When Matt originally told me about his dream of sailing around the world, with our kids, I was seriously skeptical. I mean, who does that? Who quits their job, sells their possessions, homeschools their kids, and sails around the world? And so, he started sharing blogs with me… Family after family after family after family… all doing exactly that.
Matt made friends with many of the families… asking questions, learning so much. I joined a Facebook group of others who are either long-term traveling, or wannabe travelers like us! And we’ve made several new online friends with folks around the world. One new friend I’ve made is another mom of two boys, living in Seattle, and planning to long-term travel with her family. She started a blog FiteInertia.com, where she was recently tagged to blog about their “next big thing” – homeschooling! Definitely a topic we are interested in learning more about.
We were lucky enough to be tagged by the Fites to blog on our next big thing – selling our house and downsizing!
We currently live in a great (big) house, with a beautiful yard and pool, awesome neighbors, a terrific school, and no reason whatsoever to leave. No reason, I mean, other than the fact that we want to sail around the world. And so, we are putting our house on the market in the spring. We almost did it this past spring, but chickened out.
Last weekend, we chose a room in our house as our “sell” room. We decided to put everything we plan to get rid of in it. It was great motivation to clean house. We have been filling it up! Everything from clothes to computer parts to toys (shhh… don’t tell the boys.) It has been freeing and fun. We still have a long way to go, but with a room to use, it is making it really easy as we come across something to just stick it in the room.
Getting rid of stuff is just one part of our next big thing. The other is selling our house.
As we still have three more years before we are out of debt and have saved enough to take off, the reason we want to sell our house now is because we can potentially lower our monthly bills by $1,000 per month. Not only will this help us rid our debt faster, but it will also add to our savings before we take off. Not to mention that living in a smaller house will be a stepping stone to the really small boat we’ll be living on. 🙂
So that’s our next big thing! I think once we sell, we will actually feel like we are on our way to our dream.
In the meantime, we love to read about others who are already following their dreams, like Buckeye Sailboat! They are currently living on their Lagoon 380 (the boat at the top of our list!) We are tagging them to share their next big thing! I am looking forward to reading all about it!
What is your next big thing? Feel free to share it!
Good for you!! Downsizing is hard to do, but SO freeing!! Life on the road is so simple in terms of freedom from the tyranny of “stuff!”
Thanks Jennifer! We are excited and ready to move one step closer… 🙂
Congratulations on taking the next step! Learning to live without so much stuff (or space) is refreshing! The more you get rid of, the more you WANT to get rid of!!!
Yeah! We are so excited for you and the steps you are taking to bring you even closer to your goal.
We have a “sell” room too, and it’s not a coincidence that the room is also my home office where I work from home. We plan to get rid of everything in that room (if you get my drift). 🙂