Why We’re Selling Our Home for Full-Time Travel

Author’s note: All of the photos in this post are from two special moments — family photos after each of our boys were born. These bring a lot of happy tears to my face just looking at our pics again! You can even see how our home evolved over time. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

So we’ve made this big decision, and set the deadline to hit the road for Our Great Big Adventure next month.

Now what?

Well, that’s a good question! To be honest, there’s so much to think about. I mean, we’ve set our goal, but now it’s time to really get to it.

The one decision that was pretty easy for us to make: we’re selling our home.

OK, so it wasn’t that easy. It’s actually a pretty difficult decision to come to terms with. I mean, we bought this house 11 years ago, about a year before we got married. We put a ton of time and energy into making it a home. A place with good vibes and color and comfort. It’s the sanctuary where we brought home both of our babies, where they ultimately learned to crawl, talk, walk and become the boys they are today. It’s a home full of firsts for us.

I remember our parents raving about how proud they were when we bought this place. We were proud of the space and size. The home is two stories and boasts a large yard. Four bedrooms and three baths. All great until you realize you have to actually take care of it! While we have so much love for this safe haven, it’s also a LOT of work. And Lord knows I am not the tidiest person. Either you’re maintaining throughout the week and dedicating your time on weekends, or you’re budgeting to have someone else come clean or make the yard look decent. You start to accumulate stuff just because you can, and before you know it, your house starts to look like a tornado blew through on a daily basis. ?

(I know how this sounds – first world problems. Keep reading…)

Realizing that we’re “over” having a big house actually isn’t a crazy revelation. Steven and I have never been fancy people. Hell, I could care less what I drive and I buy 95% of my wardrobe from Target and Old Navy. I prefer to invest my hard-earned dollars into experiences or other comforts — traveling to foreign countries, weekend camping trips, getaways with friends, concerts, sushi, books… I could keep going.

But I guess when you’re checking things off of the “life” list, you do the things most everyone in our society does: get a good job, settle down and buy a house. It’s what we know.

Until you try something different.

A couple of years ago, Steven booked us a great little Airbnb (emphasis on little) in a beach just outside of the San Francisco area. Not quite a tiny house by definition, but it was by our standards. Through the front door, you walked into the living room and kitchen. It had one bedroom and one bath. It was super cute and quaint, and it made us so damn happy. In a space like this, you can’t hoard a ton of stuff. You can’t even leave anything in disarray, because it’s simply too easy to clean up a small space.

And I loved it.

To this day, I still tell Steven (and anyone else who will listen) how much I loved that home. After spending the weekend there, I knew in my heart that I could live in a space that small forever.

But I know what you might be thinking. Alexis — you have a hubby and two kids. Pets. Other responsibilities. Things that sometimes require moms (and dads) to have the space to disconnect. Hide out in the bedroom and binge on all things Bravo. Dive into a good book, uninterrupted. True, I definitely need my space from time to time. (Don’t we all?) And having a house that allows me to retreat upstairs helps.

The thing is, if we’re feeling a little stir crazy in a small space, maybe we should think about getting outside. Going for a hike. Exploring a new town. Checking out an art museum.

I get the same feeling when we’re camping out of the van. Whether it’s a weekend or a week, we love the simplicity of it all.

So… we’re selling the house!

Another obvious benefit is that it will provide us with a monetary cushion when we decide to settle back down in a year or so. While you can also do the same by renting out your home, there’s a lot of work and stress that comes with doing so. And guys, we prefer our Great Big Adventure to be stress-free. ?

I think it’s also important to note that if Steven and I didn’t land on traveling full-time as our end goal, it’s very likely we still would have chosen to sell our home. We talked at length about downsizing to a smaller footprint with a lot of charm, or even buying a lot of land in the foothills for a change of scenery. (Someday Steven will fulfill his dream of owning a goat farm! ?) Needless to say, we ultimately decided to give ourselves the time to explore the world without anything holding us back.

Now that’s established, there’s another big question lurking. Where the heck will we live?

Steven and I have gone in circles (and back around again) on whether we buy a trailer, revamp the van for full-time living or bounce from AirBnBs every few weeks. There are clear benefits and pitfalls for doing any of these. What makes sense for us today, given that we already own a sprinter, is to revamp it a bit to be more livable. And to start off our journey leveraging AirBnBs for weeks at a time. We know that change is going to be hard. And we honestly don’t know if staying 30 days in a town is too much or too little. But we believe the buffer of a physical home will help us get our bearings, test out a few new places, and also give us the flexibility to take the van out for a long weekend when we want to rough it.

So with that, we officially put our house on the market a couple of weeks ago. God willing, we’ll be in escrow soon! I know we’ll miss this place tremendously, but we know this home will serve another family with many memories. ❤️