Not quite a horder - decluttering

That's my child! She loves gift bags, boxes, laundry baskets, etc.

Took me a couple weeks but ...

Three bags of trash. Seven bags of stuff, a box of household goods to schools yardsale. I'm still not finished but it needs to go now. Tired of it cluttering up but my children don't notice toys underneath the piles.

Hi all:

I've been lurking on this thread for a long while, time to speak up: hubby and I will shortly be moving and downsizing from a house of about 2800 sq ft to a condo of about half of that amount...honestly I can't wait! We will have a garage, but much smaller, and we want space for both cars in it.

When we started looking for a retirement home I really wanted something that was small, but big enough for two of us and occasional guests, with low maintenance. Amazingly, hubby agreed, and we found and bought a great condo, in a town where I have family I want to be closer to, about four hours drive from here.

There is lots to go through, sort, get rid of, and deal with...even though we've only lived in this house for about nine years. As was mentioned by someone earlier, we have boxes in the garage packed and never looked at from our move nine years ago! We also have more furniture than will ever fit into the new place. Some of it is high quality, so hoping I can sell those items. Anything I can't sell with be given or thrown away. Both of my adult children live a long distance away and don't want anything big for their homes right now (the highest quality stuff will go with us and they will inherit it someday).

So, I hope you all will help keep me honest and on track. We'd like to finish this process of emptying this house, moving in to our new place, and putting the big house on the market to sell by August 15th or so at the latest..AND it gets hot here in the summer so the sooner we can get stuff done, the better.

Will check back in with my progress! We are going up to the new condo this weekend and having the interior painted there next week, so after that we can get serious about moving furniture. In the meantime, we will take both cars filled with boxes of dishware and winter clothes that we really do want to keep. If we haven't used it in six months, it isn't coming along.

Wish me luck!

Octogirl

I totally agree with start now. We haven't moved in a long long time and I dread going through everything and deciding where it should go. It's too expensive here to stay and we're looking around for somewhere to go. DD lives in the next town and DS lives in Oregon. He has the little kids and is likely to stay put for 6 years until the youngest finishes high school. We've agreed that neither of us wants to live in the house without the other, so it would make sense to find a condo now.

Octo - welcome. Glad to see you here. Yes, this group will listen to your woes & try to help keep you on track.

I'm so jealous of the way Poodles was able to do her move. It really would make it easier.

Wren, I agree - great time to move to a condo. My family was from the SF Bay area & I could never afford that now, so I understand the prices in Washington. I had such a good visit on the Olympic Peninsula last year.

This week I've been working on clothes. Unfortunately I have truncal & Breast LE since the last surgery & wear a compression bra 24/7. Most of my tops are wide or boat neck & I won't wear them with the ugly bra straps showing. Well to be honest - I'm old enough that I wouldn't want any kind of bra straps showing. But each top has a corresponding jacket - perfectly matched. Sigh. Probably time to get rid of all of it since it's unlikely I'll be working back in an office that requires jackets again. Just snatching a half hour or so every day before I get dressed to try things on and the pile on the guest bed is growing.

thanks all! Great tips so far....I started today with a bit of packing of things I know I want to take (to go up with us tomorrow). It was exhausting just to pack a few boxes. I can see this will all be good exercise!

We did buy a few pieces of furniture that are up there because we didn't have exactly what we wanted, so why pay to move it if we don't like it? Specifically, we bought a new bedroom set because our old bed is getting well, old, and a new (used) dining table and chairs because the old set was too big and heavy for the smaller space. A new small kitchen table for the same reason. So, we can feel more or less comfortable going back and forth as we move, once the painting is done.

I live in a college town now, so while I may try a garage sale later on I've been told that some of the student classified items listserves (there are at least two) are a good way to sell furniture. Faculty and staff buy from them too...

I did already throw out/recycle the contents of a small desk I want to take. Yay. and I like the idea of not even looking in the boxes from nine years ago, but I will take a quick peak to be sure there aren't any heirlooms, as was suggested. Many are filled with books. We have a ridiculous number of books. Our old house has lots of built in bookshelves, all full (apparently the house before that had even more bookshelf space!). Any best ideas for where to donate books? We will have to very picky about what we take, given the space limitations....and I think we have at least 1000 or more (I do plan to toss all of hubby's old software/computer books. I don't care if they are old enough to qualify as museum pieces!)

Thanks again.

Octogirl

I like to take used books to the local library. What they want, they put on their shelves. What they can't use, they sell in their yearly or bi-annual book sales. Any profits go to the library so they can buy books they need or set up new computer centers.

Books!!! I think they multiply! I was going to have this humongous house with a library that friends and family would come to stay and go into the library to get a book to read at night. Well, that dream is not going to happen, and I don't want it to happen anymore. I am going through my books and will donate them. When I was young I got my books from thrift stores. Now, I try not to buy books anymore, I use the kindle or go to the library.

Good luck with the move Octogirl, you are making it sound so exciting.

I have a used book store not too far away. I take in a for 1/2 price credit & get a book for 1/2 price with a small handling fee. And every 5th book is free.

I've managed to get 6 more good sized boxes filled with clothes over the weekend & today. Not to mention 10 or 12 good jackets & blouses that I left on hangers. Tomorrow I'll drop them off at for the battered women. Lots more to do but I've made another good sized dent.

I forgot to add

Check out Everything But The House or ebth.com

I haven't sold anything but have bought stuff. They are wonderful.

Welcome Agatha. Are there consignment stores in your area? A woman who lost weight took her clothes to consignment and then bought a wardrobe that fit with her proceeds. There are also some programs for women returning to work from welfare. I can relate. We've lived in our house for 34 years and have way way too much stuff. I would like to sell the house and find a less expensive city to live in.

Agatha- welcome to our thread. Please do not beat yourself up for feeling you have done something wrong at home. I think all of us can tell you during cancer treatment and beyond, a lot of things just have to get parked to focus on getting through treatment, and beyond. We are all doing the best we can through this stuff.

Couple ideas to start:

1) Let go of the idea of how much you spent on things, even if they are not going to be of use to you or others now. That keeps us all hanging on to things. Also, as you begin sorting, try to look at things more with how you value them, like "this is something I really love and want to keep" vs. this is just stuff to me. It will help you compile the things that need to go quicker so you can figure out how to get those out of your place.

2) Ask a friend to help, but if you don't have one you are comfortable with, if you know a teenage girl, invite her in to help you organize and sort. Tell her she can keep some of the things as her compensation (she might like the make up). Kids tend to be less judgmental about things. I used to clean and help some elderly relatives and would help them sort through some things they were needing to do things with. I worked with a business coach that said when you are doing anything mundane (like sorting through paperwork), listen to some good music, enjoy a favorite beverage just to make it all more do-able.

3) I am the person who takes too big clothing and brought it to consignment where you can get money or buy things on credit. It helped me to get some $$$ for expensive business clothing that was too big and hardly worn. Usually needs to be less than five years old for them to take it in, where I live. Since you mentioned you don't have a car, it may be hard to get it to a place like this. Are you in NYC? If you are, I know they have some nice consignment stores there. Worth calling a few to see what they will take? Some are very high end and others may take a variety of brands.

4) I am also the one who gave the tip on Staples. I have a home based consulting business and had a hard time keeping up with client documentation shredding after some things were finished and ended up figuring this out with time. Staples also sells good containers/bins to put the stuff in and they shred a lot for very little $$$.

5) With hobbies, look at where else things can be re-purposed, recycled, reused. Schools will always take art/paper supplies, if you knit or crochet, assisted living or nursing homes might like the supplies for some of their residents. They might like some books too, the big kind with great pictures are great for seniors. My mother used to love looking at art books (pictures of paintings) when she was in assisted living.

6) If you have old business suits or clothing, there are places that help women get back in to the work force (YWMA's My Sister's Closet) where you can donate outfits, purses, shoes to help women who may be needing help after leaving a difficult situation and need to get working to take care of themselves.

7) Start small, you sound like you have lots to do and that can feel overwhelming. Work on a pile to start or corner of a room, get some containers to sort things just to get a surface clean, and continue on an area or part of a room until you see clearing.

8) Oh and those brother's of yours? Give them a job if they have transportation of their own. Tell them you are working to get some things removed from the apartment and get their help to take things away. If it is old appliances you want to leave by the roadside, have them do that for you. They might willingly help you with something where they can pick up items and drop them off, easy for them and really helps you. They probably do want to help, but having them in criticizing your space is just not helpful so you have to give them another task to do.

Those are a few opening suggestions. Ask questions?

Agatha - another way is to start with only one category. For example - all your pants, or all your T-shirts or all your shoes. Pick a day, try them on, put them directly in a box or bag if it's not something you would currently wear or no longer fits or you haven't worn it in "X" years. Or pass things along if you have extras. Somehow I discovered 5 hoodies in different closets last weekend and I'm not even a clothes shopper. Down to two now - one white & one black.

Or like Jazzy suggests - when you pick a room, focus on one small thing. Like in the kitchen - do all the pot & pans & cooking things. Then do all the coffee cups (and watch out - those darn things multiply in the cupboards at night while the doors are closed.) Or do only the drawers first.

Even though I could use the extra money, I'm not willing to do Craig's List or have garage sales anymore. As you mentioned, too many weird people in the world these days. Where I live, Salvation Army picks up regularly. I can put 10 boxes/bags on my porch and call & they'll come every two weeks on their 'regular' route. We can give you a ton of good places to take the hobby stuff, but if you have no transportation you just need it out of your house as a start. Oh boy did it hurt for me to get rid of all the gorgeous silks & wools that I was going to make into lovely clothes once upon a time. Liquor stores have sturdy boxes. Keep one handy that you toss things into whenever you see something that can go. Then DO NOT go back & look in the box before you send it off.

Keep coming back here. We inspire each other. I've gotten such great tips from this thread. Thanks everyone!!!

I love it here. I get motivated from all of you and will go back and re-read some of the tips once in a while. I really wish I could work on a room and get it completely done, but I don't really have the time, so I have been doing small steps organizing and uncluttering. When I started I really thought that this was not going to work and it was like picking up a couple leaves out of the yard in the fall. I am happy to say that I kept at it and am now starting to see and feel a difference. My goal is to get my home so it is easy to go through to clean so I can spend more time living and doing things I want to do.

Egads - We will organize a search party is we don't hear from you in a week. lol

About Craigs List, in my city, there are places designated as safety zones to do exchanges. Often they are next to a police station so there is no funny business. Also, because so much on Craig's List can be stolen (I learned this when my car was broken in to in 2011, watch Craig's list for your stuff to show up and in fact my laptop was there and I was going to do a "sting" with the police, but then it was gone. The reason I mention this is people may be leery of stolen stuff so if you have a copy of the bill of sale, it makes things go better.

I tried to sell a high end mountain bike on Amazon and found it to be a hassle. I got a good offer for it, and although I got a price to pack and ship it with UPS, they wanted me to shop around at various shipping services for the best pack & mail price. In the end, I traded it in at a bike shop (got less money, but also less hassle) and got a new and better bike for me. I think Amazon is good for small stuff like jewelry and other simple items you can ship. Consignment will take jewelry too!