Selling all my belongings, opinions needed please!

[davidsan]

Hi Cheli,

This can be a tough one depending upon your vision of your new lifestyle and your commitment to it.

Ten years after we retired and had  built a beautiful new home, I realized we were owned by our possessions.  So we started on the road of freedom recovery which took about another year to sell home and all of the belongings.  We actually had our best results with the classifieds in our local newspaper and Craigslist.  Most items for sale were high end stuff and generally we received about 50 percent of the original buy price.  Garage sales were the worst, and hardly netted anything as everyone wanted to bargain down to a few cents.  Eventually we bought our freedom by giving the last items away free to Goodwill.

Foolishly, we held on to a few items which we put into storage.  If you are about to travel for only a year or so, this might be a good idea.  However, we ended up five years teaching in the Middle East and then seven years RVing full-time for a total of 12 years. We paid a $100 a month for a storage unit which equals $1200/year and then moved to a smaller unit for a total of $8400 during that time.

Yikes!   In hindsight we should have sold everthing except precious photos and momentos and left them with the kids while we travelled.

Good luck on your adventure!

 

[Cheli]

When you get to your sister's place, set a target amount of money, save it as quickly as possible and hit the road as soon as you can.  Those situations can get ugly fast, and your niece is fast approaching that age where girls need a lot of privacy.  Can you buy a van and park it in her driveway?  Then you can build it out as the money comes in while still keeping a modicum of privacy/distance.

Yes this is the plan.  I want to get in there and get a van as quickly as possible and I can leave it in their driveway and build it out as I can but will have a spot for privacy. 

 

[Cheli]

Foolishly, we held on to a few items which we put into storage.  If you are about to travel for only a year or so, this might be a good idea.  However, we ended up five years teaching in the Middle East and then seven years RVing full-time for a total of 12 years. We paid a $100 a month for a storage unit which equals $1200/year and then moved to a smaller unit for a total of $8400 during that time.

Yikes!   In hindsight we should have sold everthing except precious photos and momentos and left them with the kids while we travelled.

Good luck on your adventure!

I'm hoping this is going to be a long term lifestyle that I will love, but I suppose reality may be different than my vision and it's possible it's not for me.  I certainly hope that's not the case.

I need to just unload it all and stop being burdened by it all for a couple extra bucks.  I'm going to keep a very small amount of personal momentos in one bin worth of stuff at my sisters until I realize I don't even need to hold onto that.

 

[Cheli]

I also do have two friends that each have a spare bedroom that I can go to as well if I need to get away or it doesn't work out at my sisters. I'm fortunate to have options.