If you are planning on travelling for an extended period of time, one of the first decisions that you need to make is what you are going to do with all your possessions. There are lots of people travelling Australia who have young children and limited funds. If you are in that position it might mean that you are not able to get rid of everything as you will need it when you return. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a serious declutter before you travel.
We had two houses which were both investment properties and we were renting a third. Last year we sold the bigger, newer house. We then moved into the other, much smaller house. Moving into a smaller house required me to re-assess how much ‘stuff’ we had and how much of it we really needed to keep.
DECLUTTER BEFORE YOU TRAVEL
Even if you do decide to get rid of everything (like we are planning) there will always be some things that you can’t part with. If you can start the decluttering process well before you are ready to travel you will have less stuff to sort and store when the time comes to leave. The less you have to store, the cheaper it will ultimately be if you have to pay for storage. For example, you might only need a 20 foot container instead of a 40 foot container.
So, if you are like us and long term travel is in your future now is the time to start decluttering. When you start, think about why you want to keep something. Remember the memory is not in the object. I have worked around this by taking photos of some things that I thought I couldn’t part with and then getting rid of them.
CLOTHES
I only work part time and wear a uniform so I don’t need many clothes. Having said that, I still had a tub of jumpers from when we lived down south – 11 years ago. Since living on the Gold Coast I had worn them maybe five times. So I donated most of them. Brenden also had a pile of old work clothes from other companies he has worked for so I tossed those too.
One of the biggest decisions I made was choosing to donate my wedding dress. I had kept it in the hope that Miss Oz might one day wear it but at 15 she was already to tall for it. So I donated it to Angel Gowns for Australian Angel Babies. This is a charity who turn old wedding gowns or bridesmaid dresses into tiny outfits for little bubs who pass away. It is a beautiful charity and the work their volunteers do is amazing.
RECIPE BOOKS
I had a huge collection of recipe books and recipes that I had torn from magazines. Out of all these, I probably only used four or five on a regular basis. So I recently got ruthless and donated most of them. Let’s face it the biggest recipe book in the world is Google!
KIDS TOYS
Kids grow so quickly and the toys they loved only six months ago may now seem so babyish. If you know for certain that you won’t be having any more kids, get rid of those old toys. You can sell them, donate them or give them to friends or family. But there is seriously no point in keeping stuff that they have outgrown. This applies to books, games and clothes as well.
DVD’S AND CD’S
Who has a huge DVD or music collection? I know we did. We already had all our C.D’s copied and stored on a hard drive so before we moved last year I sold all of them on eBay, making about $286 in the process. I also still had a few vinyl records which I sold for good money. Kids DVD’s and console games sell very well and can make good money.
BOOKS
I love reading but I stopped buying books ages ago so I don’t have many left. However the kids have quite a few that had been given to them by grandparents who are no longer with us. So when choosing which ones to keep I looked to see if they had been written in. This way I knew I was keeping the really special ones. They ended up with about one small box each.
PHOTOS
If you are like me you probably have a collection of photos from the days before digital cameras. All the kids baby photos are in albums as are photos of mine and Brenden’s childhood. The thing is that I had stacks of photos of people that I’d even forgotten who they were. So I went through my albums and condensed several albums into one. I also have a stack of photos that I am going to scan so I have a digital copy of them. The photo albums of course will go into storage.
TOOLS
This one might be a hard one for the blokes to get their heads around. But even Brenden has embraced the idea of decluttering his tools. As he has always ‘played’ with cars and bikes he had a huge collection of tools and tool boxes that he no longer had use for. Some were also poor quality that he had replaced along the way but not got rid of. He now has a small tool kit that lives in the back of the BT and another one in the shed. As most of his time is now spent flying and building drones, the tools he needs for that are much smaller.
KITCHEN STUFF
I had so many plastic containers, glasses, mugs and various dishes that I never used. When we moved I had to get rid of quite a bit just because I had no where to store it. Considering that when we go camping I take one saucepan, a fry pan and one mixing bowl I knew that I could do without a lot of the stuff that I had.
Can you see yourself using these decluttering tips to help you get started? I can assure you it’s really easy once you start!
Listen in to their podcast episode https://allaroundoz.com.au/podcasts/travelling-and-working-around-australia/
I’m currently going through this – again. We moved from Texas to Sydney 3.5 years ago and got rid of *most* of our stuff then. Yep, the wedding dress went too, so did the pile of cookbooks. I remember it being heart wrenching at the time.
Items like the books, CDs/DVDs, even my daughter’s “Build a Bear” collection were a goldmine on eBay! I had no idea. I think I made about $500 just on the BaB collection!
Now as we head for a life of indefinite travel, we’re doing it again. THANKFULLY my daughter is heading to Uni, so she’ll get first pick at everything. But boy-o-boy it’s a process.
One thing I learned was to digitize everything – recipes went into Evernote. Photos were scanned and now we have them forever. It took a while, but it made a difference.
We’re now looking at used book stores to sell those books we’ve accumulated in the last 3 years. Also looking at used furniture companies that will buy up the last of our ‘quality’ furniture (bye bye IKEA junk).
I’d love to hear any thoughts/ideas on any recommendations – but particularly on storage companies in Australia. We have some stuff we want to keep for when we eventually settle although it won’t be much by the time I’m done.
Wow…I thought moving from NSW to Queensland was bad when our kids were little but the States to here that’s big. I have piles of photos that I need to start scanning. Most of them are from when the kids were babies. It is looking more and more like our kids will stay in our house and pay rent so storage won’t be an issue for us. Paying for storage is really expensive so maybe a rack in your daughters garage? We are about to put a roof ladder into our place so lots of stuff will go up there.
The only things I have trouble declutering now are photos, DVDs and CDs. I just don’t like the 100% digitised version of these things!
Always a risk with having it all on digital. I’d be devastated if I lost all my photos so I have back-ups!
We had a major declutter before our last move (our 23rd) and I’m hoping to do more decluttering before our next move. Which will hopefully be our last. Wish I was packing up to go traveling.
I think you’ve had as many moves as I have! Still lots for us to do before we finally hit the road!
Decluttering is important wherever we are. It helps to clear a space, not only in the home, but in the mind!
I wish I could get my husband on board with the whole decluttering thing. I declutter and he buys more stuff to fill up the space …
Oh well.
Oh dear that is a bit of a problem Leanne…boys and their toys. Mind you we still have a long way to go. Our garage is very full!
I just need tips on how to get a 4 year old to declutter! I got caught getting rid of some of here toys and got in big trouble!!
Oh yes that’s always a challenge….stash some for a few months and if they don’t ask for them in that time then you can safely get rid of them. Or get them to pick out some that they can donate to sick kids or kids who don’t have much. That used to work with mine.
I use the sharing is caring mantra, and ask what they would like to give away to the charity shop.
Yes that’s a good idea for little kids. My big kids still weren’t happy with what went to the op shop in the picture 🙂
Great article. We too are in the “decluttering process”
We currently own 2 properties (live in one of them) and plan to travel from January 2016. One of the biggest things we struggle with the idea of getting rid of is the furniture. The thoughts of, “what about when we return?” or “if we travel fro 12 + months, the cost of storage will probably equate to buying new furniture” or “if we store it in the shed it will be alright, although wont it go mouldy” – I think eventually we will sell all of the furniture and keep personal valuables in the outdoor shed securely in plastic tubs (and hope it will be ok).
Our furniture is getting pretty old now so it won’t be an issue to get rid of it. Plus I don’t think insurance will cover stuff in storage for very long.
This was a useful reminder, thanks! We are hoping to emigrate in about 6 months and I’ve lulled myself into a false sense of security about how much time we have. It’s really not that long! Especially things like scanning in photos, copying music to hard drives, listing things on eBay. It actually takes a really long time, especially as we tend to have busy weekends as it is. So I need to get going on these things asap!
Also hands up from a fellow kitchen hoarder. I think I have a 3 year supply of herbs on the go… And that’s just to start!
I know we will end being frantic towards the end regardless of how much I do now…..I could have written a whole separate post on decluttering my pantry!