Wanting More of Less

 

Oreo loves sitting in boxes – especially those too small for her!

It is getting real!

After quitting our jobs a couple of weeks ago and announcing our impending vagabond plan on this blog, Martin and I have heard from so many of you who are excited to live vicariously through our crazy adventure. Thank you for all your kind words.

We’ve been planning for this and talking about this for so long that it kinda became just a story to tell at parties. But now, it feels like we are actually doing it! Eeek! The idea of just traveling around without a plan and without a home is exciting but terrifying. I had to stop looking at a map of the world the other day because I was getting scared! (In a good way of course!)

So, we have begun the process of ridding ourselves of all of our material belongings that don’t have a place in our new life. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this process, so I thought I’d share how we are doing it. But, I’ve never actively gotten rid of everything I own before, so we’ll see how well this works! 🙂

We are sorting through everything and putting it into one of these categories:

• Keep – Bring with us
• Keep – Store someplace
• Liquidate – Sell
• Liquidate – Donate
• Liquidate – Toss

KEEP

Generally, we are keeping our camping gear and biking stuff. We are reducing our clothes to just a few items each. I’m keeping a few key kitchen items like a knife, microplane grater, citrus reamer, immersion blender, and french press. We have a camping stove and camping pots and pans, but I’m bringing one of my cast iron pans with us too. We have a laptop, iPhones, and an iPad. I honestly don’t know what we will need, so I’m sure our supplies will change once we hit the road. My thought is that we won’t get something in anticipation of a need, but when we have a need, then we’ll get it.

As far as storage goes, I have a couple pieces of furniture that we are keeping: a breakfast bar table that my dad made for me, balcony furniture, and my mosaic table. I have a couple small boxes with mementos like photos and cards. I am keeping a couple scrapbooks and our wedding photo album. I also plan to keep some quilts my grandmother made for me and my brother. My KitchenAid mixer and pasta attachment will be stored by my cousin who has a KitchenAid mixer collection and doesn’t yet have white. I am hoping to keep the stored items to just 2-3 rubber maid containers.

LIQUIDATE

Everything else is being liquidated!

Most of it will be sold at our garage sale, which will be June 14 at my cousin’s house. Her neighborhood is having sales, so hopefully there will be plenty of traffic! If you are in the Minneapolis area, stop by! 🙂 It will be on 31st Avenue, just north of 42nd Street.

In preparation for the garage sale, we are hosting three “pre-garage sales” with our friends and family. They stop by and make us an offer on anything they see. We’ve already sold our dining room table and couch this way!

Anything we can’t sell will be donated or tossed, depending on the quality.

Here’s what we’ve got left to liquidate:

Assorted kitchen supplies

Various DVDs

Black shelves, Tall white shelf, Clarinet, Assorted books

Comfy chair, adorable bunny pillow

Two-piece desk, Monitor, 6 Speakers, Printer/Scanner

Random toys, storage ottoman, blankets, rug

Tall shelves. (The top four compartments are a separate shelving unit.) Baskets, yarn, crafting supplies, vacuum cleaner

Bed with four drawers. Headboard with storage. Two bedside lamps, bedside tables

Assorted vases. (We have more than this too!). Fancy serving dishes. Assorted cookbooks.

Various wall art

Dishes

THE THINGS YOU OWN EVENTUALLY OWN YOU

Going through all this stuff makes me feel so heavy and tired. When stuff isn’t put away, it has such an impact on my spirit. I’m looking forward to essentially camping in our condo the last couple weeks of June. At first I was really sad about getting rid of all the furniture I had worked so hard to find in 2012 when I redecorated. But now, I’m excited to see it go. I loved redecorating our condo. When we find a permanent home again, I’ll get to decorate it from scratch! How fun!

RENTING THE CONDO

Besides managing our material possessions, we are still on the hunt for a renter. We’ve hired a property management company to handle finding a renter and managing the property while we are away, but I would rest much better if we already had someone lined up. 

FINDING A NEW HOME FOR OREO

Oreo, our adorable cat, is still in need of a new home. She’s 11 years old and declawed in her front paws, so she is exclusively an indoor cat. We are looking for someone who doesn’t already have cats or young children (which pretty much excludes most of our friends…). A dog may be fine as long as the dog pretty much ignores her.

Oreo does not like strangers, so her transition period will be significant. Her new owner will need to be patient and persistent in winning her over. Once she has your love, however, she’s a sweetheart. She loves snuggling at night and sitting on my lap after she’s eaten dinner. In the morning, she loves to lay on the floor and be petted while I put on my running shoes.

If you know of anyone who may be interested, please let me know! We are crushed that we can’t bring her with us and want a really good home for her.

 

By the way, did you notice how many of the pictures from above she managed to sneak into? She’s so frickin’ adorable. 

We head out July 1! What!?!?