As I sit here this morning in my 24-foot travel trailer I have time to reflect back over the last few months. Boy, I tell you what, I would not have thought that we could or would have changed our lifestyle so drastically in such a short period of time. But looking out the window at the other RV’s and travel trailers around me, I cannot deny that did happen and no it was not a dream! Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like its bad or anything, in fact, I think we are starting to settle in a bit, however, it has been a big adjustment (one that is still occurring).

Having been married for thirty years, you accumulate some stuff, and I mean stuff. Going from a 1500 square foot house to about 200 feet is, to say the least, is difficult to do. I downsized, and downsized again, before even moving into “Betsy”. It seems like a never ending task and no matter how many blogs or sites that I explored, nothing prepared us for the task of downscaling. In fact, we still have a storage unit that we started to put stuff in when we were thinking we would be staying in Williamsburg in an apartment, at least for the next three months after our current lease was up.

Alas, and yes I did just use alas, the job seems to be never ending! I am dreading the day that I have to go through the storage unit. Only thing I can think while I do this elimination, is that my children will be spared tremendous heartache and pain at the time of our deaths in regards to cleaning out our residence. If I am anything like my mother was, that is a blessing in disguise… so my dear, wonderful children, remember this as your parents move away and you are sad about the prospect of us not being right in the same town! Unfortunately, I wish there was some advice I could dole out to those of you who might be or are doing the very same thing, but until you start to go through it yourself, it is difficult to describe. I guess the only advice that I can give to you is to give yourself enough time to get the job done.

So far, and it is such a short so far as of the time of my typing, the only thing that I regret or wish, is that we had more time prior to jumping in with both feet. If there was one piece of advice that I would give to those considering this existence, it is to start to contemplate and investigate what you will need to get rid of in order to accomplish this way of living. If at all possible start eliminating the not needed stuff, things that you could live without even if your decision is to stay put. This I am sure, will help, at least, in some small way the hectic pace and emotional roller coaster that we went through in the journey of “to keep or not to keep…”