Ready to lighten your load, both physically and mentally? In the second installment of the Nomad Newbie Series, we tackle downsizing - the first but often one of the hardest steps to transitioning to a life of freedom.
With the help of two special guests, we share tips and advice for letting go of your possessions. Chris DeCroce, a former Nashville homeowner turned sailboat resident, successfully severed his emotional attachments to material possessions. He discusses the psychological aspects of downsizing and provides a roadmap on where to start, focusing first on the items that carry no emotional weight.
But it's not just about letting go, it's also about embracing a new way of life. Kandace and Justin did just that when they downsized to live full time in their travel trailer. They share their approach which consists of starting early, starting small, and making a plan to transition to this new lifestyle.
Whether you're contemplating a life on the road or the open waves, this episode is for you. Get ready to leave the conventional behind and step towards a life filled with less stuff and more experiences.
Once you’ve downsized, you might be wondering what stuff you actually do need for your new life on the road. Check out my list of van life essentials at https://thewaywardhome.lpages.co/van-life-essentials-podcast/.
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
Ready to lighten your load, both physically and mentally? In the second installment of the Nomad Newbie Series, we tackle downsizing - the first but often one of the hardest steps to transitioning to a life of freedom.
With the help of two special guests, we share tips and advice for letting go of your possessions. Chris DeCroce, a former Nashville homeowner turned sailboat resident, successfully severed his emotional attachments to material possessions. He discusses the psychological aspects of downsizing and provides a roadmap on where to start, focusing first on the items that carry no emotional weight.
But it's not just about letting go, it's also about embracing a new way of life. Kandace and Justin did just that when they downsized to live full time in their travel trailer. They share their approach which consists of starting early, starting small, and making a plan to transition to this new lifestyle.
Whether you're contemplating a life on the road or the open waves, this episode is for you. Get ready to leave the conventional behind and step towards a life filled with less stuff and more experiences.
Once you’ve downsized, you might be wondering what stuff you actually do need for your new life on the road. Check out my list of van life essentials at https://thewaywardhome.lpages.co/van-life-essentials-podcast/.
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
Well, the first time I moved out of my apartment to live in a Toyota Prius was a crazy experience. It was 2015 and I had this gorgeous Zen-style studio in Mill Valley, right outside San Francisco. My apartment was full of stuff a bed, a couch, a closet of clothes, of course, everything I would need for cooking and I had to downsize to live in a car so I could save money on rent and pay off my debt. I got a shipping container storage unit in downtown Sausalito where I could store some of my stuff. I couldn't let go of my bed pots, pans and a few suitcases full of luggage. But since then I've learned a lot about downsizing and now it's really easy for me to give stuff away. But I know this can be a very challenging part of Nomad life for a lot of people. In this second episode of the Nomad Newbie series, we're diving deep into downsizing for full-time travel.
Speaker 2:Let's go. Welcome to the Wayward Home podcast. All about van life, boat life and nomadic living. We'll bring you tips, interviews and stories from the road and on the water. Now here's your host, kristen Haynes.
Speaker 1:Hey there, my name is Kristen Haynes with the waywardhomecom, and I spend half the year in my Sprinter Van and half on a sailboat in Mexico, and I hope to inspire you to pursue your nomadic living dreams. It's time for the second episode of our Nomad Newbie series, where we've compiled some of the top tips from our guests on the hottest topics for aspiring nomads, like how to make money on the road you can catch that one on my last episode, episode 56, how to downsize and how to stay connected from wherever you are. If you've been wanting to ditch conventional life to hit the road or the waves, but you're feeling overwhelmed by all the information out there, then the Nomad Newbie series is here to boil it all down for you. Our topic this week is how to downsize for full-time travel. Let's get into it.
Speaker 3:You get your first job and you go by your BMW. You know what I mean. It's like all of a sudden you get this self-worth that's attached to you know a Gucci purse, a really nice set of shoes, your first apartment.
Speaker 1:That's Krista Croci, who downsized out of a house in Nashville to live aboard a small sailboat in search of a simpler, more meaningful life.
Speaker 3:We attach this self-worth and maybe our success to our stuff. So when it comes time to get rid of that stuff, we have this huge emotional barrier because we feel like, well, if I sell that BMW, then I'm admitting that maybe I'm getting rid of my self-worth. So the mindset is once you can figure out how to break that and say you know what, this BMW has nothing to do with my self-worth, it's just a car, then it becomes a lot easier to make that change.
Speaker 1:Chris might be a downsizing expert now. He's written a book called Downsizing for a Tiny Life and has a course by the same name. But it wasn't always easy for him and his wife Melody.
Speaker 3:It was hard at first because Mel had a bunch of really nice. She had a walking closet just for her shoes and to her it was exactly that. She had really busted her butt to accomplish some things on her own and her shoe collection to her was signified her success, right, Her independence. She had the money to buy really nice shoes and then when it came time to figure out what she was going to do with them, she was thinking I don't know if I can do this because that's what I worked for, but we kept talking about it. We had hard discussions, difficult discussions and a lot of tears, and there was a ton of fear. I mean it certainly wasn't easy because we didn't know what we were going to do. We didn't even know if we would like living on a boat. I mean, I was an avid sailor, but she hadn't sailed that much and she certainly hadn't lived on a boat, and neither had I.
Speaker 1:But they decided to trust the process.
Speaker 3:We started donating a lot of stuff to like needy families and stuff. And that was really the game changer for us. We were like, wow, look at what this little crockpot did for this single mom down the street. Like she was totally jacked up and so psyched for it. So now we got like five. Then we got fired up and we just we set goals financially, like if we sell this, we want to have this much money. Let's try to make this much money from the stuff we can sell and then let's try to donate to veterans group or needy families in the area. So we turned the whole thing into a game, which made it a little easier, but it's still. It's never easy. I don't think it's ever easy.
Speaker 1:For a while, chris had a hard time himself with a few particular items his beloved music gear.
Speaker 3:I had attached a bunch of my memories to my musical gear and I thought if I got rid of the gear then the memory would go with it too. And that's really one of the biggest psychological things that I talk about when I do a talk about downsizing it's the memory doesn't go with the item, it goes with the memories, with you. The item is just the item. So that's the hardest part.
Speaker 1:So you've decided to downsize. It all sounds great to live a life without stuff, but first you have to get there. If you have tons of stuff, this can all feel really overwhelming, If not impossible. Where should you even start?
Speaker 3:I always say like, start with the junk. Like easy, low-hanging fruit. All the stuff that doesn't have any emotion to it shouldn't have any emotion to it. That's where you start your junk drawer. It's like chopsticks, menus, batteries, old keys. You have no idea what they go to Like. That stuff is all where you start Really low-hanging fruit that doesn't have any emotion to it.
Speaker 1:Chris says also it's really important to know your why.
Speaker 3:Because then, when you get really frustrated or scared or panicked or overwhelmed, you can say okay, why are we doing this? Well, we want to downsize the house, we want to get out from this four-bedroom house the kids are gone or I want to quit my job and live in a van. Like you, I want to travel and start my own blog and I want to be independent. So this is why I'm doing this, and that's when it gets really tough, that's what you're gonna rely on. You're gonna be like oh crap, why am I doing this again? Well, this is why you're going through all this pain and hardship because you want to create a different life and then little, tiny bites and just be persistent.
Speaker 1:Starting out with downsizing is hard, but once you start doing it, you won't be able to stop. Trust me.
Speaker 3:It's like a snowball rolling downhill. And that's why I say start with the really easy junk stuff, that like the burnt down candles, the broken remotes, because there's no emotion there. And then, once you start to get rid of that really easy stuff, the longer you do it and the more you do it the better you'll get at it and the less emotion that you'll have until you get to the point where the really heavy stuff like your grandparents, your parents, keep sick. When you get to that point you'll have developed the muscle a little bit more and you don't want to jump right in the first day and start downsizing your attic with all your parents keep sick. That's the worst possible thing you could do, if you're even thinking about it. Start now, take an hour on a Sunday and go into the garage and start small, take small bites and by the time you're done you'll be leaving your house in a van.
Speaker 1:So today we're talking about quitting everything and jumping into the Nomad life. I'm really excited to talk about this because we all start there somewhere, and today we have Justin and Candace here on the show and they did just that they left everything to go travel in a travel trailer. So I'm really glad to be talking to you guys today. Thanks for joining the Wayward Home podcast. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thank you for adding us, Kristen.
Speaker 1:A lot of my readers write me and that's one of their biggest concerns is how do I downsize all this stuff? And they're so worried about it. But you guys, how did you just, how did you tackle it? Do you have a tip or two for people on tackling that much stuff?
Speaker 2:It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. So start at first. So you start a little bit at a time. I did it in phases. So I had 75 pairs of jeans and then I went to half, and then I went to half again and then half again, so that's an easier way to tackle it. And then, looking at around that, what do you really really use daily and need?
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's stuff that sits in storage units for years. You're like I obviously don't need it if it's been there for two or three years, right?
Speaker 2:And also for me. I like thinking about it that this could go to someone who uses it. I don't use it, I haven't used it. I would like someone to have it that will use it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and one of the other things that Candace always brings up is all right, you spend $50 on this item, but you're also spending $50 or $100 or whatever it is to store it in a unit. Right, If you are storing your excess stuff somewhere and it's like over two or three years, how much more are you paying for that thing that you're not using? Yeah, you could rebuy it. So that's another way to think about it. You can just rebuy it after the year.
Speaker 2:if you really want it, you can just rebuy it after the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are all like totally amazing tips and I think they'll definitely help people because that is a big struggle, so I'm glad you shared that stuff.
Speaker 2:We started a year in advance. I think that's important for people too. Don't leave it to the last month. Yeah, start way in advance.
Speaker 4:It'll be overwhelming otherwise.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And then you may never do it.
Speaker 1:Totally yeah, that's what happens to people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, their stuff. Their stuff stops them from doing and living the life they really want to live.
Speaker 1:So you guys did that got rid of your stuff downsides, got in the trailer and started your journey. So what was the biggest adjustment you had to make between the house and living in the trailer full-time?
Speaker 4:So we kind of did that in stages too, which was a nice transition. After Candace sold her condo, we moved into a 450 square foot like a in-law unit and we lived there for four or five months before we left. So we went from 1,100 square feet, 1,200 square feet to 450 to then whatever the camper is, I don't know 100 square feet. So that adjustment was done in stages and helped us.
Speaker 1:Anything else you guys wanted to say to people considering this or about your experiences that we missed?
Speaker 2:Just do it. You only live once. Do it.
Speaker 4:So that's the winged mentality. I'd say put some planning into it, do the research, listen to podcasts, but it is a freeing experience and if you have the savings and even if you don't, there are people like you. We're going to make it work. Who work? There's the working pneumatic lifestyle.
Speaker 2:And I think so many people say I can't do that. I can't do that, you can. You actually can, right, if you put your mind to it and you pay off your debt and you put some savings away, and then you boondock or you stay in state parks. You know there are ways to do it. You just have to drastically change your life and your spending habits.
Speaker 4:And you have to want it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to have that desire to change your life.
Speaker 1:I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Nomad Newbie series. If you want to learn more about the van life essentials, I recommend I created a multi-page checklist for you with links to all my favorite things. You can download that checklist at thewaywardhomecom forward slash checklist or click the link in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening to the second episode of our Nomad Newbie series on the Wayward Home Podcast. I'll see you next time.