Paring Down for Adventure

The list of decisions that must be made before beginning a year of full-time travel includes everything from where to go to how and how to get there to what to pack and how much to spend. But one of the biggest decisions is deciding what you do (or do not) leave behind. What will you come back to?

For a decade, Chris and I have lived in the house his parents built more than 50 years ago. We meant it to be a short term stay while we cared for his father in declining health. But his father died just weeks before our planned move, and we spent the next year in transition as we cleared out 50 years of accumulated possessions, updated the home and pared down our own belongings.

Somehow five years passed as we both changed jobs, lost more family members and spent several months traveling each year when we took up house and pet sitting. Then…Covid. Finally, in 2023 we began to seriously plan for lifestyle in retirement. What type of home did we really want and where did we want it to be?  

During a different phase of our life we had bought, sold, flipped, rehabbed, wholesaled and managed nearly 100 properties. My theory is that we had been allocated a set number of hours we could dedicate to house and yard maintenance during our life. And we had long ago exceeded that allocation. We no longer have the interest in using the skills (or tools or materials) we acquired for drywall repair, painting, fixing screens, replacing faucets, tiling, gardening or changing locks. So, one decision that was easy to make was: we don’t want to own a home that requires us to provide any significant maintenance.

Less of this!

Another known quantity that was revealed while traveling to multiple countries with only carry on bags was: fewer possessions equals more freedom. Less to take care of, less to clean, less to repair, less to worry about. We had been able to “live” in many homes with different decorating styles and had learned how flexible we could be as long as basic criteria were met: a comfortable bed, decent kitchen supplies and adequate temperature and pest control. So, we determined that when we returned it would be to something other than a house in the suburbs and to something with very different furnishings. We started envisioning the essentials we would want to carry into that space. 

Paring down means sorting through the things you use regularly as well as those stored in bins for years.

 Fortunately, we could set our own timeline for this lifestyle change, and we eventually chose a date to start our travel adventure. A date that was influenced by medical insurance coverage needs, job satisfaction and travel opportunities we encountered. We started making lists of monthly goals that would eventually get us to a place where we could be divested of most of our belongings and walk out the door. Those monthly goals have included distributing family jewelry, dispersing photos, getting new glasses and dental work, having power of attorney documents notarized and updating our mailing address on multiple accounts.

Updating the monthly to-do list - on a white board that has since been sold.

Accomplishing those monthly goals has led us to paring down our long term possessions to those that can fit in 30 plastic bins, along with one bedroom set and two bicycles, all now stored in my sister’s basement. It has been a challenge to part with some belongings: the custom order dining room chairs; the living room end tables my friend built from an oak tree he felled, dried and planed; the jewel toned stained glass windows we haggled for at an antique store. But those pieces are of a style Chris no longer favors. And since I already learned that I can appreciate other styles, I will remember those pieces fondly and, someday, enjoy new pieces. 

One of the hardest decisions I made was whether to keep or part with this children’s nativity scene. A colleague’s cousin crocheted it when my three children were young but none of them wanted it (so maybe it meant more to me than to them) and I am hopeful that it will be loved by a new family.

Chris has felt anxious about relinquishing hand and power tools, plumbing supplies and the cache of electrical outlets. But, he reminds himself that our new lifestyle won’t require those, and we can always borrow or rent most anything needed for a one-off task. It is liberating to let go of utensils, appliances, linens, books, supplies, clothing and even photos that are seldom, if ever, used. And, so many possessions we don’t even like. I enjoyed picking out teacups during my travels as a young woman and inheriting others from my aunt and grandmothers who did the same. But those cups and saucers have been wrapped up and stored for decades. We have no need for three water pitchers – even the one that was a wedding gift or the other that was loved by my mother-in-law. And we don’t even like those thin green towels that we’ve kept just because they are still functional. Life evolves in phases and the phase for many of our things has passed.

We let our children choose what they wanted (and reminded them again and again of the deadline to remove them). We hired an estate sale team to manage the disbursement of what remained and though the sale was a success, of course, not everything sold. We took a few items to a consignment store, had some hauled away by a thrift store, held a free "Garage Sale" and posted items online. And still had items that had to be thrown away.

A revelatory experience was walking through our home after the estate sale reviewing what was left. My initial reactions were “Nobody bought THAT!?” and “Maybe I should still keep THIS.” So much still seemed so valuable. On my second pass through each room, I gathered a dress, a board game and a notebook that I was confident I would actually use, but all the rest had begun to lose its shine. I walked through a third time and everything now seemed rather dull. Every item was something we had already decided we did not need or want. No surprise that the few hundred people who had come to the sale didn’t have a desire for need for those things either.

Final load of everything we kept.

I hope most of our “leftovers” can find a home among a larger audience at the thrift store and not add to a landfill. But now I know that everything I bring into my future home will eventually also have to leave it. And I am grateful for that lesson and how it will influence all my future purchases.