From the moment we decided to retire early and move into our 5th wheel so we could travel, to the moment we actually did it, took about three years. Looking back, the time went by pretty fast, but going through the motions really DID take a lot of time. By 2019, we lacked only a couple of mortgages before our debt journey ended and our financial independence journey began.
I am a packrat. Always have been. Not a hoarder – I never kept trash items, but as a school teacher, I always held onto random things – bottles of glitter and paint and glue, reams of white and colored paper, packs of spiral notebooks and graphing paper, cardboard boxes, small giveaway items, etc.. I had several shelving units in my garage that contained boxes and boxes of “school” stuff. I also had packed away: my kids’ artwork, trophies, wall plaques, certificates of achievement, and school pictures and papers. Then there were the boxes and boxes of receipts, tax information, old utility bills and bank statements, random paperwork that might or might not ever be needed again, love letters, old birthday and holiday cards, postcards, and photos. And more photos. And STILL more photos. We also seemed to have enough Christmas decorations for a 30,000 square foot house (ours was only 2000). Behind the Christmas decorations were boxes for Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter, and every other holiday that needed a window ornament or wreath. Off of our kitchen, we had a wall of storage cabinets that were filled with a variety of Rubbermaid and Tupperware food containers (with lids!), the shave-ice, Margaritaville, and cake ball maker machines that were each used exactly once, and enough aluminum foil rolls to reach the moon and back. We also had “extra” paper towels, gallons of cleaning products, laundry detergent, dish soap, enough dry food products to feed the city, and enough Kleenex to blow every nose of everyone, forever. In our paranoia during and after Covid, we also collected enough toilet paper to last for a year. Or more. Oh, tools! We had enough tools to outfit an automotive garage and a team of home handymen. Painting supplies? Extra flooring (wood laminate AND ceramic tiles!)? Plumbing fixtures? Electrical outlet covers and boxes? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. It was all there.
At some point early in the ownership of our home, we renovated the master bedroom to double the size of the closet. Yet I was STILL able to completely pack it to the point where barely another pair of shoes could fit. I have a tendency to gain and lose weight, and had pretty much every size imaginable crammed into that small room, even though I usually wore the same few outfits to work. There were clothes from all decades, from the 1980s to the 2020s, and all colors and styles. There were belts, scarves, undergarments, tights, socks (3 giant bins!), work shoes, sneakers, loafers, slippers, and several pairs of high heels that had not been worn since the 1990s….and Mike’s few things.
I am also a bibliophile. I love books, and from a very young age, began collecting everything from true crime to child development to research books. My library contained over 1000 volumes, and, I must say, was the most beautiful room in my house. I had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on every wall, a daybed, a big, round marble table, and a couple of cheetah fabric-covered, comfy reading chairs. It was a quiet and peaceful place.
As you can see, we had a LOT of stuff. In every closet, under every bed, in every cabinet, in every drawer, in the attic, in the garage, in boxes and bins, on shelves and in the backyard shed – stuff was everywhere.
However, we had gotten to the point in our lives that we just didn’t need or want most of the belongings we had spent so much time and money acquiring. We wanted to downsize into our 40-foot 5th wheel, and whatever didn’t fit, had to go. What came next became known as “The Purge.”
The first garage sale of The Purge took four days to complete, and there was still so much left over after three days, we ended up having a “free” sale on the final day, where we were pretty much begging people to take as much as they could fit into their vehicles. Over a year later, we had the second garage sale of The Purge, and it turned out exactly the same as the fist garage sale had. Three days of sales, one day of giving away everything that was left. The third, and final, garage sale actually happened after we were already living in the RV. Again, the final day was giveaway day. My mantra during that three years was: Everything Must Go! And I meant it. I had always sought comfort in my possessions, my things, as if I had no ability to remember experiences. Yes, I had photographic remembrances, as well as magnets, postcards, t-shirts, and random touristy items that I would display proudly for a few months, maybe longer. Then, those items would make their way to a drawer, a box, or the back of a shelf. Ultimately, though, those items were weighing us down, and the more of them that left our home, the happier we became. Our dream of having only the things we needed was coming to fruition, and we were more motivated each year when we started filling garage sale boxes.
Was it hard? YES. At first, I just got rid of things I wasn’t attached to and/or didn’t use. That wasn’t too bad. We decluttered and started slowly, going through every single item in one room each month. We boxed up the things we felt we could part with, and if anything tugged at our heartstrings, we kept it – for the time being. The final garage sale was much harder. Those final items were the ones that had made the cut from the earlier Purges, and there were some items that I might have kept, if I had the space. We still have a few boxes of books that won’t stay in the RV, plus some mementos and paperwork. Fortunately, we have family who will let us keep a few boxes at their homes.
We have three kids, and each was presented with several boxes of their own stuff. Report cards, artwork, school pictures and memorabilia, trophies, old toys, items they requested as we were downsizing, and paperwork we had kept for each of them over the years. Since our youngest is 28, we made the presentation of the boxes into more of right of passage into adulthood than a we’re-dumping-this-stuff-on-you moment. It worked out okay, I think. Those boxes are probably still in their garages, if I had to guess….
The largest downsizing projects were going through over 50 years each of photos and paperwork. It took a couple of years to get to the point we were ready to deal with those, but one week we finally just sat down and did it. Every photo in the house was kept in storage bins until we were ready to deal with this project. I think we had maybe half a dozen large tubs that held them all, and as we had been cleaning and going through each room for a couple of years, there were a lot of memories to go through. Mike took a pile and I took a pile. We went through our stacks of photos and threw away any picture where we didn’t recognize anyone, along with any place we didn’t recognize. That pile was enormous! Why had we kept all of those random pictures all these years? Then we went through everything that was left and sorted pictures for the kids, and kept a few for ourselves. It was fun, as we laughed and poked fun at ourselves from days gone by, along with recounting the memories of the photos, and the times they were taken. It was cathartic and necessary for the next phase in our journey.
Next, came the paperwork. It’s amazing how much of it is generated in this seemingly digital world! Like we did with the pictures, we put all pieces of paper – receipts, statements, warranty information, letters – anything like that – in several boxes. It took about two months, but I went through every piece of paper in the house and scrutinized, organized, and shredded. And shredded. And shredded. It’s amazing how much of the paperwork was junk, not needed, or decades old. Everything that was deemed “important” made the cut, but everything else was either thrown away or shredded. Week after week, there were bags and bags of shred-confetti removed from our home. When it was all finished, we had 2 medium-sized storage bins of photos and mementos, and 2 of paperwork. By the end of these big projects, the kids each had boxes of photos of them and their friends throughout the years, as well as enough paperwork for their adult starter kits.
As we were making the transition to the 5th wheel, we had to get rid of nearly all of our furniture. The kids all had a chance to claim anything they wanted, and we sold or gave away the rest. My beloved library book collection ultimately went to an online reseller, but I was paid a fair price, and I am hopeful that each book will find a new owner who will love them as much I did throughout the years. In order for an item to gain admittance to the RV, most things had to fall into three broad categories: have multiple purposes, not be breakable, or be something we loved and gave us joy (Marie Kondo – Konmari style). We have a few more boxes and storage bins than we want to have, but as time goes on, we suspect that we will downsize even more. For now, we travel. We see the the world while making and cherishing new experiences. Someday, when it’s time to settle down again and plant new roots, we hope to keep things minimal for the sake of our kids. We hope that they appreciate that.
We are Mike and Kristi, and we spent the last decade getting out of debt, saving money, and becoming financially independent so we could retire early and travel the globe. You can also follow our journey on Instagram at MKAlmostThere https://www.instagram.com/mkalmostthere/ and eventually on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6VD3QdcfN_2IIHkjk7V-Q
