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!

Mission Decluttering #4 – Our Living Room & Office

This used to be our office.

No where near clean and organized and this is what it turned into.

This is our living room/office now.  A smooshed up, cluttered mess.

We do EVERYTHING out of this room – have parties here, watch TV, play with Lily, run my husband’s company out of here, play games, read, work, literally everything.  So it’s really no surprise that it is a dumping ground and I hate it!  I have tried everything to keep it clean and organized, but no matter what I do it just doesn’t happen.  My thought is, if I declutter and minimize as much as possible there is a chance that it might just stay clean.  Right?

Here goes nothing, or lots.  Not sure yet.

After two days of decluttering, our living room and office yielded the following:
-          One bin of recycling (including papers that need to be shredded)
-          One photo box of photos that I have sent to be scanned
-          A box of craft supplies that I no longer needed
-          A box of duplicate office supplies that we plan to donate
-          10 CDs that we put onto our computer
-          12 books that we plan to sell
-          A stack of magazines that we took to our gym
-          A bag of garbage (grocery bag)

Almost embarrassing that that amount of ‘stuff’came out of such a small space.I doubt if it will stay clean for long, eight hands in a small space do not a clean space make.

After all of that, this is what it looks like now ...

Can you spot the differences?  I think it looks better and it gives us WAY more space for Lily!  We got rid of the two humungous armchairs and got two small armchairs from IKEA, we moved the couch against the wall and changed the storage bench to an actual coffee table.

It's still a teeny tiny space, but it's a cleaner space!

Next up – Kitchen & Nook!

Destinations - The Dreaming Phase

1 - Destinations
The first step you should always make it to be sure you are ready for a one year trip in an RV with kids. Once you've decided that you are and committed to the planning, it's time to start.  This is definitely the most fun part of the trip planning. It is during this part that you get to leaf through all those magazines you see in line at the grocery store, flip through books in a section you wouldn’t otherwise visit and browse the internet for something other than clothes and electronics and let your imagination go crazy!

Grab a sheet of paper - it’s time to start planning. All those places you’ve always wanted to visit, throw them on the list.  All those places you see on travel shows and your favourite TV shows, throw them on the list.  All those places you’ve heard about from other people who have been there and bragged about it, throw them on the list.  Don’t worry about how far apart they are from one another, or how silly they may seem. Put them on the list anyway - this is your trip after all.  So have fun with it, nothing is too far away, or too impractical!

Discovering New Destinations
Now sit back and revel in your work.  Look at that list, how wonderful does it feel to have taken that first step?  And I will bet you anything that it includes one of the following: Paris, London, Amsterdam?  Or maybe all of them?  Good on you!  There’s a reason those locations are so highly coveted since visiting them is akin to reading the classics.

But what else it out there? We started with books. There’s also the internet, and there is a ton of information and once you’ve written a well organized list the internet is great for researching specific locations. Get a book, lots of books, it will be worth the cost and you won’t be able to put them down.  Trust us!

Take Your RV to Europe
This is the first book we bought and awaited anxiously for it to arrive in the mail.  We had to order it on Amazon but it has quickly become our bible and I’m sure will remain that way for years to come.  The Milavsky’s have detailed pretty much everything you could ask for in this book from readying your American RV for Europe, to shipping, to useful tips in each country they visited.  LOVE!

RV the World
While this book is literally about RVing the World, there is so much information crammed into this book, the Contents pages are enough to start you salivating!

Europe in a Motorhome
This is my current read.  This is a cross between a novel and travel book.  Not much is held back in this book since the Jackson’s traveled with their 13 year old son.  It’s an entertaining and eye-opening read! It also has a great list of European campsites.

Europe by Van and Motorhome
Too much information is never enough and while many of these books contain similar information, each one has provided some new and interesting tips, tricks, lists and stories.
 

Lonely Planet – Mediterranean Europe

Of course what would travel be without Lonely Planet?  While this is the 6^th Edition  and they are currently printing the 10^th Edition we covet this book since it is the second we purchased after making the decision to do this trip.

This is what our initial Destinations Lists looks like:

We are continually updating our Destinations and we will post all of our new updates as we complete a new list.

Next up we will get practical and look at what you need to know before you travel.  As well we will take a look at the often unfortunate aspect of cutting your fantasy travel list down to something practical for you and your family.  Also known as the “Budget”.

Mission Decluttering #3 - Closets

In our teeny tiny home we have GREAT storage closets! A huge linen closet in the girl’s bathroom upstairs, a front hallway closet, a back hallway closet and a closet in the developed basement, it’s great even though none of stuffed to the gills by any means, but it still allows us to store out of season coats, etc. out of the way!  That doesn’t mean however that they don’t need a going over!

For our closets I utilized a little method I picked up from a friend of mine who is super organized and it’s how she does all her organizing (and really how I should be doing all of mine).  She uses the STOP method. S for Sort, T for Toss, O for Organize and P for Put Away.

First stop, the linen closet.

1. Sort – so here I set my watch for 20 minutes and dove right in – Keep, Donate/Sell, Put Away, and Garbage.  Surprisingly, it only took me 20 minutes to sort the entire 4 shelves of my closet, maybe that’s a lot I don’t know, but I was impressed.

2. Toss – anything ripped, ragged or stained should either be tossed or repurposed.

3. Organize - Once the space is clear, clean the entire closet; walls, shelves, doors and floor.  Refold all sheets and towels and stack neatly and return to the shelves.   I use quite a few plastic baskets in my linen closet to sort out all of the other items – toiletries in one, medications on a high shelf out of reach and I hate the plastic used to keep toilet paper and tissue boxes together so I take everything out of those and stack boxes or rolls neatly on a shelf.

4. Put away – anything not belonging back in the closet can be put away in their proper homes around the house.  The Sell/Donate boxes can be taken to storage and then toss the trash.

The rest of our closets contain our seasonal items so I like to do my seasonal sweeps.

 

There are 4 easy-to-follow steps here:

 
1.       Take everything out of the closet. Then, wipe down the shelving, walls and floors, dust and vacuum.
2.       Do a quick purge of anything you're going to donate; separate out anything that needs altering or dry cleaning.
3.       Put everything back in the closet hanging and sorting by color with most-worn items in front.
4.       Donate the remaining items; take alterations and cleaning to tailor and dry cleaner.

Since the closets only took me a grand total of 3 hours I am happy to report that I got rid of the following:

1 bag of donations (7 jackets – 4 of mine, 2 of my husbands, 8 pairs of shoes and boots – all mine!)

4 jackets (and 2 snowsuits) that have been washed and put away for use by Lily at a (much) later date
1 bag of extra hangers (metal ones returned to the drycleaner)
1 bag of garbage and recycling
 
Up next – Our Living Room & Office!

How we Plan to Plan Our Year Long Trip

0 -Contents
This guide is created to help you plan your very own year long trip. It will offer you travel packing tips, travel planning hints and other such suggestions. Use it as an independent guide, or with other resources. We used SO many resources it would be hard to include them all, but when we found something that was outstanding we included it!

Introduction
So you’re thinking of going on a one year trip – with kids? First of all – you are CRAZY. Secondly - sounds like a great plan – go for it! But what do you need to know before you head out? First off know that it’s not impossible. More than likely it is very well within your means. It will just take a lot of planning, saving and a TON your time. This guide is designed to help inform you of everything you need to know to plan your trip.

Best of luck, and good planning – it may just be the most fun you’ve ever had.

Index:

0 - Contents
This is what you’re looking at: A breakdown of everything to come, and briefly what information you can expect to find there.

1 - Destinations
How we chose our destinations and what your first steps towards planning a year-long RV trip (with kids) should be. Obviously there are so many places you’d love to see – but you might be surprised what’s out there, beyond your realm of knowledge and things that would never think of!

2 – Budget
This is the BIG ONE. Everything becomes reality here. You will explore your list of possible destinations and it will be culled down to something much more practical. Issues of money, how much will you need – and what you will need it for – are discussed in this section.

3 –Research

You need to a whole lot of research before you head out if you want to make the most of your journey. Where should you go? What should you do? And what should you look for? All these answers and more and explored and answered here.

4 - Traveling With Kids is Possible!

We could go on and on in this section, but this will give you a very good idea of what to expect, how much it will cost, education issues on the road, being prepared for (almost) everything and as many tips, tricks, issues and resources as we possibly can.

5 - RV – Purchasing and Renovating

All of the information you could possibly need to research, purchase, renovate and ship your RV to Europe or anywhere else you may want to go.

6 - The Important (and Some Not So Important) Travel Gear
So you think you’re all ready to hit the road? Have you made sure to get all the gear you need? All the gear you will ever need is detailed here, as well as some links to where you can get it. You may be surprised by just how little or how much you need. That depends on how many of you there are!

7 - Medical Requirements & Travel Insurance
You and your family are the most important thing you’re taking with you on this adventure. Make sure you are up to date on all of the various diseases, viruses and other nasties that may be floating around outside all around you and your loved ones. Find a travel doctor, talk to them about risks, and get all your immunizations and medications needed. The importance of good travel insurance is also discussed in this part.

8 - Saying Goodbye & Staying in Touch
Just because your grand adventure is taking you in one direction, it doesn’t mean other peoples’ lives stop and wait for you to return (as much as you would like to think it does). There are a number of ways to say goodbye and a number of ways to keep in touch while you’re away. They are all discussed in this section.

9 - Have No Fear …
Everyone runs into the unexpected, but that shouldn’t ruin your adventure and why you shouldn’t feel bad if it should happen to you along the way.

Things you may Overlook – Our well researched “Travel Tips and Tricks”
People have been travelling for years, and each trip brings them new tips, and tricks that they’d not known about on previous journeys. Learn from past experience, and if you’ve got a good secret that might help your fellow travelers, why not post it here?

10 - Our International Move

All of the tips and information you could want or need related to moving your life from one country to another – practical information such as legal information, banking, work, housing and education. A whole lot on decluttering and minimizing your stuff, packing, storage and shipping and even a little on settling in and culture shock.