Ditch the stuff, great!

One advantage to keeping the house – even if you know you won’t move back into it – is that it reduces your exposure to US-specific housing inflation and currency fluctuation. Otherwise you could keep your savings 100% intact yet be priced out of ever owning a US home again. As long as you can cover your full expenses (including property tax, any mortgage, budgeted ongoing repairs) you’re basically getting paid to build equity while providing housing as a decent landlord instead of a corporate jerk. Win, win.

A second advantage to keeping the house is that not all money is the same shade of green… Rent can qualify you for the D7 passive income residency visa for Portugal. You may prefer the D7 to the nomad visa. The amount of rent matters. Your net profit does not. You could, for instance, include utilities to boost the amount of the rent payments while still having the same deal for the renter and for you as if you had a lower rent without utilities, etc.

In a different direction: you’ll need a visa of some type for a specific EU country if you want to spend more than 3 months in Europe anyway. I found “life in a backpack” is very freeing for the first two weeks. After that, I want a home base, even if I travel from it the majority of the time. That implies something inexpensive so I don’t feel angst over “wasting” the money I pay for the home base. YMMV. Good luck!

How about… keep the house and rent it out. Put everything you don’t donate/sell/take with you into storage. This gives you a path back should you so choose.

My friends who spent time in the Peace Corps really enjoyed it.

Another way to throw darts: look on trusted house sitters or similar. Find a place you want to check out where you can stay for a month or so. Let the wind blow you to the next place that’s open around the time you’re leaving the first place. Since you have savings, you can fill in with short-term rentals as you need, and it’s ok if it doesn’t fit together neatly like a jigsaw puzzle.

I’ve liked iTalki for quick language basics. Good luck!