We are moving! I don't know when, but sometime! Currently we have about 1700 square feet of space. While it's not stuffed with furniture, I do have a bunch of junk and stuff in the garage and a storage room. That is.... I did!
Since I can't remember when we decided to move, I can't tell you how long ago it was that I started preparing for it. A month? Two months? Let's settle on 6 weeks.
So 6 weeks ago, we decided that we simply needed to start over financially. Get out of our house which we can't afford to take care of and find a place with low rent and utility costs. At this point I pulled out a binder and filled it with notebook paper, with a week-by-week list of what I should be doing to prepare for moving. I also listed what needed to be done in each room before we moved.
Did I follow the plan? Of course not! (Remember the blog plan? Ha!) BUT, it has helped tremendously. It got me into the mindset of getting rid of things we don't use, such as the rocker recliner no one has sat in for 5 years. In fact, we have a car full of items to go to the consignment shop, and I still have so much stuff to get rid of that I started a Facebook page to sell things!
Not only are we getting rid of clutter, we're making a bit of money. Money that will pay for deposits and moving expenses.
Now before you think you couldn't possibly do this, I used to be a bit of a hoarder. Not one of the intervention- requiring ones, but the type of person that saved all sorts of things "just in case." Well, "just in case" either never came or when it did, I couldn't find what I had kept because it was buried with so much other unnecessary junk!
As a result of this realization, I retrained my brain. If I keep so many thing for a rainy day, then can't find them because of all of the other rainy day items, I'm doing nothing but causing myself problems!
There is, of course, a good deal of items that won't sell. Things that I would feel guilty asking for money for, and these are going on Freecycle and the free section of Craigslist. It's amazing what people will take off your hands if it's free! Off the top of my head, two non-functional TVs, a small broken chest freezer without the door, a ginormously tall wooden pole, an old side table that's falling apart, lots of paint.... and much more. So keep this in mind if you need to get rid of something that you would otherwise have to pay to dispose of.
The moral of the story is to pace yourself and accept the bad days in with the good. And always remember, if you commit to do just one thing every day (even if it is just rinsing off a dish), you did something and the day wasn't a total and complete wash-out.
What are your favorite moving tips?
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