By: oisa
So you’re off to travel the world. What about your house?
It’s no secret I hate our damp, ramshackle rental. At the time of last lease renewal, we were (to my best recall) unsure about our travel plans. I opted for a nice round number – six months – culminating in April, a few weeks before the wedding. We’re due to discuss renewal at any time now, given that it’s nearly March.
Moving out, say, a week before the wedding and just staying with family is an option. That would save a little money and help streamline the logistics in the week following the wedding right before we leave. One less thing to worry about!
But I’m not keen on staying with either of our families for two weeks, both pre and post wedding. I foresee a lot of stress being uprooted while still pulling together the loose threads of the wedding PLUS tying things up at work. So I’m leaning towards telling the agent that we’ll stay until, say, a day or two before we actually fly out. That gives us a couple of days to deal with post wedding stuff, finish packing and cleaning, and then staying with family who can then take us to the airport.
I have no idea what we’ll do for housing when we come back. Kip on the floor with family? Meh, that’s ages away yet.
And your STUFF?
As I explained to one German couchsurfing couple we hosted, we’ve moved on average about every 18 months (financial reasons, escaping terrible flatmates, etc). I’ve never had much of a garden and we don’t really have nice things.
Our fridge, washing machine and microwave are all on their last legs. I’m envisioning $1 reserve auctions on TradeMe, or else Freecycle. (Timing could be tricky, however, as we’ll want to keep those until JUST before we depart). Our couches were all freebies – hopefully we can give those back to the donors, or again, pawn them off for free.
That really leaves four lots of furniture: TV and cabinet, desk, bed and coffee table. All these can be stored with family, though my mum urged me to sell the ancient bed and get another on our return (I was planning to replace it within a few years anyway). Then there’s all the little stuff – clothes and other crap, plus our treasured 3-way blender/food processor. Again, looking at you, family! And there’s always commercial storage, though I don’t think we’ll need it.
And your car?
I’d like to sell it and get some cash for the road. That said, we’ll still need a car when we get back. Unfortunately, while my family wants to buy another car, they don’t want ours. So, maybe we’ll list it and see if there are any bites, and if not, just leave it with family to look after/use until we return.
And your jobs?
T isn’t happy with his, and hopefully the trip will help him get some clarity and perspective about what he wants to do next.
At this stage, as long as the bigwigs are happy to sign off on getting someone in on a short-term contract, I should have one to come back to. Touch wood.