Current planning is that I’m going to hand in my notice at the end of October, work three months’ notice, and set off on our travels in February. This assumes that I won’t get made redundant before then. I work as a project manager in the financial services industry, and the Brexit vote a couple of weeks ago is now causing lots of uncertainty, with clients not seeming to want to commit to new projects at the present time, so we’ll have to see how things pan out. This timeline also means that we’ll need to have found and purchased a ‘van by the end of October – a not inconsiderable task!
We will be renting out our home and using the rental income to cover a large part of our day-to-day living expenses when touring. We have a four bedroom detached house, and had thought that we would be able to rent the house out as a furnished property. However, Carol’s been to see the local estate agent and they reckon that there isn’t a demand for furnished properties and that we’d be better off renting it as unfurnished, so we’re going to have to get rid of as much stuff as we can (ie downsize) so that we only have to put a minimum amount of stuff in storage.
I wouldn’t say that we are hoarders, but it’s just amazing how much stuff we have accumulated over the years. The loft was quite full with things we hardly ever use, which we’d put up there ‘just in case’. There’s a load of stuff in the garage too which never sees the light of day, and likewise with cupboards around the house. And all this despite periodic purges we’ve had where we’ve taken stuff we no longer want/need to the tip.
We don’t want to leave things until the last minute, and so over the past few months we’ve been having a good sort out. There’s now room up in the loft where we plan to store stuff that we intend to keep, smaller items in crates such as crockery and kitchen equipment, and anything we can’t get through the loft hatch will have to either go into storage or be given/thrown away.
I think we’ve made quite good progress so far, but there’s still plenty to do. With the loft largely done, we now need to tackle the garage and the cupboards around the house. It’s a bit of a chore, but it will be worth it!
Mike