Saying Goodbye
We’ve packed up our house, all our belongings are in storage, if not sold, and we’ve handed the keys to the estate agent for completion next week. I had to take a few polaroids of our empty space to look back on when living in bricks and mortar is a distant memory. We’ve wasted absolutely no time in moving into the van and heading straight into bonny Scotland. Right now I’m sat with my new £9 ‘desk’ (basic TV folding table from Dunelm) and I’m more content than I ever was sitting at my £300 antique farmhouse desk with my massive iMac computer. It’s been raining on and off, but the sun has reared it’s cheeky head and is flooding through the van window directly in front of me. Pim’s all tuckered out and having a nap on his swivel seat bed, and Steven’s carving a spoon next to me. Shit, if I’d known this was where we’d be on our first day of full time van life then I would have stopped stressing about everything weeks ago.
Before we left, we popped out and stocked up on camera film. I’m so looking forward to being in new places all the time, having new things to photograph. I’m looking forward to having more spare time, learning new skills and making things. I’m looking forward to being free enough to take on any new opportunities that pop up, and not have to say no because I can’t get the time off work.
I loved our little house. Two years ago we were absolutely over the moon to be moving in and starting to work on it. I loved collecting all my vintage homeware and decorating it, but the novelty slowly wore off. There’s so many things I’ve sold recently which I thought I’d keep forever, moving from home to home, but I’ve not thought twice about since they’ve gone out the door.
I’ve just gone back and read a journal post I wrote in January, ‘Living Smaller’, where the doubts about our lifestyle were creeping up on me, and I’m feeling proud that we’ve done something about it. I’d like to go back and slap January Amy on the back and say ‘this year is going to be a shit show but crack on’ because right now all the stress is feeling very much worth it.
My new, significantly cheaper desk space