That is the primary question on our minds these days: just what exactly do we need to accomplish in order to set off on our nomadic (or at least semi-nomadic) lifestyle?
At this point it seems overwhelming. And that is keeping in mind that we have already, either purposefully or unwittingly, laid a good foundation for packing up and heading out.
We rent our primary residence, and at this point in time, only Lena has a job. So, we already have fewer roots in place than many. Not only that, when we moved into our current home, we both downsized considerably when we combined two large households into one.
When we moved in here three years ago it seemed like we brought only the “essentials” and yet as we look around, there is a lot of stuff to dispose of / dispense to others.
When you read blogs by other people that have blazed the same trail in the past, it sounds so easy. They typically say something like, “Back in 20XX we sold everything, hopped on a plane to XXXXX and haven’t ever looked back…”
I guess looking at it from a high level, it is pretty simple. It comes down to two elements: money & stuff. We have a date in mind where the money piece works out to meet our budget. Sure, plenty of planning, “what-if”-ing, and reworking went into the budget, but at this point all we have to do is hit our “number” and that part is taken care of.
Based on current totals, all we need is a neutral market (don’t need any real gains, but no losses either) to hit our budget at the time we want to leave. So that part is really on autopilot.
The complicated part seems to be what to do with all our stuff.
We really only have potentially three pieces of furniture that we want to hold on to. Our bed is a very nice one, and if nothing else, we aim to put it in our beach cottage. It is a long and complicated story (for another post), but we may actually be purchasing an inexpensive home as a rental prior to jetting off. If that is the case, we will likely store our furniture there (either functionally as part of the décor, or in the garage.)
Aside from the bed we have an exceptionally comfortable and versatile couch, as well as a large and rugged rectangular dining table. Those will either go to the potential rental house or be passed on to one of our kids here locally.
The rest of the furniture will be moving on to new homes. We will offer it to friends or relatives or attempt to sell it using Offer Up (not an affiliate link) or some other such service. But I imagine most of that movement will come in the months just prior to ending our lease here. We are going to want to have someplace to sit until we leave.
That leaves all the small stuff to consider. I have had a little bit of luck selling things with some inherent value using Offer Up. I don’t know if it is the best vehicle for moving our belongings. My intent is to compare it with Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and maybe EBay. Stay tuned for our comparison post in the future!
That leaves all the “small stuff” to consider. I think clothes and shoes will be easy for me to deal with and a bit harder for Lena. She will have to make some hard choices about what to keep, although we are allowing ourselves 2 medium-size boxes for storage of clothing. Ostensibly, this is for off season stuff like coats and sweaters (as we plan to mostly frequent warm locales), but in practice it might mean storing some stuff that is tough to part with clothing-wise.
In fact, I think a good exercise will be culling all our winter gear into only that stuff we are going to keep come springtime here in the Northwest. We can pack our two boxes and discard the rest.
The other tough decisions will be in our keepsakes. You know, all that stuff that you collect that has meaning beyond its actual purpose. We don’t have a lot of this, but enough nostalgia resides in what we do have that it will also come with some tough decisions.
I know that a year or so down the road we won’t miss it at all, but in the moment, it seems a bit melancholy to consider discarding items with sentimental attachments. We will see how that goes…
Coincidentally there was an article in the New York Times today that suggested using a technique called, “The Annoying Bag”; a periodic ritual of walking around your home with a bag and tossing in anything that annoys you in the moment. Then, off to the trash it goes!
I have decided to make a habit of doing something like this as prep for our departure. Every week I want to sell or throw out at least one thing (probably more) that I know won’t be with us this time next year.
I am also considering purchasing some sort of storage bins, bags, or boxes (as appropriate to the situation) that we will ultimately use to compartmentalize and/or store our stuff. Two examples of such that come to mind are the two designated clothing boxes for storage, and some sort of small bag or organizer for electronics we will take with us.
I think it will be a good visual prompt to have those items on hand. That way we know that anything that doesn’t fit in the designated place will have to go. It either goes in the box (or bag), or it goes away. A good graphic reminder.
In closing, I am interested in hearing how you have tackled getting rid of stuff and “smallerizing” your lifestyle. Please leave a comment and check back in for updates as we go along.
The Discerning Nomads