goldencurly

We are getting ready to move. There is so much to do. I hate moving. We have too much stuff and we are all hoarders to some extent. I have to go through a bunch of stuff today and decide what stays, what goes to the dump and what goes to charity. People keep advising me to have a yard sale and get something for the stuff not dump-worthy. My time is more important to me than that. I cannot stand the thought of wasting a Saturday waiting for strangers to take away stuff that I could already have gone.

The stuff I am sorting I have set a goal of only keeping 30%. The rest must go. All of it is mine, so no one but me will have emotional misgivings about getting rid of it. I am insisting that everyone purge because I am tired of a cluttered house. I have threatened them. If they don't do it, I will do it later without consulting them. If they do it now, they get to make the decisions; later they have no say. That's vicious, I know, but the fear of loss of control is scarier to my bunch of hoarders than the losing stuff itself.

DON'T PANIC: WE ARE NOT HOARDERS LIKE THE SHOW ON TV!!! We just have some packrat tendencies that I don't want to take with us.

The worst is I have a summer cold and am on day 3 of steroids to help the inflammation in my ear. I hate earaches. Steroids make me cranky, short-tempered and I have no patience. This could derail the plan or could make me plow through it just to be done with it.

roseannadana

Getting rid of clutter will make you feel better. I agree with you about the yard sale. Too much work for a small return. I hope you feel better soon!

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I was born to be a pessimist. My blood type is B Negative.

goldy

Feel better! I've been dealing with this cold since Mon too

I am a hoarder too!! Not tv show hoarder but I keep way too much. I've been trying to eliminate stuff and it is difficult. It's similar to therapy in that it can be very hard to go through but once done you feel better, cleansed in a way

Good luck with it all!! My favorite tips I've heard are:
-make a pile in each room, one is keep, one is donate, one is garbage. Spend no more than 30 sec deciding which pile an item belongs
-take pictures of children's artwork or anything that is sentimental to you but not on display. Keep the photo but get rid of the item. Only keep one small box worth of sentimental items you can't part with.

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frau

excellent tips!
i have to prepare my two story apartment for a carpet cleaning which means everything off the floor. my bedroom is my storage area with piles of stuff around the room. i've shoved it all into 2 closets and i realize i'll just spread it back around after the carpet cleaning if i don't get rid of it now. your post helps make my job easier.

good luck goldencurly! i know you're sick but i've been quite surprised how efficiently i get things done while i'm sick. people are going to listen to you and help you get things done because you'll be too sick and tired to be nicey-nice.

let's make this organize day!! hopefully goldencurly you'll check-in to let us know about your progress.

PartyHair

I'm sorry you're sick and having to move at the same time. Yuck.

I agree that decluttering pre-move will make you feel better. It'll make moving in so much easier.

And in your new home, don't let stuff build up. A place for everything and everything in its place.

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goldencurly

Have been doing general housework stuff so far. And I packed my oldest daughter's birthday presents into a small Priority Box from USPS and got it ready to mail out today. She's 21 but Priority Boxes are UGLY so I wrapped it in wrapping paper and covered the entire thing in clear tape to protect the birthday paper and slapped on the mailing label. Our mailman thinks I am insane! See the silliness below:

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NetG

We moved a 1600 square foot house and a 1200-ish square foot house into one house. And both had rooms we didn't use where stuff was piled up.

I probably kept about 30% of the things in the house, if that, and very little of the furniture. I tell you, it felt GREAT! I still have more to get rid of, but I detest clutter and my mom would hoard everything if she could. she wants a shed to store things and I was tough on that - absolutely not. If it doesn't fit in the house it doesn't need to be kept. Now I'll get a small shed for outdoor stuff - rakes, weeding equipment, potting soil, etc. But not as storage! There aren't any hall or coat closets in this house, so the vacuum and various coats/jackets are in the office closet. Wrapping paper and gift-related items are in the library closet. The guest room closet stays empty. And that means there is nowhere to stash junk.

I loooooooooove it!

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The pews never miss a sermon but that doesn't get them one step closer to Heaven.
-Speckla

But at least the pews never attend yoga!

goldencurly

We are combining the stuff from 4 households into one house and the goal is to get rid of anything we don't use, not store it. My husband put all his stuff in storage to move in with his mother before we were married. He inherited all her stuff when she died. Currently, my stuff is also stored because we abandoned my house when I was seriously ill to move in with my mom because her house was handicapped accessible and mine wasn't. My mom was in a wheelchair at the time, but not now.

We are moving in a few weeks, we have the house and my stuff from storage has been moved into it and I know what furniture I am keeping. All the other stuff has to be sorted: kitchen stuff, etc. I also had an art studio before but that room will now be my son's bedroom so I have to figure out where all my art supplies, racks, drawing table and easel will go.

I am trying to focus on the boxes of stuff that are currently hanging out in the new house's living room. I cannot think about the big picture; it makes me want to procrastinate and perhaps cry a lot. 4 houses into one! Well, off my son and I go to invade the living room and make the stuff disappear.

goldencurly

I worked for 3 hours and got quite a bit accomplished. It's nowhere near being done, but I will go back tomorrow and work more. I sorted into keep, charity, trash, and "hand-me-downs". I cannot wear most of the clothes that have been in storage, but my daughter likes some of them and they might fit her, so they went into her closet. I also found baby stuff to give to my brother and his wife. If they aren't interested, it can go to Goodwill.

I made a huge dent in it and I feel like I am accomplishing something!

goldencurly

I hauled off 3 lawn & leaf bags of stuff that just needed to go to the dump. I hauled off the entire cargo space of my SUV full of stuff for charity. I am nowhere near done, but I feel good about what is done. The more I work, the less time I spend sorting and the easier it is to get rid of stuff.

As for my cold, I still feel yucky but am not getting as tired as quickly now. My ear does feel better, but I wonder what will happen once I stop taking the steroids and the sudafed.

Did anyone else purge?

My plan is to wean off the sudafed slowly and to continue to purge clothes, books, and just stuff I have let pile up over the years. My goal is get rid of one box or bag full a day at least. If I think of it as how quickly it must go instead of how much must go, I can stomach it better

KurlyKae

good for you gc! Glad to see you are starting to feel a little better, too. Just as long as you don't over do it, okay?

I'm not moving, but believe it or not, there are boxes in my garage for five years now. Some of them were packed long before that, for previous moves. I'm trying to be sure that I go through one or more boxes a day. So far, so good. I have a large pile for donations, plenty to just trash, and much more to go, but it's a work in progress, right?

my goal is to finish before I go back to school. I CAN, I just hope that I DO.

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