De-stuffing

One of the nice "side-effects" of our trip is the need for us to get rid of all of our stuff. After 12 years of living in our house (and raising rearing 2 kids), we've got a lot of stored-up stuff. We're really looking forward to taking this opportunity to get rid of all of the stuff that we don't need anymore, plus stuff that we think we might need later (but probably don't...)

We're now in full swing for our first (of many) garage sales - this weekend it's the PNA Neighborhood Garage Sale day. Hopefully we'll have nice weather, and will get lot's of people to come buy/take our stuff. Either way, it's not coming back into the house (well, most of it anyway). We're getting the kids involved by offering them a cut of the money made selling "their" stuff. Of course, they'll want to buy more stuff with that, but that's another conversation...

I'm also using this as an opportunity to get rid of all of the mail that comes to the house. I've been unsubscribing to all paper catalogs, credit card offers, etc. All bills are being migrated to online only. Phone books have already been opted-out via the new Seattle phone book program. We're already on the junk mail opt-out list, but I'm assuming that we'll need to continuously monitor what's coming into the mailbox for the next couple of months to make sure that we get it all. Still need to figure out what to do with the mail while we're gone...

Later, we'll look to unload cars, clothes, household items, electronics, computers, sports equipment, etc etc. Probably through Craigslist and/or Facebook, and (of course) lots of yard sales and trips to Goodwill. Ideal end-state will be to have a couple of boxes of must-keep stuff - personal documents, keepsakes, etc. - that we can store for the duration of the trip. House will remain furnished as part of the rental, but the only stuff we keep will be what we carry with us on the trip. Pretty liberating in theory, but not easy to get there in practice. Good thing we still have over a year to go...we're going to need it!