After weeks of sorting, this weekend was our big sale. We feel like a big weight has been lifted.
Over the past several weeks, we have been moving into our 38′ Alfa SeeYa Motor Coach and camping in the back yard. We wanted plenty of time to see what fit and what we needed to get rid of. We would look at some things and think we had to keep them, then after a week or so, we may look at it again and think, “Why on earth would we want to keep that?” As the sale came closer, it became easier and easier to let go.
Before Sale
Before Sale
Robert took some panoramic pictures of our living/dining and bonus rooms before and after the sale. Things were also stacked on the kitchen counters. I know we didn’t have as much accumulated as any family featured on Clean House, but it seemed like a lot of stuff to us. Actually, I would watch episodes of Clean House or Hoarders to help motivate me to clean my house and keep it uncluttered. Both Robert and I have Dads that like to collect everything and we certainly try not to be weighed down by too much stuff.
After Sale
After Sale
I am so glad that we started living in our RV and set up the house for our sale. Even though the weather was great (hot, but great) for our sale, we could set up shop in the house and not worry about dragging things out on the yard, just to drag it back again. We ended up starting our sale on Friday morning with just a sign down the street and a sign in our yard pointing people into the house. Traffic was great for minimal advertising and we were surprised at how much money we made.
Saturday was the planned neighborhood sale. When we told our landlord (also our neighbor) of our plan to move and have a big sale, they wanted to coordinate a neighborhood sale. They did a wonderful job advertising because we were amazed at how many people showed up. Everyone seemed to do well.
We were just left with a fraction of stuff that we started with. The remainder went to charity, no second guessing. I can’t tell you how big of a relief it is to be rid of that stuff that we really didn’t need and much of it we didn’t even use.
We are younger than the typical couple that begins their full-time RV living, so to be honest, we felt we needed to keep some things. After reading other blogs of people’s experiences and speaking to friends, one regret that we kept hearing was saving stuff they never look at again and paying years to store it. Most things that we chose to keep are pictures, family antiques, music equipment, and tools. We knew we would have to have to pay for storage, but we want to make sure that was only temporary. We have no idea how long we’ll be full-timing it, but we’d like to think it would be for several years.
After much consideration, we have decided to purchase a little storage building and place it on my family farm. We figure it is a much better use of our money instead of renting a storage unit for who knows how many years. The investment in the storage building helps with the value of the family property and once it’s paid off, it’s paid off. My parents will be able to use some of the space for their needs as well. It’s a wonderful situation. Besides, there’s a good chance we may end up living on the farm to help take care of my parents years down the road, so having the stuff we really like and enjoy to use again will be nice.
During this process, we have some good friends, Dave and Helen, that told us over and over again, don’t sweat it, if there’s an item that is stressing us out to get rid of, keep it. Don’t stress out during this process. They told us that when we see or go through things later, we may ask ourselves why we kept some things and thin out even more. We know that to be true, because as we were getting ready for our sale, we wondered why we moved many things from Missouri to Florida. I think Dave and Helen’s lesson to us is to not have regrets. If something means so much to us right now to keep, then simply keep it instead of regretting and stressing about getting rid of it.
It’s so funny how we get attached to things, isn’t it? We are glad we can let go and be free to live in a smaller place and travel. It seems so liberating.
