Moving is My Hobby Now

Partly out of necessity, but I would be lying if I told you I didn't love this. (PS. This is a long post and kind of like a diary. Okay, you can read it now.)

I have moved more times than I feel like counting in my adult life and it kind of always sucks. But it also is always kind of amazing. It’s a time to take stock on everything you own and cut some of the fat. It is also time for a fresh start and a bit of an adventure, if you let it.

Moments after we accepted an offer on our house!

I haven’t done this in a long time. So, I have a LOT of stuff. On the account that the average American has over 300,000 items in their home, I think I have significantly less belongings than most people do but I still feel like my house is filled up with so much unnecessary stuff. I have been slowly but surely lightening my load since March and am in my nearly final push of decluttering and clearing out my stuff.

At just about 1,500 square feet there are SEVERAL ROOMS in my house (for just my husband and I) that are unnecessary which has led to unnecessary furnishings, décor, etc. I love that moving has given me a push to clear out stuff I don’t love or use anymore and has given me a chance to rehome those things and also make some money!

Before I go on more and more about how much I love packing and moving, let me explain exactly what Zach and I are doing next.

No, we are not moving to a larger “forever home”.

No, we are not relocating for work.

Sometimes I feel like I don’t know what we are doing, but these are the things I know for sure:

1. I quit my teaching job. Being part of a failing system was making me sad even though I liked the day to day job and truly loved my students and my school. Every team I have ever been on is a winning team and I was sick of being on a loosing streak despite our best efforts. (reach out if you want to vent about this with me over a cup of coffee)

2. Zach quit his job. He works in fine wine and spirits and it is amazing but has also afforded us some pretty unhealthy approaches to alcohol consumption. Being so close to an industry that yields us a case of wine samples to polish off a week (I’m probably exaggerating a little bit but honestly not much). His job is amazing, the company he works for is incredible and the people in the wine and spirits industry are so kind and so fun.

3. We sold our house. Our house that we have loved for the last 3 years. That we are just finally starting to feel like is our home. A house that I have painted every surface of (some 3 times!!!) to make it just the way we want it. A home where we have neighbors that we love, a gym and a church that we will miss and a community that we feel like we belong to.

A few of my favorite moments from our home

This is when people start to lose us a little and really start wondering, why are you doing this? and what are you going to do for work?

We are doing this because we fell in love when we were 19 and we had wild dreams of what we would do with our lives.

And our wild dreams did not include working a lot and making a lot of money and living in a suburb. We did not fantasize about drinking expensive wine whenever we wanted. Moving is an opportunity to change course.

We talked about a lot of adventures that we would have. We entertained the idea of the Peace Corps in our early years but that plan fizzled. We talked about moving to Spain for a year and we did that in 2018-2019 (We have an episode of House Hunters International to prove it!). Stay tuned for more on that next week!

I love moving because it feels like I can reinvent myself. I can choose what stuff fits into my future and what is holding me back. It feels like a fresh start and a clean slate.

We always talked about through hiking the Colorado Trail. So that’s what we are going to do.

Preparing to pack for the Colorado Trail

In fact, talking about hiking the Colorado Trail was literally the first conversation Zach and I ever had.

No, it is not totally necessary to sell the house to do the Colorado Trail. However, it is necessary to sell our house and quit our jobs to reset our focus in life.

We are not the type of people who need a ton of money to buy a ton of stuff. Or least that is not the type of people we want to be. We want to spend more time outside, embracing discomfort in exchange for growth and more connection to what actually matters to us.

In the grand scheme of things, taking a couple of weeks to go for a backpacking trip is not an impossible dream, but it isn’t possible if you don’t do it. So, we are doing it.

And after the trail? Nothing is set in stone yet, but we have some ideas of what we will do and it does not include working our behinds off in a suburb. Having no strings attached to us allows us to do this hike we have always talked about doing and allows us to focus on what we really want next. There is no clear end to the story yet but I appreciate the people who encourage us telling us we will land on our feet. I think we will, too.

Thanks for reading and supporting me or at very least keeping your judgmental comments away from my ears :). I know that we sound crazy to some people.

Make sure you are subscribed to keep up with this trip and the happenings sprinkled in with whatever my hobbies may be.

Love you,

Laine