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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Minimalist in Training

I find myself longing for empty spaces.  Closets with hangers two finger widths apart.  Empty shelves, clear surfaces, the absence of "stuff".  I'm not sure what brought this on, but lately I daydream about taking a week off work, cleaning every closet, dresser, and cupboard in the house, and hauling all the cast offs to Goodwill.  Seriously.  Maybe I've been watching too many episodes of "Hoarders".

Walker and I have been looking into the possibility of downsizing our home.  When we moved here, we did so anticipating a family.  Now that we know for certain there will be no kids, the house just feels too big.  Of course, with Bro and the boys here, we won't be doing anything in the immediate future, but at some point they will settle into their own place and we'll make a decision.

I hate moving.

We came here from a house that was less than 800 square feet.  I never thought we would fill this space, more than twice what we had before.  Um, yeah.  We've been here six years next month and guess what?  The basement storage room?  It's full.  The garage cupboards?  Yep, they're full.  The closet in under the stairs?  Uh huh.  How does this happen?  And so fast!  These rooms that seemed so big feel cozy now. 

I'm not sure what we'll end up doing, but we're looking at all the options.  It's been kinda fun, actually.  We've done some house hunting, and if this dang heat would ever let up, we'll do some more.  In the meantime, there are always closets to clean.

2 comments:

  1. We are still living in the house we bought 43 years ago. It was old then and lot older now..We lad my kids all at home yet. We have 2 bedrooms upstairs, or I should say ground floor, a long living,dining area a small kitchen and a small bathroom. The basement was finished off so we let my girl have a bedroom upstairs, and the boys all slept in the basement. There is a small bath and a small kitchen there. Will be interesting to see what you do..

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  2. I could have written this post too, (in fact, a couple of weeks ago (on my own blog) I did!)

    I have been feeling the same way you do - There just seems to be too much stuff in my life!

    Tonight after work I am cleaning out the closet in our master bedroom... I am going to throw away (donate) all the (old) socks and underwear we have over-filling the baskets and drawers in there - I am going to eliminate the clothes I no longer wear and generally just straighten up and out!

    My parents are coming for a visit next week and we're giving them our room, so cleaning out the closet and dresser drawers was already on my to-do list!

    Last weekend we had a yard sale and boy did I eliminate stuff! I combed over each room and everything that didn't have a purpose or that hadn't been put to use within the past 6 months to a year flew out the door. I posted 32 items on e-bay before the yard sale and some large items, like our ping-pong table, old sofa, and a couple of chairs on Craigslist too.

    In the end... I scooped up $1,800.00 from the e-Bay sales, $1,300.00 from the items on craigslist.com and took in $1,007.00 at the yard sale we hosted Friday and Saturday. Oh, and when I was cleaning out the garage before day two of our yard sale and came across the box of guitar wall hangers that used to be in our son's room, (before he moved out) I listed those on e-bay Sunday evening, and yesterday they sold for $43.00! Everything that didn't sell at the yard sale went to GoodWill. A whole truck load of stuff... And I don't feel badly about it at all!

    I'm telling you this to let you know that your desire to clean out could earn you some serious cash too! I won't lie... The e-Bay was a little bit of work - finding boxes and mailing everything I sold was a chore, but in the end, I believe it was well worth the effort!

    Good luck and keep up the great work of organizing your life! It's worth it - you're worth it!

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