The dreaded day is coming, the day the packers arrive. We have twenty-nine days left until the packers arrive. Twenty-nine days to declutter our lives. I am feeling the pressure. Moving is stressful for anyone but when you are in the foreign service your life has a weight limit. The government will ship 7200 pounds of your stuff to post. If you go over that you will pay, and pay a lot, somewhere around $3 a pound. We arrived almost a thousand pounds under the weight limit, so I think we are OK. However there is an abundance of trash in this house. Trash that I do not want to see in Malawi. Broken toys, outgrown clothes, kids meal prizes, chipped cups all must go.
I have come up with a schedule going through one or two rooms a day with trash bags and no mercy. Today I tackled the entry hall and the master bathroom. Mismatched mittens, outgrown jackets, worn out snow boots ALL GONE! Make-up and nail polish that predates my arrival in Frankfurt, OUT OF HERE! Towels gone a bit thin and frayed at the edges, HISTORY! All total I threw out two bags of trash, and assorted ratty towels for a grand total of 23 pounds. That's 23 pounds from the 2 smallest rooms in the house, and that's not counting the shoes and jackets that were in good enough shape to go into the donate pile. Not a bad start.
Updated: David wanted me to add that he is in charge of the guest room. That's the room where we dump everything we don't know what to do with. He is no where near done, but so far he is at 72 pounds of garbage and 38 pounds of clothes in the donate pile. Show off!
4 comments:
We bribed the kids - get rid of a huge amount of toys you no longer play with, and we'll pay to buy a new special toy. They had so much stuff from party bags, gifts, etc. They each, esp. the older one, went through their stuff and chucked a lot (not enough, imo, but they did well) One new toy each, in exchange for boxes of old things - great! And this last pcs was really the first move they actually remember, so a new toy was a good way to keep it fun.
I have 23 days to go, which means that when you look around your newly empty house, relieved to be finished, I'll just be starting.
You're actually weighing the stuff as you get rid of it? My house still seems over-full and I've been in toss mode for weeks. I should've weighed it all - then at least I'd have a sense of accomplishment.
Isn't it liberating to get rid of all the stuff?! I love the way my house feels after I get rid of tons of stuff. Good luck!!
It will feel liberating when I am done but right now I am trying to figure out why we have so much stuff.
Also there are piles around the house heading to various places (books to CLO's office, clothes to charity) but right now they just feel like clutter. Too much clutter. I just want this done.
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