"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace." -John Lennon
The KISS method. Tried and true yet hardly practiced. It's true what they say though...the things you own end up owning you. If we're talking about a mortgaged home, a fancy car, or kids (just kidding) consider yourself PWNED!
Our biggest move didn't come when we left the United States to travel the world with our kids and work remotely. While that was a big deal, the hardest thing we did before that was sell all of our crap. All of it. We first started by listing a thing or two on eBay or Craigslist. But after we started messing with the sorting and figuring out a price and then messing with shipping, we took a hard look around and said (I think, almost exactly like this), "Look at all this crap. Half of it isn't worth much and half of it is worth a fortune. But either way it will take us years to sell it all piece-meal."
So what did we do? We sold it all. As in a one-transaction, "here take all of our stuff and do what you want with it", move. We set a date in late 2103 to move into our rental in Mexico, and at that point we were paid $6,000 (not including our second SUV and the house, which were sold separately). We brought two loads of clothes, baby toys, dogs, important papers, and computers down to Mexico and everything else was sold off at various garage sales, auction sites, and who knows what else. Honestly, we have no idea what went to whom and for how much. We just know that we didn't own it or have to deal with it anymore.
That was probably one of the most uplifting and positive moments of self-release we've ever had. In that instant we knew we weren't turning back and we had nothing to turn back to. As I write this every item we own is either on our sailboat, in our truck, or in a small rental locker at the marina yard here in Mexico. Freeing ourselves from the 'stuff' was a big, important move and we can't even hesitate for the slightest moment to suggest you do the same. Not only will it put a few dollars in your pocket to either invest or pay down debt, but it helps out tremendously on being able to travel and not wonder what is happening with your stuff!
Are you a pack-rat with a problem letting go? Did you have a good experience when you de-cluttered? Let us know in the comments below!