Downsizing to van size! Easy to say…hard to do! What do I do with all this STUFF???
After downsizing from a 4 bedroom 2 story house with a full basement to a ranch style home with no basement but with a kick ass garage…LOL! I loved my garage. I had already gotten rid of a lot of STUFF! But darn…this was not going to fit in a van. So I gave it all away. Sounds easy eh? Nope!! Think about all the stuff in your house and taking that and making it fit into 8 cupboards. HAHA! Everything had to go. So I gathered my kids and my friends and asked them what they wanted. Mementos, family pictures, things I kept close to my heart I gave as I would if I had died. Funny one of the hardest things to get rid of was my Archie book collection. I had Thousands. What to do with them. I am involved in a Custom Van show called Vanfest. It is filled with my friends. We give “goody” bags as you come in the gate. I put them in there. A little something special of me to all my friends. I made my heart smile to walk by campsites and see my friends in their lawn chairs reading Archie Comics. The other was my cat Tim. He is a large black and white cat that has his own personality. He would greet me at the door when I got home just like a dog. He would also bite me when he was angry. LOL! He is an awesome cat but as I work full time it would not be fair to him and he is an outdoor/indoor kind of cat. My good friend Jeff took him and he has a beautiful house on lots of land and sends me pictures of Tim laying on the back porch! He is happy and although it hurt like hell to give him up. It is what had to be done.
That is the physical things I did to make the transition. Let’s get into the emotional part of making this move. Because that is the most important. People tell me I am brave and strong. HAHAHA! I did not feel very brave. I was TERRIFIED! What was I THINKING?? I live in and work in Canada. It gets darn cold. Not to mention the whole concept of not having a stable place to go back to. It is unnerving. I had owned my own home since I was in my 20’s. Not having that 1 foot on solid ground was darn scary! My friends and family were divided. My girls who are both out on their own thought it really was the life for me. I had always been a weekend wanderer. We traveled everywhere in the old ford. Some of my friends thought I was crazy for what I was doing. And maybe they were right but in the end I am responsible for my life and the decisions I make. So with a heavy heart I said good bye to my little house and stepped off that last safe step and moved into my Roadtrek! I am going to make this work!! Little did I know how much it would change a lot of things in my outlook, what is important. How much I was going to Love it!!
And the Adventure Begins!