It’s a new month, and time to post the goals we want to accomplish this month. But first, here’s how we did with February’s goals:
- Put at least $900 into our travel savings account. We put $1261.11 into our account in February.
- Combine all pantry items into one closet. Here’s how our two closets looked before . . .
and here’s how they look now!
- Make reservations for an overnight stay on the Big Island, and a two-night stay at one of the PMRF cottages during spring break. We have reservations now for the Big Island in late June, and will be staying overnight in a cottage at Camp Kilauea (with a fireplace and jetted tub!) inside the national park. My HawaiianMiles will cover our flights over to the Big Island and back (Kona), and we have free entrance to the park, so besides.lodging our only other expenses will be a car rental and dining (we plan to have dinner at Volcano House, but otherwise will bring our own food along). Brett also got us booked for two nights in early June at one of the beachfront cottages at Barking Sands on the west side of Kaua’i. They’re fully furnished, so we’ll take along our own food, and have dinner one night at the restaurant on base (Shenanigans), which is supposed to be very good. Brett and YaYu are going to spend one day while we’re there hiking in Waimea Canyon; I will hold down the fort and relax (i.e. sit out on the beach and read).
- Decide on bed pillows and cases to take along on the Big Adventure.We checked out several pillows this month at Costco. Some were too heavy (I’m looking at you, Tempurpedic memory foam), and others were lightweight and cheap, and we didn’t think they’d hold up well, especially after getting stuffed into our suitcases over and over. We have settled on these pillows through Amazon. They’re expensive, but very lightweight (around one pound each) and durable. There’s no hurry to order them right now though.
- Take at least one bag of stuff to the thrift store. We took four bags to the thrift store in February.
Here are our goals for March:
- Put at least $900 into our travel savings account.
The baking cabinet is on my list of clean-outs. - Clean out at least three cabinets in the kitchen.
- Clean out and organize my nightstand.
- Clean out the two tansu in the living room (they’ve both been sold).
- Narrow our list of suitable Airbnb rentals for the first half of our trip.
- Set up an additional area in the garage for moving sale items.
- Take at least one bag of stuff to the thrift store.
Let’s see how we do!
The Occasional Nomads 
Wow…the closet clean out is inspirational. And you’re brave to post before pics…I can’t imagine myself doing that. :-). I need to make a list, as I find once I write something on my ‘to do’ list, it usually gets done. I’ve never figured out why that works, but crossing things off a list motivates me somehow.
When we last visited Hawaii, we rented our car via Costco travel and it was MUCH cheaper than anyone else offered. Over time, we’ve found that to be true everywhere in the US that we travel, so if you haven’t checked it out, you may want to try it. The only cheaper option I’ve found is making a ridiculous lowball bid on Priceline and getting it. HA!
My DH destroys pillows, so we typically buy a decent price to get one that lasts him a while. With all your adventures, you will need a comfy pillow for sure. Those look like a good choice.
LikeLike
The pantry didn’t take all that long once I got started. There was some stuff that was old and needed to be tossed, and getting all of those storage jars out gave me lots of room (same for the pottery – it’s under my bed for now). I like having everything in one closet now, but of course we have to use it all up before we go!
We ONLY rent through Costco – we have never gotten a lower price anywhere from anyone, even with a military discount! We’re flying into Kona-Kailua, will drive over to the National Park and spend the day, have dinner at the lodge, and spend the night in our cabin. We’ll do some more sightseeing at the Park the next day, and then head back to Kona-Kailua for dinner, and fly home that evening. It was be an easy, affordable trip.
We’ve changed our minds about the above pillows – they’re too heavy, almost four pounds each! We’ve found some more affordable ones that weight a whole lot less.
LikeLike
I envy your planning and organization skills. Hopefully I will learn to emulate them. Congrats on meeting your goals.
LikeLike
We just have to keep plugging away at this so it doesn’t get too crazy when it’s time to move out of the house. I figure if I do a little every month, by the end of June and early July we’ll be ready to put things into storage, have a moving sale, sell the car, and get moved out of the house. I think no matter what we do though it’s still going to be harder than we think.
LikeLike
Well done with your February goals! When it comes to pack to move, I find it’s much less stressful to start early and do a bit each day/ week/ month than a “big bang” approach.
I forgot to ask you whether you’d be able to leave a comment on my blog. I recall you wrote something about you can’t comment with certain blog setups. You don’t need to leave a comment, just let me know if you’d be able to if you wanted to. Thank you.
LikeLike
I’m that way too – a little bit at a time so it’s less crazy at the end (although the crazy never goes away).
I cannot comment on your blog – I need to have the Name/URL option with Blogger/Blogpost in order to leave a comment, especially now that I don’t have a wordpress.com address any more. I am the absolute WORST though when it comes to commenting. First, I’m an introvert, even when it comes to commenting (I won’t even going to go into the blogging part of the equation), and second, someone has already said what I would! I keep telling myself to go ahead a comment anyway, but that introversion part is a tough hurdle for me to get over.
LikeLike
Thank you, Laura, for letting me know. I’m surprised to read how your introversion prevents you from commenting. Since you write your blog so well, I thought commenting would be just as natural for you.
LikeLike
I don’t really get how the introversion works either. It never used to be difficult for me to get up in front of my classes to teach, but when I had to present before my classmates (when I was in school) or professional peers I was a wreck – it was excruciating. Same for commenting versus writing. Commenting feels sort of like going to a party where you maybe only know the host but no one else, which is terrifying for me. Does that make sense?
LikeLike
Great job on the goals!
We spent some time on the Big Island 11 years ago – gulp time goes so fast. We LOVED the puuhonua o honaunau national park and were there during the annual cultural festival. It was truly one of the top three things we experienced in a 16 trip. The festival is scheduled for 23 June this year. We wove our own bracelets, participated in a hukilau, ate kailua pig right after it was taken out of the ground, and more. Even without the cultural festival, the park is well worth visiting and is on the way between Kona airport and volcano national park.
LikeLike
We were planning to fly in and out of Kona, but Hawaiian wanted too many miles for the flights so we booked in and out of Hilo instead. It will be be a faster trip to the park though so we can spend more time there. I’m interested in seeing Hilo anyway – it’s less tourist-oriented than Kona, and there are a couple of stores there I want to check out (for coffee).
LikeLike
We spent several days in Hilo and enjoyed the farmer’s market and one of the botanical gardens. I purchased Hawaiian decorated fabric in Hilo and made it into a quilt and cloth napkins. It was the most authentic place in Hawaii that we visited.
LikeLiked by 1 person