20K and a Year Away

I have a countdown clock on my phone to keep track of when I will be doing 2 things. First, the date I will give notice at work. Second, my last day of work. When I set them up, there were so many days before either one was going to happen. I just checked it and, holy smokes! I will be giving notice at work in 10 days and I will leave that job in 35 days. That is amazingly close.

An update on where we are in our preparations. We are selling everything! We sold the beds and bed frames, the bike, the keyboard, the scooter, the metal detector, the mixer, clothes, and shoes. We have people coming to look at the TV and other furniture. We still have so much to get rid of. I am even selling my car before we go! We are sleeping on the air mattresses we brought with us when we moved here a year ago. I think that is pretty full circle.

I have posted things for sale on Poshmark, Nextdoor, OfferUp, Craigslist, and even have a friend who listed everything on Facebook Marketplace for me because I deactivated my account years ago (and I am feeling only slightly hypocritical about this). I am becoming a regular at the post office. I find these online selling platforms interesting. I knew they were used and useful, but I did not know the huge number of people who use them regularly. There are people who have 100s of sales. I don’t even have that much stuff! I have already sold something on each one of these platforms, even the Marketplace.

I am not really into these sale sites. If I am looking for furniture, like a cabinet or dresser, I will check them out, but that is it. I don’t do a lot of searching the for sale ads. I also have an aversion to regular shopping and completely avoid garage sales. I think they are fantastic for cleaning out your house and making a little money while you are at it, but they are not for me. I will say, however, that we found a fantastic dresser/changing table at a yard sale when Axel was born. We kept it until just last week – it was given to the next owner as part of the furniture purge.

I have moved so many times in my life that this all seems pretty normal. My kids, on the other hand, are pretty sure I am a maniac. They are sorting their stuff like it is Swedish death cleaning. Only keep it if it is absolutely necessary. They are having to make emotional decisions about their belongings. My oldest plans on moving to South Korea to teach English, so I think this is actually helpful, but it is hard to give away things that have given you comfort. I have very few possessions that I think of as necessary, so my pile is pretty small, but then again I am looking for a minimal lifestyle on purpose.

Axel will be starting the 7th grade next week, too. We signed up with an online service for classes so we can do them anywhere we have wifi. During the lockdown last year, he was a virtual student. It was emotionally hard, but he managed to pull through. I am hoping this virtual-by-choice will be a little different than the school system. I am absolutely sure he will be learning some fantastic things he would never get in a classroom! We plan on learning as much as we can about where we are and cultures around us. He will definitely be practicing new languages!

I have purchased plane tickets from Florida to Portland – one way – and boxed up all the stuff going to donations. We have 30 or so small boxes to send to Washington for storage. The house is being cleaned and minor repairs done before it goes on the market. With the state of real estate right now, I don’t think it will be on there for long. According to our agent, it will take 30 to 45 days to close after we get an offer. As soon as it closes, we are making the rounds to visit family and then we are heading to the first stop on our adventure.

I think I will be able to reveal the big plan in my next post. Everything depends on something else happening before I can solidify the next step in the plan, but it is coming together.

If you are looking for a comfortable chair or 4K TV, send me a note. I might have one for sale. Cheap. No delivery… well, maybe I can drop it off. Where do you live?