Ok, so my last post about my bike/food trip was exactly 2 weeks ago. These past two weeks have been intense. I knew emailing details of my plans to travel to over 250 people would elicit a response, but I had NO idea that it would be so big!

So I would like to start by saying that I am repeatedly being blown away by the outpouring of support from my community in the form of suggestions of places to visit, people I can stay with, and tips for bike touring. The reactions I have received from both friends and strangers has been overwhelming.

My favourite email was a short and sweet one from an old classmate of mine, Cat, who I discovered now lives in Halifax: “whoa!  this is going to explode your life, emily.  i’m excited for you.”

I really liked the sound of my life exploding.

In the past couple of weeks I’ve been making some big strides towards my goal of being quasi-ready to leave come mid-June. I took the Wenches With Wrenches course on the basics of bike maintenance, have been going on increasingly long-distance bike rides on weekends (I’ve done up to 45km in a day so far…a modest but good start), and have been busily getting rid of the excess crap that seems to occupy my space but rarely gets touched.

Let me pause just to say how AWESOME it feels to get rid of my stuff. I have moved houses probably twice, even three times, with the same stuff that just gets stored at the back of my closet. For what? Sentimentality? The off chance that I will sporadically want to review my notes from my university psychology class? Not worth it. The feeling I get from getting rid of it trumps the benefits of storing excess baggage.

I resolved to not only get rid of anything I hadn’t touched in a year, but to give it away to willing homes. So instead of schlepping it to the nearest Goodwill, or toiling away at a garage sale just to make 30 bucks, I decided to invite my friends to take what they wanted by transforming my kitchen/workspace into a Free Store!

I labeled the various departments, displayed it all pretty-like, and invited guests at a recent dinner party to peruse the Free Store upstairs. What fun it is to watch your unwanted clutter being marched out the door to a loving home! And if I ever get sentimental and miss it, I know who to go visit.

I transformed my kitchen into a "free store". I felt lighter immediately.

I need to develop some kind of screening process for future purchases. Like...will I use this NOW? would be a good first question.