support thread for serious decluttering/moving? - Page 12

[buttercupnyy]

Wasn't trying to be judgmental. I did feel bad for you as the story sounded hurtful and cruel.    But to each her own. Everyone has their idea of what is acceptable treatment and what they will put up with. It's nice when spouses can build each other up and use anniversaries and Mother's day type occasions to make one another feel special. If one cannot look to their spouse to build them up in life, hopefully he or she has someone significant in their life to do so. My own husband is  the one that taught me that there isn't a mess that can happen in our home that is worth hurting someone's feelings over. Personally, even if my house looked like something featured on "hoarders", I better feel the love from the hubby :)

Edited by buttercupnyy - 5/19/12 at 4:51am

[AfricanQueen99]

I've been following this thread for a while since we've been thinking about moving for the past year. Anyway, we found a house and close at the end of June. Our house goes on the market June 1. Wow!

VVA is coming to pick up donations on Monday and I am hellbent on having that be the huge decluttering. That leaves a few days to accomplish the basement (half storage, half finished playroom).

I have people come to reseal our asphalt drive next week. This weekend is painting the deck.

It's all coming together...

[DTmama1]

Buttercup-

I found your post to be incredibly judgmental! And I honestly have no idea what your religion has to do with a decluttering forum. My partner is neither unlovable or narcissistic. He simply was overwhelmed, which I have been for most of the last few weeks as well. After several weeks of having a house that is completely torn apart from packing and moving, he became overwhelmed. Which is where I have been most days, and he has been incredibly supportive, giving me long backrubs practically every night, not complaining when I go to bed at 8, doing the majority of the cooking in the evenings, supporting me in dealing with depression/anxiety issues, etc. The house was not orderly when he came home. It was a gigantic mess from packing, looking worse than when he left in most rooms of the house. 

He kind of sucks when he comes to special occasions. Meh, it is something that frustrates me about 4 times a year. Wednesday night was one of those times. And he came home after running errands with flowers he had arranged himself- three lilies for each of our children, and a rose for each year we have been together. 

Worthy- I think he is planning to do just that! Poor boy is sick on top of all of what is going on (I think mostly allergies from the dust we are kicking up!) 

That property sounds fantastic! I love the idea of living in community with friends. Crossing my fingers that we can find something like that in our new city! I'm nowhere near wanting to buy though. BTDT! I'm enjoying renting for a while. Possibly in a few years once we decide if we are settling longterm in Seattle, or Chicago was more our speed after all!

Workdays seem to take too much out of me, so I doubt I will do much when I get home. Last workday until the move though! 

Tomorrow we are going to get new tires for DP (before driving 2000 miles over mountains!), then up to visit his grandfather one last time before he leaves. Then going away shindig is in the evening, so we will need to figure out a way to make the house presentable for people stopping by. I have several bags full already of food for our friends to help themselves to that we won't be able to use, but that is already opened and thus not donateable. 

Task list for today and tomorrow:

• File Change of Address form
• Do dishes
• Make meal plan for last week, put rest of food in tubs for friends to take
• Finish combing out dreads :( (giving up on them, my hair just doesn't take to them. sadly combed 2/3 of it out last night)
• Run a load of laundry
• Move empty boxes/tubs/packing supplies to back room
• Work on new apartment wish list on drive to gpas
• Post list of liquor that needs used up for friends to bring mixers for to the going away party (tehehe)
• Make living room, dining room, and kitchen presentable (easier said than done!)

[worthy]

So I went to bed thinking, hrmph, I didn't get much done today.  And then I thought about it.  I didn't get as much as I hoped done on the painting, but here is what I did:

• moved furniture, set up dropcloths
• washed/spackled/sanded/wiped all of the areas that need painting (large walls in two rooms and patches in four other rooms)
• assessed the leftover paint and what I need to buy to finish the project
• began painting the biggest room
• got my hair cut and colored
• met with a real estate counselor
• submitted all signed listing papers to our broker
• visited with out-of-town friends, one of whom fixed an exterior light fixture on my house
• viewed a property for sale, spur of the moment
• bought a "new" car, traded in the old one
• explored the property I want to buy with a friend who is considering buying off a piece of the land, which would make the purchase possible for me
• helped that friend process his thoughts about the potential project (dinner + hours of conversation)

Whew!  Crazy that I thought I didn't do much...

Today I need to do all the wall painting, which will involve a trip to town (in my "new" car) to buy disposable paint pan liners and more of one color paint.

If I have time there are a million other things I need to do.  I need to re-hook-up the dryer and do a serious laundry catch-up.  Also need to do some landscaping and consider mowing/rototilling if I can manage it. Lawnmower is broken, which will slow me down. 

Paint first, yard later.
 

[lunarlady]

It is raining today which shot my plan to do some outside painting with DD. She loves helping and it is hard finding things for her to do with my patience and time running short. We are packing stuff inside but that is hard on the kids.

DD (5) has finally realized what moving means in terms of leaving her school and her friends. She is no longer excited about the move and we are having daily displays of temper and tears. It is hard but I'm trying to support her as she processes her feelings of loss and fear of the unknown.

I'm really hoping to make major progress this week. My goals are to get all the decor packed away and the carpets clean. At least that way when my munchkins are melting down they will be doing so on a clean floor.

[PenelopeJune]

My mom came over and helped me pack some today, and then she took it away in her car to go to the storage unit. I guess I'm going to be living with her until August, when I move into my apartment, so everything I don't need between now and then is going to storage. Yikes, it makes me nervous! But we packed away half of my books, all of my (and the kids') off-season clothing, a few knick-knacky things. It's a start!

[worthy]

Penelope, I'm glad you got some help with packing.  Seems like it's easier when there are many hands.

As for me, all of the walls are done except for one where the color-match on the paint was WRONG and I didn't see it until it was done.  Grr.  Got another quart and just have to slap that on the walls and it's done.

I have some relatively minor woodwork painting to do, and then all the painting is done.

I feel so "in limbo."  I hate that feeling.  But I am excited about the prospects ahead.

I am still hoping this property I love will work out.  Thank goodness it's a slow market.

My lawnmower is broken and I can't mow until it gets fixed; a guy is coming to my house to fix it on Friday.  It's a rider.  Hopefully he can get it fixed fast and it can handle the jungle our lawn is becoming.  We are getting more rain and the lawn is growing fast.

I feel pretty disjointed but I just need to keep moving on with the projects and preliminary packing.

[PenelopeJune]

I feel so "in limbo." I hate that feeling. But I am excited about the prospects ahead.

Worthy, I feel exactly the same. My limbo feeling should go away in August when I move into my new apartment, but until then....LIMBO!

[lunarlady]

We got our first moving quote today and I almost fell out of my chair. $9800!! For a move across state! I had another company out today. Hopefully their estimate will be a bit more within our budget. Seriously, I was expecting around $3k, not $10k! We simply dont have that much. If that is what movers cost we are going to end up doing it ourselves again. I've never hired professionals before, but seriously, who can afford 10k?! My stress levels are through the roof with finals this week, single parenting while DH is out of town, and trying to get move ready. I so want to just fast forward to July where we are settling into our new home and all is well. To top it off our home hasn't rented yet, so I'm worried about financing everything. Just gotta keep on keeping on and hope for the best.

[mromans]

Originally Posted by lunarlady 

We got our first moving quote today and I almost fell out of my chair. $9800!! For a move across state! I had another company out today. Hopefully their estimate will be a bit more within our budget. Seriously, I was expecting around $3k, not $10k! We simply dont have that much. If that is what movers cost we are going to end up doing it ourselves again. I've never hired professionals before, but seriously, who can afford 10k?! My stress levels are through the roof with finals this week, single parenting while DH is out of town, and trying to get move ready. I so want to just fast forward to July where we are settling into our new home and all is well. To top it off our home hasn't rented yet, so I'm worried about financing everything. Just gotta keep on keeping on and hope for the best.

That seems like a lot of money. How many trucks do they need? Can you save $ by packing yourself? 

[LitMom]

You know what can throw off a move? Someone stealing your debit card number. Arrgh! I think it's straightened out with the bank for now though, and they've done provisional credit back to our account until they investigate. I presume since the thieves were not shipping stuff to our home address, it'll be pretty obvious that they're fraudulent transactions, but still a hassle to sort out!

[worthy]

Got the news today that we need to plan to be out of this house in four months (by October 1st.)  Sounds like a long way off, but it's totally not.  Gulp.  I don't know where we are moving yet.

Today I freecycled a futon and a nice futon cover to a single mom for her daughter's bed.  That felt good!

I also finished literally "mucking out" the new little pond and building up the banks and planting daylilies to prevent erosion and spreading grass seed on the area. 

The lawnmower fixit guy is coming tomorrow.  I hope he can fix it so I can mow my very very very tall grass.

I had someone come by today who wants half of our patio pavers (it's a barter situation - he's a pro juggler and my 12yo wants lessons.)  Someone else is maybe going to purchase the rest.

So....This Is Really It.  After going in and out of phases of, "ack, I might have to move and I don't know when," the clock is now ticking.  Time to get serious about decluttering.

Anyone want two 9' slate pool tables?

[lunarlady]

The quote was for one truck, but a big one (a semi trailer rather than a solid one piece truck). And we are already do all packing/unpacking ourselves, so none of that was included. They estimated our weight at 18000 lbs, which I honestly think is way, way over. We simply don't have that much stuff, and we are leaving all appliances behind! Seeing as how our entire home would fit in a space about 10' x 30' I think that is way too high. we are waiting on another local company's quote. I'm hoping they come in at something we can afford since I really don't want to do it all myself.

On the plus side we had three showings this evening for rental of our current home. I'm hoping somebody loves it and will lease it soon. It would give me peace of mind to know that finacial burden was taken care of.

[mromans]

Originally Posted by lunarlady 

The quote was for one truck, but a big one (a semi trailer rather than a solid one piece truck). And we are already do all packing/unpacking ourselves, so none of that was included. They estimated our weight at 18000 lbs, which I honestly think is way, way over. We simply don't have that much stuff, and we are leaving all appliances behind! Seeing as how our entire home would fit in a space about 10' x 30' I think that is way too high. we are waiting on another local company's quote. I'm hoping they come in at something we can afford since I really don't want to do it all myself.
On the plus side we had three showings this evening for rental of our current home. I'm hoping somebody loves it and will lease it soon. It would give me peace of mind to know that finacial burden was taken care of.

When we moved, we had one large truck and the quote was around 3,000 I think. We did have some appliances in there too. 

[worthy]

Woke up this morning at 3:30 kind of freaked out, and gave myself permission to get up.  I cleaned out the kitchen "junk drawers" - long overdue - decluttered some tubs in the playroom, and did more painting work -- there are some patches of woodwork that need painting still.  Also repainted the playroom patches that I did with the incorrect color earlier this week, and the color is wrong again!  Ugh.  I'm getting down to business. 

It's that time when I am giving myself permission to throw things away.  No time to waste on rehoming things.  I am a compulsive recycler and donater, and will do some of that still, but I'm down to the final leg of this race.

Trying not to freak out about "where are we going next?"

[worthy]

Still going strong at 2:30pm, LOL.  I went out this morning and donated three bags of clothes and a box of misc. painting supplies, picked up some boxes, got more topsoil and seed for lawn repair, drove by about 1/2 dozen houses (eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, and couldn't find the last one), got the LAST QUART of paint (third try to get the color right and I'm DONE), hit the co-op for a few groceries, bought cat food to last for awhile, and that's it.  Productive.  Now to stomp around and paint some more, and hope the lawnmower guy is still coming.
 

[worthy]

Someone from Craigslist says he's coming to buy, dismantle, and remove my cheaper pool table tomorrow.  Woohooo!  Hope he actually does.

I just realized that I probably accidentally decluttered the bolts from the second (disassembled) pool table.  Oops.  No immediate buyer for that one, but I hope it won't be a deterrent.  That one can live in my garage for awhile.  it will be SO GREAT to get the other one done and out of here.

Housing journey goes up and down, up and down.  There are renewed possibilities with the property I am hoping for -- there is a good chance of turning part of the house into a separate apartment and renting it to help cover the mortgage.  That would make it affordable for me.  I even have leads on tenants already -- this is a good market for people renting out apartments.

My parents come look at the property again on Monday, to see if the subdividable portion will work for them.  So complicated -- but I'm hoping it will all work out in the end!  Or even sooner than the end...c'mon housing gods!

I am closer to emptying my playroom.  Moved the disassembled pool table parts to the garage yesterday, and eight tubs outside to be taken to the shed for storage.  One more coat of paint on the woodwork and the painting in there is done.

Except for ceilings, which I am NOT doing unless everything else is done and I have time to spare (LOL - not gonna happen).

Today I am feeling hopeful and energetic.
 

[DTmama1]

Well, I'm happily done with this thread!

Moving day was yesterday after a tumultuous week!

I got a stomach bug on Wednesday and landed myself at the ER on Thursday to get some fluids to be on the safe side. It definitely threw things off, but it all worked out in the end. We had 6 friends show up to help us load the containers and got done with time to spare. Everything fit except my papasan frame :cry , a tiny bookshelf, and the laundry hampers. My partner is on the road and made it through to Minnesota yesterday. I think he's somewhere in South Dakota at the moment with his car loaded to the gills. And I'm camped out at a friend's condo where I'll be staying with the 12yo for the next month. 

Cross your fingers for us that we find an affordable apartment in one of the neighborhoods that we like. I'm soo grateful that DP is willing to do all the apartment hunting and unpacking before we even get into town. I'm sure there will be a lot of decluttering to do once we are there as well. After living with next to nothing for over a month I am hoping we reduce our attachment to even more of our stuff. 

Thanks for the support all. Good luck with your moves!

[worthy]

Wow, DTmama, that is awesome!  Good for you.  Thanks for reporting in from the "other side." It is inspiring.  We'll all get there eventually.

My to-do list for today:

- touch up the last bits of paint in the playroom

- clean the playroom

- hopefully sell two pool tables and an air conditioner (people said they were coming; now we wait and see)

- clean the kitchen

- clean my bedroom (laundry hell, OMG)

- finish mowing the lawn (had to buy a new battery yesterday)

- rototill the garden

- have the girls try on bathing suits so we can pack away the bin

- have the girls clean the living room, which they have taken over (the boys were gone all weekend)

- view the property I want to buy again, with my parents along, and hopefully have a productive discussion resulting in a "let's make an offer."  LOL!

Yesterday we decluttered some toys and the last of the cloth diapers to a friend who just had a foster toddler land at her house unexpectedly.  I was sort of scouring the house for things we could give and came up with very little.  I guess that is a good sign, right?  We culled some train tracks and fat legos, half of the plastic dinosaurs, some toddler forks/spoons, and a few board books.

Edited by worthy - 5/29/12 at 3:16am

[worthy]

Pool table guys had trouble getting a truck, but swear they are coming soon for one of them.  Air conditioner buyer flaked out and doesn't want it.  Still waiting on a date from the other pool table guy, who sounds earnest.  And I may have a backup barter option for one pool table if either of these fall through.

I got the bedroom and kitchen halfway cleaned.

I also got the playroom paint completely finished and the whole room decluttered except for a small row of bins, which will be "nothing" to deal with another day.

Too hot and busy to rototill, but hopefully Wednesday.

Now my job is to wait patiently for my parents to digest the next round of property discussion/correspondence and see what their response is.  Today is a busy day and I need to just stop thinking about housing stress and live life, for one day, LOL.