Moving / decluttering question

[Laurie in VA]

Good morning! Our house is in serious need of a good decluttering :p Couple that with the fact that we will likely be moving halfway across the country in the next 6 mos. and I am starting to panic!

I have read FlyLady on and off over the past few years and agree with most of what she has to say. One thing, however, I am not sure about. She says to ask the question, "Do I love you enough to go to all this trouble and expense to pack you up?" to help decide what to keep and what to toss. Honestly, if I asked that question, I'm not sure how much I would take with us, LOL.

For example, I have a rather large collection of Tom Clark Gnomes - do you remember those? They were really popular in the late 80s and into the 90s. My Mom bought almost all of them for me - they were really her thing, but I like them well-enough. Anyhow, I could certainly live without them, but could also see them displayed all on a shelf somewhere in the house... I have a lot of things like that - stuff I can easily live without, but I'm not sure if I really should dump it (or sell it on eBay!).

Any thoughts?

[Plaid Dad]

I think a lot of this depends on your comfort level with visual stimuli in your environment. Okay, that sounds really technical. What is mean is: Do you find displayed collections distracting or do they bring you pleasure? What one person finds comforting or exciting can be overwhelmingly "busy" to another. I can't handle too much eye candy in my world; it makes me jittery and tense.

My rule of thumb is that if I can imagine myself happily living without something, I should. Life is too short to dust things that I only kinda-sorta like, kwim?

I generally don't do collections, particularly not collections bought by another person because she liked them! EBay is your friend. Now if you really love your gnomes, by all means keep them. Or keep a couple that you like best and ditch the rest. Or take a photo of the whole collection and auction off the lot. Or give them to your mom. ;)

[Beth in OH]

We're moving, too. I try to follow Flylady's words, and I use that phrase with my dc to help them let go of some of their stuff. But---we will be moving several cartons of music boxes that we don't love. My MIL gives each of my three girls a music box every year for Christmas. Between the girls, we're up to 25-30 music boxes. The girls don't love them, many are not even displayed, but we're moving them. Due to the emotional ties to this particular gift, we're pushing all decisions about disposing of the music boxes into the future. I'm at peace with this.

Beth

[kalanamak]

If it is something I'm not sure about, I pack it up very well and very compactly, label on top and sides and tuck in the backbackback of somewhere. Once a year or so I think about it. After a couple years, it much less distressing to take the box and donate it. In a sense I haven't "had it" in a couple years anyway. That's my trick for the very iffy things.

[Laurie in VA]

If it is something I'm not sure about, I pack it up very well and very compactly, label on top and sides and tuck in the backbackback of somewhere. Once a year or so I think about it. After a couple years, it much less distressing to take the box and donate it. In a sense I haven't "had it" in a couple years anyway. That's my trick for the very iffy things.
Good suggestion! Most of those crazy Gnomes have been packed away since we moved here (almost 4 yrs. ago) and I haven't really missed them. I guess they will be headed to auction on eBay :rolleyes:

[Tarheel Heather]

And about a month ago I packed up the closets except for some toys and packed up all knicky knack things. I have a box close by to put everything in that I haven't had out or has not seen the light of day, which will be donated. Same for clothes, if doesn't fit or haven't worn it, it's gone too. I am now packing up our books, and everything in the kitchen except my coffee pot! The garage is another issue, most of the stuff in there is dh's which he will have to deal with. He's a pack rat.

Thankfully we are moving two hours away and can bring stuff a little at a time. I want to be organized at the next house. I have plans!:D

Anyhow, have fun cleaning and decluttering! :)

Heather

[Tarheel Heather]

For example, I have a rather large collection of Tom Clark Gnomes - do you remember those? They were really popular in the late 80s and into the 90s. My Mom bought almost all of them for me - they were really her thing, but I like them well-enough. Anyhow, I could certainly live without them, but could also see them displayed all on a shelf somewhere in the house... I have a lot of things like that - stuff I can easily live without, but I'm not sure if I really should dump it (or sell it on eBay!).

Any thoughts?

As for your gnomes. Do you have one or two that are sentimental to you. You could keep those. I have a collection of seraphim angels and I have one or two out. I sort of rotate them. I wouldn't dream of giving them away. However, like Plaid Dad, I can't handle lots going on visually.

[Susan in IL]

I do this too and found it the best way for me. I will be having a huge garage sale this spring to get rid of a lot of stuff.

[Laurie in VA]

As for your gnomes. Do you have one or two that are sentimental to you. You could keep those.
I do! My husband is a former Marine and we have the cutest Marine Gnome. I also have one signed by Tom Clark that I'll keep. But the rest will be auctioned on eBay! I'm just trying to do what FlyLady suggests and spend 15 min. at a time decluttering. I try for one hr/day and am already seeing improvement! It will be great to do this before the move, and on the off chance we don't have to the house will be in better shape for all of the hard work.

[Pencil Pusher]

We just moved from a 1200 sf house w/ a garage, shed, etc. to a MUCH smaller apt in seminary housing. If there were any questions about wanting it, it had to go.

At first, this mindset was kind-of hard, but eventually (after CARLOADS of stuff), it's been pretty freeing. There's so much less STUFF to deal with, put away, & wash. (Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty, LOL!)

Besides the expense and trouble of packing & moving an item, don't forget the headache of UNpacking it, finding a place for it, & the weeks of living amongst boxes with all the stuff you really love sort-of lost among the piles. The less you've got, the easier it is.

[Tutor]

My rule of thumb is that if I can imagine myself happily living without something, I should. Life is too short to dust things that I only kinda-sorta like, kwim?

I generally don't do collections, particularly not collections bought by another person because she liked them! EBay is your friend. Now if you really love your gnomes, by all means keep them. Or keep a couple that you like best and ditch the rest. Or take a photo of the whole collection and auction off the lot. Or give them to your mom. ;)

This is our philosophy as well. We had been holding onto a lot of stuff because someone who loved us gave it to us and we felt guilty getting rid of it. But lets face it, they may have loved it so much that they bought it for me, but they didn't love it enough to come over and take care of it for me. If I loved it, I kept it because I would be willing to take care of it. If I didn't want to take care of it (or wasn't taking care of it because it was just sitting in a box not fulfilling its purpose, or my kids weren't taking care of it because it was on the bottom of a pile and being mistreated), I got rid of it.

Before our move last summer, we got ruthless and got rid of A LOT... over 100 bags and boxes of clothes and assorted stuff were either Freecycled or donated. Plus, we held two huge yard sales and got rid of a lot of furniture and other clothes, dishes, knickknacks, toys, tools, etc. I also sold a bunch of stuff on Ebay, including come dolls from my doll collection (started for me by my parents and grandparents which I decided to narrow down to only the types of doll I like) and our wedding china (which we never used because we received another set of china as an inheritance that we loved and used).

After all of our purging, we moved 6 people and their remaining possessions 1000 miles in a 17' moving truck, a suburban and a roof-top carrier. We bought a couple pieces of furniture once we got here, but the "stuff" we got rid of we haven't missed. The scary part is that even though we got rid of all that stuff, we are still finding things that we are asking ourselves, "Why did we move that?"

Have fun purging. I found that once I started, it felt so good that it was hard to stop. :)

[melissel]

Good suggestion! Most of those crazy Gnomes have been packed away since we moved here (almost 4 yrs. ago) and I haven't really missed them. I guess they will be headed to auction on eBay :rolleyes:

Good for you! Honestly, it's so hard to get rid of that kind of thing, but once you do, you'll feel like you were relieved of 10 pounds you didn't even know you were carrying. I've also heard that, with things like this--sort of sentimental, but that you really need to let go of--you should take some pictures before you send them off. That way you still have the memory and the love, but not the extra stuff.

Goooooo decluttering!!! LOL!