How do you downsize/pack up an entire house without moving to another house?
The thought of traveling around the world is exotic and sounds amazing, but with a family of four, a house, cars, and lots of things, you cannot just pick up and go. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that has to happen.
One of those things for us was moving out of our house, which we are renting out while we are gone. We have lived in our house for ten years.
When Michael and I moved in we each had roughly 30 years of our own memories and things. Add eight years of accumulating the kids’ things and it makes our heads start to spin.
Where Did We Start?
When we first started tackling this task, there were several times where we looked around the house, looked at each other, and then binge-watched Netflix, and got nothing done.
Once we got that out of our system, we slowly started room by room picking off the items that we knew we no longer needed or wanted and that we would probably have gotten rid of anyway.
We went through our closets and got rid of the clothes we never wear. Starting off easy helps build confidence that it can actually be done.
After that, we stalled for a bit and binge-watched some more tv.
Then one day I checked out an audiobook from the library that propelled my momentum forward. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo is a great way to jump-start the purging and decluttering process.
The book gave me a new perspective on things. It made it easier to look at a book or a piece of clothing and decide what to do with it. The question Marie Kondo asks is— does the item spark joy?
This method breaks down the process of decluttering into categories instead of locations i.e. Go through all clothes at one time, all paperwork at one time. I whittled down all of our paperwork into two 3 inch binders, only keeping what is truly important. I have one bin of memories that will be stored at my sister’s house. I shrunk my closet down by over 2/3 and do not miss a single piece of clothing.
Although I do not think I could live by the Konmari method to the letter, it has changed me for the better. If reading or listening to the book does not sound like your style, Marie Kondo also has a Netflix series.
Michael, on the other hand, did not read the book and because we have family graciously storing some of our things, he has not been as successful in decluttering. To his credit, he has packed all of his memories up (all 10 bins) and has gotten them out of our house, so it is a win.
The Konmari method only took us so far before we started running out of steam, but quitting was not an option, so we continued the packing/selling/donating process in small chunks.
We spent hours going through paperwork, cabinets, closets, and mystery boxes we have not opened in years. It is exhausting and exciting and hard.
We started posting big items for sale online. A few a week. We have a goal to fill up the trash each week with items we are not able to sell, donate, or recycle. We have planned a yard sale and motivated the kids by telling them they could keep all of the money from the toys they sell. Having a deadline is helpful. Some way, somehow we got out of our house before the renters moved in.
