When we dismantled our 1900 square foot house in Austin, Texas to retire and build our dream home on Lake Bacalar in Southern Mexico, no stone was left unturned. We emptied every drawer, closet, and box. The garage, garden shed and attic were swept clean. It took eight months from making the decision to pulling out of the drive.
6×10 trailer, kayaks and bikes
We made decisions about family photos, books, clothes, furniture, appliances, tools, kitchenware, art supplies, exercise equipment, artwork, rugs…and the list goes on.
Lisa and me with our Sons
We had garage sales. Lord, we had garage sales, and gave our children their photos and whatever furniture, tools and plants were left. A local preschool took bags of yarn. There were multiple trips to Half Price Books and Goodwill. The house got bigger as our stuff got less.
Our house in Austin
We put our hands on ever “thing” that we owned. I thought I was a minimalist, HAH! Three years later and it’s time to do it again. We have less but we also have a much smaller house. Not everything we brought works for this climate. I will never wear these winter scarves again no matter how much I love them. We have bartered many of Lisa’s tools and the trailer with our contractor.
Cielo hangs out on the Front Porch
Front
When I look around at where we have come in three years, I can hardly believe it. It’s time to go through our stuff again. The other part of retiring is that it can make you lazy. Time to get to it. Life is amazing and beautiful if you choose to make it so. DOS TORTAS
the adventures of dos tortas 
We did the same to prepare for our Turkish adventure – selling our furniture to our house buyer, flogging off books, CDs and DVDs on eBay and giving the entire contents of our shed to my brother. Then when we decided to return home to England, we had to do it all over again. Now we’re back, we’re accumulating again. When does it stop? 😀
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Last week I saw a large hand made basket at a market for about five US. Ohhhh. I wanted it but I didn’t buy it. No room. Must stop the madness.
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Ah! I have so much to get rid of. It seems overwhelming. I had a big yard sale and have taken much to the thrift stores, yet it seems to have not made a dent.
Maybe if I had a “get out of town” schedule!
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You can do it! It’s the chicken and egg thing. If you’re down to almost nothing, leaving is so much easier.
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LOVE this post…I must/we must/ start this process. I have mixed emotions: can’t wait to get rid of stuff and have that wonderful feeling of simplicity – yet dread the task. Here we go…starting now!
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Start w the easy stuff first. There are lots of good books to help you w the process. Joshua Becker, The More of Less.
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Really sweet pic of you, Lisa, Cullen and Dylan. The picture of your place in Austin brings back so many memories of visiting you there, drinking tea, going for walks, hanging out at the kitchen table and sharing our latest dreams and grand plans for our lives. Funny that now that we’ve accomplished our recent grand plans, there’s always the mundane task of keeping order in our daily lives. I still love my apartment. It took a lot of faith to get here and now it is full of crap that I have been putting off going through. It’s humbling. Nice hearing and thinking about you.
Xoxo Trish
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Nice to hear from you. Lots of good memories from life in Austin. Funny how things work out in ways we could have never expected.
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Love the above quote. We have to start the process too if we are ever going to move.
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Greetings, it takes a decision and a real change in thinking to counteract our acquisition society. We quit buying gifts and asked people to quit giving them to us. Baby steps. First be aware, then make different choices. The results are liberating.
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Awesome, good to hear someone is living their dreams 🙂
James Goolsby from the Health department has been following your blog and shared it with me.James is retiring in 3 years and we are considering selling, buying land and downsizing. Its kind of nerve racking thinking about packing up all are stuff and getting rid of more than half of it in order to make a move. Almost paralyzing. Your story is inspirational 🙂
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You have to break it down into bite sized projects. I used project management skills and cereated a timeline. A room, closet, shelf at a time. Get clear on your goal. Three years will be here soon. Don’t wait, start now.
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