My husband and I are downsizing. In fact, we are getting rid of EVERYTHING. We are finally realizing our two-year plan to start living in our motorhome full time and tour this beautiful country of ours. To do that, we are going minimalistic. We are selling, donating, and giving away everything we own, going to rent out the house, and follow or dreams of traveling and changing the view from our front window every few weeks.
We realize this goes against everything that society tells us is normal. We are getting rid of the things that make the traditional 9-to-5 necessary to maintain. No more furniture, wall art, the latest electronics, closet full of clothes we hardly wear, latest kitchen gadgets, the best cars we can afford, lawn care equipment, and the stuff we think we need but never use. I never realized how many things we do not need and/or use until we started sorting through it in our effort to let it all go. We are definitely not hoarders, but we positively have too many meaningless belongings.
Getting rid of the extraneous stuff isn’t so hard. It’s the sentimental things that are killing me. We have to seriously decide what we realistically want to keep in a small storage unit and what we can let go. Giving the family heirlooms to the kids and other relatives has worked out so far, but there are other things that are harder to part with. Mother’s day cards, watercolors made in second grade, the bunny-butt clay pot made in kindergarten are all things I refuse to give up. Maybe in the future I can say goodbye to them, but I don’t have the heart to just yet. I see at least a small storage unit in the future.
While I wasn’t prepared for the emotional ramifications of getting rid of the possessions we’ve worked so hard for throughout the years, I am quite surprised by the feeling of freedom it gives me each time an item leaves the house. It’s one less thing to dust, one less distraction to deal with, one less extraneous item taking up space. My heart gets lighter with each departure. I think it’s because we are no longer tied to our things or feel that our life success is attached to them. It brings us closer to our goal of making a life of memories and not a life of regrets or ‘wish we would have‘ thoughts that many dying friends have warned against. Life on our terms minus all the baggage equals a new kind of freedom. It definitely works for us.
It’s a courageous move but I know several people who have done this. You only live once… My motto is Buy Fun – Not Stuff.
I most definitely agree!
Wow that is so exciting! When I think about the things in one room alone and how many storage containers I would need I panic!
I can’t wait until all of our stuff is gone. We’re getting there, though.
How wonderful ! Enjoy.
Wow! I can’t imagine the freedom to do as you are doing. Best of luck!
That’s great, it’s a fantastic idea!
We aren’t making a move like that but I am trying to clear the house of so much “stuff.” But I too find it hard to let go of some of the stuff. Since I have more time, I am doing it in stages…first the stuff we don’t care about and then begin working on the other stuff.
I follow a blog who they also live out of their motor home and travel. They still maintain a residence to come back to, but it is smaller than previous ones. Great adventure you and your husband will be embarking on!
I love downsizing. We had to clean up hubby’s parents’ home when they went into assisted living. I kid you not when I tell you we got rid of over 30,000 pounds of things. They never threw anything away (I’m not exaggerating). It was a nightmare and I won’t bore you, but it helped me realize stuff is just stuff and its better to dispose of it yourself than have someone else have to do it.
betty
http://viewsfrombenches.blogspot.com/
Oh, enjoy your travels and tell us all about it :-). I was homeless for three months and lived in a tent. I left an awful lot of things with my ex-partner because it was just not possible to go back and get them. There are some things I still or have started to miss but you know what: You have the memories. None can steal them from you. The things are just a portal to get to the memories 🙂
Oooh, good luck with your big adventure! I have been going through things lately – I’d hate the children to have to do it after we have gone. So many photos… thousands of books… we have a lot of stuff. We could pack a caravan inside our stuff. It would be liberating to let it all go… ~Liz http://www.lizbrownleepoet.com
Good for you. While the downsizing journey is an emotional one, it is also quiet liberating. Hope to meet y’all on the road some day.
What fun…we bought an RV in 2010, we are very frugal, it is a 19′ fully loaded so we don’t have to have electricity to cook, we have a great generator and a shower in the bathroom, surprisingly even though its small, it holds a lot…we spent 4 months traveling around the outside of the USA on one trip…it was fantastic…the freedom you have wonderful….pulling up and parking along the ocean to have lunch, parked on Yellowstone Lake to eat breakfast…all alone, quiet…wonderful…we have put on 80 thousand miles over 6 years…its been a fun ride…we thought about doing what you guys are doing, in fact over Thanksgiving 2015 we were looking at 22 to 25 footers, a little more room and we were going to start out again, but one of my husbands bucket list items was a home in the desert…well we pulled up at my brothers and poof it all fell into place…we bought a place across the street, it even has an RV drain, check check the bucket list is getting smaller…LOL so that put buying a larger RV on the back burner at this point…oh we still have our little one and believe me, we still go out and enjoy the world…but just not for months at a time….Have fun…and it is amazing the freedom you feel when you start getting rid of the non-ecentional stuff holding you down…LOL so what type of RV did you get??? kat
So glad that you lived the dream and liked it. We’ve been in the process of doing this for 2 years. I will early retire in December and my husband’s job is remote and he can work from anywhere. We have a 40′ motorhome and are looking forward to getting on the road. Just clearing out the house, first. 🙂
what fun and what a nice RV to travel in…kat
Maybe some day we’ll meet up if we are out your way! Thanks, Kat. Dawn
that would be wonderful….I am looking forward to following you on your travels…a little jealous…LOL but excited for sure….when do you pull out?? kat
I retire in November/December, and we hope to pull out in January. Heading to different locations to get some family time in while we get our travel legs. 🙂
that’s a smart way to do it…we kind a jumped in with both feet and headed around the entire US almost the first time out…LOL baby steps are recommended….kat
Good for you!
I’d definitely rather spend money and time on adventure than shopping and having stuff. My husband is the same. We downsized when we moved here. (Because half our kids are adults.) I don’t think we’ll downsize again, as our home is rather small (1500 sq ft) but I can imagine letting the house and traveling, absolutely. In the meantime, we’ll work on getting the other half of the kids to adulthood 🙂
I think there’s nothing wrong with a lil storage space. I think the problems come when people want a 20×20 and don’t want to part with anything at all. (And there’s a lot of that!)
I’m impressed that you’re planning such an adventure!
Thank you. We are really looking forward to it. It’s getting easier to get rid of things. Now we are at the point where we can’t get rid of it fast enough. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!
Good on you! I am trying to cull a whole bunch of needless STUFF and you’re right, it’s very liberating! The non-sentimental stuff is the most fun, it’s so easy and usually has me muttering to myself “WHY have I kept this junk for so blimmin long?”
I applaude you! It was hard just getting rid of stuff to move across the country! Darlene and I are attempting to downsize our stuff as well, not on the scale you are but we have entirely too much stuff for the space we are in. An upcoming visit from out-of-state family has us in a panic. We need to get rid of stuff, but the decision of which stuff to get rid of is hard. I admit I tend to hoard things a bit (not anything like an episode of Hoarders, you understand) and most of this stuff is mine, I think part of my proberm is that I lost EVERYTHING in that house fire and so I tend to not want to let things go. So many things have sentimental value and so I tend to keep them. Good luck with the downsizing! I envy your journeys!