As
I head toward early retirement I've
been going through the spaces within my current home and making some
decisions. Once my youngest graduates
high school and heads off to college I will be downsizing my household
possessions by quite a bit. I still have
a little while before that happens but in the meantime I’ve already started to
go through our house and get rid of items we no longer use, need or want. I’ve done a lot of soul searching to
determine which items I own are most important to me and will go with me once I
sell our house and which ones I don’t want or need. Surprisingly, not a lot of what we currently
own will be going with me because the majority of what I have is completely
replaceable. And by the time I get ready
to sell the house and move a lot of what we have will be sufficiently worn out
and will need to be replaced. Plus I
want to decorate my next home in a very different way, therefore most of our
things will need to go. That should
certainly make my move much easier.
A
lot of the items I have purged so far have been sold on eBay and I have many more newly listed items on there as well. The proceeds have been used to pay our
electric bill in January, February and again in March as well as to purchase a
couple new items (ie. toaster oven) that will serve me well once I retire. The remainder of the money I have made has
been going right into my savings account. So my efforts are literally paying off. Other items I don't wish to sell have been
bagged or boxed up and donated to our neighborhood thrift store.
Recently
I went through old paperwork that had finally "aged out" and I was
able to get it all run through our shredder.
It filled up two kitchen size trash bags. I recycled folders, envelopes and papers
without personal information on them as well as some old boxes. Work related items I hauled into the office
and added to our big shred bin there. I didn't
feel the need to wear out my shredder on that stuff.
I
also went through all of our games, puzzles and video game equipment. I decided to keep the Sega Genesis and the
girls will keep the Wii (not sure how they'll split that, but that's between
them since it is theirs, ha, ha). I have
divided up the games amongst all three of us and we all have a set or two of
playing cards, pinochle cards as well as Yahtzee and Farkle. I had to make a few homemade versions of
Yahtzee and Farkle in order for all
of us to have a set, which was a fun little project for me. The nice thing is the same dice for the
homemade Farkle game can be easily used for Yahtzee. I made extra score sheets for Yahtzee with
our copier and cut them to size. I
assembled all of my games into a bin I already had and added a cute label.
An
area that can be difficult to purge is sentimental items and I am working on
that as well. So far I've been able to
part with quite a bit but I still have a ways to go. Once the important things are clearly defined
and the unimportant ones are sold, re-homed or donated then I will be able to
effectively start packing. That is when
things are going to start to get real folks!
J
In the meantime I'm going to keep on plugging away at it. My hope is that by starting early I won't
overwhelm myself too much when the time comes. Fingers crossed that it actually works out
that way! I know some of you have
already done this but is anybody downsizing in anticipation of a move? I would
love to hear what you are doing.
Congrats!!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I moved across the country twice in two years, and we only took what would fit in our hatchback car. It was challenging - and expensive buying new things in each place - but it was actually still less expensive than paying to move all of our furniture and housewares.
Moving is expensive. Sounds like you made a very wise decision.
DeleteI too need to declutter. Way way too much stuff. My husband is thinking of retiring within the next year. Not sure about our home. It makes sense to sell it as it’s a 2 story and my health is getting more difficult to navigate. I’m almost stuck though as it’s a big task.
ReplyDeleteJust pick a spot, doesn't matter where. You'll be amazed at the momentum you will generate once you start. It's crazy!
DeleteAs the saying goes Lee Ann, take small bites. Such as: choose 1 dresser and then 1 drawer. Pull everything out and put it on the bed. Pick up 1 item at a time. If you have no idea when you last wore/used it? Put it in a donation box if it has life left, or the trash can if not. If you love it and use it, it goes back in the drawer.
DeleteIt really is a great thing to do. I bet you go ahead and finish all the drawers in that dresser.
52 weeks in 1 year. Choose 1 "location" every week and do the same. Locations: closets, kitchen cupboards, every piece of furniture that has storage, every shelf in the garage.
It truly is a rewarding activity! It actually becomes a bit addictive :-)
I get excited by decluttering! My project for the week was going through my husband's CD collection. There's an app that buys them (for not much at all, think $.10 or whatever), so I've been scanning them in & will get them ready to mail this week. I love thinking about all of that junk (currently stored in bins in our garage) leaving our house & going into the hands (hopefully) of people who will actually use/enjoy them. They've also been stored in CD containers that can be now recycled, freeing up a bunch of extra space.
ReplyDeleteI love my CD collection, but it too needed to be decluttered. Just like everything else. We did DVDs a couple years ago. Those take up a gob of space too.
DeleteLast year I began to seriously declutter and downsize our belongings. I sold 896 items one at a time and almost 200 items of clothing shoes and purses through consignment. I also donated hundreds of useful things to charities or friends in need.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it felt like I was earning one painful dollar at a time but it truly added up to a significant sum for our retirement (thousands).
I can deal with sentimental items easily now. I have only kept a handful. I struggle with useful items that bring me joy or angst at how much I spent on them or why I can't let go of them. (dishes and flatware are my loves) I had no yard sale last year but think I will this year. Purging one item at a time has taught me so much about the why of not bringing items into my home in the first place. I found that whether I spent 25 cents or $25 on an item once it came into my possession I needed to care for it. letting go of stuff has been difficult one and it has change me for the better. I have found the more I get rid of the better I feel and the easier it is to get rid of more and more. My house can breath and I still have a lot to purging to go;)
Thanks for the great content you give out. praying for you. Tracy
Isn't it crazy how much we can acquire? I am super impressed with what you have done so far. I love, love, love dishes. I could easily let that get out of control, but I purged quite a bit of those recently too.
DeleteThank you for the prayers Tracy. :)
I LOVE a good declutter. I am in a constant mode of decluttering. We are planning a move within the year, which is coming just under 3 years of our last move, so I am fairly pared down, but feel I could do even more. Like an above poster, dishes are my passion, and I have several complete sets which I usually switch out according to the season. Eventually they will be passed on to the kids as they move out, but in the meantime, they are in cabinets, or boxes in the guest room closet. My biggest challenge is getting certain family members on board. One in particular falls into the trap of thinking that what is needed is more storage, not less stuff.
ReplyDeleteMore storage is not the answer, less stuff. With the exception of dishes! Ha! :o)
DeleteMy husband retires in a week and the honey do list is waiting. We were thinking of moving until my oldest was diagnosed with cancer. Just don't feel it's the right time leave. But that doesn't stop the big purge that's coming. Do find selling on Ebay worthy of the effort, etc.... I'm wondering if it's something I should consider... Thoughts and prayers go out to you each day! Enjoy your blog, Patti Ann
ReplyDeleteThank you Patti Ann, I will pray for your oldest too. So sorry about the diagnosis.
DeleteYes, I do find my eBay sales have been worth it. It is a bit of work, but I've made a decent amount of $$ as a result so no complaints about that! :)