Decluttering is somewhat theraputic

Hi everyone, I'm Monkeywrangler, and I'm a Pack Rat.  It's been 12 years 4 months since my last decluttering.

Yes, we've lived in this home for 12 years now, and both DH and I suffer from PackRat-osis, the inability to throw away stuff, that might some day be useful again.  Moving seems to be the best/only way we can declutter.  You'd be amazed at the amount of crap we have already pitched in the dumpster!  I know I am...

The house is actually starting to look decluttered, and after Saturday, when we rent a 17' Uhaul for 12 hrs to move the excess furniture we are keeping, the place will look darned empty to me!  We have culled heavily, our book collection.  That was tough too.  We are both avid readers, and are loathe to get rid of books unless we did not like them.  We will be moving 8 book cases of various sizes to storage, and have gotten nearly ALL the books we are keeping, boxed and stored too.

Some furniture besides book cases, are going to storage too, like DH's large dresser (we will share my bigger one instead), and three larger old sentimental pieces.  The dog couch is going on the curb.  It's been a good couch, a double recliner by Lane in microfiber, but it's gotta go.  Once we are in the new place, we will look at getting a used leather couch for the hounds to inhabit.  Maybe.

Once the furniture is out/moved around etc, we will be ready for the professionals to come in for their jobs like flooring and paint.  Yeah, it isn't cheap to have it done by the pros, but the end results will be much better than we could do, considering the volume of work we want done prior to going on the market.

Then the kids and I will shift into maintenance mode, just keeping things from getting messy again, while DH is our boots on the ground in the new town.  His job is starting there next week, and the commute is too long to be safe for him every day, with his sleep issues.  So he is going to do the Brigid-thing, and have an efficiency apartment during the week, and come home on weekends and days off.  So he will be working with the realtor up there, much like I did when we moved to Winchester KS so many years ago.  Back then, I worked the swing shift, and would go see houses in the mornings with our buyers agent, and report back to DH when I got home at night.  We both know what we are looking for in a new property, so it won't be difficult to know if a given house is "right" for both us.

Wish us luck..the adventure is truly under way!