by Hope
We are just over a month away from moving. It’s time to purge.
TVs…listed on our local ‘garage sale’ sites.
Books…sorted and boxed for storage, give away or sale at homeschool sale in May.
Computers…restored to factory settings and listed for sale.
And the list goes on.
I don’t know what is coming for us…but it’s been amazing to me how easy it’s been this time around to purge so much of the stuff that we felt was so important to us just a year and a half ago when we went through our first purge to go from 1800 square feet to 900 square feet. Now as we go from 900 square feet to what about 300…it’s okay and I’m excited to see what’s next.
Financially speaking I am about $1500 behind on bills. I’m hoping this purge will bring me closer to having a $0 late status by the first week of May, my first month with no rent or utility bills.
Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.
But life has a way of rewriting your plans.
A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.
Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.
Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.
She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.
It seems like once you start to pare things down it just becomes easier and easier to pare them even more. We have 3 children under 4 and are going to relocate 1800 miles. It just isn’t worth the cost to move all the stuff we have accumulated, but the very thought of trying to purge makes me want to cry. I also have no idea how to explain to a 4 year old that he just can’t keep it. He has a melt down if there is a crayon missing.
Hi Taira,
I have certainly been there with the little ones. It helped mine to have some control. So I bought a big plastic tub and we decorated the outside of it with Sharpie’s and their names, and then I told them they got to choose what went in it. That way it would be safe as we moved across the country. I did that early in the packing process, so that we could slowly purge the other stuff, either to friends or garage sale. And then at the end, they each got to pack a “back pack” for the trip so they got to pick their every day favorites for that. There were definitely meltdown moments, but now looking back they don’t mind and they still have those tubs which are now called “memory boxes” for keeping their fav stuff that they may not play with anymore but do want to keep.
300 square feet for 5 people?
Yes, the RV sleeps 10 and I’m guesstimating on the actual square footage. There’s a ‘room’ with bunks and a double where the boys will sleep, a ‘room’ with a double and a couch that folds out which Princess and I will use.
We will leave the booth as a booth for school work, working and snacks, but will primarily use the full kitchen and conference table and bathrooms in the mobile home/office next to the RV. Barring bad weather, it seems like it will be a pretty good set up.