Roughly a month ago, I made a post about our dreams and plans for Digital Nomad Life. Since then, we have moved, donated, trashed, sold, and purchased a whole host of things! We figured the time was right for an update and a breakdown of how one might undertake this.

First, I will start with a treat, a free gift if you will. This whole endeavor would stop before it began if we didn’t have a spreadsheet keeping our life and plans organized. Formerly Excel, now Google Sheets, is basically Frank’s mistress. Frank composed this nifty template below to give a (roughly) comprehensive outline of steps to consider and how to organize and categorize your things. Ours looks a little different because it is all so subjective and can and should be tailored to individual needs. If you are considering this lifestyle and want to utilize THIS TEMPLATE to make your dreams come true, fantastic! If you look around your home and are overwhelmed by the volume of Stuff, feel free to use the portions of the template that can help you pare down your belongings. Or have Marie Kondo ask you if this item brings you joy, whatever works for you!

Moved 

Months ago, Frank embarked on the monumental task of taking inventory of all of our stuff. Mind you, he didn’t count individual utensils, plates, shirts, and pants, but he still tried to more or less name everything. Naturally, this is a critical first step. Our apartment contains a room with a closet that has had several uses in our time there. First an office, then a workout room, and now our transitional space for our things. In that first post of our plans, I included a photo of the initial purge that still haunts my nightmares on occasion. Here’s a comparison photo to show our progress:

After that initial donation dump, we now have designated space for things we intend to store and things we plan to bring with us. We can proudly share that the majority of our “Stored” things have already made it into the workout room, and our future storage unit will likely be fairly small! Yay! Many of the things we plan to bring, we are currently still using, so that part of the closet remains fairly bare. Nevertheless, even though in some rooms it may not look like much has been accomplished, we know we are getting. stuff. done!

Donated 

After we filled the workout room with all of those clothes and other random items, Frank bagged and boxed it all for me to take to our local St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. Seven white bags of clothes, two comforters, and a big box of miscellaneous goodies later, among even more things, and it was time to load up the car. Thankfully, Frank had removed Victoria’s car seat for extra space. Thus, we crammed our trunk, entire back seat, and front passenger seat with everything, and I was off! After arriving, a team of five or six volunteers took multiple trips to empty our car. When they finished, I felt both lighter and a little sad, particularly over the blue comforter.

A week or two later, we had the joyous (and again, sad…I’m way more attached to our stuff than I thought I would be!) opportunity of offloading our Blu-ray and DVD collection to various family members! This shelving unit below, formerly stuffed full of movies and seasons of our favorite shows, now lies totally empty. About three boxes worth went to some of our best friends in the area, to supplement their already extensive DVD and Blu-ray collection, and the rest went to Frank’s mom. She will select her preferred titles, then donate the rest. Why did we do this now, so early, comparatively speaking, in this preparation process? We have a digital library with Vudu, with the majority of our titles already in there, and the ability to obtain the rest. Why hang on to the physical discs if we don’t need to?

Next week, we plan to bring a trunkload of books to the donation center for our local library. We meant to on Friday, but missed the deadline. Better luck next time!

Trashed

Not much to report in this category, to be honest. We stumbled upon random items throughout the different drawers and closets we went through that were not worth keeping, selling, or donating. Things in bad shape, broken, too stained to save, things I know I just won’t use, that sort of thing. Nothing significant stands out that we threw out, I just know we did.

Sold

Huzzah for Facebook Marketplace! Oh, and it’s a major headache, but what can you do? Frank photographed and listed the more valuable items we no longer use or need on Facebook Marketplace. He has single-handedly fielded all interested offers and purchases while maintaining his full-time job, because he is awesome and helpful and great. Thus, (sadly) our record player, desktop computer, a dishware set, and some of Victoria’s things have been sold!

Sidebar: when we lived in Toledo the first time, I worked for Kirkland’s and purchased this adorable “Bucket List” bucket, and we recently stumbled upon it again! The power of foreshadowing; we had no idea this would be our life when I initially got it! It contains little cards, and one of these days, I think I’ll select our top 30 bucket list items to put in that bucket. One day, we will likely have a house, and that little bucket will remind us of some of our sweetest memories.

Purchased

So, I saved the biggest news for last. Anyone who knows me knows I have loved my car, a Dyno blue 2013 Honda Civic. My good friend in the Ft. Myers area has one, and I wanted one too. So, while we lived in Jacksonville, we needed a second car and Frank got me that one for my birthday that year! It has faithfully served our needs for several years, and carried us through countless cross-country road trips and moves. I miss it. It’s gone now. I miss it because we traded it in for an SUV! We researched, discussed, and over-analyzed potential options and finally selected the 2021 Aegean blue Honda CR-V. Which, incidentally, allowed us to ✅ another bucket list item; we bought a brand new car!

It basically boils down to this:

• We wanted something we knew we could trust to haul our nomadic life all over this hemisphere for several years.
• By trading in our blue Civic, the price of the brand new car dropped significantly, making it more affordable. 
• The dealership offered incredible financing and unbeatable interest rates. 
• It’s a seller’s market out there right now, and newer used cars cost nearly as much as brand new, so why not use this opportunity to just buy new?
• It’s PRETTYYYY!

We are currently accepting suggestions for naming the car!

What’s Next

We have a limited number of weekends left before we head to Mexico. Thus, we have identified and scheduled the completion of several more bucket list items in this general region. We completed one of those today, so tune in next week to hear about and see today’s shenanigans!