The Great Purge

The Day the Dream Became Real

For years, we'd been fantasizing about dropping everything and riding our motorcycles to the other side of the world.
For a long time, it stayed exactly that — a fantasy. Whenever I asked Thomas when we were actually leaving, his answer was always the same: "in five years."

After hearing that same answer two or three years in a row, I'd nearly stopped believing it.
Then one evening, he walked through the door and said:
"Let's go. We're leaving."

The date was set: we would leave in the autumn of 2025.

The Questions Everyone Asked

Once the decision was made, we told our families and friends.
Most of them asked the same two questions:

• "But what will you do when you get back?"
• "What are you going to do with all your stuff?"

These two questions are actually deeply connected.
Our answer was simple: we don't know what we'll do when we get back. So we don't need much — just the bare essentials to be self-sufficient on our bikes.

Beyond the two main threads we'd set for this road trip (see the previous article), we wanted to travel wherever the road took us, be open to surprises, and grab every opportunity that came our way.
To discover new cultures, new landscapes, meet locals and share in their daily lives. We knew this experience would probably change us.

We wanted to leave with light hearts and the freedom to never come back (or to come back much later than planned) if we fell in love with a country. In short: to be fully present in every moment without constantly thinking about the return.

The Great Purge: From Euphoria to Soul-Searching

To reach that goal, we decided to do a radical clear-out of our belongings.
Everything went through the filter: clothes, kitchenware, furniture, decorative objects… We kept only a handful of things we truly cared about (well… we tried!).

The hardest decision was obviously selling the apartment, which technically left us without a fixed home. But it was the simplest solution — no remote tenant management to deal with, and frankly we needed the budget boost.

For some people, this kind of decluttering can be incredibly stressful. For us, it was the opposite — the prospect of owning less brought a sense of freedom and an unexpected calm.

At first, we got into it with genuine enthusiasm. Every item we let go of felt satisfying: more space, less clutter, less to manage.

Then came the harder phase. We ran into some real questions:

• Are we keeping this because it's useful… or "just in case"?
• Do we feel guilty giving away something just because it was a gift?
• Should we only keep what's practical, or also what carries emotional weight?
• And where do you store what's left when you no longer have any furniture?

Picking up an object often brought back memories. Letting go of your things means accepting a certain letting go — and sometimes closing the door on a chapter of your life.

We made exceptions, of course: photos, family heirlooms, childhood mementos. Some roots are worth keeping.

After long debates — with each other and within ourselves — we settled on one simple rule: if it's gathering dust or not being used daily, it goes.

Several Months of Work

We thought we weren't very materialistic… Turns out we had quite a bit of room to grow!
It took several passes before we got to a result we were happy with.

Then came the most time-consuming phase:

• Selling on Leboncoin, Vinted, Facebook Marketplace…
• Donating to charities
• Multiple trips to the recycling center

The sales gave a welcome boost to the travel budget.
The donations felt good: knowing our furniture and belongings would have a second life somewhere else was genuinely comforting.

The Final Tally

In the end, we held onto:

• Just 3 pieces of furniture
• A few boxes stored at our families' homes

We left having kept about 20% of everything we owned.
For us, that was already a massive leap toward minimalism.

Today, we feel light.
We're leaving with free minds, no heavy material ties, ready to fully live this motorcycle adventure through South America.

And who knows… maybe when we get back and open some of those boxes, we'll do another purge and ask ourselves: "Why on earth did we keep this?!"