support thread for serious decluttering/moving? - Page 2

[sk8boarder15]

In my 5 boxes was an old food processor that's pretty crappy so we never use. A box of sweets we wont eat since we went sugar free, almost an entire box of coffee mugs, LOTS of Tupperware, a set of bowls I never use, serving trays we never use.... 

Packed up a few things from the kitchen today to get ready for painting this week. Put the stand mixer and cookie cutters in a big box (only keeping them out of MIL guilt trip... oh well). Then packed up a box of family photos from the living room . If we don't use it regularly and its no good for showings its going in a box... either donate or packed. I kept out one of my sons baby pictures to move upstairs as I figure that's a more appropriate place at least. 

[worthy]

I'll join you.  Haven't read the thread yet, but I'm in.  I expect to be moving sometime in the next 6 months to 2 years -- not sure how soon.  I have done a good job of decluttering over the years, but when it comes to moving/downsizing, it gets more hardcore.

Right now my biggest "project" ahead is going to be decluttering a lifetime's worth of books.

Also putting effort into trying to sell things vs. just give them away and finding that balance.  I need to make some $$$ if I can.

Decluttering the husband was the first step (tasteless humor there -- I'm going through a divorce...)

Not knowing what kind of space we'll be moving to makes it tricky.  I guess either way it's, keep only what you use and love...

[worthy]

Now that I've read the thread...I'll join those of you who are decluttering in a freezing garage.  Brr!  I'm lucky that my garage is attached, but it's still quite cold right now in northern New England.

I'm thinking if I tell myself that whenever I get the inspiration I can go into the garage and declutter five things...that should only take a few minutes and I won't get too cold in that time.  Then I can decide if I want to quit or do more. Eventually the pile has to decrease.

I have this pile in the middle of the garage, with a path down the middle of the pile (okay, so two piles) and it is all STUFF to sort.  I have this bad habit of tossing stuff into the garage to get it out of the way, when sometimes that means a box of random crap I took off the living room floor or the coffee table and didn't have the patience to sort and declutter.  Sometimes keeping sanity in the house means filling a box and putting it in the garage! 

I was thinking, books are such a big deal, maybe with the ones we are planning to keep, we'll actually pack nearly all of them away for the duration of showing the house, and that will help us figure out what we really can do without.  We can use that as a test for how much we could use the library instead.  Maybe.

Okay, five more things, right now.  I don't have the patience/time to keep a tally like some of you do - hats off to you!  Love that you can quantify your progress.

[worthy]

Awesome: I was just inspired to go into my garage and freeze my nose off.  I went through a bunch of boxes, put some small stuff away (random plastic silverware, reusable wrapping paper, wax for recycling into candles, craft supplies, bits of bubblewrap to recycle...) and pulled out a small pile of things to put away actually INSIDE the house.

Didn't get it all done (ha) but I made a good dent.  I need to get to the recycling/compost/swap-shop soon to get to what is underneath the piles of cardboard, etc. and get rid of the "donate" boxes.  Then I'm going to have to sit and think hard about things like baskets and nice wooden boxes...keep (unused, waiting for the right use) or not?  So hard.  I can't afford to just replace.  I expect to have storage wherever I move (though who knows). 

Some stuff just has to wait until it's warmer.

At least I feel like I accomplished something.  Maybe I can do the recycling/swap-shop trip on Saturday when my kids are at their dad's house.

[Chalex]

Welcome Worthy!

I got into the garage this week and sorted through shoes and boots.  Found about 4 pairs or so to donate, one to just toss and now have all in one nice storage container.  It really made some noticable space in the garage.  I had boots here and there on the shelves--not good.

Got to the library and donated some adult books.  They have fundrasing book sales, so I feel good about letting them go.

I went through my pots and pans cupboard in the kitchen...cleared it all out, wiped down the shelves and only put back what we use pretty much daily.  I have storage shelves downstairs where I put some of the extra stuff and I'll go through it again in a month looking for items to pass on.  BUT, when I went to my storage shelf, I already had some old scruffy frying pans that had to go bye-bye.  I had to laugh at myself for hanging on to them.

Today, my friend gave me some luggage to pack clothes into.  Cute!  There's a piece of luggage for each child.  (They are playing with them now)  I'm keeping an eye out for moving boxes.

This week, I have to shred tons more paper.  DH had fixed the shredder and I instantly jammed it again...grrrrrr....

I'm also going to try ripping down the wallpaper boarder in my bedroom.  And prepare for painting.

Declutter a bit in each room....not sure what I want to focus on yet...

Hope you all have a great week!

[mrsmischief]

I'll join. We're downsizing to a smaller home in May or June and are busy decluttering, donating, etc right now. 

[MamaFern]

chalex: thanks my favorite are the old glass topped jars. i find them in the thrift stores sometimes. not good for canning anymore, but super cute for storing stuff in.

i collect boxes from shops around town. my favorite are the heavy duty friut boxes with the lid that slips over.. just keeps everything all snug and safe.

good luck on your journey!

i found out the house i was looking at has been rented to someone else. i had a moment of sadness and disappointment, but it would have been too soon and too much rent anyways. something perfect will come up when the time is right. in the meantime. i will continue simplifying...and searching for our perfect house!

[worthy]

I love my new mindset.  I'm finding it's freeing and even easier than ever to move when the question is "do I want to go to the trouble to move this, do I want it cluttering up my new house, does it reflect what I want for my new life?"  Whoa, I want to spend DAYS AND DAYS decluttering now.  I'm on a roll, am cleaning out my bedroom and finding it's not as bad as I thought.  Also the garage -- 10 days coming up of daytime highs above freezing.  Very convenient.

My divorce is supposed to be finalized in 19 days.  I feel like there is no time like the present to get things ship-shape for my "new life."  And also, we are planning to move in the next year or so, don't know where but local, but anyway, I'm already thinking forward to that.

Love how easy it is when you remove the option of having something stay put indefinitely.  I do not want to move anything that isn't worth moving.

[MamaFern]

Worthy, that is a great place to be..I'm trying to get there. With little things and clothes I'm ok, but furnature.I have a hard time parting with because what if in my new space I wish I had kept it. Even if it is not serving a good purpose now..plus I have this guilt with things.my mom has given us..because she will ask next visit where such and such is...

Anyways, despite being sick and sleep deprived today i managed to get my bedroom done..
Not sure how.to post pictures but if I can figure it out I will. I'm using my phone

[Chalex]

Hi Ladies,

I listened to a podcast about getting ready to sell and I realized that this week I need to take down all personal pictures around the house.  They said to do it right away to get into the "letting go" of house mind set.

'Didn't get all I wanted to done last week, but I did get a deep cleaning and decluttering of our downstairs bathroom.  And last night, got DH to go through his old textbooks and we ended up tossing (recycling) a whole laundry basket full.  Must have weighed 100 lbs!!

So, this week is...pack up CD's, clean out upper kitchen cupboards and wallpaper removal.  (hopefully!)

Have a great week!

[worthy]

I'm going great guns today.  Gosh, it really snowballs when you get going!!  I spent years overwhelmed by my clutter and packrat instincts.  Now I'm releasing things and opening up to whatever life brings next.  I just cleared several boxes of collected clutter from my bedroom, and cleaned out under my bed.

A distant friend is staying here Wed night with her toddler, and that is a REALLY good added incentive to get rid of the dust bunnies and clutter pits.

I told the kids yesterday of our plan to move, and they were supportive and enthusiastic.  They are decluttering their own stuff.  Never thought I would see my kids so good with clearing stuff out -- they inspire me.  I was more of a hoarder as a kid.  I am loving the feeling of getting rid of stuff I don't need, use, or love!! 

Hope all of you are feeling similarly, though it did take me years and years to get to this point.

[worthy]

Oh, my.  My car is packed with stuff to take to the monthly "swap shop" drop tomorrow morning.  I keep trolling around my garage and house looking for more stuff to donate, and I'm stumped.

I do have a big pile in the garage that I have to sort through sometime when I'm in that kind of mood, and there may be a few other donateables there, but I can't do that today.  Compartmentalizing what I can accomplish.  Most of what it is in there is keep, trash, or recycle -- not giveaway stuff.

Also, books, CDs, and clothing are not in the running right now.  Saving those for later, separate efforts also.

I have posted some giveaways on our homeschooling list and time trade list; Freecycle is next. 

This spring weather is really doing me good.  February in New England is never like this.  I am not complaining.

[worthy]

More! (Someone else better post soon, too...!)  I worked this morning on "decluttering" the woods at the edge of the yard.  I made a good dent in removing downed trees that have been there since the 2008 ice storm.  I'm organizing the brush/limbs/wood so I can burn it in the yard in a big bonfire.  I won't do that until the piles are ready so I can just do it all at once.

I need a friend with a chainsaw to help -- some of the broken trees are still standing and too thick for me to saw myself.  Once that is done, the kids and I can drag it all out into the yard.  There is a corner of our yard that has been covered by downed trees and I would like to turn it back into grassy yard this spring.

And now I am tired, and need to declutter myself with a good hot shower!!

[MamaFern]

worthy, sounds like you are getting lots done!

im still plodding along. i almost always donate stuff but recently i have been trying to sell a few things on a facebook yard sale group we started for our small town. i collected a box full of nice kids books and sold it for 10.00. it nicely decluttered our books, of which we have many! and i sold a tv we never use (20.00)..some kids wall decals that i had for a few years in the cupboard (25$) its nice to make a bit of extra cash, considering how much i have given over the years! i will always donate lots of stuff too.

i ave this nice wooden shelf and wooden bench that opens up that i primed this summer but never painted and they dont really fit in my house atm. i have the yellow paint that i was going to use and now im wondering if i should just let them go..or keep them, even though they just take up space in this house. i could probably store them at a friends house till spring when i could paint them.. but part of me feels like just letting go.. my plan is to live in a slightly larger house, so down the road they would probably be really perfect. im stumped!i cleaned and vaccuumed my laundry room today, which is tiny and constantly in a state of disaster, because its where i throw thrift store stuff and dirty stuff and things im not sure where to put and also hand all of our jackets and snow pants ect.. i have my christmas stuff still in a box unorganized. feeling extremely bad about that! im going to get that put away properly this weekend. it is my goal to get my kids room tidy again, the back room decluttered and my laundry room working better for me.

I have also been decluttering the kitchen some more, and clothes as well.

[worthy]

Originally Posted by worthy 

I need a friend with a chainsaw to help -- some of the broken trees are still standing and too thick for me to saw myself.  Once that is done, the kids and I can drag it all out into the yard.  There is a corner of our yard that has been covered by downed trees and I would like to turn it back into grassy yard this spring.

MamaFern, I'm glad you're here.  I'd take the bench, LOL! 

So, ask and ye shall receive...yesterday a friend came over for a playdate with his daughter, brought his chainsaw, and downed all the trees and saplings that I marked.  My kids and I can drag them out of the woods and into the yard -- big project, but good exercise.  Then I need to get help sorting which is firewood and which is BONfirewood (LOL), and cutting the firewood into stove-sized pieces to stack for winter.

My whole house feels like it has new energy with all this decluttering, even with a yard full of downed trees!

[MamaFern]

Originally Posted by worthy 

MamaFern, I'm glad you're here.  I'd take the bench, LOL! 

So, ask and ye shall receive...yesterday a friend came over for a playdate with his daughter, brought his chainsaw, and downed all the trees and saplings that I marked.  My kids and I can drag them out of the woods and into the yard -- big project, but good exercise.  Then I need to get help sorting which is firewood and which is BONfirewood (LOL), and cutting the firewood into stove-sized pieces to stack for winter.

My whole house feels like it has new energy with all this decluttering, even with a yard full of downed trees!

yay! that's great worthy! love when i have an intention and it happens just like that. such a good feeling. and so nice to know that the universe is supporting us in what we are trying to do.

in the end i moved things around and the bench and shelf actually fit and work. there was just so much other crap in the room that i didn' t think it would. i spent most of the day yesterday going through everything.. now art supplies are all put away/organized and what i'm not sure what to do with yet is in one small flat bin that fits under my sewing table. the books are all on the shelf, toys are organized by type (puppets in one basket, blocks in a box, dress ups, wooden toys, play kitchen stuff. ect) and the bench? became my new linen closet extension. i only have one closet for all of our linens. bed stuff, bathroom stuff, kitchen stuff. i dont actually have a lot, but because space is limited it feels overwhelming. i tried keeping it under the bed, but it didn' t work well for me. so one side is extra towels and the other side is sheets, duvets, pillow cases...

now the only things left to do are to put away dd's clothes in her drawer, and try to figure out what to do with my other dd's clothes. currently they are sorted into tops and bottoms in clear plastic bins because i have no dresser for her. thinking of trying to manifest a dresser..or shuffle things around in the house. I also do not have one, but honestly there just isn't room in our house for 2 more dressers! i do have a lot of her clothes hung in my closet but i'm out of hangers atm. im really trying to omit plastic from our home as much as possible so im slowly transitioning from plastic hangers to wooden ones. they look so much nicer too.. next time im in the city i will get a few boxes of them. i found them at a big box store for a reasonable price.

[MamaFern]

oh, also..i am still actually looking for a house, which in my tiny town of 1500 is very hard.. housing is tight. a LOT of property is owned by people who do not live in town, but come for a few months vacation here.. which means that folks that live year round and rent have very few options.. but anyways, I am going to look at a place! It is 3 bedrooms and a 8x8 "nook" which would work as a bedroom for one of my small girls. it has a basement with a workshop area! and a mudroom entrance and it is surrounded by green space. no neighbors in sight! i'm needing space so bad right now..my current house is very near other houses on either side. my kitchen window looks into my next doors kitchen/living room. she is wonderful, but its hard for me to be that squished.

oh yeah, and its 3 levels, which the kids wanted so they can play hide and seek better :lol the kitchen is much more spacious and has an eating nook.. its kind of a neat looking place with a turret. we saw pictures online and my kids think it looks a bit like en elf castle. the inside looks like it could use some paint and im crossing my fingers that if i take it they would allow me.. i'm a serious fixer upper.. i cannot stand to live in a place i can't make nice. anyways.. that's my exciting thing.only downside is it isn't right in "downtown" like i had hoped but its not that far a walk either,, and it isnt up this big frigging hill that we are currently at the top of! so should work for us ok. send me some positive energy there! my only other thing is i want her to sign at least a year lease because the house is on the market (wish i could afford it!) i said i wouldn't live in a house that is for sale, but if i can sign a lease i would. ok..enough rambling!

[Chalex]

Hi ladies,

Happy to see you all are truckin' along!

We are starting some major renovations soon.  Eek! 

It's going to be a pain....an exciting pain!  We really want to get top dollar for this place. 

Had a contractor come in on the weekend and we'll have a real estate agent in next week to tell us what we should focus our money on.

I guess that will get me motivated on decluttering again.  I've really been lazy lately.  Well, I got my closet done and drawers. And I picked up some boxes at the liquor store and actually started packing!!!  Whooooo! 

Hope to figure out some goals for the week...I'm blank, but there is always tons to do!

[worthy]

Awesome -- last night a friend's husband came and took away ten glass sliding doors (to build a greenhouse with -- not a project I will get to now).  The funny thing is, I have been trying to get rid of these doors for AGES, like maybe six months, and all of a sudden I have several people who really really really want them.  Glad they are gone.

Though I was supposed to send some large sheets of drywall with him, and I forgot, and he won't be back (he had a borrowed truck and came from a distance), and now I still have this #@$% drywall taking up space in my garage.  Not sure what to do about it -- I've tried freecycling it and offered it to friends and nobody has taken it yet.  Grrrrrr.

Also I successfully freecycled a humidifier and a sewing machine.

Slowly but surely.

Still trying to find another chainsaw-happy friend to cut up the saplings littering my yard!

[Caitlin0919]

Well, we managed to get moved. We don't have internet hooked up here yet which is why I've been MIA for a few weeks now(I'm stealing someone's wireless right now). We got rid of so much stuff and it felt so good. We had  lot of stuff in our garage and almost all of it is gone. We barely have any boxes in our new garage. We're already almost completely unpacked. The only boxes left are mostly our decorations and then we have 3 boxes of random stuff that we need to go through. I plan on clearing those out today as a Valentine's Day gift for DH. We gave SIL a bunch of old dishes and stuff and we had soooo many bags of stuff to send to the res. DH left it all with his parents because we couldn't fit it on the moving truck so he'll probably take our van up there sometime soon and get it(he still does some work in the town we used to live in once a week). We got a new(free!) couch from a friend and got rid of the old, ugly couch we had at our old place.

Even though our new apartment is smaller, I really love it. It has a lot more windows and our patio faces south instead of north, plus it's not in the shadow of someone else's deck above us so we get a lot of light in during the day. DD has her own bathroom, which she thinks is awesome, and we all have bigger closets. The only project I still need to finish is going through DD's toys and packing away the stuff that she's too old for. All the totes and boxes with toys got put in her room when we moved in and she got into all of them before we had time to figure out where they all went. Right now, they're all over the floor in her room. Speaking of DD's toys, I think one of my favorite things about our new place is how we have the living room set up. Because of where we have our couch sitting, there's a little nook between it and the kitchen counter and that's where we have all of DD's stuff like her play kitchen and puzzles and stuff. It's so nice to have all of her toys somewhere out of the way so they're not part of the decor in the living room. When she's in bed and all her stuff is picked up, you wouldn't even know we had a kid if you didn't snoop a little.

So that's where I'm at. We're still working on not bringing in too much extra stuff since we only signed a 6-month lease and will definitely be moving when it's up. Our place right now is 2 bedrooms which we chose on purpose to save a little money. DS just sleeps with us right now so he doesn't need an extra room but  we want him to have his own room when he moves into his own bed so the plan is to move into a 3-bedroom place once our lease is up here. DH actually has a co-worker who bought a 3-bedroom house and is fixing it up and planning on renting it so we're most likely going to be moving there when our lease is up here. DH's co-worker actually offered to pay half of the fee for breaking our lease early if he gets the house ready before our lease is up, which is really cool. With the rent he'd charge us plus utilities, it works out that we'd be paying almost the exact same price that we're paying now for rent and utilities, which is awesome. We still haven't seen the house so things definitely depend on that, but I really like the part of town the house is in so I'm about 85% sure we'll be moving into that house this summer.