Planning Our Adventure – Part 2

Next on our list is sifting through all of our stuff and deciding what we’re going to keep, what we’re going to sell and what we’re going to throw away. Whether or not you’re going to keep your current residence you should do some or all of this because you want to get rid of stuff you no longer need, you have to decide what you can and cannot take with you (depending on the amount of time you’re going to be away) and it is always nice to make a little money on the things you can no longer use or want. And you want to have your most precious things in a safe and secure storage place. Yes, outside storage is another expense but for some people it is a necessary one. I would suggest that you give a spare key and authorization to someone you trust to your storage in case you need to send some things home, there is a problem with the facility or (God Forbid) something happens to you on your journey. Just a little side note: Most of the storage companies offers deals if you pay for your rentals in advance. For instance, pay 6 months get the 7 month FREE. When shopping for a storage facility don’t forget to ask about deals. You don’t want to have to remember to pay your bill every month if your going to be away for an extended period of time. As a matter of fact it is a good idea to pay as many bills as you can in advance so that you enjoy your time away and not have those niggling little worries.

Before you go you might even want to have all of your pictures and important papers scanned, and home movies burned to a DVD. Make at least 2 or 3 copies of this DVD or DVDs, one to store and one to take with you. Even though you are going on a Great Adventure, from time to time, you will want to look at pictures or movies of your loved ones or need a copy of an important document and a DVD doesn’t take up any room in your RV. Copying them onto a Flash Drive is nice but a DVD is a more permanent solution to storage so long as you don’t scratch the surface. That is what DVD Boxes are for. Burning all of your music, videos, pictures and documents from your computers is a good idea as well. This should be done once a year anyway. You can leave these DVDs in storage and if you have a computer crash you can always have your authorized person get the DVD and mail it to you on the road. Some of you will need to copy over your pictures and videos off of your cellphones too. It is amazing that some people buy these expensive phones, take all of these great pictures and videos and don’t make copies of them once a quarter or even once a year. Those little Flash Drives in your phones will fit into your laptop to copy over or you can get a READER device for your particular flash drive that fits into a USB port. BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP! I cannot stress that enough. When you go on a trip you don’t want to lose those great moments due to dropping your camera, loosing it or even through theft. STUFF HAPPENS!