Starting the Count Down!
We’ve sold our house, left our jobs, and are in the final stages of preparation before we take off. We are less than 2 weeks away from boarding our plane with our first destination being Frankfurt.
At this point we are starting to get excited for the trip to start. It hasn’t fully set in yet, and if we are being honest, we are quite nervous! It’s not easy telling your family and friends that you are selling everything to travel for an extended period of time - with no concrete plans, no jobs, and no clue what we are coming home to…if we come home! But at the same time, we know this is the adventure of a lifetime, and who knows what opportunities it will open up for us.
When we talk about our plans, we get a lot of questions. “How did you plan for the trip?”, “What is your budget?”, “Where are you going?”, “ What did you pack?”, etc. We plan to cover all of these topics over the next few posts, but for now getting our house in order (literally!) so we are ready to board the plane is our top priority.
One of the biggest milestones we needed to hit before we left for our adventure was to sell our house. We had made the decision to sell our house because we did not want to worry about managing a property while we were on our adventure. We had already contemplated moving for the past year and a half before deciding to travel, so selling our house before we left seemed like the best option for our situation. Fortunately, we live in a good neighbourhood and we were looking to sell at a time when many people are looking to purchase. However, we didn’t expect to sell our house so quickly! After 24 hours on the market we had a great offer, and our travels were that much closer to reality.
We knew that we would need to find a storage option for our belongings while were are away. We had spent close to three months downsizing, selling most of our furniture and various odds and ends. It was a great way for us to limit the amount of storage needed, while adding to our travel budget. Due to our downsizing, we were able to purchase a 20 foot seacan which provided more than enough storage space for our items. We decided to purchase a seacan so we can have the flexibility to use it for as long as we’d like, plus it will retain its value so we are able to sell it once we return. Including delivery fees, a used seacan in good condition (leak and rodent proof) cost $3,700 CAD. This is about the same price as long term storage through a facility, except we have the ability to recoup some of those costs if we decide to sell our seacan when we return. Worst case, it can be our tiny home when we return from our travels :)
