It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.
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Dear Clever Expat,
For some people, it feels effortless to travel across a country with only a backpack. I used to travel for five days a week with a carry-on and a backpack. While I appreciate those skills that allow me to minimize what I take with me, my day-to-day life now contains a lot more stuff.
Moving across the world helped me think through the process of eliminating and reducing what I needed to be comfortable. But now that I have been in one place for more than three years, I feel like I have replaced everything I let go when I moved to Spain in the first place.
You may be in the same situation, where you feel like you have so many possessions that need to be reviewed before moving abroad. One of the most common questions I get when talking to my Clever Expat coaching clients is, “When do I start getting rid of things before my move?”
Of course, it’s easy to respond that it depends:
- Your timeline depends on your move-abroad goals
- Your timeline depends on what kind of life you will be living when you move abroad
- Your timeline depends on how many things you have now
- Your timeline depends on what you will be able to replace once you have moved
- Your timeline depends on how much time you have to spend on decluttering and getting rid of things
Therefore, you need to have a flexible model in place that ensures your move-abroad readiness in terms of what you want to accomplish. We can tackle this problem, but you’ll need to think strategically. For simplicity, I have created three different scenarios that reflect what I have seen most people experience in their expat journey.
Type 1: Lots of possessions and lots of time (12 months or more)
Most of my Clever Expat clients are into this category. They have a comfortable home with plenty of cooking equipment, storage space filled with “just in case” kinds of items (extra sheets, towels, and blankets, sets of dishes, furniture), and a healthy supply of sentimental items that range from picture albums to five different winter coats to that ice cream maker that “we had to have and used four times before it was put into the garage and forgotten.”
Type 2: Medium amount of possessions and 6-12 months
These Clever Expats have already done some downsizing and are pleased with their progress. They have stopped acquiring things so their dream to move abroad can become a reality. There are quite a few comfort items in the home, and their closets still hid mysterious objects and clothes from years ago that have not been used or worn in quite some time.
Type 3: Small amount of stuff and 3-4 months
Closer to an imminent move, these Clever Expats have already downsized and minimized, and are in the active process of shedding what they can. While moving abroad seems like a lot of work, the end is in sight and a timeline has been established for the final pack-up and departure date.
Let’s get practical
Okay, so what are some steps that need to be taken? Whether you have a year, 6 months, or 3 months, the following steps can helpful for you to consider and follow so you are prepared for your move abroad:
- Inventory and Categorization
- Assessing Your Belongings: Start by listing all items you own.
- Classification: Divide items into categories such as essentials, sentimental keepsakes, items for sale, donation candidates, and things to discard.
- Space and Lifestyle Considerations
- New Living Situation: Research the size and layout of your future home options to determine what you’ll realistically need or can accommodate. Will you have wall space? Will you have an American-style kitchen with lots of cabinets? What will fit in your new home?
- Lifestyle Shifts: Reflect on how your lifestyle might change abroad (e.g., more travel, less storage space, different climate, higher activity levels) and adjust your belongings accordingly.
- Disposal Decisions
- Selling: Plan for garage sales, online marketplaces, or consignment options.
- Donating: Identify local charities or community organizations that can benefit from your items. Remember that you can obtain tax credits for this, but double-check with a tax specialist first.
- Discarding: Safely dispose of or recycle items that no longer have a purpose. This is especially true for appliances and electronics that will be unable to use a new voltage when you move abroad.
- Digitization and Documentation
- Paperwork and Memories: Digitize important documents, photos, and even sentimental items (like letters, books, or artwork) to reduce physical clutter while preserving memories.
- Logistics and Timing
- Coordination with Movers: Understand what your moving company can transport and what you might need to store or dispose of.
- Consider an Estate Sale*: If you are making a wholesale move abroad, an estate sale might be the best choice for you. You will basically hire someone to sell and/or donate everything in your home that you won’t be taking with you. They will make a profit off of the sale proceeds and can even donate the remainder for a tax credit.
- Emotional Preparation
- Letting Go: Recognize that downsizing is as much an emotional journey as it is a physical one. Give yourself time to process and make mindful decisions.
- Work With a Friend (or 10!): Enlist the help of friends to help you go through your things. I have had friends come over and their presence has made the process much more definitive. Alone, I could get wrapped up in the sentimentality of a particular item. My friends would remind me that it’s a possession that I can take a picture of and still enjoy.
*Estate Sales: The estate sale process can accellerate your timeline to eliminate items in your home. Interview several companies to understand what it would take to have an estate sale, whether or not they will donate items on your behalf to charitable causes, and what their timeline is.
In my experience, I left my house for a week and came back to an empty home. The check I received for the sale covered the repairs that had been requested by the home buyer, and I had a large tax credit that I applied to my taxes that year.
Want to learn more about this topic? Register for the Plan, Pack, and Minimize for Moving Abroad Online Workshop!
Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff: Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward with Your Life by Matt Paxton and Jordan Michael Smith Description (from publisher): Your boxes of photos, family’s china, and even the kids’ height charts aren’t just stuff; they’re attached to a lifetime of memories–and letting them go can be scary. With empathy, expertise, and humor, Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff, written in collaboration with AARP, helps you sift through years of clutter, let go of what no longer serves you, and identify the items worth keeping so that you can focus on living in the present. |
Keep exploring!
The Clever Expat
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