| By the time I was 18 years old we had lived in 21 | | | | - Take With Us |
| different places, so my wanderlust comes naturally. | | | | - Put In Long-Term Storage |
| Which means it wasn't a complete surprise to my | | | | We actually ended up with a fourth category, "What |
| family when my wife and I decided to sell our house | | | | Do We Do With This?" but things didn't stay in that one |
| and move our family of four into a travel trailer so we | | | | for too long before they got shuffled to one of the |
| could see what was over the next hill (and the one | | | | main categories. |
| after that, too). | | | | By the time spring came to Alaska we had enough |
| The trailer we ended up with is 26' long with 208 | | | | stuff for a killer garage sale. We held it for two |
| square feet - a far cry from the 3,800 square feet on | | | | weekends and things that didn't sell got hauled to the |
| five acres that we started with. Why get such a small | | | | Salvation Army thrift store - no saving them for |
| trailer - especially when our kids are teens and not | | | | another time. We emptied the largest of the storage |
| toddlers? Simple. It came down to our desire not to | | | | units and put the long-term storage items (keepsakes, |
| incur any more debt. We could afford to pay cash for | | | | photo albums, etc.) in a small storage unit. |
| the trailer we ended up with and "no payments" was | | | | Now we were down to just the stuff to take with us |
| worth the smaller size. If you can afford a larger size, | | | | and at that point my wife and daughter decided to fly |
| go for it. But don't let that be a reason why you can't | | | | out of Alaska and visit with relatives for a few months |
| hit the road if that's your dream. | | | | while my son and I finished things and drove down in |
| We went from the house to the trailer in stages, | | | | the pickup. Nice plan, but when we got ready to go I |
| almost by accident, but the way it turned out is now | | | | realized everything we had left was still too much - |
| the way I'd recommend if at all possible. We had no | | | | there's no way we could fit it all in a travel trailer. |
| way to know how long it would take to sell our house | | | | So one more round of going through everything got us |
| so we got that moving as soon as possible - and then | | | | to the point where we could actually get going, buy the |
| when it sold we weren't quite ready to hit the road | | | | trailer and move in. Although once again we had to |
| since it was the middle of winter in Alaska. | | | | load the trailer and whatever didn't fit had to be taken |
| We rented two storage units for most of our things | | | | care of. |
| and found a small furnished apartment, about 750 | | | | The moral of the story is, no matter how much you |
| square feet. Over the next several months we started | | | | think you've downsized already, do it some more! Be |
| going through boxes and putting things in three | | | | more brutal in deciding what you can live without, |
| categories: | | | | because no matter how much you think you need X, |
| - Get Rid Of (Garage Sale or Donate) | | | | Y, and Z, there's only going to be enough room for X. |