Unpacking Freedom: Our Journey to Selling 90% of Everything and Hitting the Road

Dreams Deferred: A Journey Long in the Making

Selling 90% of everything and hitting the road to travel for a year is a decision that doesn’t get made lightly. For us, it was almost 2 years in the making - and if I’m being honest, it’s been a dream that my husband and I have had since we met over 26 years ago! We just had expected it to be in our late 60’s for retirement, not in our 40’s. 

Trapped in Transition: Finding Freedom Amidst Uncertainty

There are so many factors throughout years that went into this decision but if I had to really pinpoint a timeframe of when we were serious about it, it was during the pandemic in 2020. Life had completely changed for us {and everyone else} and the future did not look the same anymore. The uncertainty of possibly losing our jobs, not having money to pay our mortgage and bills was extremely scary. Along with that, not being able to move freely, see our friends, go to restaurants, and travel outside of our province had made us feel trapped in a way I can't even explain. After a year of being in 'lockdown' we yearned to travel so we went and bought a tent trailer to pull behind our Jeep to get away camping in our province of BC - since that was allowed. It definitely gave us a feeling of location independence that we yearned for.  

Awakening to Priorities: Valuing Experience Over Possessions

When we looked at the core of things, we really valued memories and adventure over things. Making a ton of money and having many material things were not what we wanted anymore. How could we do it by just making a living enough to be free? We felt like we were in this cycle of working Monday - Friday to pay bills and mortgage, be exhausted on the weekend while trying to get done any house ‘to do’ lists, only to start all over again on Monday. Weekend after weekend, month after month, year after year. We felt so strongly that this was not the life we were meant to live.

Exploring New Horizons: Discovering the RV Lifestyle

I started googling ‘full time RV families’ on YouTube and Instagram and was intrigued! So many families were living the way we wanted to. Maybe this is something we COULD do - even just for a year! So in December of 2021 we made the decision - we were going to sell our possessions {most of them} and travel for a year! We researched the type of RV that we would need, researched floor plans, went and looked inside MANY of them, tested out bunks - which ultimately made our decision to go to a toy hauler since our 16 year old was too tall for a bunk. We decided what RV we wanted, joined some Facebook groups and low and behold, we found the exact RV we wanted along with truck as a PACKAGE DEAL along with the timing that we wanted and the timing the sellers needed. It was incredible how it all came together.

From Dream to Reality: Navigating the Logistics of Change

We finished renovations {completely by ourselves} in our townhouse that we had been working on for two years, downsized, sold and gave away A LOT of things, and then finally enlisted our best friend Verne Stel at Stellar Real Estate to list our house. He sold it in 3 DAYS! We were so fortunate and sold right at the peak of the real estate market. We had 6 weeks to pack up our 8 years in the house, sell most of our things, find a rental for the next 5 months and renovate the 44’ Toy Hauler we just purchased.

A Bittersweet Farewell: Letting Go and Moving Forward

We had moved to BC from Ontario almost 8 years before this. This was the only house we lived in, and although it was not the home we had seen ourselves staying in long term, we had really poured our blood, sweat and tears into making it our own. We had completely renovated it from top to bottom so it was a bit emotional leaving it all behind. The thought of what our life would look like and what we had envisioned for one year of travel outweighed any doubts we had and we were ready and all in to start our new lifestyle.

adventure, liberation, downsizing, RV living, selling belongings, minimalism, location independence, decision-making, financial freedom, life changes, memories, full-time travel, renovation, real estate market, unconventional living