Are you considering life on the road, traveling to new places and meeting new people? That’s exactly what Reyes and I have decided to do, and we are preparing ourselves for the adventure ahead. Before we can hit the road, we need to prepare our home and possessions. Here’s how we are doing it:
Renting Our Home
To offset the costs of life on the road, we decided to rent out our home. Our house is a newer build, constructed in 2020. We intentionally chose this type of house knowing we would eventually rent it out. To prepare for renting out the property, we are making minor repairs and upgrades such as painting, caulking windows, deep cleaning, and outdoor maintenance. In addition, we will hire a property management company to handle the day-to-day operations of renting out the property.
Forming an LLC
To manage our rental property, we will form a Limited Liability Company (LLC). In case of the unforeseen happening, this allows us to separate our personal assets from our business assets and provides us with liability protection.
Selling Our Vehicles
We are selling our two specialized vehicles (rock crawling Durango and overlanding Tacoma) that we won’t be using on the road. While it may take some time to sell them, it will save us money on insurance and maintenance costs and provide us with finances for truck camper upgrades in the future. It will also push us to come up with new offroading builds when we get the itch!
Selling Unused Items
We are going through our possessions and selling anything that does not fall into one of three categories:
1. Things we need or have identified as a priority on the road
2. Items that are not easily replaceable and/or are important to us
3. Things we plan to use in a new property we will purchase while on the road.
This helps us declutter and reduces the cost of storage while we are away. We know that we realistically do not want to pare down our belongings to what we can take on the road, so we set ourselves these requirements for what we need to sell and what we can keep. It also gives us extra cash to put towards our travel expenses.
We have been continuously going through our possessions with a Marie Kondo-inspired approach, thinking about which items that “spark joy” and are essential for our life on the road. We are noting down our choices to keep track of what we will take with us, what we will store, and what we will sell. This will make packing easier and reduce stress levels when we hit the road.
Preparing Our Cats
Our two cats will be joining us on our travels, so we are making sure to prepare them for life on the road. They are both used to their carriers and comfortable with adventures in the trucks. Their health, safety and comfort is extremely important to us so they are up-to-date on their vaccinations and that we have the necessary supplies they will need on the road, including GPS locators. Through many years of trial and error with cat harnesses, we finally found one that both of them like and are willing to wear for days. Understanding their limits and comfort levels has been key in getting them used to this lifestyle.
In addition to all of these efforts, we are working with the camper manufacturer on modifications to make our life with them as easy as possible. We will have many posts and videos of how we set them up and how they do with life on the road in the future!
Preparing for life on the road takes effort, but we know it will be worth it. It will provide us with the freedom of the open road and the opportunity to explore new places. If you are considering a similar adventure, take the time to prepare your home and possessions beforehand – it will make the transition smoother.