Lifestyle Change Update

As our Lifestyle Change unfolds, we have been making some wholesale downsizing changes around our household. We found over 5 car loads of items to donate, we’ve sold multiple items, given away too many items to count, and have taken advantage of our “heavy trash” day to get rid of items we couldn’t give away or sell. Beyond being a little embarrassed by how much stuff we have accumulated in the last 5 years, we figured we were doing well with downsizing.

Then I did a podcast interview with Denis and Katie at Chain of Wealth. During that interview when I was talking about trimming our excess spending by looking at things as “a want or a need”, Katie mentioned that she liked to think about an item in terms of, “Do I want this badly enough to have to pack it and move it?” Mrs. SSC heard that and took it to heart because we’ll be moving in another month and we will be downsizing from our current house. Now that we potentially, have a new house, we know how much space we will have and what things can or can’t move with us.

Here are updates from the past few weeks on how our lives are going with the Lifestyle Change.

Moving Woes

Hearing Katie mention that she looks at things in terms of “will I want to have to pack this and move it?” was motivation to re-evaluate our remaining stuff using that mantra. We tweaked it a little and are now asking, “do I want to pay to move this?” In the past we have gotten our last 2 big moves paid for by megacorps. Yeah, thank-you megacorps! Not being the ones to pay for something meant that we didn’t worry about things to this level. There was no budget, there was no set spending amount, it was simply, Graebel shows up, they pack your stuff, you sign off on the number of boxes that they packed and Bada-bing, Bada-boom! You’re moved.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Now that we will be paying for movers, we are a bit more conscious of how much we actually want to move. We will get a stipend for moving that should cover most things, but we have been more picky with what we think is worth moving this time, especially in the realm of questionable items like TV’s. If a TV is $100 to crate and move, then we should move our TV’s ourselves because neither of them is worth $100. Our main TV is riding out its last days here before being tossed because it has developed some major wonky screen issues so it won’t be coming with us. I’ve already priced U-haul style moving trucks and we can get a 1 way rental for about $300, on sale. This would be a small truck for items that we may not want them to move like our stained glass, the tv’s, the telescope, a bunch of wood for me to use for woodworking, some woodworking equipment, food stuffs that they won’t move, guns, and other random things like that. I think this would pay out if we spent about $500 on it and save ourselves from paying for the “per box” charge of moving these things with a mover… I’m confident that we can find enough items to move ourselves to make it worth it. Regardless, things are getting even more pared down than they were.

New Home

Last weekend we agreed on a price for a house at our new location. It’s on 2 heavily treed acres within a small “neighborhood” and in a good school district. Of course, there is only one school district in the area, so that makes it easy being in “the good one”. It has the perfect layout for our bedrooms, guest room in case an in-law moves in with us down the road, an office space for Mrs. SSC or me to work from home, and a separate “man-cave” area that I’ll share with the kids. This will be for my desk, music instruments, video games, their toys and more. It’s pretty sweet and I’ll be up there this week for the home inspection so I can ask the inspector about anything he finds along the way and get info on things that won’t necessarily make the report.

We’re a little removed from “town” but that’s okay with us and Mrs. SSC still only has a 15 minute commute. One thing we found hilarious was that whether we were “in-town” or more rural, every commute we mapped was between 11 and 15 minutes. Score one for downsizing cities as well!

Houston traffic. It all looks red or orange, every day….

Plus, this house is only 7 minutes from the state park at the lake and there are many miles of mountain bike and hiking trails to take advantage of. Woohoo!! An even bigger bonus is that because most of our 2 acres is heavily treed, for now, I don’t need a $2k+ riding mower to manage the grass and yard. My walk behind push mower will be plenty.

So many trees! I could get used to this place…
Home For Sale

Our current house is now on the market, but we have yet to have a showing. Womp, womp… We’re not too worried as we’ve talked with other families that are also selling right now and they are experiencing the same thing. I think it’s a bit early for most families to want to deal with the hassle of prepping their home for sale, finding a new home, and finishing up the school year. I expect things will turn around in another week when school is wrapped up and the race is on to move school districts and get settled before the new school year starts. Ahhh, the intricacies of the suburban lifestyle, lol.

Well maintained 2 story, cars and cash not included.
An Even Longer Commute?

Our plan is to be moved into our new home by the end of June. But wait, aren’t I still working through July, and isn’t Mrs. SSC working in July for a weekend class she will be teaching? Yes, yes we both are still planning to work until then. Our current plan is to keep enough stuff at our current place to live there and commute to our new place on the weekends. Yes, the long travel might get old, but there is a significant stock payout for me in July and Mrs. SSC will make about $10k for 8 days of work. We figure we will make it work, and it will payout even if we have to rent a place some of those weeks.

Hopefully, the commuting won’t be a lot of this.

Personally, I would rather our current house sell in May or June and we then can be rid of it. Fingers crossed. If that happens, we’ll do what we always do and move to Plan B, C, D, or whicheve version we think best fits the current situation. Like my boss always tells me, “Semper Gumby” or “Always Flexible”.

Always Flexible

That’s where we are with Life at the moment. What about you? Any exciting things going on in your neck of the woods? Let me know!