Less is More! How to downsize?

Argh…big sigh…I realize I can write a lot about the state of the world. This is a lot of  what I have been talking about in my work and professional life for weeks but, I am going to move my attention to fun future planning. At least for a bit. A pleasing distraction.

Working on our departure! We have a little over six months to go before we take off for our near year trip away from the States. I am feeling a mix of excitement and frozen in indecision or angst. What is set, you ask?

We are leaving at the end of August and are heading West. Those steps of the first days/weeks we are out and about will be documented later. Right now, we are wrestling with the pieces we leave behind.

So, what to do with our house? We had this romantic idea of leaving most of our furniture in our house and rent it out on a part-time basis by Airbnb or Homeaway. However, I have found out that the City of Portland (thank you Amanda Rhoads for educating me) is really cracking down on folks renting their houses out for short-term rentals. You have to live in your house 270 days a year to do short rentals on the other 90 days.

I get that there is a housing crunch in our city and support measures to block people from profiting crazily from this. However, I am bummed. I had hoped to have a relative easy access to our house if something were to go horribly wrong while we are on the road. The idea that our house was comforting back up plan if need be.

That brings us to the other option of a long-term renter. We are going to get it up and going before the school year so, perhaps a new Portland family can find some comfort in our space.

That leaves storage! We have shifted into this mind space to downsize so, we aren’t putting a gillion boxes into storage only to be unpacked a year later wondering why we will have the stuff we lived without for 12 months. Kelvin is heading up this task with plans of various drop spots in our garage: sell, donate and throw away. I’ve been bumping around places on the internet to learn more about minimalism at home.

I have had 42 addresses in my life so, moving, while a headache, is not such a worry for me. But, the accumulation of a life’s stuff does get in my head. Even ten years after my Mom died, my Dad still had their house in the exact same state as it was the day after her wake. The tablecloths were still on the tables and her purse from the hospital was sitting by the door, full of her eyeglasses, paper planner and multitudes of expired medications. It was sad for me and, I think, spooky for others.

To live a lighter life feels and seems like a good idea. We plan on carrying everything we need on the road. Small amounts of clothing and entertainment devices. Having less around our house also feels good on the brain.

So, onward and upward! On with the planning. Please comment on thoughts and suggestions.