How did we get here?
Living in a 26ft Millard caravan with our two children and ancient 1980’s Landcruiser?
Four months ago we were renting a house in Melbourne, just finished furnishing it with new and expensive things and Dan was working in commercial construction. We weren’t rolling in money but things were pretty good.
I was due (ok VERY overdue) with our second child and life was just plodding along.
Two days before Zac’s birth Dan had a workplace accident that left him with a split lip and no front tooth – one week after Zac’s birth he was made redundant.
Coincidence? I think not!
So here we are in a house costing us over $340 per week, being paid off someone else’s mortgage, a considerable amount of debt, a toddler and a newborn...
Of course, the clearest course of action is to pack our entire lives up and move to Western Australia to work in the mining boom. Makes perfect sense!! Right?
It was one of those AH HA! Moments that invariably lead to a face palm later on, but regardless it set us on the path to where we are now and believe me has taught and is continuing to teach me a lot of things about myself along the way.
Dan and I have spent the last few years slowly but surely “keeping up with the Jones’s”.
First came the new bedroom suite, TV unit, matching hall table, flat screen and then the crowning jewel our leather lounge suite.
These 2 couches cost more than my station wagon and I loved them. In fact, I was scared that the house would burn down and we would lose them.
So when we decided to go West I thought we’d just put them in storage until we came back to Vic.
Hmmm....turns out storage is a little more expensive than it was the last time I used it a decade or so ago, so that one is out.
Not going to ship it to WA for two reasons. One it’d cost thousands (pesky 5000k trip and rising fuel costs) and two, we won’t be living in a house....
Yup at $2000 per week to rent I think it might be a little out of our price range.
Surely living in a caravan will be easy with two kids and a 6’4 man right? Right?
So it broke my heart at the time but we decided the best course of action would be to sell everything...
Let me tell you its bloody freaky selling your life to the highest bidder. That and you never get anywhere near what you paid or think things are worth.
It’s a real wakeup call when the mahogany TV unit that you paid $600 for 2 years ago barely scratches $170!
The funny thing was, as our house emptied out I didn’t miss any of it. LJ our 2 year old didn’t seem to care that he was watching play school with the TV on the floor, and I didn’t notice that the hall table was gone; in fact I actually stopped losing my keys.
Slowly but surely our house emptied out. Bye bye to the expensive timber cot that my son never slept in as we chose to co-sleep, ciao to the two door fridge and dining table.
Life hasn’t crashed down around my ears yet.
The amazing thing was that the more I sold, the lighter I felt. Turns out I don’t need all this stuff.
We packed, sent 3 tandem loads of “treasures” to the tip, gave away, donated and freecycled what we couldn’t sell and handed the keys back to the agent without a backward glance.
No grief so far, things are looking good.
But as usual no major change runs smooth as I was about to find out....
