Does your Stuff keep you from traveling?

Before I started longer term travel 2+ years ago, I decided to sell my house and stuff so I could travel far and for more than the meager 1 or 2 weeks that I considered sufficient for a 'vacation'.

Back at the  property for a few months, this is the 3rd time I am sorting, donating and selling some of the tings that I can never take with me or afford to store.  

How VERY interesting to find the items I could never give away 2 years ago are now not worth the effort to sell! 

What do you do with a full dark room set up?  A pottery wheel?  Ski boots?  
Well every time I sort the boxes they become less important.  I am now down from perhaps 75 storage boxes to 25 and counting!  

But the bigger question is:  Has the financial need to sell my house so I can travel more, really been a crutch for WHY I don't travel more……  just did 14 international weeks this year along with the 8 to 10 domestic weeks so I am much closer to my goal.

Solo Travel with a Purpose

I have been using a new mantra this year:

Be a Traveler NOT a tourist
Learn something new,
Find a new adventure
Experience the local life
In 2008, after many years of trying to do or see everything in the  2 or 3 weeks a year my 24/7 job allowed, I finally took a sabbatical.

I had been dreaming of moving to Italy for part of the year for a long time.   All my vacations to Italy were wonderful.  My business trips were "interesting" but allowed me to see new parts of Italy.
But would I enjoy living there?   I am an Italian American but would real Italians accept me?  How do you manage in a town where you do not know anyone and do not speak the language fluently?
But it was now or never and I closed my business, obtained a dog sitter and took off for Sorrento for 3 months.  I know I would not have enjoyed or on some days survived this adventure without my weeks at Sorrento Lingue.    For all of you who already travel solo, I won't comment on solo travel, but long term travel opened a new door to my travel adventures.     
During my months in Italy "living as an Italian, not a tourist"  I searched for ways to enrich my days.
I spent hours exploring the towns along the sea.  Walking with a view of the sea was an endless pleasure.   But I still looked for a way to fit in, to participate,  not just another member of the expats organizations.

Tina, a former student at Sorrento Lingue, found a GREAT solution.        She did volunteer work!  See her story below.