Closing my business. 35 boxes of professional books. Appointment set up to sell what I can (may need two appointments) then donate the rest. Bookcases, desk, chairs, rug, file cabinet, etc. will go directly to donation to avoid having them fill the living room for months or forever while trying to sell them. Next up is another comb through the home bookshelves, followed by “do we really need all this wrapping paper?”
My parents helped me clean up a month’s worth of “depression nest” in my living room. The floor is decluttered enough that I can actually run the Roomba for the 1st time in a long time. Feels good.
Posted in this thread in 2019. It’s been a while.
So, a couple years ago we did The Big Move. With the help of the kids a lot of stuff got thrown out (a full dumpster), donated or sold.
Post-move analysis: 1. We didn’t throw out enough stuff. Too much crud made the move. 2. We threw out too much stuff. Keep realizing that there are several things that got tossed that we actually need now.
C’est la vie.
Well, my “work crew” showed up and we put in 3 hours, three solid by me and the husband in the crew, the other two where more casual about it but that was totally OK,
Completely finished 3/4 of the first floor. The middle bedroom, the back hallways (which were wide enough we put bookcases in them), the bathroom. Need one more walk-through the main bedroom but that’s largely done. One more walk-through the kitchen. That leaves the front room but I can come back for that stuff later.
Threw most stuff out at this point. Did find a few treasures.
Upstairs moved out the lumber and started sorting through my late spouse’s business tools and stuff. Also threw out a bunch more stuff that was ruined/wrecked/trash. (Really, dear husband? You saved two boxes labeled “Bad light bulbs”?!? - this heap really wasn’t entirely my fault).
Anyhoo - only six boxes to the Storage Unit this time, didn’t even use all I had.
Feel exhausted (but clean, since I took a shower to get the dust and sweat off) but better. They committed to doing this again so I can really, really get done with The Old Place for good.
I swear, with someone with me I get more done in a half an hour than a week on my own. I have no idea why, but now that I know that I can work with it.
If you have someone helping, you are aware that they are doing you a favor and don’t want to waste their time. If you are by yourself, there is no reason to not stop and give in to the memories.
Dang. I have been backsliding again. First depression, now Covid. Job hunting for my life. Then I’ll start trying to pay attention again.
If one thing I’ve learned from this thread, it’s not so much a destination as a series of journeys
I’ve learned a new term: doom box. This is a box you put stuff into that you “will handle later” or similar reason for not putting it when you have it in hand to put away
After the great squirrel invasion, I got everything out of the living room (except for the furniture). So that I could get rid of the carpet and get new flooring. Yay! I’ve hated that carpet since I moved in… well, after the first time a cat barfed on it.
Then I got everything back in the LR,and spent a couple of weeks debating whether to host DND or continue with cleaning. Since some of the stuff I wanted to do before hosting a party required stuff I couldn’t get to without cleaning, cleaning it was.
You know the doom box I mentioned above? I have 1 and 1/2 doom rooms. My main craft room was nearly full of boxes, then when Mom passed, I got all of her crafting supples. Which finished filling the room.
I have now removed all of the boxes in the craft room to the living room, and separated them into keep, sell, give away… and yarn and fabric boxes. I’ve taken half of the give away pile to the thrift store, the rest are going to be freecycled. Currently I am cleaning up the craft room so I can put the supplies where they belong.
Thanks Broomstick for bringing this up again. It reminded me that as much as I have yet to do, I have accomplished a lot
I’ll just put in an reminder that a LOT of fabrics can be donated to vets or animal shelters. They can’t use everything, and probably want fairly large pieces, but I got rid of a lot of my cotton fabric, old towels, worn bedsheets, etc. by donating to the local vet (who then gave me emergency boarding for my parrots when I desperately needed it).
Just a thought, another way to send old stuff on to a new life.
My husband and I have been working extra hard to clear out the guest room, which was just storage ever since we moved in 4 years ago. The reason? My son is splitting up with his wife and was concerned he wouldn’t find a place to move him and the grandkid(s) to after selling their house super-speedily. So we cleared out the guest room and bought a bed and linens and the bed looks spiffy! There are still lots of boxes, but not near as many as there were! And he found a house to rent, so yay!
Hubs worked a lot on the garage, too, and it’s better, in a hoarded kind of way. 
Stopped by the Old Place and removed the stuff that had been placed in the front room for later removal.
- Our businesses are closed and the office is emptied.
- 45 boxes of professional books, mostly, are at the used bookstore’s warehouse being evaluated.
- 8 bookcases, a standing desk, 3 chairs, a rug, a file cabinet, a storage end table from the office, plus 3 boxes of books from home and a clothes drying rack have been dropped at St. Vincent de Paul.
- Two wastebaskets, one corner shelf unit, a carpet sweeper, and a bookcaseful of my books came home.
- The garage isn’t that cluttered, but it needs a good sorting.
The books that came home have been shelved, though not organized. There are three open shelves, which will be part of a shuffle to make the books we’re reading/referring to now more visible. The closet where a lot of books were stored now can be set up more accessibly.
ETA: We had a third yard debris can dropped off ($2.60/mo., 6 mo. minimum) so we can continue our serious yard and garden work without as much of a backlog sitting on tarps.
Did enough laundry so I could run Roomba in my bedroom. Lil’ fucker got itself stuck under my bed, but at least my floors are clean.
Onward!
It’s been a while since I last posted too, almost 2 years. Sadly, the housing market went bananas very soon after and I’m still here 
But hey, I finished de cluttering the whole living area in the house, did a nice refresh of the kitchen including painting the walls/ceiling/cabinets/countertops that’s done except for adding new tile even with 2 young cats “helping”, and I’ve moved on to the cellar and the yard.
By the end of the summer I hope to have completely replaced the terrible grass with vinca minor (periwinkle) now that I’ve yanked out all the wild blackberry brambles and have 200+ bare root periwinkle plants in the cellar fridge waiting for me to rototiller the spots in the yard where they’ll go this weekend. I don’t think 200 plants is enough, but I need to see how far that goes before ordering more.
And also to de-clutter the basement, which really needs it still. Since the plants arrived earlier than anticipated I need to prioritize the yard this weekend, but by the end of the month I’m going to put out all the metal junk and list it on craigslist.
Hopefully junkers will be just as enthusiastic as the last time I left out junk - not only did they take 100% of the metal, they also pried up the tent stakes I’d tacked a tarp down with, took the tarp (no big loss, it was very tattered) and for god only knows what reason took even the huge piece of cardboard under the tarp I was trying to smother weeds with in conjunction with the tarp. This time I hope they want the icky carpet and old particle board things will go on, lol.
A friend came by to help me go through the Storage Unit. I was intending to just consolidate some half-empty boxes/totes and also give my friend (who is engaged in multiple sewing projects) some of my fabric stash.
Result:
A garbage bag full of trash (I was not anticipating throwing anything out, so I guess this was a surprising item in the “win” column)
Three emptied out totes for me (they need to be cleaned)
My friend got a big ol’ pile of fabric for her projects.
We eliminated (I estimated) about 8-10 cubic feet of Stuff from my storage unit, maybe more but giving stuff away, organizing/consolidating stuff, and throwing stuff out.
Yay!
The first 6 boxes of books are sorted and documented for donation.
200 periwinkle plants are in the ground, and one corner of the basement has been cleaned out and painted with Drylok. This week I’ll put new shelves there.
And once the weather forecasts stop warning us that we could die of heatstroke while working outdoors, I’ll finish rototilling and order another 300 plants. And dig up the few fern that have already sprouted amongst the periwinkle.
May I ask, as a gardener … what’s with all the periwinkle?
Was going to do more at the Old Place today with the help of a friend but wound up switching shifts at work so that got called off. We’ll reschedule. It’s hot as hell anyway and horribly muggy so working in the Old Place would have been roasting in an oven anyway.
Weather should be better next week, and in general cooling off once we hit September so I’ll try again.
I’ve been slowed down by family medical issues, but I now have several days in the house and a lot of fruit and veggies from the farmer’s market to speed me on the way. That and rock n roll.