jfugina wrote: ↑Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:10 am
I just went back to the beginning of this thread and read through it, and holy cow! What an undertaking! I'm glad you're finally home and starting to get settled.
And to that end, we're finally starting to embrace the idea that using the next 5 years to purge is going to be a whole lot better than trying to pack it all.
Anyway, glad to see you're getting settled.
Thanks, Julie, the pandemic certainly added "interest" to our moving adventure! Even simple things like taking stuff to charity shops or selling on Marketplace was difficult and took more time than usual. More stuff went to the landfill than I would have liked.
You can't start early enough to purge even if you are moving locally. If you are downsizing your home then your stuff and even the size of your furniture has to downsize, too. Cheryl Miller's move a few years ago was a big downsize so she probably has better advice than I do. And Pat has moved a lot and must have it down to a science by now. And Sue Willy moved across the USA just a year or so ago and I've seen her craft room!
It really helped that we bought our apartment furnished about 2 years ago and had visited it a few times to take more photos and measurements. So we knew what storage we would have. We plan to replace most of the furniture it came with but it is livable until we find what we want. Most of our 75 boxes contained our hobby stuff, family memorabilia and some kitchen stuff.
Happy to see you settled into your craft space. My mom's been doing quilts like crazy the past few months, as it's the only thing she can easily do while their house is on the market that still keeps the house tidy. Pretty much everything else aside from the basics to live, her sewing machine, and the fabric stash are all packed away. She's making quilts so she won't have so much stash to move, and already planning who to gift the finished quilts to.
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mpizzazz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:55 pm
You can't start early enough to purge even if you are moving locally.
Honestly, part of what I'm hoping for is that within about 3 years, Nicole will be out of a dorm and in an apartment, and we intend to kindly offer her her choice of bedroom sets and couches, and a good amount of stuff from the kitchen. Oh, and a dinette, and some bookcases....and maybe we can get her to take some of that dumb shaped barware with the etched "F" on it that my MIL insisted we take off her hands. Maybe she'll decide that it's cool to have personalized retro looking barware?
I'm inspired by you all though! If you can move to the other side of the world, I can surely manage a move to the other end of the county when the time comes.
mpizzazz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:55 pm
You can't start early enough to purge even if you are moving locally.
Honestly, part of what I'm hoping for is that within about 3 years, Nicole will be out of a dorm and in an apartment, and we intend to kindly offer her her choice of bedroom sets and couches, and a good amount of stuff from the kitchen. Oh, and a dinette, and some bookcases....and maybe we can get her to take some of that dumb shaped barware with the etched "F" on it that my MIL insisted we take off her hands. Maybe she'll decide that it's cool to have personalized retro looking barware?
I'm inspired by you all though! If you can move to the other side of the world, I can surely manage a move to the other end of the county when the time comes.
That's a great plan, Julie, and it's surprising what retro stuff will appeal to them.
I forgot to mention the worst part of the whole purging, packing process for me. It was the constant decision making about every little thing. Do I want to see it at the other end? Is there going to be space for it? If it's not going, what do I do with it? Donate, if so where? Sell it, take photos, list it, answer messages, meet the person or have them pick it up? Recycle to a charity shop? If not, trip to the landfill? I really found it exhausting and stressful and had to take breaks from it and that slowed down the process.
mpizzazz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:21 pm
I forgot to mention the worst part of the whole purging, packing process for me. It was the constant decision making about every little thing. Do I want to see it at the other end? Is there going to be space for it? If it's not going, what do I do with it? Donate, if so where? Sell it, take photos, list it, answer messages, meet the person or have them pick it up? Recycle to a charity shop? If not, trip to the landfill? I really found it exhausting and stressful and had to take breaks from it and that slowed down the process.
Oh my gosh - I can only imagine! We have some friends who go through a totally hypothetical process of "moving to Australia" every few years, and make decisions about what to keep based on exactly what you said above - would I want to see this on the other side? And it's been an amazing exercise for them. I walk through my house with that question on the brain and I'm instantly overwhelmed.
Obviously we don't need our downsizing to be quite so extreme - like there's some middle ground between what I'd get rid of if moving overseas, vs moving "down the road". But that's really hard to know where that line would be drawn. I think that maybe something we need to research is how much it would cost for us to move everything we currently have. We know we're going to need to hire professionals, but since we've never done that before, maybe what we need is the sticker shock factor to motivate us to start paring down sooner rather than later.
jfugina wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:19 pm
Oh my gosh - I can only imagine! We have some friends who go through a totally hypothetical process of "moving to Australia" every few years, and make decisions about what to keep based on exactly what you said above - would I want to see this on the other side? And it's been an amazing exercise for them. I walk through my house with that question on the brain and I'm instantly overwhelmed.
Obviously we don't need our downsizing to be quite so extreme - like there's some middle ground between what I'd get rid of if moving overseas, vs moving "down the road". But that's really hard to know where that line would be drawn. I think that maybe something we need to research is how much it would cost for us to move everything we currently have. We know we're going to need to hire professionals, but since we've never done that before, maybe what we need is the sticker shock factor to motivate us to start paring down sooner rather than later.
Yes, that might definitely motivate you if you get a few quotes! We did that with a mover when we thought we would bring furniture. It made us look at our furniture more realistically and work out we could buy new here for less than it would cost to ship our 20+ year old furniture. And if you are packing or they are packing your stuff might make a big difference in price. We were getting a quote if we packed it ourselves, I couldn't stand to watch someone pack my stuff with all the paper and bubble wrap they use when I have mounds of fabric and quilts that we used for padding.
So Marianne - I have a funny, yet tragic story along the lines of this thread. I've not said a word about this conversation to Rob, by the way. On Friday, I saw a pile of christmas tree ornaments on the kitchen table, along with a few other random things. I asked Rob where that stuff came from, and his reply was exactly this, "the Edwards' are moving to Australia again and I'm hoarding".
I just did a small goodwill run today, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it, because I have to let myself believe that every little bit helps.
jfugina wrote: ↑Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:38 pm
So Marianne - I have a funny, yet tragic story along the lines of this thread. I've not said a word about this conversation to Rob, by the way. On Friday, I saw a pile of christmas tree ornaments on the kitchen table, along with a few other random things. I asked Rob where that stuff came from, and his reply was exactly this, "the Edwards' are moving to Australia again and I'm hoarding".
I just did a small goodwill run today, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it, because I have to let myself believe that every little bit helps.
Ha ha! Are "The Edwards" really serious about moving here? If so, one of them needs to be an Aussie citizen or a Permanent Resident or have a highly skilled job or business needed here or have masses of money!
Since you are in a big city area, you may find charities looking for specific things like craft supplies, kid's things, etc. I was lucky to find a craft reuse shop about an hour from us that sells things to fund kids' craft classes. We took 4 or 5 car loads of stuff to them. It would not have been anything I could have taken to Goodwill or the hospital charity shop.
mpizzazz wrote: ↑Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:16 pm
Ha ha! Are "The Edwards" really serious about moving here? If so, one of them needs to be an Aussie citizen or a Permanent Resident or have a highly skilled job or business needed here or have masses of money!
LOL. No. "Moving to Australia" is the thought process they use to purge. If they wouldn't want to ship it around the world, then they don't need it in their life. It works for them. I don't think it would work for us because Rob would figure out a way to convince that he needed all of his stuff on the other side of the world as much as he thinks he needs it here. So we'll have to find another motivation to drive our purging processes.
I'm caught between packrat and get rid of it all, depending on the moment. For me, what works is to keep a box that is designated for donations/purge in my craft room, and another one by the back door for everything else that can be donated. When I find something that I think could actually just go, I either toss it in the garbage can or the donations box. And I'm not allowed to take things back out of it. This is not an easy thing for me, but I've been working on the use/purge for about 5 years now. Funny how the house never looks like it has less stuff even though I've taken loads of stuff to Goodwill!!
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That's a great idea Monica! I've heard people say you have to use a cardboard box for those donations because if you use a bin you plan to keep, you touch the items again and it's too tempting to keep them. Oh, the psychology of letting go of stuff!
It's definitely a psychology. One thing that works for me is to use percentages, rather than all vs. none. If I find something in my craft room I don't use I tell myself I can keep some but have to purge some; it's much easier to pare down that let go of completely. How much I keep vs. how much I purge - the percentage - depends on the item and how much I use it. And then the next time, I pare down that much more.
I recently saw a graphic about cleaning out your closet. The usual does it fit/do you love it/have you worn it thing, but with an additional question re: the stuff you're not wearing but still want to keep. Does it have sentimental value? If not, out it goes. That's the 2nd question after do you wear it, and surprisingly moves a lot from the want to keep to the donate pile.
We have a few designated spots for recycling, and that has helped out quite a bit, but I am often torn between making an outing whenever anything is available to recycle, and waiting for there to be enough to be "worth the trip" to the community recycling center. I usually make a couple of trips per month of cardboard (courtesy of Amazon), electronics recycling, and scrap metal.
jfugina wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 1:21 pm
Sorry for the hijack Marianne.
No problem, Julie! I'm sort of enjoying everyone else's struggle with getting rid of stuff, ha ha!
Glad "The Edwards" aren't really planning the move, it's a lot of work and red tape but worth it if you know you will love it here.
The sentimental issue that Keitha mentioned is what really got me during the grand purge. I didn't realize how sentimental I am. I did solve some of it by taking a photo of the item before I donated it or threw it away but I still brought way too much of it with me. I'll gradually part with more of it. Some of it looks so shabby here in the bright sunlight and white walls.
So much stuff just sat in a cupboard (never got used) just because it had belonged to a long gone family friend or relative. I tried to think of a real use for the thing to make it worthwhile to bring it; otherwise, I took a photo, will write up something and add it to their genealogy info.
Oh, and a dinette, and some bookcases....and maybe we can get her to take some of that dumb shaped barware with the etched "F" on it that my MIL insisted we take off her hands. Maybe she'll decide that it's cool to have personalized retro looking barware? 
