T-minus 10 and Counting!

Just a quick update to let you all know that I’m still alive and kicking!  With so much house activity consuming my days, I’ve not had time to write many blog posts…but hopefully, those lazy carefree days are coming soon…very soon!

In just 10 days, Millie and I will be pulling the Winnie out of the driveway for the last time and leaving our house to the fabulous couple who will be renting it over the winter.  They were over on Saturday measuring rooms trying to decide how they’d downsize their house’s furnishings into this one, while I was out in the driveway trying to figure out how I’d get a 2-car garage filled with stuff into my 24’ Winnebago!  “Downsizing” is all relative it would appear!

It’s not all been excitement and CandyLand, though.  I finally had a bawling emotional melt-down about a week ago after what felt like being haggled down to a pulp by ruthless Craigslist bargain-hunters on some of my most-cherished possessions.  In reality, they were just buying items for the going rate, and I still had way too many emotions pent up needing to “let go.”

All the Craigslist sales up to this point had been easy and fun—looky here!  Cash for unused, uncared about stuff!  Yippee!!!   Now, I was down to the really hard stuff such as grandmother’s most-prized dining room set and bedroom set from the 1930’s.  

I thought about all the family meals she had served from this table, the smells and tastes of those tried-and-true comfort foods like meat loaf, sweet potatoes, turkey with stuffing, ham, green bean casserole, and various fruit Jello molds.  The smiles and laughter of all my grandparents’ relatives and friends who would often join us around this table.  

Hanging on to this furniture for the past 20 years was a way to wrap myself in those comfortable memories, and postpone the grieving.  So, if I’ve learned anything these past few months of downsizing, it’s this—the “emotional” aspects of transitioning to full-time RVing that one expects to go through (i.e. leaving friends behind, no longer having a fixed home base, etc) are nothing compared to “re-grieving” the loss of  long-passed relatives and selling the treasures they bequeathed to me for pennies on the dollar.

Fortunately, it was my full-time RVing friend Suzanne who was again there to email me a pep talk to get me over one more difficult hurdle.  She always seems to have a plethora of quotes “at the ready” and ended her email with this most-appropriate quote from Winston Churchill – “If you’re going through hell, keep going!”  

That was just the tonic I needed!  Now beyond the point of no return, with the big heirloom furniture grieving complete, I was now ready to focus on that growing, ever-brighter light at the end of this long tunnel.

I started looking at maps and making travel plans to head out West this Fall-- now looking forward, instead of behind.

Fingers are crossed that the big garage sale next weekend will take a big chunk out of the remaining piles of stuff to donate, trash, or store. 

After August 20th, my plan is to move to a local campground and driveway boondock with family for a few more weeks while I sell the green Sprinter van and remaining eBay items, and tie up any remaining loose ends.

T-minus 10 and counting… I can feel the engines starting to fire up as Millie and I prepare for blast off!