Downsizing is Never Ending

I'm not really taking a break this morning because I haven't even got started on today. It's 9:15am local time. I've had a couple of cups of Starbucks Columbian coffee, read blogs not only about RV traveling but those on my Feedly list that covers Mac O/S, Bedlam Farm, Sports, etc. Still after all of that reading, only 2-3 hours of my morning has slipped away. I'm not really a morning person but the hounds wake up daily about the same time (6:30am) and want to go outside for their morning trip. I am usually more productive in the hours after 12 noon.....so I have convinced myself today I can still get a lot accomplished even with a slow start.

After almost 2 months of retirement, I am finding out something my dad told me years ago after he retired ... "know what you are going to do for that day when you get up" ... maybe not a list of things to do but a good idea of what you want to accomplish. Otherwise it's like a few days I have had getting nothing done with a whole lot of hours spent on the computer either reading, commenting on forums, looking at spreadsheets or like yesterday .... moving all of my .jpg files from my "Documents" folder into a "Pictures" folder. I also downloaded them in bulk into iPhoto which was pretty fast, going through over 4,000 photos by "select all", import into the iPhoto library and clicking the box "not to import duplicates". This caught any photos I had not previously imported into iPhoto after my switch from Windows to Apple in October 2010.

Sad to think it was beautiful yesterday and I sat inside doing self-imposed computer work. I was still able to sit outside and watch the soft summer rain in the late afternoon. While smelling the rain, I pictured doing the same thing in places out west in my future travels.

Now to the title ... "Downsizing".  I did some major downsizing last summer and fall, taking 3 Hummer truck loads (cargo area) to Goodwill. That was mostly clothes, dishes, and silverware. Then this past winter I didn't buy anything that I did not need....zip, nothing! Yet as I walked around last night sorting stuff that was either going to be sold online or taken to Goodwill, I could not believe how much I had to get rid of, even after getting down to the basics last summer and fall. The clothes I used to wear for work can now be sold or donated.

Where does "stuff" come from?

What would you think if you went to see a house for sale and that house was fairly empty? Should it be all or nothing? Such as selling everything from books to desks and some furniture or should I leave the interior of the house looking full, as if someone really did live here?

I am past the point of giving things away....possessions that are left have more value than "free", plus any money earned from online sales is gas money down the road....that is the way I look at it. So it might be more time consuming taking photos and writing for sale ads for Craig's List and eBay but there is some potential dollars sitting around here for things I no longer need.

By the time potential buyers view the house, it might be pretty bare. Will that be a problem in getting the house sold? I'd hate to have to wait until after the house is sold, and then rush to sell things during the time period the house deal is closing. If for some reason the house has not sold by the time I leave to pick up the Escape trailer, I've always planned on leaving it empty for the realtor to show.

Usually my rule on clothing is if it has not been used in the past year or two, it is gone. I am having a hard time applying that same rule to my vintage 33LP vinyl record "unintentional" collection, or the 80's cassette tape collection and a lot of the CD collection. I can't remember the last time I even listened to a record album but find it hard to let them go. I have an interested Craig's List buyer for all the music I have. I think getting rid of all the cassette tapes and record albums is a good idea, while keeping just favorites of CDs and DVDs. I need to download the CDs into my iTunes or iPhone and play them that way.

DVD's are another story. Like all media changes, I never intended having as many as I do. Yes, I do watch some movies more than once or more than a few times over the years. Due to available hard drive space I will not be downloading them into any iMac or iPad to watch later.

Other than that, I don't have much left. Some of the furniture, the vacuum, the Rug Doctor carpet cleaner are spoken for when I leave. That only leave things I think I will store somewhere out west in a very small storage room, for when I want to set up a new base camp. Then I think forget that storage and sell everything. Whatever is left, I could have a weekend yard sale and I'm pretty sure most if not all would be gone.

As I write this post about downsizing and telling you what is left, I realized I really don't have that much more to get rid of.

Well, I'm going back to work loading stuff into the FJ for my recycling trip today, a possible future Goodwill trip and taking photos for my eBay and Craigs List ads.

Action Has Started

This week I was finally able to mentally let go of thinking over and over what I had decided to do or not to do. That seemed to help me a lot mentally of not second guessing my plans and have a clearer idea of what was taking place. By doing that and listening to what my mind was telling me, things have been falling into place and some things at a fast pace. I actually marked my calendar for the first time today, showing the date that I will send in my resignation at work. It will be a shock to many. I will then have my last day at the job two weeks later, then a week at home wrapping up loose ends and plans to be on the road by the end of that week.

It's been a really good few days. I have been in the action mode the past couple of days. I have re-listed my Mini Cooper and Chevy Truck on Craig's List. I will sit them down by the highway with For Sale signs after the snow stops flying but thought I might find a buyer sooner via Craig's List. I have also taken pictures of things I will be selling on eBay. I usually take pictures first of all of the things that I am selling, download them, edit them and then write the ads for each item to list it.  I've always had good luck with eBay and was a full-time seller, Power Seller a few years ago before closing my online business in 2010. So, it might take me a little longer to get the ads written but by Sunday night I plan to have the majority of my items up for sale either as fixed price or auction items.

Taking a tour through the house, there is not that much work to clear it out. I have downsized a lot last summer and this past fall, so now that has paid off. With what possessions I have left, I know exactly what is going and what is staying. The inside of my house is not barren but just the minimum things I needed to live in a house.

Remember when I have said that yard work and general house maintenance had gone from enjoyable a few years ago to a dreaded waste of time recently?  I cannot wait to get away from that. It's a never ending battle where there always seems there was something to do to the yard, house or one of the 3 vehicles, taking up most of my free time on weekends. I will trade all of that for just some of that maintenance being transferred to my rig as needed.

I will probably not talk names of states in my plans until I actually hit the road, but the "road trip" is all laid out and in the final stages of preparation.

The "momentum train" has left the station and is moving forward at a nice pace.

House Truck Car and H3 Hummer For Sale

Craig's List was not a fast process but I have listed my 2006 Mini Cooper S and Chevy 2500 Truck on Craig's list. This was after spending the day washing all 3 vehicles and taking some current photos for the ads.

The For Sale Sign for my house has gone back and forth from the front yard to out of view ... LOL

Each time I have posted it out front, down by the highway, I get calls asking about it. The small town local people probably know more about this house than I do and I have lived here for 17 years. My friend that is a popular real estate agent has told me over the years people have asked about my house and if it was available. She feels it will sell fairly quick based on the current market.

So I'll see what happens with everything for sale. I have only tried selling 1 set of Z4 wheels and tires on Craig's list in the past and the only response I got was from my favorite people down in Nigeria with the best shipping costs there is. (j/k)

Yet, people I work with tell me they have always had great luck selling cars and trucks on Craig's List.

It is still early tonight, so I will be listing some personal items on eBay, I still have good results selling there.  That will be the plan tomorrow, taking pictures and writing eBay ads...a lot of this stuff I was going to sell even I had stayed here.

The days off I have from work (The Forced Friday Off by the Government) show me what retirement would be like if I were to stay "status quo" .... and I can't do it that way.  I have to be on the move otherwise I would go nuts sitting here day after day. I have seen about all I want to see within a 5 hour drive from here, over the years I have lived here. I have looked at keeping the house and traveling, yet that changes with costs on the road and costs at home to keep it maintained, also with possible additional stress leaving a house empty for extended period of time. I have had to do that in the past for 6-10 month periods, all with negative results. 

There are periods of great weather in Indiana over the course of the year but it's tough living through the extreme weather changes as you get older. As temps and humidity become unbearable, the cost of electricity increases rapidly. As those temps drop into the single digits with ice and snow in the winter, the cost of electricity increases rapidly. I don't know about your local electric company but mine prefers to charge you more per kilowatt during the "high usage" months, as they call it.

I would prefer to be pulling my electric from a solar system and at times a small generator if needed or boondocked in locations to beat each extreme weather and not paying the overpriced power companies. I even have to pay $32 per month for a "facility" charge on my utility bill....they could have built a castle with that monthly fee per customer!!  LOL

So, even when traveling full time was not even a thought ... I was still thinking about moving back out west after I retired and do that I would have been selling my house.

Here are my 2 Craig's List ads links. For some reason when I post links, they never change to the color of font that I have chosen for links....so you can hover your curser over each and click.  Feel free to send the links to your friends if they interested.  I am also open for suggestions for a better ad if needed. 

1994 Chevy Cheyenne 2500

2006 Mini Cooper S For Sale

It's good to see a plan come together.  No time limits, just continuous daily action toward that goal of traveling....hounds and all.