In September of 2016, we got the bright idea that we should sell everything we own (except our home and our rental property), buy a truck and 5th wheel, and travel the United States for a year. It was actually Robbie’s idea – because he tends to have a new idea every day.
But this one stuck. As crazy as this idea sounded at first, it just made sense for us and our family at this moment. I mean with three kids ages 4 and under, it couldn’t be better timing right?! Ha. Well actually I think the timing is good. This life get’s so busy. We move from being busy in school, to being busy at our jobs/careers, busy with babies, busy with kids involved in every activity imaginable, busy helping our kids get started off well in college or a job, and then we may find ourselves less busy for a bit when the kiddos leave. We don’t want being busy to be an excuse why we don’t do this. Everyone is busy.
Why would we want to do this next year!? Well, here are a couple of the reasons (in no particular order):
1.To eliminate the overwhelming amount of THINGS we own. We have too much STUFF!
Robbie is the driving force behind Flea Market Flipper. He has been buying and reselling flea market and thrift store items for 20 years now. It has provided our family with a steady income over the years (we made 42K last year with it), and he has a passion for finding things, buying them, and then reselling them for more money. With this kind of work inevitably comes an accumulation of stuff. Aside from our house, we have 2 back yards, 1 large garage, 3 sheds, and three storage units full of STUFF. We have a lot of work to do to get rid of it all, but we are up for the challenge
2. To reconnect as a family.
How many days, weeks, and months just fly by anymore. Sometimes it feels like we just go through the motions of what we do each day. The past few years we have been in survival mode with babies close together, but it’s time to slow down and enjoy these moments with our kids young. Everyone says it goes by too fast!
3. To spend more time with God on a daily basis.
Having a relationship with God is the most important thing to both of us. We both believe we are here to serve God and love people. Dialing back to a simpler life will allow us to tone down the crazy and focus on the reason we are here to begin with.
4. To explore the United States.
Who doesn’t want to learn more about the country that we live in? There are so many states that neither of us have explored, and sadly we both don’t know as much history about our nation as we would like to. We plan to learn more about our beautiful USA one state at a time.
5. To live on less than we currently do.
While we save a lot of money by buying stuff at flea markets, thrift stores and yard sales, we also spend way more than we should be just to live each month. We are hoping to downsize that and live on about half of what we currently do.
6. To keep from burning out and getting cancer.
This one is important to me. I (Melissa) have a tendency to never rest and relax. There is always something to get done with the family, kids, around the house, on the blog or with my nutrition business. I do not rest well. Over the last 2 years I have had many friends and people that I know be diagnosed with cancer. I am not saying that because they overworked they got cancer, there could be all sorts of elements leading up to it. What I am saying is that I know that stress, lack of sleep, and never relaxing can increase free radicals in the body. The presence of a lot of free radicals can increase the risk of cancer. I want to do whatever I can to take care of my own health, and I know that I need to slow things down a bit. (That will be a whole blog post coming soon).
The next few months will be a lot of planning and selling, and once we hit the road we plan to document the adventure along the way. If you would like to receive our updates periodically – drop your email address here. We can’t wait to get started on this crazy adventure!
