part 4. House and Car
Welcome back to our little travelling writings and hope it is helping you work your way down the path to living in a van or Motorhome, so am hoping you are still working at this time and it can help because your money for the living in van stage is still some time away and you ask when is best time to leave work, well it is about 3 months from your D-day date. Because you need to keep busy up till they day you leave .
vanning Life is Great with good company
So the planning and getting ready is moving along and now you should be getting into the Do’s and Don'ts, I hope and remember you need to set time lines so if you have all good and you should be about 12 months out by now and have or
close to having the van and car so you can start to see what is going to happen, you will start around this time start to wonder if its all worth it and yet be over joyed about the thought of travelling, everybody get this feeling, keep going it will be very hard around the last few weeks, but remember why you started this and the reward once you start will be worth all the pain now and even when you start out you will have days of why did we do this, but it will get better once
you get into a routine, so for this section, I believe you have the car and van sorted so now we get into the house, and whether you sell or rent it out is for you the have sorted but what ever it is the same, so off we go
Not much to go now and you have the car and van, and it all looks great, and you are getting excited, you are giving away stuff in the house, and it does not seem to be getting any less,.
Time to put a plan B into action, start by getting a skip bin in on the weekend and throw out all the things you have not used and either broken or nobody wants, go room by room and throw out something and go into the yard and get rid of the old barbie that never gets used and in that shed get the shit out and throw it away, yes you will have that thought I will use that, and I need that, trust me in about 1 year, you will wish you got rid of that.
So next is to get one room in house and empty it out and put packing boxes on each side of the room and this is where you need to be honest and put stuff to get rid of one side for garage sales and stuff to keep on another side.
now this is not the end as you will and should move stuff back and forth. Now the stuff you are getting rid of completely straight to the bin and gone, and so every week or so during the time you got left the empty room by room, and you will be surprised how quick and what you will get rid of along the way.
The what I take list should be taking shape and then a list of what I need. It will shock you what is different on each list.
If you have read the What I Take Page yet, you will notice that using the stuff you are taking cupboard is smaller, and you are getting used to that stuff.
Now the car must be right in a few ways, Mechanically sound and the brakes are good, a good GPS system as you will travel to a place you have never been, new tires for towing and the best radio and music sorted as radios don’t always work on road.
Put stuff you really need into the van and plan a trip for a weekend away and take very little and see how you go and how the van goes.
This will give you the idea and do this for approx. 6 months on weekends you can after that time plan a longer trip maybe a week and again only take wants in van, and you will see a list of things coming into your head on what to take out and put in, remember time is still on your side, so you have a 12 months window.
Now before you go, so now its Time set the date you plan to live in a van, now that should be if you have the room in the backyard of the house and you should move in 2 weeks before you leave by that time house will be near empty, and you now are on your own. And it’s a good time to see if that van mattress is good to sleep on or get it replaced as that has to be right
The thing with this is you are still within your living limits in that if you need something, you know where to get it or something you don't want get rid of to a friend or dump.
Remember keep family well informed on what you are doing and planning and most of all, talk with your partner on all those feeling and your hopes and what you think will happen and don’t sweat things like what happen if we don’t like it etc. as everybody does and it will be ok, ask question of those who are travelling, and one reason I tell people to go to van parks and talk to the full timers and you will see the joy in their faces and the info they can give you.
Ok, D-day is here your first stop should be around 100km from home just far enough that you are out of range and close enough if you forget something or need something.
Remember to smile as you have just done what others only dream about, yes its hard work but now you can sit back and chose your life from a road map
I will be putting out further writings on this travelling for the first time issue in the future, so I hope you are enjoying reading this and are getting some info about travelling, its really not that hard.
So next time we will explore more about setting out, bye for now.