I decided to give you a brief summary of the last two months of the preparation, because when I looked back at my notes it literally read like a never-ending task list each day. At the beginning my notes were more like bullet points full of items like:
- Blood test for the dogs and vaccinations
- Order new SIM card
- Dentist appointment and my yearly girly check (both brought forward a bit)
- Hairdresser
- Insurance
- Bank
- Pills and vitamins for the year
- Registry office to clear the deed of the house
- Follow up on my bike’s belly pan
- Order stickers
- Etc.
The list literally looked endless. And one of the hardest juggles was remembering what stage everything is, because for some reason everything needed a follow up (for example ordering the stickers, once I finally find the right vendor, took 3 attempts to get delivered). Nothing extra or unmanageable, but when you are on a tight schedule, you do feel more the weight of the extra effort of following up on everything…
Or sometimes I just simply had to come up with the right sequence of doing things, because for example it is not worth signing new insurance papers, while we are still registered at the old house, just so I would have to redirect the address later.
Anyway, I can’t complain, whilst it was a lot to manage, I was truly in my element. I am a dog with a bone, so once I set my mind on something, I will go after it until it is resolved! The hardest part was starting to pack up and selling our belongings. Packing was hard, because you look around in any one room and A) you realize how much stuff you own and B) start thinking what are the things you won’t need in the next 2 months. So many of the days started with a hole lot of procrastination… And then when I got going, I just felt like I am shuffling things from left to right, then back. Things started to clear when we started to take things over to my parents. They were the best! They cleared their loft for us to take over the things we decide to keep. Bearing in mind we have no idea what the future holds. We both have a desire to be on the road for a few years, however there are so many things we can’t know up front. Therefore, at least for now we decided to keep the clothes and some personal stuff and tools for a year and sell everything else. The only big value item we kept is the car. We love that car! And financially I can sell it now for x amount, but if anything happens, I will not be able to buy it back or something similar for the same value. That’s why we decided to keep it and one of my friends will use it for a year, so it can stay road worthy while we are away.
Going back to packing and selling up. Selling was even more of a challenge for me than packing. For various reasons (number one being the lack of sales person in me! 😄). How do you evaluate the worth of your belonging objectively? When all you can think of is how much you paid for it, that they are working fine, even if there is no sentimental value in a freezer per say… Of course, it worth more to you than what you can ask for it on the market. Then not to mention the big social study that followed the advertisements. Some people were a pleasure to do business with, some were their own league. Let’s just say it was not my favourite task during this entire process.
Interestingly enough the ordeal of selling our belongings closed with one of the best memory imaginable. I arranged a garage sale 2 days before evacuating the house and it went down like a storm. People were so interested and supportive, it almost made me want to stay in Ecser. It was brilliant! And on the back of that we received some good contacts who helped us even the following days to clear the house. I will never forget that! Ok fair enough, I did manage to write an article to the local magazine and the publishing happened just in time before I advertised the garage sale and that undoubtedly triggered some interest. One of those stars aligning moments, which we seem to experience quite a lot since the idea formulated in our head.
Anyway, come 16th of August, house cleared, stuff more or less sold we were ready with one day to spare. Just as well, because we still had some paperwork and bike services to take care of on the last day. I tell you what, so far it seemed it was the perfect project with the right time management, thanks to all the people who supported us and contributed to it, including my parents, my cousins, friends and the people in Ecser, our neighbours and the list could go on. And I share one more personal secret: I am really really not good at asking for help. But during these 3 months I did put myself out there and reached out when I thought I could use some support and I always received it without fail. Never knew this feeling before!
