Since I'll be starting in a new position at a new school in the fall, we're starting the process of selling our house (and buying another). Some of the "pre-listing" things we have to do involve putting a bit of paint here and there, putting down new linoleum in the bathroom to cover the stains, etc...
But the rest involves getting rid of as much clutter as we can so the house looks neater and is easier to tidy up if we hear that we have a showing on short notice. Getting rid of the clutter also makes the house (and the closets) look a lot larger.
Unfortunately, we have two children (ages 5 & 7), and the Unknown Wife doesn't like to throw stuff away in the normal course of things. So, this weekend we're going through each kid's room for spring cleaning & pre-move packing. If they play with a toy often, it stays out. If it's important to them but they use it infrequently, it gets boxed up, labeled, and put in the basement. The rest of the stuff gets either thrown out or donated to the local thrift store.
We're doing a similar dance with clothing, except that winter things get packed away. My goal is that we can eliminate (either temporarily to the basement or permanently) between half and 2/3 of their stuff.
So far, we've gone through the Unknown Son's room, and it only took about an hour. It's amazing how much more roomy it looks with all the unneeded stuff out of the way. The Unknown Daughter, however, is a bit of a pack rat (and she's figured out that she can hide stuff under the bed). So it'll probably take a couple of hours to go through her room, and the Unknown Wife and I will end up arguing about things a lot more (I'll be on the side of tossing things out, and the Unknown Wife on the side of keeping them because they're "special").
Ain't moving grand? They say two moves is as good as a fire as far as getting rid of things.
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