House to Backpacking.

We commonly get asked how we went from my spouse's beautiful house on the hill, to living out of backpacks for months on end, to then becoming full time RVers?! So let me explain a little bit.

When my spouse sold his home, it was a big decision. The idea of a trip through SEA (Southeast Asia) was really exciting and what we wanted to do. We knew floating his home while we travelled and travelling was financially not possible. He had also said if he was to travel again for a long period of time again, he would want to sell.

He had real estate come through, he was given a list of 5 little cosmetic things to do to the home. We completed the small list, he listed the house, it sold AND then the PURGE started. He had his house prior to us being a couple, so I had all my belongings in a storage unit, we felt we did not need doubles of items.

We started with his house and we went through it, room by room, closet by closet, box by box and just tossed stuff he hadn't used in the last year (or more). He donated over 20 bags to good-will and we did a few dump runs. We tossed a lot of things: extra linens, kitchenware we did not use, old gaming systems, books, clothes, beds the list goes on. He also got the task of going through his garage and tossing things he did not use or had expired. We donated a lot of things, but also sold a lot online too. We used Kijiji to sell items, while also reaching out to family and friends, who might be interested in some of the items we were getting rid of.

Then I took on the task with a very close dear friend of going through my storage unit. It was 10 wide by 10 in height with a line on the wall at 6 ft saying " DO NOT STACK BOXES OVER THIS POINT", I had stacked boxes past "that" point. It was embarrassing, messy, time consuming and slightly painful. However after 6 hours of organizing, laughter and just tossing stuff it was done. I donated 6 bags to good-will, left some usable items at the front of the rental space (check with the rules of the rental space before you do this) and tossed a bunch of garbage.

We then got a 20 ft long shipping container, what we had left of his house and my storage unit all went into it. Even after going through everything and purging, it was FULL to the top. No more room, close your eyes and hope the doors do not pop open when you walk away.

It is hard going through your entire lives and getting rid of things. Mainly because as you start you say "I might use that '', "I was saving that for.." or you end up on a trip down memory lane. We encountered all those obstacles and that's why we ended up doing another large purge a year later. At this point we had not done any research on minimalist lifestyle or how to purge properly. We had just gone through and kept what we thought was important.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

We were moving onto living out of backpacks! So we closed the doors and walked away to start our trip. Cheers!