Beginnings

Everything is gone!

Well, almost everything. After years of school, work, and life, we accumulated a ton of possessions. Some of which we truly cherished like the letters, notes, and postcards Yana and I sent each other during those years we spent apart, and others not so cherished, like the world's largest stockpile of USB, ethernet, coaxial, and phone charger cables that lived in our closet. As we began to plan more seriously for this adventure, our opinion of an acceptable amount of possessions started to change as well. Initially, we were paralyzed by persistent thoughts of, "We own way too much stuff!", and "This will be impossible!". Eventually, those thoughts subsided and we came up with a plan. We decided that we would part with all those items we no longer used on a daily or weekly basis and settled on putting everything else (i.e. bed, couch, and kitchen gear) in the smallest available storage unit. It was a great plan...

And then we started thinking, "Even small storage units are kind of expensive. Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to spend so much money to store our things? After all, we could probably repurchase anything we sell for pretty cheap anyhow." And so after a short brainstorming session, we decided to sell the couch, the bed, tables, chairs, bookshelves, and everything else not nailed down. It took some work but we pulled everything out of all the drawers, cabinets, closets, and shelves and made some (semi)organized piles in the living room. The items we knew we would need for backpacking, camping, and traveling we would keep and the remaining items we would either sell or donate.

More piles, mostly garage sale items. Kafka checking our work.

Our important documents, a few favorite books and records, and winter clothes were packed into suitcases and traveled with us to Chicago where we dropped off Kafka at her new home with her grandparents.

Kafka looking out the window of her new home.

Beginning the process of emptying closets and drawers and organizing items into piles. Kafka the cat providing moral support.

Yep, more things. Most of these items we'll keep with us for the trip.

So, here we are now, with an empty house, a slightly more padded bank account, and significantly less stress about all the junk we thought we would have to move. Of course, this would not have been as easily accomplished were it not for apps like OfferUp and LetGo, and the tried and true eBay and Craigslist. We learned that you may not sell everything immediately, but if you're persistent and ignore the ridiculous offers (everyone has a $20 bill that they think will buy them the world) you will eventually find a serious buyer for nearly everything. We said goodbye to our San Diego home and started our trip north, ready to hike the JMT!

Our car loaded up with our last remaining items, ready for our next adventure