https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Sun, 26 Apr 2026 11:43:16 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1300997 Sat, 12 Jul 2014 03:46:36 +0000 avicennia 1300997@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Ingunn, my strategy is to continually donate things to a charity thrift store. By continually, I mean on a weekly basis. Each time I find something we don't need, I place it by the front door. The next time I walk out to th car, I place the items in the trunk. Th store I donate to is on the way home from work, so it takes me 5 minutes to drop things off. Some weeks its just a few items, but sometimes its more. The charity teaches parenting skills to women who have been abused, on drugs or in prostitution. So, I know my stuff will be sold for a good cause. Toddler and children's items are given directly to the women, and the staff are so grateful for good items. THis really motivates me not to hang onto things!! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1300261 Fri, 11 Jul 2014 07:55:19 +0000 Anonymous 1300261@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I wish you the best of luck Ingunn. When my DH and I moved into our present house, neither of us had much so it wasn't a problem 15 years ago. We have accumulated more stuff now, but I have to say that I'm pretty ruthless when getting rid of things. I constantly purge. Not sure why, probably a feeling of being free is needed. Mind you I say this speaking from a house full of Lego which isn't going anywhere, anytime soon :P. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1300076 Fri, 11 Jul 2014 01:09:36 +0000 Carla 1300076@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>260 items! That is the number of things we brought to our new home from our old one. Some were mattresses, box springs, bikes, musical instruments, individual pieces of furniture. Some were boxes packed with other smaller things! I have been unpacking and settling in since the movers delivered our stuff last Thursday. </p> <p>Other than our bedroom set, and a couch, our furniture is all passed on from our parents! My mom keeps sending me stuff as SHE downsizes, and DH insisted we absorb some furniture from his parents estate when they died 10 years ago. I did manage to donate some stuff to charity before we left, so have whittled it down to 'the good stuff' but I'm in my 50's and wonder if I will ever have furniture of my own choosing? </p> <p>Oh! I did get a new washer and dryer! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299977 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 23:33:11 +0000 Anonymous 1299977@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Ingunn, we are almost packed and tomorrow a transport truck comes to load everything!! ...I keep thinking do I want to unpack this? Lol.. Keep purging </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299928 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 22:45:09 +0000 AviaMariah 1299928@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>We moved last summer and I have been purging ever since! &nbsp;I can't believe the stuff we hauled out of our basement! &nbsp;For me this goes along a little with Shannon's thread about simplicity. &nbsp;I've been really trying to be mindful of what I bring into the house so that I'm not spending all my time tending to all the stuff!! &nbsp;Like Thistle, a lot of my clutter has to do with DD1 and I am also looking forwarding to purging, purging, purging once DD2/DS1 is finished with it. &nbsp;Good luck to you. &nbsp;Moving is the most exhausting thing ever! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299917 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 22:28:26 +0000 celia 1299917@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>We still have an apartment in Lisbon full of things. I purged a lot, brought just what I absolutely needed to Canada(and been very happy about it) but I shudder just thinking about emptying the apartment for sale.<br />The first two years in Canada where we had only the absolutely necessary felt like the most uncomplicated years of our lives.<br />Maybe I should start declutering my house again. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299482 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 14:11:24 +0000 Ingunn 1299482@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>We are about to get ready for the interior photo shoot tomorrow, and I couldn't be happier. I'm already struggling to keep the clutter out o the finished areas.&nbsp;The good part is that we probably are closer to the point of owning only what we use than we've been for years, and I'll continue purging until the moving day comes in September/October.&nbsp;</p> <p>Gaylene, that was a generous and heartwarming thing to do. I gave my crystal goblets to my brother, because we never use them either.&nbsp;</p> <p>A, that is a clever way to approach it. I will be asking my stuff the same!</p> <p>Thistle, I have kept a few precious pieces of clothing in a small box, couple of toys and their small chairs. That is all there's left from raising three kids, and I am very happy there isn't more:)</p> <p>April, isn't it funny that even an "empty" minimalistic house can contain all that clutter? We don't have all that much, really, or at least so I thought.&nbsp;I removed several boxes and bags from my study alone, so I'm obviously wrong.</p> <p>Amy, you have my sympathy. I think succeeding is&nbsp;about never letting go&nbsp;- and about stopping to bring so much into our homes in the first place. Best of luck with keeping on top of things:) </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299242 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 02:31:00 +0000 Anonymous 1299242@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I am moving on Friday from a 2800 sq foot house to something smaller. I purged, held a garage sale, donated and junked TONS of things. I was having anxiety about the quantity of what as remaining when the movers came to today and announced that this would be easy, 'not much stuff here'. </p> <p>Every time I debate if I should keep something, I ask myself if it is worth packing and unpacking....makes the decision easier :)</p> <p>I told hubs that next move will require a leave of absence from work to unload everything </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299178 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 01:43:51 +0000 Gaylene 1299178@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Oh, this strikes a note since we are also planning a move to smaller apartment in the city. Most people comment on how clean and minimal my house looks, but obviously they have never looked behind those closet doors and in the basement storage cupboards.</p> <p>I agree that it's appalling to think of all the stuff that we accumulate and squirrel away in the nooks and crannies of our house. Pulling it all out in the open really is a sobering exercise. I think we've managed to sell, donate, and otherwise get rid of about 50% of what lay behind those doors and I love sense of liberation I feel when I see a half empty closet. </p> <p>The best part of the whole exercise, though, was what happened at the end of our yard sale. I had put out a huge, flat box filled with all my good crystal--goblets, wine glasses, stemmed dessert dishes--that I hadn't used for decades. The box sat there all day, even with a $40 price tag on it, and no one evidenced the least bit of interest. At the very end of the day, a young woman and her mother stopped by and started checking out some of the plastic food storage containers that were left. The young woman kept looking at the crystal, while her mother admonished her that, with young children, she didn't need anything so fancy and to stick with what was practical. I offered to lower the price, but, after looking at her mother, she regretfully shook her head, saying it would be so nice to own lovely things, but that she'd have to wait until her kids were older. They bought a few pieces of plastic, and when they left, I handed her the box of crystal and told her to let her kids drink their milk from those goblets because it would be cheaper than buying glasses at Target. She carefully carried the box to her car telling me that she had never expected to be able to own anything so nice. My unloved and used crystal had found a good home! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299124 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:53:37 +0000 Thistle 1299124@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I hear you! For me, it is keeping all the baby stuff from DD1 for DD2. A part of me really looks forward to being able to donate that huge pile of stuff, and part of me will be sad to see it go.</p> <p>Both of my parents were pack rats, and I have worked hard not to follow in their footsteps. My sister thinks. Purge too much, too frequently. But in all the years, I have only ever missed 2 things I purged. Both were repurchased for less than $50 combined. Fair trade, I thnk. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299096 Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:17:46 +0000 April 1299096@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Ingunn, I so understand this. &nbsp;I'll be selling the house I've lived in for 20 years next year when DS leaves for college, and I feel like I've been working on getting it ready for a couple of years now. &nbsp;</p> <p>I also just went through the process with our Connecticut house, which we're selling. &nbsp;Let me say, it was already very minimal -- almost no clutter -- and even then it was a big, exhausting job to get every nook and cranny cleared out and everything "staged", as they say, for potential buyers. &nbsp;</p> <p>We put a ton of items on Freecycle, tossed a bunch more, and reconfigured others. &nbsp;And I'm not kidding when I say our house was already pretty empty. &nbsp;(The real estate agents said we needed to&nbsp;<i>bring some stuff in</i> to make it look like someone lived there.) &nbsp;Ha. &nbsp;Nonetheless, there was plenty of stuff squirreled away that had to be dealt with.</p> <p>That cupboard that my techie husband had filled to the brim with computer&nbsp;cables, electronic bits and bobs, and components that we weren't using anymore. &nbsp;Those computers whose hard drives we never had time to properly destroy. &nbsp;My father-in-law's boxes and boxes of photo slides from the 1950s and 60s&nbsp;that no one has a projector for. &nbsp;The endless boxes of financial documents that we don't need but that would take forever to shred. &nbsp;</p> <p>Perhaps that list sounds somewhat familiar to you at this point. &nbsp;:)</p> <p> </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1299015 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 22:47:41 +0000 amiable 1299015@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I feel owned by my stuff too, and am starting to work through dealing with it. &nbsp;Today I donated 5 boxes of books to the library, and three bags of clothes to the mission. &nbsp;I prepared three more boxes of books and two more bags of clothes, and haven't even started in on my closet (they were kids clothes). &nbsp;My basement is definitely cleaner, but there's so much more to go! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1298866 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 19:30:26 +0000 rachylou 1298866@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Ohmigosh, I don't. I speak to you from under a pile of stuff, lol. Every day I look around for something to toss. Sadly, I've gotten to the point where it's all in use and I'm still buried over my head... </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1298718 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 17:02:00 +0000 MsMary 1298718@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I feel for you, Ingunn!</p> <p>My former husband was a huge packrat and I used to feel so oppressed by all his stuff!&nbsp; I solved that problem by literally running away from home with only the belongings I really really cared about and needed!&nbsp; LOL </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1298669 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 16:19:00 +0000 Ingunn 1298669@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Thank you, both! Yes, I raised my children here, and there has been a lot of life to that. Wonderful memories have gone to the landfill - no, not the memories, but the pieces I connected them with. Fortunately the memories stay.&nbsp;I have a box or two with baby clothes, too, pil, and I haven't even opened it yet. I have edited it down earlier, to a manageable size, and I'm prone to keep what I have left. Who knows, I might have grandchildren one day.</p> <p>The day after tomorrow the photographer comes to take pics for the sales prospect. After that, I'm having a week off in my own home, which is very rare, and it will be shining, which is even rarer </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1298663 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 16:13:23 +0000 Glory 1298663@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I often feel this way and cannot believe how full our house is. However, I think you should not be too hard on yourself. You raised your children in this house as I recall and it makes sense that you would have accumulated lots of "life" in that process.<br />Good luck and take lots of breaks. There is an end in sight. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1298653 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 16:02:27 +0000 pil 1298653@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Wishing you much success with this, Ingunn. Do I ever hear you! We have been working on cleaning out a walk in closet and the extra bedroom that has been used as storage. So much to contend with. Of course it's so easy to be derailed while sorting - especially going through the big box of baby items. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/preparing-our-home-for-sale#post-1298634 Wed, 09 Jul 2014 15:47:58 +0000 Ingunn 1298634@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Hi all,</p> <p>I'm in the middle of a major house cleanup to get our home ready for sale in the beginning of next month. Oh dear, it is a huge amount of work! We have spent hours cleaning out the basement, closets and practically everything between the floor and ceiling, and I'm getting very tired of looking at a lot of stuff I don't understand why we acquired in the first place.&nbsp;</p> <p>Note to self 1: Don't ever let yourself temporarily store random stuff "just in case", but get it out as soon as you are done with it.</p> <p>Note to self 2: Think more before you buy, stupid. Do you REALLY need it? Will it be garbage in less than a year?&nbsp;</p> <p>I think it's scary that I contribute this much to landfills and pollution. What do you do to stay on top of your belongings? Right now, I feel <i>they</i> control <i>me</i>.</p>