Packing and Purging

After living in the same house for 5 years and cultivating hobbies old and new, we have accumulated quite a bit of stuff- not near as much as others including homeowners, but still, more than we need and definitely more than we can take with us in the van or even store in a unit.  (Sidebar, one of the many benefits of renting is moving every few years which makes you much more likely to go through a thorough cleanse of your belongings.)
As we approach our July 1st launch date, decisions regarding what to do with our stuff have to be made.  I thought I would share some of our decision making process framework.
The first thing we both did was go through our closets and get rid of everything we haven't worn in the last year or 6 months (you can define your own timeframe)- shirts, pants, shoes, the whole bit.  Some people choose to sell (either online or in a yard sale), we chose to donate to Goodwill.  As another aside, if it's junk/torn/dirty, please don't send it to Goodwill.  It is a waste of their time.  If you have business attire, you can also look into donating to organizations that provide clothing specifically to homeless men and women seeking to get back into the workforce, which I think is a really great thing to do.
The next category was outdoor gear, which we elected to sell and donate.  Old backpacks, tents, snowboards, fly rods, whatever.  Those you can sell online or however you like, or you can also look into donating to organizations designed to get at risk youth outside.  If you are selling, you're likely going to have more luck selling a snowboard faster on a snowboard specific forum or gear page.  It's also much less of a hassle oftentimes, as the people on there know what they are looking for and won't ask you as many basic questions about the gear- this isn't always true, but in my experience, an informed buyer is much easier to deal with.  That being said, I've had good success selling items on eBay as well as Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.  I also sold quite a bit of photography gear on Ebay to both help fund new lenses as well as to streamline my setup given space will be at a premium in the van/on the road.
Next up was a bit more painful- books and movies.  I love to read, and as a graduate of a liberal arts university honors program, I have a lot of books.  A lot.  I have purged in the past, but this was down to bare bones, and it was excruciating at first.  I was able to whittle it down and keep a handful of my favorite classics.  Other books that made the cut were trail books, maps, guides, etc.  Books that didn't make the cut will be donated to a local free library program.  Other hiking guides, etc, I am giving to friends who enjoy hiking and who will remain in the area.  Hopefully they don't mind my notes in the margins :)
Because we lived on the East Coast in row homes for several years, most of our furniture is quite modest, IKEA brand that we are not attached to and have no problem selling or donating.  Originally, we hoped to keep our dining room table and chairs, couch, dresser, and a couple of bistro tables, but after checking prices on storage units and calculating the cost of that over 12+ months, it became easy to part with everything, and by everything, I mean everything.  Two pieces of furniture made the cut- a curio cabinet containing my grandmother's dishes, and a small antique table that sits in our hallway.  Appliances including washer/dryer, toaster- buh bye.  Lamps, coffee table, couch, beds, futon, desks, wingback chair, recliner- see ya!  Television, entertainment center, wall and shelf decor- outta here!  It seemed impossible to get here at first, but after being very deliberate about our choices and considering the cost of keeping everything, it just wasn't worth it anymore.
Hopefully talking through this process is helpful.  Next up, I'll talk about storage including how to properly store items including artwork and other fragile pieces.

Planning, planning, planning!

July 1st.  Five months from today, from this very day, we take off on an adventure years in the making.  I say years because we have been building toward this moment our whole lives, albeit only for the last year or so consciously.

Not everything is fully planned, which is fine by me, but we have already constructed quite an ambitious agenda.  Leaving July 1st from our home of the past 5 years, we will be heading to Montana to fly fish around Gardiner, Ennis, and surrounding areas, including Yellowstone.
From there, we will turn our attention North through Glacier, Banff, Jasper, and Yoho before heading East toward Terrace, BC and eventually Prince Rupert to AK.  It seems incomprehensible to make such a journey, and while it feels we have all the time in the world, I also feel strangely limited.  Can we do it all, can we see it all?  I have found myself applying pressure for adventure for the past several years.  When I take a step back I realize it was because my time was so limited- cramming adventure into Thursdays or weekends before having to go back to work and be a regular person.  Though we are getting closer to the day when I will be laid off and unemployed, that aspect still seems unreal.  It will be like a constant weekend or a glimpse of retirement while still being young enough to enjoy the things we really love the way we really love them (not knocking retirement age here, just a fact I won't be able to hike and snowboard at 65 like I can now).

So far we have our plans sketched out until mid September with a lot of leeway from that point.  I have wanted to photograph the Tetons in the Fall for so long now, and to know I will be realizing that dream soon enough is beyond exciting.  Other than the foliage, I am looking forward to wildlife sightings/photography from the Tetons all the way up to Jasper.

I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to spend a year away from the grind of healthcare and to be able to do so with my best friend and partner by my side.  Here's to some great days on the water and among the mountains and streams we love and others we will come to love.

Van Life... here we come!

We're really doing it!  Today commemorates our van build kickoff, and as I'm sure many seasoned van lifers can relate, we spent what felt like a gazillion hours at Home Depot searching for and purchasing materials. Since we're just starting out, I'll take a minute to provide some insight and backstory into our motivation to jump into this lifestyle.  Shaun and I have been married nearly 14 years after growing up together and dating throughout high school and mostly through undergrad in our home state of Tennessee. We moved to Maryland where we both attended graduate school. Growing up in East Tennessee, we both developed a love for the outdoors, exploring the Smokies, hiking (both of us) and fishing (Shaun) and really missed that aspect while living in Baltimore. Yes, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania offer amazing outdoor pursuits, but the population density there was becoming more than we could bear. After completing an extended clinical rotation in Colorado, I knew the west was where I wanted to be. It took less than a nanosecond to convince Shaun, and we moved to Washington in 2009. We have never looked back.  Both of us maintain full time careers, he in education administration, and I in healthcare.  Weekend warriors who always feel like there's not enough time. After enduring some trying times and losses, we've decided to really embrace the idea of uncomplicating our life together and put all of our efforts into spending more time together and more time in the outdoors. The van will allow us to realize the first step in our dream of traveling full-time. We both snowboard, fly fish (he convinced me), and hike, and find that waking in the 4's or 5's in the morning to race people to parking lots, fishing spots, or trailheads to be exhausting and limits us from living in the moment.  Now we can head up Friday night and stay gone till Sunday evening. Eventually, we hope it will evolve into something more, but here we are. Thanks for reading, and I hope you will follow along for updates to our build where we will cover strategy, struggles, successes, and more.  Thanks again! Amanda