PCT Preparation - Emptying The Nest

One thing that I definitely did not look forward to is leaving my home. Not only do I dislike moving, I really love my little townhouse in Ballard, a lively neighborhood of Seattle. It’s the first home I ever purchased and I’ve lived there for 14 years. It’s the first place in Seattle that felt like home to me. It’s where my daughter Lilli had her start in the US, first going to Ballard High and later to Seattle Central and finally the University of Washington. We had parties here, celebrated victories, recovered from setbacks. It was our safe haven during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. The list goes on, but I think you got my point. This one was truly hard.

Mount Rainier

Alas, Lilli moved out over a year ago and the house is really to big for me alone. Still, I didn’t consider moving until I had a pressing reason like my impending PCT start date.

I did not consider selling as I wanted to keep the option to return to live here if I wanted to. I thought about get a roommate for the second bedroom and simply leave temporarily. However, that bedroom is rather small and the open plan of the house does not provide for a lot of privacy. Another idea was to convert the home into an  AirBnB. It’s located in a popular part of the city and there is no shortage of demand, but it would require coordination on my part, even if I hired a management company. I was worried that I would not be able to do a good job managing this, especially since I anticipate being offline for extended periods of time. I also looked into renting the place furnished until I came back, but this would not resolve the fact that the home is too big for me alone. Also, I would somehow have to manage possible changeovers while I was on the PCT hike, so I ruled out this option too. At the end I decided to hire a full service management company to rent out the place for at least several years. That way I could leave without having to worry about anything related to my home. I would also have some income, which is no small thing either.

After some research I decided to go with a local company that manages several units near my home. Once the decision was made, I set about deciding what to keep and what to let go. I started selling furniture and tried to discard some unnecessary items every day. My plan was to slowly decrease the amount of things I own until I only had what I could easily store. That plan worked to some extend, but there were several unexpected issues. First, I had severely underestimated the amount of additional stuff I accumulated during these last 14 years (duh). While I sold quite a few items, made several trips to Goodwill, and filled my recycling bin to the brim regularly, I ended up with far more items than I anticipated. But how can I possibly let go of, for example, a Miss Piggy gum ball machine that plays the Muppets theme song and dispenses a gum ball when you insert a quarter? Or my Homer Simpson wall clock that has a moving Duff Beer bottle to indicate the seconds? Exactly, it’s impossible.

Fortunately my friend Chris came to my rescue. He made room in his house to store all of the stuff that I didn’t manage to let go in time. I only understand now how much of a help that was.

Fast forward to 3 am this morning. I stared bleary eyed and exhausted at my fully loaded car, looking for the tiniest spaces I hadn’t filled yet. At the end I just dropped some extra items on the curb, affixed a “Free” sign to them, crashed in my hammock for a few hours and left my home for the last time. Onwards!