longer cycle journeys with the missus which are out of the range of the electric bike. The main thing with a trailer is not to overload it - and make sure it's evenly loaded otherwise you can set up some really dangerous wobbles. But I have carried the better part of a medium sized tree in mine as firewood, as well as compost bins, and 3m lengths of guttering. The only load I really struggled with was 100kg of floor tiles. I had to take a really long way around as it was simply impossible to even push it up some of steeper hills. Nowadays I'm care not to load more than 50kg on it (and the trailer is supposed to carry no more than 40kg!)
We have good neighbours with cars who we know would be happy to help in an emergency. In fact, they've offered to carry all kinds of stuff, but so far we've not needed to take them up on it.
Longer journeys are done by train as our nearest town has pretty good connections.
When I came down with a really crippling bout of novovirus in London, I got the train back to city I was living at the time - and treated myself to a cab rather than face cycling the 2 miles home up a steep hill. One of the best tenner ever spent.
Moving house is the only time where I've regretted not having a car or a driving licence as we've always had to rely on a friend or family member to help. So we've always been lucky, and since we don't plan on moving anytime soon I guess we'll be OK - and you can always hire a removal company if necessary.
All this said, barely a rainy day goes past when the missus doesn't complain about not having a car. But she's not keen on spending her own money on one either.
So I'd say go for it. Try it for six months/year and see how you feel. Nowadays pretty much any problem is surmountable without one.
Now like you I live in a rural area, approx four miles from the nearest town (although about 2 miles from the nearest shop/doctor's surgery etc). Also, it helps we are on a bus route. Actually two - one bus stop is about 1/4 mile away, and the other will actually stop outside our door if flagged down. A godsend for the missus. She also has an electric bike because she's not that fit due to illness (and a touch of laziness too) and there are some blooming steep hills around here. We are also 1/4 of a mile from an surfaced off road cycle route all of the way into town.
When I was a teenager I too had a bunch of gardening jobs. The furthest was about six miles away. As you say, customers have their own tools although I used to carry a couple of favourite hand tools and my own knife.
Long lasting and heavy groceries are ordered online. As are most other non perishables. We had a ton of compost arrive the other day. Fresh food is carried in panniers/backpack. Bear in mind, you will get extra wear and tear on the bike - and you might want a sacrificial one for this job. I also have a couple of spare bikes that are ready to go in case my main bike has a problem. If I have an early morning train at 6.30am to catch and one of the tyres is flat - I simply pull out a spare bike.
We have a bike trailer for occasional loads, as well as Pashley Add-1 for longer cycle journeys with the missus which are out of the range of the electric bike. The main thing with a trailer is not to overload it - and make sure it's evenly loaded otherwise you can set up some really dangerous wobbles. But I have carried the better part of a medium sized tree in mine as firewood, as well as compost bins, and 3m lengths of guttering. The only load I really struggled with was 100kg of floor tiles. I had to take a really long way around as it was simply impossible to even push it up some of steeper hills. Nowadays I'm care not to load more than 50kg on it (and the trailer is supposed to carry no more than 40kg!)
We have good neighbours with cars who we know would be happy to help in an emergency. In fact, they've offered to carry all kinds of stuff, but so far we've not needed to take them up on it.
Longer journeys are done by train as our nearest town has pretty good connections.
When I came down with a really crippling bout of novovirus in London, I got the train back to city I was living at the time - and treated myself to a cab rather than face cycling the 2 miles home up a steep hill. One of the best tenner ever spent.
Moving house is the only time where I've regretted not having a car or a driving licence as we've always had to rely on a friend or family member to help. So we've always been lucky, and since we don't plan on moving anytime soon I guess we'll be OK - and you can always hire a removal company if necessary.
All this said, barely a rainy day goes past when the missus doesn't complain about not having a car. But she's not keen on spending her own money on one either.
So I'd say go for it. Try it for six months/year and see how you feel. Nowadays pretty much any problem is surmountable without one.
