How to get ready for WE Life

Everyone wondered why we were bothering to make this big move that required learning new skills, giving away most of our possessions, traveling nine hundred miles, setting up a new home, making new friends, and learning a completely new culture.

It’s about freedom and connection.

Intentional community and ecovillage living are not for everyone, but if your heart is longing for more connection with other humans, more sustainable ways of living on the planet, and challenges to your idea of reality then it might be right for you.You want something different than standard suburban or urban life with two cars, two kids, a mortgage, and relationships that never get the time they need to be as solid as you’d like them to be. You also know what you don’t want.

Everyone planning to move to living the WE life faces the same challenge: what do I do with all my stuff? Most decide to clense their life for this transition by selling all of their earthly goods in order to fund the purchase of their needed camper.To those that have large furnishings that wish to keep until the Gaiaship is built may have gracious relatives with extra space and others spring for monthly storage. But those options aren’t always available. Sometimes, everything must go!

Check out this couples story on why and how they made the choice. Just keep in mind, with Wanderers End, you only stay temporarily in your camper!

At some point around the middle of last year, it occurred to us that the need to pay for our house and all the stuff in it was the only thing keeping us from doing what we truly loved – being together as much as we’d like, living a simpler life in touch with nature, having a plethora of new experiences, meeting and helping many more people, making spontaneous decisions based on how we felt on a given day, and living our own adventure instead of just following the conventional and “safer” path in life.

We were trading away the best years of our life for the almighty steady paycheck so that someday we could enjoy everything we earned.

Forget “someday” though, what about now? What if some unforeseen reason like poor health, a freak accident, the zombie apocalypse, or financial problems meant there was no “someday” out there waiting for us?

We asked ourselves, “If we knew we only had __ more days/months/years to live, what would we do?” The answer was immediately obvious: we would travel.

Late last year, to better cope with the dissatisfaction in our mundane daily routines and the depression that inevitably set in just after and in between vacations, we started joking about ditching our house and figuring out some sort of mobile career so we could just start traveling full-time. The jokes persisted, and after enough time didn’t seem so far-fetched anymore.

We realized that the most realistic option and easiest entry method was an RV. Maybe one day when we don’t have pets anymore we could go a step further and start backpacking on other continents, or cruise all over the world on a sailboat. For now though, we needed some semblance of a home base for us and the 4-legged kids.

We “joked” about these plans so much that – in a moment I still look back on and wonder “what the hell were we thinking?!” – we purchased a beyond-fixer-upper vintage Airstream. The first one we looked at. On a whim.

Jason wonders “what have we gotten ourselves into?!”

The day we brought her home – she definitely needed a LOT of work!

Neither of us had ever owned, driven, worked on or even camped in an RV before the day we bought ours. We had always thought these silver trailers were beautiful though and we were handy enough with home improvements after two house renovations, so we took the leap into RV ownership before we could even second guess ourselves. How’s that for kicking off a life of spontaneity and adventure?

It was a HUGE risk, but one we knew we’d always regret not taking, even if we failed trying. As much as we love our home and the town we live in and are grateful for all it has given us, including the opportunity to meet one another, make some amazing friends, and find lots of success professionally, we need to see something else now. A lot of “something elses,” to be specific.

Keeping a sticks and bricks home has become a greater source of stress than pleasure. Daily life seems so predictable that it’s almost unbearable at times, and we’re having trouble fitting back into our old routines and social expectations. We know that we can only be happy waking up every day not knowing what new and exciting experiences will present themselves. Wanderlust has taken a firm hold on us and “the norm” is no longer sufficient.

Our house is now officially rented for a year starting in September and we started getting rid of most of our stuff, which is easier than we anticipated, knowing that the end result is freedom for the rat race! Finishing touches are happening on the Airstream to get it ready to be our new house, and we’re learning and doing as much as we can to make our personal and business transition as smooth as possible.

I could have bagged everything up and donated it to Good Will in one fell swoop. Done. But many of these things meant something to me. By receiving money in return, I received validation that they meant something to others too. Hopefully you understand what I’m saying from a sentimental standpoint. We’re not talking about spring cleaning. We’re talking about the entire liquidation of a home. It’s a big deal.

In loose chronological order, these are the methods I used to pare down our possessions:

Selling on Craiglist

Craigslist was our starting place. We were eager to get rid of our furniture, the biggest pain to get rid of otherwise, and our best money-makers.

If your in a large city, it’s easy to get responses if the price is right. People inevitably want to negotiate, so we recommend starting a little high with your asking price. Craigslist is super easy to use. List a short description, price, your location, and photos. The longer description and more photos you offer, the more comfortable people will feel contacting you. You do not need to list any personal information. Craigslist can create an anonymous email address for you, and you can give buyers more information when you’re ready.

WARNING! Scammers are out there. It’s healthy to be suspicious, and to be careful about giving out your personal information. Besides the scammers, there are people who are not serious buyers, and who will waste your time if you let them. It can be a pain to weed through the emails and texts, and to set appointments with people who end up not showing.

Overall, I feel that using Craigslist is worth it. We ended up selling a patio set, deep fryer, patio side table, Baldwin piano (/tear), rug, ottoman, bar stools and recliner through Craigslist.

Selling on Facebook to Friends

And then there’s Facebook. As we posted on Craigslist, we also posted about our items on Facebook. Basically, “These are the things we have available. Let me know if you want photos or more info.”

Pros: What’s not fun about relocating your things into friends’ homes!? Plus, they tend to be more reliable than strangers.

Cons? Can’t think of any.

We sold our couch and matching recliner, counter height dining table set, microwave, entertainment center, side tables, and coffee table to friends through Facebook.

From our furniture sales, we made about $2,300. We felt that was pretty fair for what we sold (we obviously didn’t shop at Ethan Allen).

We had been so anxious that a month wouldn’t be long enough to sell all of our furniture. One weekend later, we were down to our futon. We moved it from our bedroom to our living room. During the day, we put it up and sat on it while we worked. At night, we put it down and it was our bed! Our TV sat on an upside-down tupperware container. We had no tables, no chairs. For a month.

What We Didn’t Do: Garage Sale

Apartment living made any sort of garage sale concept a little difficult. I did consider an “apartment sale,” but ultimately we ran out of Saturdays, and I didn’t like the idea of having strangers in my home. With their shoes on.

I would think that – for those of you with “real” houses (and driveways) – a garage sale or two would probably be Plan A. What you don’t want to do is feel like you have to sell truly valuable things for a lot less than they’re worth. I think this happens when you run out of time. If you can reach more people through something like Craigslist or even eBay, give yourself time to try those avenues

Too Many Clothes!

Furniture is gone…now what do we do with this stuff?

With the big stuff out of the way, it was on to the hard part. We separated everything into four categories:

To Sell
To Donate
To Store (at my parents’ – thank you, Mom and Dad!)
To Keep (a.k.a., to take with us in the RV)

The clothing I kept (this rack used to be stuffed full)

I got rid of a ton of clothing. Here’s what I did with it:

Plato’s Closet – Plato’s Closet is a resale store with locations all over the country. You take in your used clothing, and they buy what they want. Here’s the catch: they’re picky. They want barely used clothing, usually name brands, and usually styles from the previous year. I took in our very best stuff and they picked out a few things. I think I walked out with about $33…and a lot of clothing I still had to get rid of! But hey – that’s $33 I didn’t have before.
Buffalo Exchange – Buffalo Exchange is similar to Plato’s Closet, but it’s more on the alternative/vintage side. For me, it was a total bust. They didn’t want anything I took in.
Good Will – Even after Plato’s Closet and Buffalo Exchange, there was still more clothing!! So glad Good Will is there, and that they also have a valuable mission in communities across the country.

I Love My Books

Besides my piano, the hardest thing for me to get rid of was a lot of my books. I turned to Half Price Books. I think I made all of $12 from the gigantic tupperware container I took in. I ended up leaving everything with them anyway. They told me many of my donated books would go to a local hospital, and that made me happy. Buh bye, books!

Storage With Family

Sum total of our storage

My parents did kindly offer to store some things for us – the photos, keepsakes and collectibles that we didn’t want to part with. We managed to condense into eight stackable tupperware containers for the garage, and a few other things that fit in one of my old closets. Mom and Dad were surprised at how little there actually was…I felt a little proud about that!

When All Else Fails, Give Stuff to Your Neighbors

It’s Moving Out Day…how can we still have this much stuff left?

On the day of our move, Salvation Army was scheduled to pick up our faithful futon and the rest of our bagged items. Half way through the day, we got a phone call that the truck was broken and they couldn’t come. So stressful – we couldn’t even carry that ridiculous futon between the two of us! Hurrah for our neighbor Dylan, who we hardly knew. Dylan got a free vacuum, shoe rack, coat rack and futon…because he helped carry it all next door.

With one last-minute Good Will run as we were trying to get to our first campground before dark, we FINALLY GOT RID OF ALL OUR STUFF.

Holy cow. What a process, right?!