Lightening My Load--Literally

One of the ways I'm going to handle selling my house and most of what's in it is going to involve writing about it.  Bad news for my blog followers.  Good therapy for me.

Thanksgiving break:  Step one-- Quinn and Jana help me get rid of stuff in my garage.  Most of it was from a garage sale that Cody held in the summer.  Some of the items were given to him by friends who were decluttering as well as things we were getting rid of.  So now it's gone on to thrift stores along with a few more things I won't ever use again.  We also threw away stuff.  Not valuable stuff.  Just junk. 

Step two--Jana and Chuck came over today to start in on the house.  We packed up two or three boxes of VHS tapes. Harder than I expected.  Not that I would have probably every watched most of them again, but I liked looking at the titles of my favorite movies.  It was proof I'm not a hoarder though.  When it came down to it, I waved all but a few goodbye.  My facebook post:   Took a step into reality today and packed up almost all of my VHS tapes. Fine, I watched other people do it for me. Kept a few: It's a Wonderful Life, Chicken Run, Waking Ned Devine, Wallace and Grommit, A & E Pride and Prejudice--you know, just the essentials. The rest will be at a thrift store near you!

We also packed up a ton of fabric I was sure I'd make quilts out of someday and games I haven't played in years.  Even a few tablecloths--not all, this is the first time through.  When I realize how much a storage unit is going to cost and how quickly it will fill, I'll go through everything again.

Tonight I'll start on Christmas bins.  My strategy will be that every Santa or Snowman figurine I get rid of will mean one more nativity set I get to keep.  The last count of Nativity sets was 60.  Some are tiny!

I know why most people make their children do this after they die.  I'm not a hoarder, but I'm a collector.  As I say to my students:  We can do hard things!