I can hardly believe that today starts my third week of life after career.  That’s not to say that I haven’t been working.  In fact, it’s been a very intense couple of weeks or couple of months.  I can say that everything has either been put into storage here on the RV or it has been officially unpacked. Now that things are less cluttered around the place and we are down to only having the RV to live in, I’m able to start sharing the story and the adventure.   

Over the last few months, Brian & I have talked about how we would document and share the process of downsizing and moving to the RV.  In all the YouTube videos and other blogs that we’ve watched there doesn’t seem to be a lot available in the how-to department.  Having just done it, I understand why there isn’t much.  And that reason is simple:  it’s simply a crazy time where, in our case anyway, there was barely enough time to get it all done much less to stop, take pictures, shoot video, and write about it!   

Over the years and especially in these last few months, I’ve likened myself to a plate spinner.   Let me tell you that I had a lot of plates going here for the last few months.  Even better, let me tell you that I survived spinning them all!  I’m not sure that professional plate spinners call in for assistance, but if you want to ease your burden and have things go smoothly that’s what I suggest.  Here’s a list of the professional experts we consulted and/or hired in the past few months: 

1. A real estate agent who specializes in your area/neighborhood.  (Thanks, Meg Stenger of KW Domain!) 
2. A staging company who suggested paint colors and staged furniture to help our house sell quickly.  (Thanks Candace of Candace Mary Interiors!) 
3. Painters who got in and got the job done fast. (Thanks Shane from Walls-n-All Painting!) 
4. An estate sales company to sell the things that you and/or your family don’t want or don’t have room for and who for a very nominal fee arranges for donation of the remaining items.  (Thanks, Olga Titova of American Dream Estate Sales!) 
5. A financial consultant to manage the money from the sale of your house, boat, and other possessions and manage the roll-over of 401K, ESOP, etc. to help your money continue to grow and ensure that you are still saving for the future. (Thanks, Jonathan Wolfe of Morgan Stanley!) 

This is not to say that there weren’t others that were called in for consultation or professional services.  These are just the top 5 that made it go quickly and very smoothly and the type of professionals that I would highly recommend using to ease your burden.