Pack away valuable things that may be can’t be replaced. You can box them and put them in the loft of your house and padlock it (I’ve seen this done in quite a few rented houses) or find a friend to store them in their loft, (just remind them to add the value to their home insurance if they need to). Again if you think you cant do this, i can assure you, i am the most sentimental fool, i horde everything, stones and shells from days at beach, old tickets, wedding favours, I actually have a ‘tat of life’ box, where I keep all of it-but I knew I had to prioritise, and travelling the world won. I did decluttered, but i do have boxes, tables, wardrobes in 4 different people houses- I was lucky I knew people that were moving so they were storing/using my bigger furnishings in there bedroom and run ng room. When you’ve been travelling a while you’ll see they become very unimportant, if I never get them back, its not the end of the world, its also nice to be able to help those friends too, they don’t have buy dining room table.

Do you need a wardrobe if you live in a tent?

3. House/car boot sale
I know when you sell things you never get full value of what you paid, but change your thinking-do you need a garlic crusher, a cheese grater, saucepans or 10 handbags when you travel? Look at it as an opportunity to have a good, probably long overdue, clear out, to make more money for your trip- I didn’t think about how much money I was losing, I thought of it as how much extra money I’m making which will allow me to stay away an extra month. When I decided to pack up and travel, I had 3 double wardrobes stuffed with clothes, 70 pairs of shoes, and countless handbags and the kitchen gadgets, i managed to get my life into 20 boxes and ship them to my mum’s spare room. (I got the shoes down to 20) 🙂 Also I got a lovely feeling when I gave a lot of things away, my friends, work colleagues, cleaner all benefited from me deciding to go traveling.

Can you fit your life into a backpack?

4. Jobs/Working on the Road
Several options- 
can you get a 6months /a year career break?-this is ideal if you want the security of knowing you have a job to come back to. Some of my friends encouraged me to do this-but my job was part of the reason I wanted to get away, so great opportunity to leave something that was making me unhappy-i definitely would not have wanted the knowledge i had to go back, hanging around my neck when I was travelling, but I think this is a safe way of making the first step (when you get the travelling bug, you’ll probably not go back anyway):-)

Working on the move.

Can you travel overseas with your current company. I was lucky enough to get a job promotion and move to our European head office in Prague two years before I decided to travel long term- again my friends thought I was mad giving up a lovely comfortable life in England, to go to live in Eastern Europe (my Czech friends will remind me it’s actually central Europe), but it was actually that opportunity that give me the confidence to go on this trip-if I can live in a country for 2 years and I don’t speak the language, I can definitely travel through others (currently in country number 16 with its different language and i only have English):-) this is also great if you have partner and kids- there are always international schools and it allows you all to figure out if you like being abroad.

Finding work on the road – broccoli harvesting??

If neither of these two options are available to you- remember you can always get another job when (‘if’, you might get bitten by the travelling bug and not return) you get home. Remember, you got your current job didn’t you, so you can do it again. Maybe not right away, but you will always have a way to make money-how many bad jobs did you do as a teenager/student, just to get some money- I always thought I couldn’t go back to them, but now after 10 months on the road, I knows I could go back to working in a supermarket, in a bar, waitressing or on the farm-just getting money is the priority, not how you make it. And if you are worrying about what other people will say when they see you flipping burgers in McDonalds when you return, (Jonny is right, its too expensive to eat in when travelling, I’ve treated myself to 2 in 10 months), you probably are the sort of person that won’t have had the courage to pack up their beautiful home to go traveling in the first place, this all takes courage.

5. The car
I loved my beetle. I used to look out the office window at it and it always made me smile, i was definitely sentimentally attached….but again remember the priority, and yes I lost money cause you do when you sell a car, but this gave me the main bulk of my travelling fund.

Where to leave your car…

6. The plan
Now I’m probably the worse person to give advise on a plan for your trip because the name of my trip is , ‘The plan is not to have a plan’ 🙂

If you are the kind of person that needs a plan, then I would suggest open a map of the world, write down EVERY country you would love to see, don’t limit yourself at this stage. How many did you get? Me personally, I think I had 30, I knew I didn’t have the budget to all so then I started to prioritise- I have 5 things that are a must do and I’ve given myself a year to do them-I’m currently done 3 and will only 1 get more done, before i run out of money, but I’ve seen too many other amazing things too be too upset by not ticking off my list). When I was planning, i knew i had all the time in the world, money would be the thing to make me make decisions.

Do you need a plan?

I’d say map out a very very rough plan, and then buy a guide book for the continent (countries) you want to visit. Read it on your commute to work, your lunch break, before you go to sleep. It will get you excited for the things you are going to see and it will keep you motivated and positive. Keep it in your handbag/man bag-when you see it , it will stop you wasting money on that bar of chocolate, beer, blouse, you don’t ‘need’. I started 6 months before I handed in my notice (I need to work those 6 months to save some money-i am the worst saver in the world):-) so it kept me sane and helped me push through the last few months at work.

It is very difficult to budget, some guide books give you a rough daily cost, but I find these very inaccurate-also when you first set off, your brain will think you are on holidays (like 2 weeks out of the office, so have fun), so its very hard to budget- i was being careful but it took me a goo three or four months to really tighten my belt, to where I am now. You will always find ways of saving money, like Jonny’s tip, of taking extra bread roll and jam at breakfast, saving it for lunch:-)

All I would say is-you have the money you have, only you know where you want to go and how long you need to make it last-but when away don’t beat yourself up if you pay double for a nice room with a hot shower, or extra $2 or 3 for the comfy bus you are going to be on for 10 or20 hours- you need these treats now and again to keep you sane, and you know, if you need them all the time and your money finishes , that’s all right too-its your trip, your memories, don’t let the hardcore travellers you meet make you feel bad cause you aren’t ‘roughing it’ enough or the couples travelling together, spending the same as you for 2 as you do for 1-its hard not to compare but its bad to, your not going to have the exact same memories so just relax and enjoy the ones you’re making.

The one piece of advise i would give you for your plan-try to be as open and flexible as possible. When I set off I had a one way ticket to Moscow booked, that was it-i knew the direction I wanted to go, but no idea of train times or anything for moving on. If you can, make it up as you go along, you’ll definitely have more of an adventure. I can’t tell you all of the amazing things I’ve been able to do because I had the flexibility e.g staying in with a family in Nooshar, Iran for 4 days, (i had just gone for a day to see the Caspian sea) staying on a farm in Bardia national park, Nepal for 6 days ( i had planned 2 stay in a hotel for 2 nights, but met a man on the bus) riding motorbikes with off duty Gurkhas for 3 days, Himalayan mountains, Nepal (I’d just gone there to see the tea plantation),all because someone said ‘do you want to?’ and I said yes.

Admittedly this is much easier when you travel alone-actually the main reason I do travel alone.

Off course if you have a set deadline to be home for e.g. wedding, then book in advance it will save you money.

7. Kids
Now I can’t give you first hand experience on this, but I have met many families travelling with kids-and all of them say, it really helps their kids be more independent, more open minded, kids will play with anyone, and be less judgemental and will learn more life skills on the road in a year than they could learn in the classroom. It will depend on their age, all the kids I met on my journey, were having some form of tuition from the parents, most bringing the years school curriculum with them, so the kids are still covering off the academic stuff as the travel-but my thinking is, the families I met were lovely down to earth normal people, some driving vehicles and some on public transport, they weren’t super human-you must think, if they can do it so can you.

What about the kids?

8. Bills/life admin
The phone and some other contracts are easy to put on hold for a year (or give a few months notice on them) you might have pick them up again when you return but this is just the fist step of getting you out and on the road.

Just make sure credit cards are either all paid off or you have a standing order to cover them. I met a guy who had gone travelling, chose to ignore his credit card and had returned home to thousands of $ debt in on paid charges and his credit blacklisted. Two years later he was still paying them off.

Money matters and bills…Diane’s tips.

Make a list of life admin e.g bills, insurance, banking accounts, international withdrawal fees etc. You have to do before you go and prioritise this list. The shopping list, booking hotels, flights etc. can all be managed on the road, but if you don’t set up your online banking, let your bank know you are going aboard etc. it will create so many more problems when your gone.

So to finish, please remember , you don’t have to be foot loose and fancy free to hit the road. Yes, it will take more time, planning, effort – but I want to reassure you, if you really want to do it, there is a way. And you know, you’ll look back on your old self with the three double wardrobes and be so proud of yourself for managing with just 3 tops in your rucksack.

Good luck, start today, and in the words of Mr Blair Don’t Stop Living.

This is a guest post from Diane Moffitt.

Diane Moffitt – guest post on Crossing World Borders.