The whole change of lifestyle and moving onto the boat thing is moving quite rapidly now. I thought selling my business would be the hard part, but I found the perfect person with no advertising needed, just by having a lucky conversation with a new customer.
I tentatively and nervously set up my business as a dog walker & pet sitter 4½ years ago after being made redundant from my previous job and it quickly became a relatively successful full-time job which I am quite proud of. I absolutely loved it even though it was a very physically demanding job and an ‘out all day in all weathers’ type of job which I really didn’t mind, (most of the time) and for most weeks, a seven day a week job too, but after the decision was made to sell up and move onto the boat, I had to let the business go. I was over the moon when I found a wonderful lady who was perfectly matched and excited to take on my business because I really didn’t want the previous 4½ years and the success of the business to have just ended, so yes, first stage of our big plan… ➣ Sell the business ✓
Ironically, on the same day as I completed the sale of my business, along came a couple to view the house, loved it, came again for a second viewing and made an offer! O.k, as Jon keeps reminding me, I can’t ‘Whoop Whoop, punch the air and do a merry jig’ yet as there’s a long way to go with a house sale and things can always go wrong, so just hold onto your hats with this second stage, although I can’t help doing a tiny, whispered ‘Whoop Whoop’ though Shhhhh 😉
If the house sale does go to plan, we have probably a couple of months to get sorted… the boat isn’t totally ready and we have a 3 bedroom house with garage and shed contents to fit into the boat – ok well, storage to sort out and alot of the ruthless throwing things out, giving to charity shops and the use of that well known auction site. It’s all Go and becoming real now – It’s all happening…
With selling the business, the main thing I am concerned about is keeping fit. Dog walking all day most days kept me quite fit and as my ‘Fitbit’ was always telling me, 20’000 steps per day was my average, so I am very keen on keeping this going, although I may change my fitness regime slightly. I will keep dog walking as I still have my two dogs to exercise as well as myself and we’ll still be mountain biking, but I do fancy Yoga or Pilates too. We’ll see how things develop on that score.
In the meantime it’s piles of packing boxes for us…
Loving the Fifty Something 
I remember the feeling I had when the plan to move out here went from plan to imminent reality. I was terrified. I’m glad I didn’t let fear stop me. In excited to follow you on your journey 😊
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Thanks, yes I can’t decide whether it’s fear or excitement I’m feeling at the mo 😬X
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Probably both, LOL 😉
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Not long ago we changed direction to take up full time caravan living for a while. We had recently bought all our forever furniture, the stuff you pay a heap for so as it’ll last the rest of your life, so storing seemed sensible. That would have added a huge cost burden though, and it could have ended up in storage for more than a decade. We bit the bullet and sold it all for a very small fraction of the cost. Once the decision was made, it was absolutely liberating. Three years later we bought another house, and now only caravan for the winter months. We still never regretted selling everything, as we didn’t have to consider whether our furniture would fit the old house, so we were free to buy whichever house we fancied. We only kept two small plastic crates which our daughter stored for us (photos and a few momentos).
Good luck with the sale of your house. Although we live in Australia where selling houses is quite straight forward, we had the joy (not) of selling my father in laws house in England last year. We’re all to familiar with the things that can go wrong there. There’s a lot more box ticking over than there is here in Australia. Hopefully your sale will go through without a hitch.
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Thank you. You are so right with regards freeing yourself of furniture when downsizing etc we’re doing the same although for us we don’t have a lot of ‘good’ furniture as most have withstood two boys, dogs & cats growing up for the last 13 + years so it’s ready for the ‘freeing’ part 😂 It is quite liberating downsizing 😊
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Exciting times ahead, good luck with it all Sam. 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
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Hello. I nominated you for a Liebster award. Blog post to follow shortly. Hope you can accept but no pressure either way. You have a lovely blog 🙂
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Awww wow! Thank you so much, that’s very kind, of course I’ll accept 😊 & thanks for visiting my blog 😊
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Great. Thank you 😊
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Sounds like an exciting journey ahead for you. To make something like this into a reality is usually hard to do for many. Wish you the best of luck! It’s only natural to have mixed feeling as far as a little fear and enthusiasm go as the moving approaches closer. Best of luck!
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Thank you, yes it has seemed like it’s already been a long time in the planning but we’re getting closer now 😊 thanks
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I can only imagine how exciting this time period in your life will be!:)
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Thank you, yes it is an exciting time, although a very busy time in between selling the house & getting the boat & storage space ready. My world is full of boxes haha 😊
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Haha good way of putting it😆 do you plan on traveling the world on this boat of yours?
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😊 I wish! It’ll just be the broad canals of England initially, although Jon’s dream is to have a sailing boat one day… we’ll see 😉
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Yeah I guess traveling all the seas would take a lifetime to do as Christopher Columbus did lol but that aside, what your doing is what many others only dream about. That’s awesome, my brother has a sailboat, although it’s relatively small ( 2-person sailboat) and absolutely loves it.
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Pleased to have found your blog! We owned a large motorhome for 10 years now are nomads travelling the world housesitting! Love your new home.
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Wow that sounds amazing!!! Will take a look at your blog 😊 thanks for the visit & follow
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To The Thrifty Campers. Yes it is a bit of ‘living the dream’ thing for us 😊 Jon wants me to get into sailing. He has a GP14 little sail boat which we’ve never been out in so watch this space 😎 Got to take it out sometime 👍
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That’s exciting yet scary at the same time! I hope it all goes well – do blog about your new experiences; will definitely love to read about them 😊
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Thanku yes an exciting time. We’re in the middle of it all at the mo. Sold the house so packing boxes everywhere whilst trying to get the boat ready to move into 😊 busy busy time right now 👍 thanks for reading x
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Packing is so time consuming and not fun, but can be a forced catharthis of disposal of unnecessary, ‘I might use that one day’ – items.
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Oh my word, the rubbish we collect is unbelievable! I didn’t realise I was such a hoarder 🙄 very time consuming. I’m looking forward to be settled & to concentrate on my blog 😃 thanks for stopping by c
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It is so easy to accumulate stuff! I am now questioning my purchases much more than whenI was younger. Do I have room for it? Do I need it? Then it is easier to say no and walk away.
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Good idea!! I must say, it’s great ‘decluttering’ 😊
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I am so excited for you, you shall be living my dream soon. All the best and lots of love.
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Thank you so much 😊 ahh try to go for your dream 🎈🚣
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I will. 🙂
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