Puerto Rico Adventure - Part 3: Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye to Kansas...

Moving is not for the faint of heart! 

For me (Lyn) especially, it was (and still is, since we're entering the final two weeks of saying goodbye) a very emotional and draining experience. I'll explain why below.

In my last PR Adventure post, I mentioned I'd share in a future blog entry all the little steps we've taken to turn our dream of island living into a reality. As I mentioned then, it's not all beaches and sunshine.

First, we pulled the trigger mentally in November, 2021, and decided to go for the move. We immediately started downsizing, so over 6 months ago. Our goal was to sell everything in our house and then sell our house and only take with us 2 suitcases each. 

This turned out to be a formidable task. To be honest, we barely got rid of everything before we had to vacate our house. (Took two desks and our mattress to the consignment store the day before we closed the sale!) Julie did an incredible job cleaning each room as we vacated it and closing the door behind us!

For those considering something similar - or even if you plan to move across town - it'll likely take 8 or 9 months of downsizing and prepping for the move! Six months if you focus and have a personality that makes it easy to say goodbye to things.

One reason it was hard for me is that I'm a saver and I attach memories to objects. I have a hard time throwing little things away. Not attached to big objects like TVs or furniture, but silly stuff like cards, newspaper clippings, pictures, medals from Jr Hi, small gifts from friends. Nick-nacks. 

I realized early on that I wouldn't have time to go through all my memorabilia and decide what to keep. I had too many boxes from my cub scout days through high school years! I actually got really anxious about it.

So I broke down and rented a 5x5 storage unit for 2 years. Not the best solution, I admit. I'm simply putting off to the future what I can't bring myself to do today. (grin) But like insurance, it bought peace of mind so we could focus on other things.

Like selling what we could through FB Marketplace and Nextdoor and a few other online sales sites. We banked the money from what we sold and that really helped since both of us were not working full time jobs the final month. We set a goal of making X amount each week and we mostly hit it.

Second, we talked to our realtor friend about the timing of putting our house on the market. Like the rest of the country, Wichita is experiencing a bit of a hot uptick in home sales. It's a seller's market and we were happy to see the value of our home increase from even last November when we first checked Zillow.

Timing was something to consider. We actually had a vacation to Portugal and Spain to fit in before we moved. I would not recommend planning a vacation before you move, but this one had been put off from 2020, then again from 2021 because of certain world events which I will not mention.

Charlie is going with us...but not in the suitcase!

Our trip was set for end of April through early May, 2022. So I had to figure out when I should leave my position at the church, before or after. To be fair to the congregation, it had to be before. Then we had to sell the house and visit family in Indiana and Illinois to say goodbye. Then we had to come back to Wichita and make any last minute packing decisions. Then fly out to Puerto Rico.

Here's the schedule we ended up with...

• April 24 - Last Sunday at Faith Renewal Church
• April 26 to May 9 - Portugal & Spain Vacation
• Sunday, May 1 - Open House (while we're away)
• By end of May - Sell then hopefully close on our house
• Early June - visit family in the Midwest - another vacation!
• Mid-June - return to Wichita, sell car, then fly to PR

It pretty much ended up along those lines. But with one significant and wonderful change. A week before we put our house on the market, we got an offer for more than we were going to ask for it and accepted the offer! So no need for an Open House while we were in Europe! Good news indeed.

So with a closing date of May 27, we got back from vacation and hit the ground running. We cleaned and emptied our house like crazy. Sold stuff, gave away stuff, and stuffed boxes into storage. We had a Bon Voyage Party (thanks J&J for hosting and for everyone who came out!). I fit in a few music gigs. It was a whirlwind!

Then just last week, we prayed and cried and said goodbye to our home of 26 years.

We're now on our domestic vacation, taking some things to family for them to store for us! Ha. And of course saying goodbye to them for the time being. Of course, everyone is welcome to visit us in PR after we get settled into our new place. So no permanent goodbyes.

We'll get back to Kansas soon and finish any last minute tasks, which I know there will be plenty. And then we fly out of Wichita on Saturday, June 18, 2022. So in a few weeks, look for another update, our Puerto Rico Adventure - Part 4: Saying Hello to PR. 

For now, thanks again for joining us on our journey. And let us know about the ups and downs of your moving transitions. Did you know what you were getting into? Drop us a line or comment below. We love stories of change and adventure. Until next time!

The beach near where we hope to move in a few months.

~*~

Read all our posts in our Puerto Rico Adventure series...

• Introduction - Carpe Diem 
• Part 1 - The Brainstorm
• Part 2 - The Scouting Trip
• Part 3 - Saying Goodbye to Kansas
• Part 4 - Saying Hello to Puerto Rico