Not quite a horder - decluttering

I lurk on threads!

Ouch, that hurts wren. New machines are so expensive these days! But think of how clean and pretty the new one will be. 

The talk of cleaning out of parent houses hits a little too close to home. I thought I was the only one with deep dark family skeletons. My parents (my dad mostly) saved for 50 years. Coffee pot broke? Dad would have a spare out in the garage. Need a tire for your bike? Doesn't matter what size he'd have one. He could pull a rabbit out of hat. Of course you'd have to dig through boxes and boxes of stuff to find it. A few years ago, I had just fallen from my horse and broken my shoulder. With great timing, my dad calls and tells me he sold their house. What?! When did you put the house up for sale? Then tells me they have to be out in three weeks. OMG...what goes through the mind of older people?!  We (his kids) had to quickly empty out 50 years worth of crap good stuff.  My dad wanted to go through each thing and then couldn't part with it. We were getting no where. They were moving from a 2 story 4 bedroom colonial into a retirement 2 bedroom rancher. I had a pickup truck and I brought truck load after truck load of stuff to my own home, garage and basement to "hold" for my Dad. My husband was getting fed up. Finally my own home could take no more. We began piling boxes at the curb at my parents house. It grew to over 50 feet long and 6 feet high. My Dad kept trying to carry things back in. We had to get really mean with him and I still feel bad about this. 

In an ironic twist of fate, one of the boxes we put to the curb had "ugly" pottery with big flowers. I was later watching an antique show and saw this pottery. It was Roseville pottery that goes for hundreds of dollars a piece. We probably put out many thousands of dollars for trash. And I ended up with 50 years of Christmas crap, tangled light strings, broken christmas balls, and mismatched furniture.  My mom passed away soon after and I didn't have the heart to throw out her furniture. For several years I had two dining room sets, two living room sets and other pieces. I'm just now getting to the point where I can donate her things and not feel bad about it. Of course my Dad never wanted any of his "good things" back again and left me to sort and donate. What an exhausting and draining experience!

Bluebird, What a nightmare! I can just see DH doing the same thing. DS says he's going to take the photos and drop a match on the way out. Can't blame him.

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Ohhh.  I guess I misread the part about the photos too,. I was thinking they'd immortalize the house by taking photos, but i guess you're right, Bulebird.  They might (or might not) take those albums.  Come to think of it, maybe not.  At least one of my daughters-in-law has gone through the ablums with her smartphone and copied anything she might ever want to see again.

^..^

When my folks died, the family divided up the stuff someone wanted. Called an auctioneer who said not to toss anything. Made a tidy sum from the auction.

^..^

Well, talk about clutter! The poor washer delivery men had to carry it around to the back yard because the garage was too full to bring it thru on a dolly. I'll bet you couldn't sell the lot of what's in there for 50 cents if you took out the tools. I was embarrassed.

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I've been having cough/post nasal drip issues. Tea with lemon and honey helps. I can't stand the taste of licorice so fenugreek is out for me! So is slippery elm bark.  

My biggest complaint is the cough when I lay down.  

I de-cluttered my dining room table. Hooray! I swear every horizontal surface around here is a magnet for junk! 

^..^

Onco Warrier:  I love your saying: 

"Every box out of the house is another victory in the de-clutter decathalon!"

I am just recuperating from a severe stomach virus....for the first time I was glad that I'd had chemo because it took one of the  chemo anti emetics to get things under control for me.  Hubby got full blown flu (he had a flu shot) and I got this incredible intestinal flu.   But I'm on the mend now and hubby is cured. 

Blessings that is great news!  My inlaws have two houses that will need cleaned out one day. A shore house and a city house. Ugh! It's doubtful any of their kids will take either of the whole house-  junk intact.  They bought a new house and we had to cart all their old stuff to the new house. How useful are 50 year old encyclopedias?!  And they weigh a ton!