It Can Be Done!

Jill's Journal: This is what it looks like when a family is hyper-committed to downsize, purge, and consolidate: less than 40 square feet worth of “keepers,” all from a 1,500 square foot house, garage, attic, separate office with almost 1,000 square feet of additional storage space, plus a horse barn and varied farm equipment. It really can be done!

And truly, we kept more than we thought we would. I’ll bet we could go through it again and cut it down by half. But as we’re getting down to the wire, we’ve started having thoughts like this, “Well, I really like my wine glasses. We have the storage space; why not keep them instead of having to buy them again someday when we settle down?” So yes, we kept more than we intended. But most of the boxes are full of sentiment, like an antique mirror from Rob’s grandmother who died before he was born. Or framed family portraits. Or my wedding dress (which I considered parting with, but I have three daughters and what if it means something to one of them someday?).

Our storage unit is 10x10, the size of a small horse stall; Rob’s tools and the girls’ bedroom furniture will take up the rest of the space. Life’s essentials will fit into the RV; everything else is gone or going!

It has been wonderful to go through every item in our possession. A true journey. We learned there’s so much we don’t need and/or that wasn’t worth keeping if it had been in a box for the last 10 years. How many people never go through all their belongings in their lifetime and it’s left for their children to do after they’re gone? Hopefully I'll still be on this earth for a long time to come, but I don’t want to do that to my kids. Rob and I have commented to each other so many times that everyone should downsize like this in mid-life; it’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride (lots of highs and lows) sorting through every single piece of paper, memento, item of clothing, etc. But like any great roller coaster, it has left us flushed with excitement and accomplishment at tackling it (and surviving to tell the tale)!

It’s Really Happening!

Jill's Journal: The past two weeks have been a flurry of activity as we depersonalize the house and prepare it for market. It’s always been neat and tidy, but we’re going the extra mile to make sure it stands out when we hang that “For Sale” sign out front. It’s incredibly exciting to see progress and realize that our “launch date” is a mere two months away!

Another successful garage sale is in the books, more big items have been sold on Craig’s List, and charities ranging from All God’s Children to Blue Grass Farms Charities to Goodwill have been blessed with boxes upon boxes of donations.

We’ve also “bought” a mailbox at a place that will enable us to keep our Kentucky residency for now and has a professional mail forwarding service to boot. We’ve made decisions on online banking for the road. And perhaps most significantly, we’ve rented a small storage unit and began moving in the boxes I’ve packed of sentimental and significant items we’re saving.

Somehow, that made it all real to me. Not buying the fifth wheel or the big truck to pull it. Not the mountain of preparations we’ve been making for months and months. Not the hours of planning and dreaming and discussing we’ve done for the last 1 1/2 years. Nope. It was the storage unit; such a minor little step along the way, yet when we scaled it, it hit me. It really hit me. We’re doing this. It’s really happening!