Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am trying to convince myself that getting rid of most of my personal possessions and furniture will make me feel free and unburdened, but so far it is only making me feel anxious.
I am not sure how to resolve this and yet I have to get started doing something . . . we need to sell this house and get into a different situation for hubby . . . and this is going to mean draconic measures with possessions.
ani, don't fret. I tackle one room at a time, one pile at a time. I'm sure you're well organized anyway, it's just a matter of going through and getting ruthless.
I just put together, from three cardboard banker's boxes, "my life" from birth through college in ONE large 3-ring notebook. That is a huge savings on space. I was saving (hoarding?) things I was afraid to let go of (even stuff from h.s., LOL) of personal history items thinking that more is better. It was OVERWHELMING. No one in their right mind in my family would give a rat's a** about my personal mementoes. I'm reducing about 12 boxes of family photos down to 3. Less is more, think of it that way.
(of course now everything that was once in my house is now in my car, LOL)
I went through my kitchen drawers and found:
3 citrus squeezers, 4 cheese slicers, 4 potato mashers, a dozen spatulas, knives I haven't used since the 1970s, whole sets of flatware that if I lived three more lifetimes I would never use, serving dishes enough for an army, etc etc. I'm putting all these things in the playpen (yes, I'm filling my house back up just as fast as I'm emptying it ) and no one gets to leave the Christmas gathering without taking at least one thing.
You can do this. Arm yourself with tubs, boxes, labels, markers, notebooks for the smaller stuff. For the large stuff, I would think about what I would take to a small seaside cottage if I had the good luck of ever moving to one.
I confess I'm a bit of a hoarder myself. My thing is mostly clothes. For example, I own about 16 pairs of shoes, not including the sneakers I have in my gym locker. Why so many shoes? Not because I met Imelda Marcos once (I did! In NYC's Waldorf Astoria Hotel - more about Imelda and her shellacked hair later) ... because when I was in college I was so poor my shoes had holes in them and I would tape a piece of cardboard in the sole so my feet would not get wet or injured. Now I have shoes in several different colors and styles - black, dark brown, light brown, tan, cordovan. My friends laugh at my shoe collection.
I love it because it's solar powered and it can do so many things. It even has a built in flashlight. I keep it on the windowsill so it remains charged. If it runs out of steam, you can always hand crank it.
I wonder what it's like to live in a climate where we aren't always preparing for something or switching from one season to another. One single climate all year long. A pleasant climate. aaaaaaaah.
LMAO Clark, sixteen pairs of shoes is minimalist. I recently pared down to about eighty.
in_ne, I feel ya; it's nine degrees out and temps are not going to rise today, and we have wind on top of it. It looks like the horses are staying in (wind is very bad for them). Dreaming of Florida again, it would be so much easier on all of us.
Yesterday we were out plowing and shoveling from ten until one o'clock. I shovel while DH plows. It really beats him up. With his bad hip he was in a lot of pain.
LMAO Clark, sixteen pairs of shoes is minimalist. I recently pared down to about eighty.
in_ne, I feel ya; it's nine degrees out and temps are not going to rise today, and we have wind on top of it. It looks like the horses are staying in (wind is very bad for them). Dreaming of Florida again, it would be so much easier on all of us.
Yesterday we were out plowing and shoveling from ten until one o'clock. I shovel while DH plows. It really beats him up. With his bad hip he was in a lot of pain.
PAhippo, enjoy your retirement, you earned it!
You really need to move - this is not good for either of you. Are you taking your horses with you? Love horses - bet they will love it where it's warmer too.
Officer Clark - If you are a hoarder - I'm in big trouble.
Anifani, I just cleaned out and sold a house my SO had lived in for over 40 years. It takes stages to clean out a house, I learned that. If you don't feel up to it, do you have any friends or family who can help you?
My SO just could not wrap his head around the job, which seemed overwhelming to him. Once he let me do it for him, it was done within a month. Many of you tracked my progress on the chat here. The goal is get rid of stuff. Not make money on a garage sale, unless you have expensive antiques, the rest is just stuff, and garage sales are a lot of work and energy.
Ani, I feel your pain. Once you get into the groove it goes get easier. Keep in mind stuff owns you at a point, then the light bulb goes off.
Umbria, we are taking the two horses and seven cats. It was ten cats last year but we buried three this year. They are old and we will miss them, but they had wonderful long lives here on the ranch and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Yes, it is a glaring reality that a two story house, a hilly terrain and stairs up to the barn are not going to be a place to age well. Getting in and out of the jetted tub for a shower is getting old.
I have to concur, if Officer Clark is a hoarder with only sixteen pairs of shoes then I am in big trouble, too
Ani, I feel your pain. Once you get into the groove it goes get easier. Keep in mind stuff owns you at a point, then the light bulb goes off.
Umbria, we are taking the two horses and seven cats. It was ten cats last year but we buried three this year. They are old and we will miss them, but they had wonderful long lives here on the ranch and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Yes, it is a glaring reality that a two story house, a hilly terrain and stairs up to the barn are not going to be a place to age well. Getting in and out of the jetted tub for a shower is getting old.
I have to concur, if Officer Clark is a hoarder with only sixteen pairs of shoes then I am in big trouble, too
Jasper, how is the moving in going?
It sounds hard to leave a place like that--a place filled with animals, and lots of land and an entire lifestyle. But you have to face up to it and living some place else will be more realistic and easier.
in_ne, actually I don't think ti will be a huge adjustment, the places I am looking are just as rural as we are. But they are lot closer than an hour to the ER.
We are on ten acres but really only use about three or so, the rest is thickly wooded.
Arcadia, Lake Placid, Moore Haven, La Belle, Alva Florida.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) and no one gets to leave the Christmas gathering without taking at least one thing.
