I really believe fulltiming is in my future. I'm out in the MH this week and it's my happy place. I love the simple life, I love the traveling, the freedom, everything the RV lifestyle grants us (other than when things go wrong, that part sucks). I don't know though that I could part with my belongings as some have. My "plan" as of this 10 second time slice is to only FT for a few years, we'll see where that leads me. My options are:
- Sell house and put belonging in storage. Question is how much will it cost to store that much stuff? Is it worth selling the house or using as storage?
- Rent the house, furnished or unfurnished is the dilemma
- Sell house and all belongings, start over in the future. I somewhat like this idea as it closes one chapter and reopens another for another day. Just the waste of money is the sad part.
Very timely...we just got back from a road trip to see my Mother in Chicago. LSS: She called me begging for help. She admitted to being a Hoarder (Yes, one of "those"), and she is. I know it; I've seen it. DH had not. She said she needed her whole home cleaned out of the stuff piled up because she couldn't clean anymore. Good enough for us to drive 800 miles one way to help. We planned on 2 weeks.
We arrived on Sunday, September 13. All we had was a bed to sleep on because every available space was taken up with "stuff" that she called invaluable, antique, precious, and worth a fortune. We saw junk. We ended up cleaning out her garage so she could get her minivan in and she decided that she would go through the house and didn't need us to help her. GRRRR....
In short, we pretty much wasted our time. We drove home this past Sunday. We could have made a huge dent in the junk sitting around us. She just couldn't give up the stuff she has hung on to for so long.
She has 9 vacuum cleaners between 3 floors; 13 brooms, 3 brand new TVs in boxes, 2 snow blowers, 2 whole house generators. She had 13 bags of weed and feed for the grass (small yard), 14 bags of crabgrass killer, 12 bags of insecticide for the outside. She has 7 extension ladders hanging and sitting around her property. It looks like a trailer park....very distressing. This is scratching the surface of what we saw in the garage. The house is worse...
We donated to Goodwill 14 chandeliers that were just sitting in the garage. Every inch of every space has "junk" on it. There is not a spare inch of space in her home.
My point to this story? We've been downsizing for the past few years for FTing; I've gone and cleared out all personal items if we decide to sell so a Realtor can come in at a moment's notice.
We, at a previous home that was small, kept stuff in a storage locker for 6 years. I forgot what was in it. It cost $60 per month. When we opened it to look in and decide what had to be moved to our new home, we decided that most of it was worthy of donation to Goodwill. Money down the drain...learn from our mistake.
My Mom also has a rental property. Her renters are now living rent-free due to the Covid rent forbearances. They said they couldn't afford the rent and she can't evict them. She still has to pay insurance and taxes on the house. That is the risk of being a landlord. Plus, when on the road, you will have them call you at midnight to say a light bulb went out and they can't change it-believe me they do! Another renter she had put concrete down the toilet due to a disagreement with my Mom when she moved out. $3000 repair. People like that don't care about credit or what you can do to them after. Sell in an upmarket, bank it, and go FT.
