Nancy and Shawn Power were born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada and made their home in Vancouver, BC for the last five years. In celebrating their 4th wedding anniversary, they returned home from vacation and decided they wanted their vacations to be more permanent. So they started saving money and reducing debts, and at the age of 37 they started selling all their possessions. Please enjoy this week-in-the-life of Nancy and Shawn Power as they finish the emotional process of selling everything and launch into their new lives of travel (in a very unique manner, I might add).
This post was originally published in 2011. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content.
As we’re writing this, we are in the midst of selling all of our possessions and clueing up our lives here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to travel the world all while capturing it on our two-month old blog called NancyandShawnPower.com. We purchased a membership for an international travel club that could affordably allow us to travel from resort to resort…we’re not the backpacking type but we certainly LOVE to travel and sharing our experiences and tips.
Here is a look into the week of our “getting ready” for our dream lifestyle… aka taking a permanent trip of a lifetime… and a look at a few days before and after leaving home.
Day 1
First thing today is coffee and then we are on our way to the garage for our fourth and “final” garage sale. It’s happening from 11-3pm and then whatever is left in the garage will go to a charity that raises money to buy new hospital equipment.
It’s now 3pm and we sold $41 dollars worth (nope, not a typo) – are you kidding us?!
It’s so frustrating doing garage sales because your stuff is worthless to people who either want things for nothing or come to “look around”. Regretfully, it was our choice to have another one; another lesson learned: “Don’t waste money on so much stuff, and then you won’t have to have a garage sale in the first place”.
Now we are off to enjoy a bite to eat rather than cook tonight. Can feel it already… gonna sleep “really” good tonight because we’re exhausted!
Day 2
This morning we brought all of our possessions (except 2 suitcases full each) including christmas decorations, household items and 3/4 of Nancy’s huge closet of beautiful clothes to the charity.
How did it feel?
On the drive, there was apprehension and a bit of nervousness even though we knew we were doing exactly what we wanted to do.
Once we started off-loading the truck it was exhilarating and freeing! We realized that we had been dragging around all these boxes with us as we moved from city to city and why we didn’t unload long ago was beyond us. We don’t need all this clutter! Besides, we only used one box of the ten boxes we just gave away.
On the drive home we really felt good about the money the charity would raise (because it was all good stuff) and wondered why we didn’t do this in the first place and not bothered with the silly garage sales. That said, we did get lucky and our landlord bought 99% of our furniture so she could rent it out furnished once we left… how perfect is that: we get to sleep in our own bed on the very last night!
Day 3
It’s like a whirlwind right now trying to clue up our lives over the past six weeks. Crazy, we know! Most people plan this and execute it in 1- 2 years, whereas with us, just the mention of it being a possibility and we were hooked on the idea immediately. We just knew it was the right decision for us. We’ve wanted to do this for a long time.
Six weeks is not a lot of time to get rid of everything permanent in your life for the last 37 years. Between that and putting a lot of love into our blog we have our hands full to say the least…but we wouldn’t change a thing.
Today we did a whole lot of canceling subscriptions, utilities, changing addresses etc, plus explaining to people (who want to continue sending you stuff) that we no longer have a permanent address. You could sense the bewilderment in their tone on the other end of the phone.
We are looking forward to the first leg of our journey which is a Hawaii vacation for five weeks and we’re still trying to imagine what it’s going to be like not having a home to come back to. BUT, starting tomorrow we’ll be able to tell you. Wish us good luck!
Day 4 & 5
“Holy Moly! … are we really doing this?”, we said, as we packed up our suitcases in the trunk and locked our apartment door for the very last time. Driving away we said nothing for a few minutes trying to let it all sink in, and as the nausea lifted we high five’d each other in excitement for our new beginnings.
Today, we’ve been saying goodbye to our families and friends who live nearby (and it’s still not sinking in that we are address-less yet) before taking our flight from Bellingham to Honolulu where we will be exploring for one week before we move on to the next resort on another island.
Day 6
Aloha from Hawaii!
We have a few more bags than we’re used to, and thinking about what we can give away already as we check in to our first resort.
It’s got a stocked kitchen and full amenities like home, much bigger and better than a hotel room (bigger than our old apartment for that matter), plus we get exclusive rates to these nice resorts, where we’ll be saving about $1,500 on average per weekly stay. We can’t believe the benefits of this membership. If you want to learn more about getting savings like this you can visit Our Travel Membership.com…we’re really happy we got it!
If there’s one thing that bugs us more than anything, it’s paying more for things than necessary. We’re not cheap, we just like our money to go far.
It feels really good to be on a permanent vacation, and we think it’s a perfect combination of work and play…the work part is the capturing it all and writing for our readers, but as we’ve been saying for years, “if you love what you’re doing, you’ll never work another day in your life” and we’re really excited about that! It’s finally here…
…the last few weeks “waiting” have been the longest part of our lives, no doubt.
We are really happy. We can see changes in each other already; more laughter, more relaxed – it’s a good start.
Day 7
Today we hiked the famous Diamond Head crater in Oahu (it’s the Island where Honolulu and Waikiki are – we always found that confusing). It was incredible to get a full day of sun and hot weather.
Food is a bit tricky, as we have to plan for seven days, so we are cautious not to buy too much; bulk is out of the question now. And a box of chicken – which we used to buy every few weeks for the last 7 years – not going to happen!
What do you do with condiments? That’s the hardest part. We guess packets of ketchup and mayo are in order.
In the following months ahead, we will get accustomed to our new lifestyle. We wonder where we will be next and what it will be like. Planning our next city, the things to do in it and the best kept secrets are something we really enjoy investigating – it’s relaxation to us!
Nancy and Shawn Power stayed in Hawaii (an old haunt of mine) for five weeks (a week on each island), before moving on to California, Nevada, Arizona, and a few other US destinations. They’re currently getting on a cruise from Florida – living the high life with their resort membership! In the meantime they’re busy developing their blog Nancy and Shawn Power, and they wrote an e-book called STOP Collecting Stuff and Start Creating Memories, 9 Great Reasons to Travel Now.
is this for real? seems like one would need a never ending supply of money
@wendy
my thoughts exactly lol.
Condiments seem to be the very least of one’s problems.
(Stick to extra virgin olive oil and pure lemon juice, your heart will thank you later.)
Enjoy your travels