What Fits in Six Bags? (The Purge)

If the first phase of this journey was about the "Why," we have now entered the "How." Specifically: how do you dismantle a decade of life in a Midtown Atlanta condo and condense it into a few pieces of luggage and a pet carrier?

On December 19th, I stood in the middle of our condo living room. It was empty. Upstairs, the bed frame was disassembled, the kitchen was stripped of the tools I'd spent years collecting, and the echoes were surprisingly loud. There is a specific kind of anxiety that hits when you start liquidating assets. You spent your career and life building things up, and suddenly, you are paying movers to take your life apart.

The Inventory Audit: Three Buckets

When you are moving to a city where a 100-square-meter apartment is considered spacious, you realize how much "stuff" you've been carrying just because you had the square footage to store it in Atlanta. To survive the purge, we had to be brutal.

We divided our life into three distinct buckets:

• The Momento Bucket (Storage): These were the non-negotiables: sentimental items, expensive seasonal gear, and high-quality pieces we didn't want to re-buy in two years. We were lucky enough to store these in a corner of my Dad's basement, which saved us the ~$200/mo "storage tax" most expats pay for climate-controlled units.
• The Purge Bucket (Liquidation): This was the bulk of our 2-bedroom condo. We made multiple massive drop-offs at Goodwill. It is a strange feeling to hand over a decade of "things" to a donation bin, but it felt like shedding an old skin. Very freeing actually!
• The "Check It" Bucket (Execution): This was our entire life for the next 24 months. We landed on six checked bags total (two for me, two for Crystal, and two "community" bags for essentials).

Scaling the Strategy: What if You Have Kids (or More Gear)?

I recognize that the "Six Bag" strategy worked for us because we are a couple with a 9kg dog, no kids, and a condo. If you are moving a family of four from a 4-bedroom house, your unit economics change.

If you have to ship your life, you need a different operational playbook:

• The Relocation Agent Unlock: Do not try to DIY a long-term rental from abroad while a shipping container is on the water. You need a boots-on-the-ground agent (companies like BCN Life or Viva BCN are great for this) who can do video walk-throughs and vet leases before you land.
• The Destination Pad: Secure that long-term lease before you ship. Having a destination address is the only way to coordinate the arrival of your container without paying astronomical port storage fees.
• The Hybrid Approach: Even if you ship, I still recommend a short-term rental for the first 30 days. It gives you a base of operations to manage the delivery and setup of your house without living out of cardboard boxes. Because shipping can often take multiple weeks, you could leverage that time to secure a long-term rental and then coordinate last-mile shipping after your things arrive in port. Riskier, but this could work for you.

The Logistics of the "Check-It" Strategy

We debated shipping a container. I researched it heavily: a small shipping container from the US to Spain can run anywhere from $4,000 to $7,000 and takes 8–12 weeks to arrive.

Putting on my startup/business hat, that ROI didn't make sense to me. Why pay $6,000 to ship a three-year-old couch when I could use that same "Total Burn" allocation to furnish a place in Barcelona with items that actually fit the European aesthetic?

Instead, we optimized for traveling with as little as possible, knowing we would visit our families over time and bring things back with us if needed:

• The Weight Limit: We maximized the 50lb/23kg limit per bag.
• The Essential Gear: We packed the "high-utility" items that are expensive or hard to find in Spain (warm clothes since we moved during winter, specific tech and work gear, and Nimbus's favorite comforts).
• The Travel Status Leverage: I only had Silver status with Delta at the time, so I didn't actually have leverage. But, if you have a higher status level with airlines like Delta, often the maximum weight can be above 50lb/23kg.

The Emotional ROI of an Empty Room

There's a lot of talk in the startup world about "lean operations." I never realized how much that applied to my personal life until I saw my living room empty.

It was hard to give up the team at Cox and the progress I'd made there (the "operational freedom" came at a cost). But seeing that empty condo was the final confirmation that we were no longer just "talking" about Barcelona. We were committed.

If you're planning your own purge, my advice is to start 90 days earlier than you think you should. We were still packing boxes on December 18th (not a recommended stress level). The purge isn't just about making room in a suitcase; it's about making room in your head. By the time we locked the door for the last time, I didn't feel like I was losing anything. I felt light. I was ready to trade "Atlanta status" for a "Barcelona experience."

Currently iterating on life in BCN and realizing I didn't actually need 80% of what I owned.

Last updated: February 2026. This is a personal account of our relocation experience. Your situation may differ based on family size, belongings, and destination city.