100 Days and counting!

How do we describe the feelings we have? Is it excitement? Is it anxiety? Is it terror? In a word . . . yes. Yes to all of it, because it is happening and it is happening soon.

Of course, it is perfectly natural to feel all of these emotions. Even though we have been preparing for this for some time now, there is still a lot to do. Even broken down into small tasks, it is a bit daunting. To be honest, it is not really what needs to be done that is causing all of the emotions, there is a plan. The fact is that 100 days is not very long and it will go really fast.

Over the next 100 days it will be time to get a bit uncomfortable. We will begin in about a month getting rid of the main things we have left. It is not like you can wait until the last day and expect that you can sell or get rid of what you have in a day. Getting rid of your possessions takes takes time and planning. You cannot just sell you cars without a plan to be able to get around, you cannot sell all of your pans without a plan to cook and you cannot sell you television if you want to watch it. It will be like we are going backwards and we are 19 in our first apartment all over again. We will be sitting in lawn chairs, sleeping on the floor and cooking meals that Amy will be preparing next month and freezing them. Hey  it sounds a lot like camping! Amy has already come up with a meal list that she will prepare in advance and freeze in disposable containers. We will most likely just get down to individual place setting for each of us. Time to try out the titanium travel sporks!

Last family dinner when the kids were all here they were given a stack of color coded post it notes and were allowed to call “dibs” on some of the things we cannot sell or would not be worth the time to do so. It was fun watching what they wanted and what they did not. It got a bit out of hand when they started putting post its on the bourbon and the cash in Amy’s wallet.

#3 claimed the shot glasses

The oldest thinks he is hilarious.

There is also the “keep” list. The things that the kids will hold on to for safekeeping until we either return or send for them. These are things like the shot glass collection, memory shadow boxes and some meaningful collectibles. These are the things the Minimalists would say bring value to our lives. They are personal things that hold memories for us and our family.

We gave the boys their keepsake boxes and they choose what was important to them. They created these shadow boxes and the rest was discarded.

Out side of getting rid of our stuff, we are in the final stage of paying off any debt we have. The last thing we need is to leave the country straddled with the burden of any debts. Being at zero is worst case scenario when we leave. Best would be to have a truckton of money saved as well, but we will be somewhere in between.

I have a few classes online I need to complete before we can go. The hope is to find a part time or contracted telecommuting job so we will not be anchored to any one place. The idea is to become completely nomadic and be free to travel where and when we want.  Workaway programs are another source we will utilize. There are places all over the world that, in exchange for 15-25 hours a week, they will give you room and board. These make up a few of the revenue streams that will keep us going. We will do another blog that focuses on just this subject.

Lots of other details that add up are things like getting our wills and power of attorney documents signed and notarized, getting our Visas taken care of, getting all of our banking switched over, and a mountain of other administrative things that we have to make time for.

On and on it goes and time is tick tick ticking away!