365 Less Things??

Since my major decluttering mission is over but I still have the major ‘minimalist’ bug I am going to try something new.  I have been a follower for a while of a blog called 365 Less Things.  And obviously, the idea is to de-clutter one thing per day.  After the huge purge of my home, I am not sure if I have 365 more things that I can remove, but I am sure going to try … anything that helps along the road to minimalism!  (And I'm already running over a week behind ... eek!)

Day 1 – My first item is a bit sentimental.  My Nana used these along with the rest of the set as her ‘everyday’ dishes. I don’t have the rest of the set, don’t know where they went, but these have been sitting in a Rubbermaid box, wrapped in newspaper since 2007.  I guess that means that I don’t use them, so I am taking a picture and into the Garage Sale they go!

 Day 2 – I’ve had this stuffie since we went to Hawaii when I was a child, probably about 30 years or so.  It sits in a box like so many other things that I have kept over the years.  Hawaii Lover has seen better days.  Picture and the donation box here we come!

Day 3 – I thought this might be worth some money – WRONG!!!  It was my Poppa’s, it’s a lovely little book but does no one any good sitting in a box not being admired.  I’m going to ask my brother if he would like it.

Day 4 – In 2005 my husband and I took our first trip to Las Vegas with my brother and sister-in-law.  I made the same little scrapbook for both of us, but again, memories aren’t memories in a box.  I scanned each page and saved it on a disc so I can look at the pictures anytime I want.

Day 5 – This photo book contains pictures from when my step-daughter was born.  Again, does not good in a box, so the pictures are getting scanned and the book is Garage Sale bound!

Day 6 – This is a picture of my Nana (isn’t she lovely?).  When she lived in the retirement home, the ladies got together and did a calendar (a la Calendar Girls) to raise money for addiction treatment for women.  All of the ladies in the calendar are wonderful but I like my Nana the best and would like to look at this picture more often – it’s getting scanned!

Day 7 – I am taking these bills to the bank with the rest of our miscellaneous money.  Not worth anything but I don’t need it sitting around here!

Day 8 – My Cabbage Patch dolls are in the Garage Sale already and these can go with them!

The RV

When we were a family of four and we had first started thinking about this trip, we wanted to do it in this:

It was ideal – or so we thought.  It was small, lightweight and for the four of us, was everything we would need.

Then we walked into something that looked a little like this –

Our transportation needs changed in an instant!  At once we realized that we didn’t need to sacrifice our comfort to be able to travel.  So our search now has turned to an RV, at first a Class A, then a Class C and now we are back to a Class A.  Simply for the room and number of slides that we can get in a Class A versus a Class C, for us it makes sense.

Here we go – this is the first part of many, many, many more to come on the subject of the RV!

Selecting the Right RV for YOU

Selecting just the right RV for you and your family should be a family affair, after all, you are all going to be living in it together.

Only you can decide what is best for you, your life style, and also for your budget. DO YOUR RESEARCH – educate yourself before your start shopping.  Don’t be fooled by a gimmicky salesman who cares more about his paycheck than he does YOUR needs.  He doesn’t know you from Adam, nor does he care about your family, so be aware, be wise and take your time!  Don’t fall in love with the first RV you walk into, it’s easy to do, believe me.

Remember who will be doing the cooking and the cleaning and who will be doing the driving. We’ve based our needs and wants on what I need for the way we live and what Mario needs for the way we will drive, where and when we will be driving.

ALL new RV’s look lovely but not ALL new RV’s are suited for your lifestyle.

For example, we have to have an RV that has a bathtub, it will be a small one, but with little people around, that is of utmost importance to us.  As is storage, LOTS and LOTS of storage.  We will be homeschooling all three kids on the road so there has to be space to keep the school supplies we need at the time.one

The right RV for you is the one that you like—not necessarily the latest and greatest of those who don't understand the needs of a family just the latest and greatest gadgets.

There are so many different manufacturers, different floor plans, different models and different lengths that it can become incredibly overwhelming when you start out.  Take your time to figure out what works for you.  We’ve been looking for over two years now and still have not made any concrete decisions.

There are a few terms that you will need to know, terms that will for sure have an impact on the size and type of RV that you will purchase, especially when it comes to Weight Capacities. Think about it this way, you don’t want to fall in love with an RV with a Net Carrying Capacity (NCC) of only 400 lbs. when in actual fact you need at least 1,500 lbs. of "stuff" and may still need room for more!

The terms you need to familiarize yourself with off the bat are these:

GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) – This is the maximum permissible total weight of a vehicle, including all fluids, passengers, and cargo. We have found that many newer RV’s have a GVWR of 18,000, 20,500, 22,000 or even 24,000 lbs. for gasoline models and diesel RV’s can be as high 60,000 lbs.

GVWCR (Gross Vehicle Weight Combined Rating) - The maximum permissible combined weight of a vehicle, including the weight of the towed vehicle.

GAWR (Gross Axle Weight Rating) – This is the maximum permissible weight that can be carried by an axle. The specifications should list a weight rating for both the front and rear axles. Older models have a front axle weight rating of 6,000 or 7,000 lbs. and a rear axle rating of 11,000 lbs. Adding the two axle weight ratings together equals the GVWR.

It is possible to overload either axle but still be within the overall GVWR for the vehicle. It is also possible to overload a tire or tires on one side and yet still be within the allowable axle rating. More on this later

NCC (Net Carrying Capacity) - The Net Carrying Capacity rating— also referred to as Cargo Carrying Capacity (CCC)—is the weight of “stuff” that can be loaded into the vehicle and still be within the allowable GVWR.

You will find many a site on the internet where fellow newbies and RV enthusiasts alike share questions and answers, most brutally honest, about anything and everything regarding your potential purchase.  You will benefit from their experience so don’t take it personally!  Learn from those who have been in your shoes before, become education on what to stay away from as well as what you should be looking for.

Next up (when we post about RV's anyway) is Features of an RV ...

Dealing with my Sentimental Clutter

For the last couple of weeks I have been dealing with a huge amount of sentimental clutter – and I mean a huge amount!  For some reason I have no problem taking pictures of my children’s artwork and chucking it out once the excitement of their new picture/craft has run its course but when it comes to dealing with my own keepsakes and memories it’s a different story!  Why is that?  In trying to become more of a minimalist this particular section of my journey has been the hardest so far by a long shot.

We are planning an international move and I know that not everything can come.  It’s not the furniture or lamps or even some of the artwork that bothers me, it’s all the things that I am sentimental about.  Over the years I’ve gotten rid of many things I thought were sentimental only to discover later that I had no need for them but now I find that I have afgans and quilts and bedding that my Oma, Nana and Mom have made for me and they now sit in a bag in the basement, unused, gathering dust.  I have a Lane Chest in my crawl space full of memories, photos and items that just sit there.  My children have no interest in them, they don’t understand what they are or what they are for, so what do I do with it all?

I found these really great ‘clauses’ that I am going to follow for all of my sentimental clutter:

The fire clause. Ask yourself what you would want to take with you in case of a fire. This is a great way to determine what you truly value.

The function clause. Decide what in your home has a purpose — and what doesn't. Ask yourself why you are holding on to the items that don't have a specific use and decide if the space they are taking up is worth it.

The someday clause. In most cases get rid of the things you are hoping to use or wear "someday". Chances are someday will come and you won't like the thing anymore anyway.

The happiness clause. Last but not least, keep only the things that make you truly happy.

As you go through your stores of sentimentalities, make three stacks:

Stack 1: Items that can be scanned, photographed or digitized for saving

Stack 2: Items you want to display proudly on shelves or other areas in your home

Stack 3: Items you can donate or sell

It’s hard to be ruthless when it comes to memories, especially when it is a memory of a loved one past, but I’ve come to realize that my memories are in my head, my heart and that is where they will always be.  I now have a wonderful collection of memories that I can look at, a few that I can touch and a couple that I can look at and the memories are still there – they always will be.

Travelling with Kids is Possible!

Having both experienced the joys and wonder of travel when we were younger, Mario and I discovered that passing that same idealism onto our kids was something that was important to both of us.  Having realized together that we were becoming increasingly sick of the materialistic life that we lead day to day to day, we wanted to be able to give more to our kids than the same day to day to day.

As we continue planning our trip of a lifetime, we look forward to the day when we can pack up our house, step into the RV and begin our adventure, all of us full of excitement, trepidation and joy!

Don’t You Think the Girls should be Older?

A question posed to us often, but we both think that there isn’t any ‘right’ age to do a trip like this.  Children are adaptable.

Realistic Potential?

The first thing we have read about traveling with kids is not to expect too much, include activities that they will enjoy as well as things that are educational. Find a candy store off the beaten path, lunch at a café not listed in your guidebook.

Do something cheesy and touristy that kids will like and you will probably dread.  Apparently, they will love you for it!

Remember that after all, they are only kids.  They don’t want to do an all day tour or have their every single day scheduled.  It’s a good idea to plan for one major activity a day and include play parks, water parks and kid stuff as much as you can bear.

It’s also a good idea to plan for a chill day once a week, where you can plan and prepare for what’s coming up next.  Include the kids in the planning.

What about School?

You gotta’ love our educational systems propaganda.  Again, children are adaptable.  Traveling for a year around Europe is an education in itself is it not?  Our plan is to stock up on workbooks, books, find websites, sign up for homework help and do our own brand of homeschooling.

All of our research points to children that are ahead of many of their peers once they have returned to a regular school system after extended travel.

But why with Your Kids?

Really, what’s more important than spending time together as a family?  We know that at first it will be difficult to be together 24/7 and there will be times when we just need a break, but we are looking forward to growing together as a family, watching our kids grow and learn before our eyes.  Magic!

What about Our Stuff?

We have already begun the process of minimizing our lives, from clothes, to toys, to books.  The less we live with now, the more we will be able to live on the road.

Danger … Danger …

It’s easy to think that the world is full of danger; the media fills our TV with it every day.  If we are afraid to show our kids all the wonder the world has to offer, aren’t we teaching our kids to live in a bubble?

Goodwill abounds in every corner of the world, you just have to go and find it.

How do we include the Kids?

Because the girls are maybe a little too young yet to understand the full scope of what we are planning, we have instead talked to them about the places we plan to go, shown them pictures of places, castles, towns and told them the history and stories about the places we will visit.  So far, it seems to work, they are more interested about the Princesses that lived in the castles but hopefully that will change by the time we actually hit the road.

What about Their Health on the Road?

Besides the usual physical we will all have prior to leaving, we will get any shots, medications, etc. necessary for the road.  We will keep updated on any health concerns in the countries we will be visiting as they become available via websites for Canada’s Public Health and the WHO.  We will also purchase Travel Health Insurance which will ensure that we are covered for whatever unforeseen sickness, broken bone, etc. may arise.

Aren’t We Worried?

In a word – kinda’.  There are a lot of things that could happen but we can’t spend all of our time worrying about what could or can happen.  There will be a host of things that will happen that we can’t even imagine but we are prepared to roll with the punches.

Things will indeed happen that we have no control over, that’s life.

What’s next?

Well, taking our family on the road.  There’s a long road ahead of us and we plan to see a lot of it.  We are excited to show our kids that life is more than iCarly and Wizards of Waverly Place, that there is more out there than their backyard and friends will be there no matter where we go.

Research, Research and more Research

We now have a list of destinations, must see and want to see and hope to see.  It’s time to pull up your sleeves and dive into the Research Phase!  Next to the budget this is the most intensive phase of planning.  What are you going to do, what do you want to see, what looks interesting, where are the campgrounds, are they RV friendly?  So many unanswered questions and so many places to go so where do you start?  Good question.  You may not know but there are thousands of companies that spend hours every year planning the best trips for you, friends, families, etc.  Here are some of our favourites so far:

Lonely Planet – Just like the guide books, this site hosts a ton of information and since you can find everything from when to go, things to do and practical information it’s a great place to start!

World Travel Guide – While this site is very much like all the other travel sites, we did find a few interesting things and places to go here that we didn’t find on other sites..

Fodor’s – I didn’t think that I would like this site, simply because I always pictures Fodor’s as the travel guides for older people, but was I wrong.  We found so many places on here that we didn’t on the other sites we were on.  This has quickly become one of our favourite sites for planning.

Time Out – We used this site mainly to find out about festivals and local places to go that the other sites don’t detail as much.  We like the TimeOut magazine much more than the website.

Travel for Kids – Travel for Kids combines fun things to do with practical tips, plus best bets for family hotels, family tours, fun food, travel tools, and staff recommendations for children's books about destinations all over the world.  This is by far our favourite site so far.

These are just the sites we use, there are plenty more on the internet.  And I’m sure we will find more as we go along and we will share them with you when we do.

Next up is the most important section to us.  This is the information we gathered to make sure that what we were planning was going to be possible with our kids.  And that the wonderful world of year long travel was an experience to be shared with our kids and it would be fun for everyone!

Mission Decluttering #5 - Kitchen & Nook

This is one mission I am TOTALLY dreading!  Just the same as the living room and office, the kitchen in our house is never clean!  It feels like we work in a short order kitchen most of the time.  I’m trying a mixture of two methods here.  Let’s see how it goes!

1. Clean your kitchen before you start.  Put away your dishes from the dishwasher and sink, wipe down your counters. This way you won’t have to move stuff around or look for space to put things when your hands are full.  Start clean, finish clean – what an a-ha moment!

2. Start with the drawers. Utensil drawers first and move down to pots and pans drawers if you have them. Pull out everything, wipe down the inside and outside.  If it’s clean the less likely I am to put stuff back in that I don’t use.

3. Return items that you only regularly use. If it’s broken, a duplicate or worn do not put it back. Only the things that I am actively using stay in.

4. Throw away the garbage, put your recycling in your bin, and put everything else that didn’t make the “I always use this” pile into a box.

5. Continue with the rest of the drawers. If there is an item you don’t use, don’t keep it around ‘just in case’ or because your Mom used to keep it around. Put it in the box and move on!

6. Now start on the cupboards. By pulling everything out cupboard by cupboard, this way you can really see what you have. Do you need all of this stuff? Ditch those plastic containers without lids and extra empty jars you’re storing.

7. Finish ALL the cupboards – not under the sink yet (that’s a mission in and of itself).

8. How full is your box or basket looking?  Think you’re done?  Not yet, I’m moving on to the pantry!

9. I LOVE a clean pantry … especially since I spent days creating a lovely, easy to use Mason Jar pantry.  However, when the other half doesn’t jump on the bandwagon, it makes putting groceries away a very looooooong task!  Two things when cleaning out your pantry:

•  Is my family going to eat this?
•  When?

If you answered no to either of these questions, don’t keep that item in your pantry until it expires and you have to throw it away. Donate unopened items to the food bank, soup kitchen, or local churches.

**As you work on your pantry decluttering, make sure you wipe out the drawers and shelves as you go, too! Get rid of the stuff that doesn’t belong there. Pull out organizing tools you don’t use.

10. Look around and make sure you have gone through each drawer (don’t forget the one under your oven!), each cupboard and the pantry and celebrate!  Enjoy your new decluttered and minimized space!

11. Close the box (or boxes in my case).

What did I let go of this time:

·         2 full bags of tealights

·         A set of fabric placemats (we have bamboo ones that are super easy to wipe down, so I’m not sure why I got the fabric ones – OK, I liked the colour!)

·         Half a dozen mugs that were shoved to the back of the cupboard

·         2 flower vases

·         Cream and sugar set (bought those for Christmas dinner and didn’t end up using them)

·         Gravy Boat (same as above)

·         More than 20 sets of chop sticks

·         7 forks, spoons and knives that came from who knows where

·         A box full of miscellaneous Ziploc containers with no matching lids

·         A box full of baking sheets, muffin tins, loaf pans, etc. (I love to bake, but I don’t need multiples of everything)

·         A set of mixing bowls (again, don’t need multiples)

·         Slow cooker (always meant to use it, never did)

·         A set of funky napkin rings (does anyone use those anymore?)

·         A pair of Salt and Pepper shakers

·         A serving platter that had a huge chip out of one of the corners

·         Half a dozen assorted sippy cups and thermos’s

·         2 lunch boxes that were purchased for the girls but they never used

·         2 books on wine

Seriously???  All that crap that we NEVER use!  Ahhhhhh – that feels (and looks) so much better!

For a mission that I was totally dreading, it wasn't so bad afterall!

Budgeting for Our Year Long Trip

2 - Budget

Now you have listed of all the places you’d like to go. It’s time for a reality check.  Unfortunately, you probably don’t have the money to see everything that’s on your list. An unfortunate truth to be sure. You’ve made the commitment to plan an entire year of your life, you’ve accepted you’ll be living out of an RV the size of a small room in a house with your family and yet you’re restricted by something as trivial as money.

Create a Budget
We cannot stress enough how important this is. Start with a sheet of paper but soon enough you will wind up using a spreadsheet of some sort.

We started with two numbers; the first is the amount of money we would ‘like’ to spend on our trip, the second number is the most amount of money we could possibly afford to spend. Be honest with your numbers, otherwise all of your planning becomes a colossal waste.

Our two numbers were $50,000 for the amount of money we would like to spend and $75,000 for the most amount of money we could possibly afford.

At $50,000, we had $4,166.66 per month. We started out with this as a template:

We are also using the website www.budgetyourtrip.com to find out average travel costs per country we plan to visit.  This will help us ensure that we are spending our money in the most effective way possible.

While we use the above template to budget our trip, we have to take into consideration that there are many one-time costs that we have to include in our budgeting.  These are things that we have researched very well and have decided that we want and need both for the RV and personally to make our trip much more comfortable and enjoyable.  That being said we don’t know the exact costs of some them so we have guessed for now and will include proper costs once known.

Cutting Down the List
Armed with an idea of how much money we want to spend and an estimate of how much it will cost to see all of the many places on our Destination list (keep in mind that this list will most likely change over time) it’s time to make some tough decisions. We have tried our hardest to make our estimate and our budget match up and in fact, for this first draft, it does – YEA US!!!

Since we are going with our kids, we need to keep in mind that we will have to go to places that will appeal to all of us.  Not every single place, but they need to enjoy themselves as well.  We found a great website (www.travelforkids.com) that we are using to find places that kids will have fun going to as well (more on that in the next section).  We have marked our list with “MUST SEE” destinations.  We have then taken it one step further and marked the remaining destinations from 1 – 5 based on the following criteria:

-          Is it kid friendly?
-          Will we all learn something from it?

We thought it would be important at first to think about how long we would like to visit each destination.  But then we started thinking would happen if we absolutely loved The Loire Valley and decided to stay for 3 weeks instead of 5 days?  Or hated Paris (perish the thought) and left after 3 days when we had intended to stay for 10 days?  That would throw off the rest of our ‘itinerary’.  We threw that idea out the window and decided to budget instead based on country.

 
This is a trip of a lifetime, don’t cut places you’ve always wanted to see just because of the cost!  You may never get the chance to do it again – so do it right the first time!

Next up let’s discover the gajillion places available on the web for you to research your trip and all of your possible destinations. FUN!