House

Give a way or throw away. Anything big or important went to the kids or to friends. After that, we fed the free pile out by the fence every day. Once the pile got established, it never got any bigger. By the time we finished today, there was hardly anything left.

The biggest project was the attic full of holiday decorations. Most of it went in seven SUV and minivan loads. The rest got put by the fence. Our holiday lights will light again, but over a much wider area than before.

After we had thrown away and given away, there was not much left to put in the 8x8x16 foot storage pod. I got the first part all packed in and tied down in the back, but the rest of it is only about knee deep.

It was good to be there for a week. We reconnected with the neighbors. We got to talk again to all the people that walk past the yard. Before we left three years ago, we couldn’t tell everyone walking past that we were going away. Many of them were still wondering what had happened to us. Now, everyone that was wondering got a chance to stop and ask. We got lots of opportunities to tell our story about life on the road.

It was good to be there. We got to touch everything in the house and yard. So familiar. It was bittersweet. We love our life on the road, but the goodbye was more difficult this time than it was last time we left. Really moving out is so much more final than just leaving everything there while we travel.

Thirty-five years. We raised the family there. Love the town of Louisville. Loved that house. It was a great house for its time, but the time has passed. We’re only the third family to have lived there in a hundred years (plus Dan, who took such great care of it in our absence.). Now its time for the next family.

Less is more. Simpler is better.