Forward our mail is part travel blog, part relocation information, and part empty-nester lifestyle community. We have a very interesting take on what it looks like to live an empty-nester lifestyle. It started as an idea about five or six years ago while our children were still in school. We knew we couldn’t implement the plan immediately, and that it would take a lot of planning to pull it off successfully. Here we are almost six years later, living the dream that started out as a crazy idea.
At one point, we started telling friends about our plan, and we noticed something interesting: everyone was intrigued with the idea. Most said, “I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before,” or “I’ve never thought of it that way.” Those responses were the beginning of the idea for this website. We wanted a place to share our thoughts, our experiences, our travels, and our adventures. This is Forward Our Mail.com
Forward Our Mail beginning
It all started on a road trip. Isn’t that romantic? One single fleeting thought driving toward a vacation destination had the power to change the life we had built for ourselves. It all sounds so spontaneous and adventurous and sexy. The moment itself didn’t change anything. Not really. But it did change our thinking. Our thinking changed our planning. Our planning changed our goals. And goals change lives.
We were driving to Daytona Beach, Florida with our two kids in the backseat of a Ford Escape. The truck was packed to the gills with swimwear, flip flops, sunscreen, and boogie boards. We were ready to spend the week at the beach and take in the incredible tourist attractions of NASA , the Space Center, and Cocoa Beach.
John was driving and I happened to see a billboard for Charleston, South Carolina. We had visited there before, and as he drove I was daydreaming of the City Market, Rainbow Row and Fort Sumter. It had rained a bit during that specific vacation. I seem to remember our hotel parking lot flooding due to a passing hurricane. My thoughts wandered to what all we saw, and what all we didn’t see. My inner dialogue sounded something like this: “How can you see all there is in a week’s time…. or two weeks’ time? You can’t. You can’t see it all; you can’t do it all. It would take a year.” That was the moment; the moment that changed it all.
What If…
I contemplated the weight of my thoughts. “What if?” What if we lived outside the box, what if we broke the norm? What if every year was a new adventure where we lived like a local? I said to John, “You know, we visit these places for vacation, and we never see or do everything we want to do. It would take a year to see it all. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could live in Charleston for a year? You know. Live like a local. Then, the next year, move to Montana? Live there for a year. Then the next year, move to Maine… Every year, live somewhere new and live like you’re on vacation, live like a local on vacation?” That was the moment his wheels started to turn, and I don’t think they stopped turning for the next five years.
You can read the whole story here.
Downsizing
Fast forward a few years. We found ourselves in a very unique situation: Our son wanted to participate in a program only two state schools offered. One was in eastern Kentucky, away from everyone he (and we) knew. The other was about two hours south of our hometown, and an hour south of my husband’s parents. We packed our bags and hit the road for a couple of college tours and landed in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was a car town, and my husband and son are both car guys – so it felt like the perfect fit.
We decided that since the college didn’t offer student housing, it would be the perfect place for us to try out the first leg of our adventure. This location allowed us to work remotely and still be close enough to our business if we needed to travel back for work.
Let the downsizing begin! We found ourselves with a nearly 4,000 square foot house full of furniture and memories – and we were relocating to a 1,300 square foot luxury apartment. How in the world was this ever going to work?
After years of planning and dreaming, things were getting very real very quickly. We needed a plan – and we wanted to do it all on a budget. Forward our mail was born.
Relocating
Once we found the perfect community to move to, the relocation seemed to be the easy part. We looked at our belongings with fresh eyes and decided what would go to the apartment, and what would stay at the house. We were keeping our house for at least a year while we decided to sell or turn it into a corporate rental.
First, I chose a color palette and design style for our apartment. Then, I went room by room in our house shopping from our current belongings. What we found was fascinating: We had enough stuff to furnish both our house and our apartment. Little by little we started boxing things up and designing what our apartment would be like.
Because the first trial run of this adventure was a partial one where we lived half our time in Louisville, and half our time in Bowling Green, it made moving a bit easier. We could take our time, decide what should stay and what should go. And when we were ready for a change, we would just hop in the car and head back to the other location.
Moving | DIY
One very important detail to us, was that we wanted to be able to move ourselves. Not just for the first time, but every time. How in the world were we going to do that?
We strategically chose several well-appointed products designed to make our semi-nomadic lifestyle easy and simple.
First, we chose a LoveSac modular sofa. We decided on seat bottoms that doubled as storage. Opting for a washable fabric was also of high importance. What we love most is that each piece is configurable in multiple ways, for any living area size or shape. It was customizable, and light enough we could move it ourselves.
Next, we chose sleep number mattresses. The mattress firmness is customizable for each sleeper and the best part – when you’re ready to move, simply deflate the inner air chambers and roll it up. Our queen size rolls up into the size of a large sleeping bag. The king size rolls up and can be transported in a large storage bin.
We also went with the Sonos sound system for our home theater and stereo options. For home safety, we chose SimplySafe. Both of these products are user friendly AND mover friendly. They are basically plug n play, and provide excellent quality for an outstanding price point.
For packing and relocating, we always use the HDX yellow and black bins from Home Depot. They are stackable, water resistant, and storage unit friendly. They come in a multitude of sizes from very large to very small. We like to pack more smaller bins so we can move everything ourselves, but there are also very large options if you have a need for that option.
Getting settled
We found out very quickly that we loved our new town. The people in our community were friendly. Our neighborhood was beautiful. We had all the luxuries of a five-star resort at our fingertips, and we enjoyed trying out new restaurants and experiences.
Settling in and adjusting to our new location was easy for us and we viewed it as a fresh start for everyone. We found ourselves making friends, hanging out at the pool, the fire pit, and meeting new friends.
Homemaking
After we unpacked the bins and boxes, made the beds and wiped out the cabinets, it was time to start homemaking. We created seating arrangements in the living room, made the beds, hung the bath towels, and styled an inviting entry way.
Before long, the apartment started to feel more like home than….home. That was when we knew our plan was going to work. We could relocate, do it easily, inexpensively, and still enjoy all the feelings of home. We could live the Forward Our Mail dream.
Forward Our Mail Lifestyle
At forward our mail we also understand the feelings and emotions that can come with being an empty nester. That’s why we talk about the secret to change, starting fresh, becoming the person you want to be, and making monthly resolutions.
Embracing the new lifestyle means you’re running toward something, not away from it. This is the opportunity to embrace the adventure of a lifetime, and experience all life offers.
Choosing locations
Forward our mail wouldn’t be much of a website if we didn’t relocate from time to time. For us, we hope that looks like every 12-18 months. There is a very specific method to our madness, though. We have to take into account our living costs.
That means, one year, we live somewhere that has a lot to offer, but has a lower cost of living. The next move, we can relocate to a higher-cost of living area; maybe one that has fewer things to offer, but still very exciting. One year it may be a beach location where we become sand creatures. The next year, maybe city dwellers, like Toronto! The following move may be a quiet little town like Bowling Green, where there are college sports and national museums.
The point is, we do our research ahead of time. We want locations that have a lot to do, see, and experience, within an hour to two – three hour drive. We want to live like we’re on vacation every day of the year – all while living like the locals.
Forward Our Mail Travel & Side Quests
We are all about travel and side quests. Anywhere within a one-three hour drive is fair game for a day trip. Sometimes that means luxury shopping in Nashville, Tn., sometimes a vacation to the beautiful upper peninsula of Michigan. Throw in a two-week trip to the UK and you have an epic travel adventure.
It’s all part of the Forward Our Mail experience. We live every day as part of life’s adventure. Throw in a vacation or day trip, and you have one epic lifestyle.
