Counting Down

It's November already! The first of a brand new month and we'll only have 3 more first of a brand new months before we'll be loading up and heading off.. We are well over halfway through our 'planning period' of 9 months from when we first came up with the idea and made the decision to do it. We have our first three months worth of hosts booked, the van to do it in, most of the house cleared and solid plans for the rest.

By the next first of a new month - December - we will be sitting in a de-wondering wanderers'ed house as my Dad will be coming in at the end of this month to magnolia-ise everything. Belongings will be catergorised clearly into boxes marked 'keep til the bitter end then get rid of', 'bring along for the ride' or 'stick in the loft'. Most will be minimised and hidden as we'll be playing that marketing game of making the house look like a spacious blank canvas for potential tennants to view.


By the first of the next month - January - we will be taking down Christmas decorations but not putting them away for the folllowing year. We will be eating food from the kitchen cupboards but not replacing it all with large amounts or bulk buys, we'll be running supplies out and reducing the cupboards we use.We'll be giving notice on contracts for phones, for broadband, stopping subscriptions and cancelling direct debits.

By the first of the last month - February we'll be working out our notice in our jobs, we'll be throwing away clothes rather than washing them, we'll be savouring last baths in our lovely big bath, last sleeps in our lovely soft beds, last hugs with our lovely friends.

Our lives have been shrinking since we made the decision to go on our Wandering Wonderers adventure. Shrinking to small enough to fit in a van. We are shedding more than just belongings and turning them into more than just cash. We are infecting more than just the four of us with our wondering and our wandering. People tell me I am inspiring them to declutter, to question the 'stuff' they thought they couldn't do without, that I am challenging them to look closer at their dreams and to wonder whether they would wander, helping them to ask themselves whether they are happy with what they have and where they are going. I've lost count of the number of people who have told me with a whimsical look in their eye about how they'd 'love to do something like that...'

I feel a bit like we're in a sink with the plug pulled out at the moment - the level of stuff in our lives is getting smaller and smaller and smaller as we are sucked towards the plughole. I'm looking forward to being sucked through and finding ourselves out bobbing in the middle of an enormous ocean and seeing where the tide washes us up in a year.