Oh, no, not forced, and not sad to get rid of stuff. I'm the person who chucks stuff that everyone else wants to keep! Purge is my middle name, sometimes with humorous (to me) consequences. I guess I'm just nervous that the selling process will be difficult, that the moving process will be difficult, etc. What if no one wants to buy our house for a reasonable amount? (I guess I don't really care that much about the price we get, as long as it's within reason.)
We think we're going to move into an apartment for a year, during which we will see how my husband's contract renegotiation goes. If it goes well, we'll get a small condo (which makes sense for us since we are away all summer working in Canada, so there's no time to enjoy or maintain the outside of a house). If it doesn't, we won't be tied down by a house. But at this point we don't have anywhere to live when it sells.
Either way, we'll be going sailing; either a 1 year sabbatical or for a few years. That also has us nervous; but if it were easy everyone would do it!