Have you ever looked back in awe when you realize how far you have come in a short amount of time?
A year ago our world took a tailspin! Nothing like a little jolt in life when your plans go awry and you have to go with plan B. Works well if you have a plan B! Again, looking back it was it was all God’s plan to bring us back home to KC.
Following are the steps we took to get us from a Sticks and Bricks (house) to being full time RV’ers in just 5 months. We downsized from a 2200 sq. ft. house, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, and 2 car garage with amazing storage to our first 5th wheel. Which was just under 240 sq. ft. and sits on wheels. We did upgrade to a larger one that has 3 slides instead of just 1. It does have what they refer to as a basement, it’s the storage under the bedroom. Yep, this is us in a nutshell, mid 40’s, empty nesters, proud parents and grandparents, plus full-timers in our 5th wheel. Believe it or not we are loving it, call us crazy or lucky, whichever!
We were blessed with a 1995 5th wheel when everything started coming together. At the time David and I had the same thoughts going through our minds “we’re going to live in this thing!” We had some pretty strong things pulling us to move 3 hours back to where our roots are. Our Daughter and Son-in-law were expecting our first grandchild (nothing better), I wanted to help my sister with taking care of my 93 year old grandfather, and we just wanted to be closer to family. We resigned from both of our jobs, that’s hard when you are committed to what you have been called to do. We said “See ya later” to some great friends. Especially my friend that was very instrumental in getting this blog launched, thanks Debbie!
Here we go! This is how it worked for us.
- Put a sign in the yard- We needed to sell the house that we were in. You know the whole staging thing you do to make your house look like no one lives there? Well, it helps when you are needing to eliminate and minimize. Several potential buyers would comment that it looked like nobody was living there.
- Prioritize-We had decisions to make on pretty much everything we owned. Keep, sell, give away, goes in RV or goes to storage. The family keepsakes were easy, keep! Most of our furniture was not that new so it was easy to let it go. We did keep David’s recliner and my chair and ottoman. It is currently in storage for later use.
- Purge-We chose not to have a garage sale. Instead we used the Facebook pages local to our area that are specifically for selling items and giving things away. One afternoon I decided to take down our king size bed and give it away for free. I posted it on a local Facebook page. It was gone in 2 hours! Remember to be smart when doing this. We’ve all heard the horror stories. I also made multiple trips to Good-Will.
- What to wear-We had 3 full closets and 2 dressers between the 2 of us and 1 coat closet to minimize. While searching on Pinterest I found this great idea called project 333. You pick 33 items to wear for 3 months and stow away the off season clothes. Rather than starting with clothes we did not want we reversed our thoughts and picked out clothes we really liked. I pulled all the clothes I liked out of the closets and then I took it down to only the clothes I loved! It was very freeing to eliminate clothes that I had kept for years that I really did not want anyway. No regrets!
- Move in-It is quit a job to fill an RV with everything you need to survive! It made it easy to pack the sticks and bricks kitchen. I pulled the items we needed for the RV, donated a bunch to Good-will and packed the rest to go into storage. I was not ready to get rid of all of my Pyrex and my Kitchen-Aid mixer. Bathrooms were easy, remember to keep in mind “What do I NEED”.
That is an abbreviated process of how we downsized. I love the simplicity of not having all the things we thought we had to have! We do have a storage unit. It is just easier to keep our off season clothes, tools and family keepsakes there. With the changes we have made, our schedule has become more flexible. We are now able to enjoy the important things in life, like our grandson and the rest of our family.
What are you willing to sacrifice in order to enjoy the important things in your life?
Navigating Our Way to a Simpler Life!
The Uncluttered Compass
The Uncluttered Compass 