Yep – That’s a pile of mess you can see there…. but I’ll come back to that.

So we’ve done it. We’ve taken the leap!

The kids are deregistered from school and we’ve handed our notice in on our house. As of 17th November we’re officially nomads.

I’m not going to lie… it’s a little unnerving. Especially considering that our caravan is still mid renovation and we’ve got less than 4 weeks to compact a 3 bedroom house full of stuff down to a small storage unit and 4 suitcases.

Hence the big pile of mess.

I’ve started clearing the house. It’s been a mammoth job and I have to say I am appalled at the amount of “stuff” we have. I mean, where has it come from?  I’m not  a shopper. I don’t buy stuff for stuff’s sake and yet so far I have managed to sell 6 binbags full of things, bin another 4 binbags worth and take 10… Yes I said 10!!! binbags to the charity shop. It’s insane.

Alan’s not really enjoyed my decluttering spree. It makes him a little sad but I’m sure it’ll be worth it when we hit the road.

I, on the other hand, find myself wondering why I didn’t do this ages ago. The house is so much easier to keep tidy and I don’t miss any of the things that have gone.

It’s taken me WAY longer than I anticipated to get this job done (and I’m not finished yet!). I dedicated 4 days to it. Full days, from morning to bedtime but in reality it took me 7 to get to where we are now.

We’re almost done – a few more bits to sell and the garage to tackle but I think we’re on track. I’ve started to box up some things for the storage unit and we’ll start moving them in at the beginning of November.

I am however losing the will to sell anything else… I think I would rather just charity shop it. It’s just so painstakingly boring and time consuming.  And good god some of the people… We’ve tried Ebay, Facebook groups, Gumtree and Shpock – some with more success than others.

Ebay worked well for higher ticket price items (old DJ equipment etc). Facebook was good for small, cheap, family type items (curtains, toys, clothes etc). We sold a bit of furniture on Gumtree and we didn’t have any success with Shpock (but that could be because we live in the middle of nowhere).

So that’s it so far… Still a way to go before our lives fit in a backpack but we’re making progress!