Getting ready!

[Roger450]

Its been a whirl wind of emotion and reality trying to prepare for life on the road. Cindy will be keeping a log of our travels, adventures and of course the occasional mishap ( its bound to happen right)

We started off talking and doing alot of soul searching to try and determine if this would really be a life we could live in. After much consideration, we have decided to jump right in, well sort of. Knowing that we have to down size considerably, choosing what to keep and what to get rid of was alot harder than we thought.

Some stuff we just couldnt part with for now. So with the blessing of my sister and my father-in-law we will be able to store a few keepsake items at their place. That helped alot!

Next we talked to a realtor that said right now it shouldnt be problem selling the house, the market is hot right now, so now its time to spruce the place up, clean out the clutter, sell off the stuff we dont need and hit the road for Iowa... Thats where my father in law lives. We plan on using his address for Homebase. I'm still researching resident laws and benefits. I wanted to keep my Texas resident but Cindy thinks having Iowa is better.

I got my truck running and registered. I still have some work to do on it, mainly the paint, it needs some, its white and gray, gray being where the white fell off. LOL I will be using it alot in the next few weeks checking on its dependably. Keeping fingers crossed I dont have to spend a ton to bring it up to speed. I plan on using this as my tow vehicle.

There is a whole lot more to the story, just all I have time for today!
Stay tuned.

 

[Bela's Mom]

Looking forward to updates on your adventures!

 

[rvwandering]

It looks like everything is coming together nicely. It's a lot of work and you have so many things to consider but the effort is well worth it. Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[Roger450]

Hiya Jo, Tony and Karen

Spent the better part of this week taking pictures, getting ready to post ads on craigslist and getting ready for a garage sale. Its kinda sad when you realize that you need to have a sale to get rid junk first so you can have another sale to sell off the good stuff. Im hoping the weather will be decent this weekend so we can have it.

Found a guy thats selling a seat and a door handle that I need for my truck. I have to replace the fuel pump I just found out, thats another 60. I have enough scrap metal in the bed to afford that!

We decided to put the realtor off for a couple of weeks due to still getting the house ready and the sales we are trying to have, it just got to be too much of a rush feeling for us. My allergies have been terrible this week!

 

[Bela's Mom]

Sounds like a good idea to hold off on the sale of your house until you are through with all of the other stuff you want to do. Rushing does create a lot of stress.

I live in Texas too so I know what you are talking about with the allergies. Those wildflowers sure are purty, though, huh?

Hope you get to feeling better soon! Good luck on your sales!

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Downsizing can easily be more than we thought it would be. Ask us
We went from a house to a large 1bdrm casita, before selling off enough to move into the RV. Even then, we had a van and antiques (in temp storage) to sell yet.
Selling out of the storage was pretty cool, as the mgr allowed me to put up a sale notice for other renters to join in. I ran ads on Craigslist. 6-7 weekends (spaced out), several other renters opened their units to clear out stuff. I found a retired guy with a taco cart who would come out for the sales.
It was fun and productive.

Craigs tip....post a week ahead. Post new ad, (not re-post) on Thurs morning. Start sales on Friday early (like 6am), as that's when the big buyers are out spending. Sometimes you come out better even with their lower offers since they will buy more. I had a guy who came to see a $100 chair spent over $1200 out of pocket cash. Been there, done that myself back in the day.
Yard salers are out on Sat and after church Sunday. By 2pm sunday its about all over for the weekend.
This based on my experience only.
(bought out storage units long before it became a popular TV show).

 

[Roger450]

Thank you Jo, Yes I sure do love the springtime color as well.

Jay. Margie and Bindi, Excellent advice. I hadnt thought of selling out of a unit, I didnt think they would allow it, but I will check on that for sure. My mother back in the day was the G-sale queen. I learned alot from her. Your right on point with that info too but she would start Thurs morning to get the dealer attention and did very well. Its a real pain to get set up but once it gets to rolling, its a blast. I love hagglin with people. Thanks for the info guys!

 

[WheelEstate USA]

I was sad about having to sell off my wonderful antiques, but it served to pay off what few debts where lurking. My beautiful desk was among the first to go and after that it was easier to cash out the rest, tho I still felt that twinge of regret at times. I had to think about all the great places we'd go, things we'd see and people we'd meet. I had to remember that we'd be doing it debt free.
An almost overwhelming excitement took over the day I watched the last few items leave in that truck. I felt a sense of freedom I'd missed and knew belonged to me and was the most valuable possession I'd ever had.
My vagabond blood surged, my heart soared, and my soul was reborn.

Here we are now....looking to downsize even more. Life in the motorhome has been just great and I wouldn't trade this memory for nuttin'. Yet, we see a way to travel more affordably and see even more places on my SS income.
For us, I see this, not as a step down to a van, but a step up to a more mobile life. I'll have less, in terms of systems and equipment to worry about, giving my mind more freedom.
Its time to turn a new page and begin a new adventure.

 

[Belinda2]

Roger450,
Were all here and were right here behind you, to support you. You have each other and this is a real comfort so you can go through this together. Your family is also supporting you, so this is really wonderful.
When you take pictures of the things to sell, somehow it's not like totally letting them go. Somehow, your just condensing them down into your digital camera...ha ha ha. Keep thinking of your goal to save money and have less to take care of and maintain. You could log it into a budget and see that you got what the item was fully worth with it's age and depreciation. You should feel good about what you've accomplished.
Were here. Take care.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Belinda...In order to totally let go of things, I found it best to delete the file pics of all those things.
Letting go is the biggest part of moving on to the mobile lifestyle.
Go forward with no regrets.

 

[Belinda2]

Humm. Good point and mentally healthy. I'll have to think about that.

 

[Seraphim]

We still have the house, and are only half-timers at this point, but for the past year have been getting all our stuff cleaned out. Every Monday, garbage night, I spend the day going through things: out to the garbage or to Goodwill. Many things I put out by the curb, knowing someone who has a use for them, or can make a few bucks selling them, will pick them up before the garbage service arrives. One man came by wanting to buy the basketball pole, because his son had a birthday coming up. My son's on his own now, so I told the man to take it with my blessing. There's no need for me to keep what I never use, and so many people who can use things I have, but have no use for. Things are just that - things; and too often they just tend to clutter up our lives.

 

[Roger450]

Thanks for the words of encouragement Belinda. I think keeping some pics of the past life would be healthy for me at least for the memories, good and bad. Not that I would miss the way I used to live but to remind me of why I was doing it in the first place and to prevent making the same mistakes twice. When I ask myself "Does this add value to my life and allow me to live free?" That statement alone sets the road straight for me and helps me keep my eye on the prize, total freedom.

Jay & Margie, Bindi, Right now I dont see it that way for me, maybe over time I will but. I have been in a few different situations over the years where a picture was all I would have of my past, good or bad, because all of those experiences made me who I am and was my life. I dont feel I have a problem moving on. Once I'm done, I'm done! Ask my ex, LOL. Kinda like the quote" People who forget about the past are bound to repeat it" I personally have been there, done that.

Seraphim, I live right next to a busy state hwy and if I ever set stuff on the curb its usually gone in a couple of hours. When the time comes I had planned on calling "helping hands" , its like Goodwill, to come get the left overs. I have been pretty busy with the house and all the repairs, doesn't give me alot of time to spend on going through things yet, but Im going to set out some boxes marked store,kids,sale,survival,junk . When I have something in my hand, ask myself that question, that should help me get organized fairly quickly. Hope I have a big enough box!

 

[Simran]

Good Luck with you're transition. I hope you end up with a little pocket cash from the sale of all your stuff.

 

[Seraphim]

Sounds like you're on track!

 

[Belinda2]

I thought to myself, as I am a few steps behind you in this process, do I regret living the lifestyle I did? My conclusion was no. I got it out of my system and it was a lifetime dream to live where I did. But, I've done that and if I want the freedom to travel and to travel with my job, even overseas, they have certain age limits. So, now is the time to go if I want to do that also in life.

 

[Roger450]

Just an update...Things are progressing slower than expected, I have quite a few things on craigslist and the local facebook buy,sell,trade groups. Not one response yet. Cindy and I have been painting the inside of the house and going through stuff and sorting in boxes. Spent a big part of Saturday doing yardwork. We lost a couple of employees at work and that has me running longer hours there and has me wore out by the time I get home. I am still positive everything will work out in time, Im not going to rush anything, and just go with the flow. The main thing is we have a goal, and a plan to get to that goal. Still excited and going forward! Yall have a good one!

 

[Roger450]

Cindy has been steady at painting the inside of the house while I have been making repairs and such. Some of my stuff that I didn't think would sell easy in a garage sale hasn't moved a bit on craigslist. Dropped prices this morning hoping to stir some activity. I really need to make some decent cash on this stuff in order to get on the road. Im starting to wonder if everyone is selling and nobody is buying, especially frivalious things. I just read a book I got off amazon call " the kindness of strangers, penniless across America" I dont read much but it was recommended by another member here on one of there post. RVSue I think it was. It was the best 8 cents I spent in a long time.. Thank you!

 

[Simran]

My experience with garage sales is that they are good at moving things you don't want to throw. But are not that good at generating a lot of cash flow. Not sure what U R trying to sell but on craigslist it may just take awhile for the right person to see it. Some things you just can't give away. Even if they ARE worth money. It depends on what your market base would be.

I know my heavy sewing machines would be extremely hard to sell on craigslist. There just isn't the demand. Of course everyone thinks they would like to have one until they see what there are actually worth.

 

[Roger450]

Well its been almost a month since my last post. I didnt want you guys thinking I bailed out so here is an update. For the past month my job has me going out of town for most of the week so my dear wife has been stuck with the task of "freshening up" the house. Sheetrock repair and painting so far she is doing a wonderful job! I have had some stuff for sale on craigslist and finally sold some of it, YEAH!

Now the house A/c has took a dump and the replacement cost put a big hit on the finances, but now when the house sells we can say it has a new hvac system, should be a selling point! I Hope!

Oh, like I mentioned before, we told the family