I use my tools. I still work in a tool and gadget intensive business. Everything else that I have, I could throw into a big dumpster. Every month, or so, I post free stuff on Craigslist. I'd like to get back to the level of stuff I had before sixteen years of marriage and kids. I think one day I'll rent that dumpster, but I'm not sure I'll succeed in getting down to my former level of possessions, where I could move anywhere in three hours.
I'm not sure that's right. As for my breathing days, Austin air may, in fact, end them a bit sooner than I previously thought.
Just talking to another person here and his "stuff" came up...he's got to get rid of so uch stuff but is Stuck in moving forward. Maybe some of you kids are stuck too.
We just met with a guy today about “stuff”. We’re moving, downsizing by half, from our home of 30 years and I have been literally waking up at night worrying about how to get things cleaned out for showing the house and moving. Anyway, this guy’s service comes into play after you have settled on the house. Anything you want will be moved to the new house. Anything that stays for the new owners gets marked with a 6 inch strip of blue painters tape. EVERYTHING else, he will move out and leave the house completely empty. Things that are left that have auction value will be taken to one of two auction houses he deals with (they get 30%, we get 70%). Anything usable but not valuable to the auction houses will be donated and all else will go to the dump. He told us not to worry about stuff, just leave it in the cabinets, or drawers of things we don’t want. Paint cans, gas cans, lawn tools and equipment, anything not attached to the walls, he will see it is removed from the house. We will pay him a flat fee, to be determined when we decide on which things go with us.
I used to do estate sales for people. We would mark and sell everything. If there was anything left over, we would donate it. Sometimes we would have to rent dumpsters first. My mother-in-law's took three dumpsters to clean up enough for a sale.
My mom was pretty much a hoarder. When we had to empty her house on short notice, we took 7 box trucks, largest we could rent, of stuff to the dump. We then filled up a one car garage at her “new” home and 3, 10x10 storage lockers, filled up her new home and onto the back porch and still had a mountain of stuff going to the dump left over when we ran out of time. It was about 25 feet long, 5 feet high and 12 feet wide. What a mess that was.
OMG on the hoarding and not letting go. My parents were not horders but had so much and they did NOT do "cleanouts" on their journey ... When I went to visit them I would as best I could collect things to take to Goodwill etc....some went and some stuff was stopped in transit......fear fear fear to let go. One example of keeping so much was my dad and his short sleeve shirts....he had over 35 shirts hanging in his closet and wore a couple white ones my mom would wash and hang back up for him to wear., he had a couple favorites. On one trip back to see them I took all the shirts that he Never wore and folded them and was going to take them to goodwill and mom saw the pile and put them all back in his closet....