Tuesday 27 October 2015

Decluttering the Homestead





As I've shared before, we are preparing for an interprovincial move and our current country home is for sale.  Our own recent house hunting experience taught us that it's difficult to see past clutter to assess a home's condition so we've been on a mission to seriously purge our home and property of items we won't be taking with us.

We moved into this house 6 years ago with 5 children in tow (from young adult down to kindergarten age).   Clothing, furniture and personal items for 7 people is TRULY a LOT of "stuff" (not to mention shop contents, gardening equipment, homeschool books/supplies, sports equipment and hobby items).   Oh my!  Fast forward just 6 years and two of our adult kids have moved out (with a third soon to follow).  We just don't need most of the stuff we had accumulated so it was time to get to work!

We began with a trailer, a LOT of boxes, a determined attitude and a heart of generosity.   Hubby tackled the garage and I began in the house.   We asked ourselves if every item we picked up was worth paying to move it.  Most often, the answer was no and what resulted was hundreds of items being given away, many items being sold and trailer loads sent to the dump (some things for disposal but a lot was able to be recycled).



Canning jars (all bought used for pennies or given to us via free cycle) and the second water bath canning pot




rebar (useful, but FAR too heavy to move!)



potting benches (again, useful, but too bulky and heavy to move)



We're selling our patio furniture because it's bulky and heavy (the table is stone and the chairs don't stack).  It's almost 10 years old, so it's not worth paying to move it (especially when the table is likely to crack on such a long journey).  


I could go on for pages....  trust me when I say that we got rid of a lot of stuff!   Through the purging process, fear and loss turned into strength and clarity.  Having a rural property often means more space to store things.  This can be a positive asset but also a huge negative if not kept in check!  Stuff starts taking over because it's easier to store something rather than make a decision to get rid of it through donation or a sale.

 Since we are facing extremely high moving costs (inter-provincial is always expensive), we must be very choosy about what we pack in order to keep costs as low as possible.  Most of our furniture is at or very near the end of its useful life span so it makes no sense to pay thousands of dollars to move it.  Key pieces of good quality/sentimental furniture will come, but the 10 year old, now extremely uncomfortable sofas will be sold (good riddance and yes, these are a fine example of getting what you pay for).   The 17 year old threadbare, ripped basement furniture will be taken to the dump (it served us well as our only furniture for many years).  We desperately need a new bed but will wait until after we relocate (why pay to move an old, uncomfortable mattress?).

I did some homework/research and have discovered that we can easily buy (used) what we need once we get to the new house.  It will take some time, but I enjoy the challenge and am happy to slowly poke through second hand shops and online ads to find furniture to replace items we won't be taking.  In a beautifully elegant realization last night (on the phone with my folks), my parents are downsizing in this venture, so they have extra furniture no longer needed.  We are happily "inheriting" some of their pieces, so it's a win/win all around.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about the specifics of purging, decluttering and storing "stuff" in the family home.  We have done a LOT of that over 25 years of raising a larger family....   From clothing, bikes, toys and sporting goods to furniture and equipment ~ we've seen it all and had it all!  Until then....



13 comments:

  1. I think when ever you de clutter your home your de cluttering your mind to and you seem to have made perfect sense to what you should keep and don't need. Good luck with the clearing and sorting and good luck with your new home, dee.

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  2. With a "heart of generosity" - I love that! Thank you for these posts, looking forward to tomorrow's!

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  3. Hopefully this move will be your last and your new home will be your for-ever home. As exciting as moving house is it is also deeply unsettling for the equilibrium. We have moved house over 25 times and I crave just being able to stay put for ever.

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    1. Wow - that's a lot of moving! I bet you have plenty of tips to share.

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  4. I did a lot of this on my last move....There were many standing in line, to gladly receive what I no longer needed. It was a "win-win situation. You are very wise to invest in new or slightly used, when you reach your destination. I'll be reading about your progress....

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    1. Moving sure makes one take stock of the true value of things, doesn't it?

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  5. I know im in my forever home (though only 51) as my Aspie men wouldnt move without being in a casket. Its been our home for 22 years now and so im going through my midlife declutter without the move. So much stuff!

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    1. Mid-life declutter is an apt saying - things change so much after 22 years of living in one place.

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  6. Oh, moving, what a job! It took us three months when we moved from town to the country, a little over five years ago.

    We didn't put our house in town on the market till after we got all the way moved out, and that was good, since it sold a month after going on the market. I don't know HOW we could've possibly gotten totally moved out in only a month. Plus I didn't want the house full of stuff for strangers to go through.

    One thing that I did was to make little signs that I posted all over the house. Little extra things that a realtor might not think to say, or might not know, if it was someone other than the realtor I hired. Such as: 'Please don't let the cats in, they belong to a neighbor!' Or, "This switch turns on the attic fan." Or, "This mirror stays with the house and it is NOT a reproduction."

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    1. Great idea re: the signs. Never thought of that but you're right - only our realtor knows the little details about what makes this house unique and energy efficient. We have an info sheet typed out but there's no way to include everything without it becoming a book...

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  7. We have just been through this exact process of moving from a hobby farm back to the suburbs in preparation for our move overseas to New Zealand. There is just the 2 of us and the do and we had been getting rid of things for 12 months before we moved. Like you some things were not moved and we had to get rid of our chickens too. Some things did not get moved because we cannot take them to another country like plants or garden pots. Our bed is old but still comfy so we are taking it and if it gets damaged we will not be too upset.

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