Moving and getting rid of junk/stuff!

[Hugh R]

Cleaning out the garage and attic as a start to our move. She's picking out stuff to save. If you haven't thought about it sitting in the attic of this house for 20 years, or it was moved from the attic of the house we lived in for 10 years before that, do you really need it/want to save it?

She's finding stuff to put in the RV that we can "use", I think most of the cabinets are already pretty full. I think she wants to turn the RV into a new attic.

[Taz's Master]

Life's life. If that stuff helps make her happy, how big an obstacle is it to your happiness? This is a big move/change, I can only imagine the stress.

[JavaBrewer]

Storage Facility in BFE. If it's been in the attic for 20 years you don't need it in the RV. When we downsized a few years ago we cut our sq/ft in half and actual storage even more. We have ~ 10 medium boxes of "memories" related to the kids in our attic. The rest I dumped on the sly. She never asked to see it before...

[rockfan4]

Problem solved.

Seriously, we've talked about moving to a warmer climate when we retire, and I have no idea what we're going to do with 90% of this stuff. Probably the same thing you're doing.

[Hugh R]

Nice looking RV, what is that? Yeah, tax records in boxes going back 30 years,(my employer will do free shredding on those). 30 or more years of paperback and hard back books, text books from College 39 years ago, Unbelievable amount of stuff/junk. I can seen keeping a few Statistics, Chemistry and other technical text books, since I still work in the engineering field, but....

Save the original artwork, fine furniture, family heirlooms, I get that. But junk, junk, junk gotta go.

[dmcummins]

When we were getting ready to move I told the wife that everything had to fit into a 26' uhaul.

We let the kids, reatives, and friends have first crack at the furniture. All free, but they had to haul it off. Sold or gave away much of the rest. Our new house is just as large as our old one, and accationally I'll miss a tool or something. But we should have gotten rid of more, I'm sure I've put stuff into the attic that we will never see again.

We gave the kids some other stuff that they were going to inherit anyway. Now when we leave this house there really is nothing we really worry about losing. It's just stuff, and we have insurance.

But it's been three years and I've noticed we are accumulating again.

[Gogar]

Shredding tax papers feels ReALLY good.

[Crowbob]

I have a rule that gets broken like all the rest of my rules. Nevertheless, the rule is that when something new comes into the house, something old leaves it.

It works in theory.

[craigster59]

I'll take the books, I can use it as set dressing. None of that porn stuff though!

[Hugh R]

Sorry, already tossed.

[wdfifteen]

We have gotten rid of massive amounts of stuff in the past 6 months. We don't miss a thing. If you can buy it later IF you need it - get rid of it

[Baz]

Books and clothing are hard to get rid of. I've made an effort myself to sift through what I have accumulated over the past 20 years I have been in this house.

It's a mindset more than anything else.....

[Evans, Marv]

Did giving away your garage things jump start this? It's a good thing. We've pared down a lot of our stuff, and one advantage I have is that I don't have an attic. One thing I did last year was to take old photos and slides to Costco and have them transfer them to DVD's. Then I packed away those I wanted to keep & tossed the rest. Felt good.

[red-beard]

When I moved out of West Stockbridge, I found boxes from college, that I packed in 1988.

[rockfan4]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Nice looking RV, what is that?

I just googled "Motorhome Stacker trailer" and went with that pic. I know motorhomes have basements, but that trailer gives you an attic for all your stuff.

After a quick search it looks like it's a Beaver Monterey, looks like it has slides on both sides.

I'm struggling with what to do with old family photos, I suppose the answer is to scan them, but that takes time and I have trouble letting go of a physical photo.

[flatbutt]

My kids will need to have an "estate" sale when I die. Cleaning out my house will be a nightmare!

[Baz]

Personally, I am of the opinion that personal and family photos are worth the trouble to keep. I have a couple boxes of them and I keep thinking if there's ever a fire (God forbid) I want to grab those - along with my pups of course.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

My kids will need to have an "estate" sale when I die. Cleaning out my house will be a nightmare!

Going to estate sales is one of several factors that made my wife and I decide to do a massive downsizing. We'd walk through some of these houses and, well, they looked a lot like our own Tons of 'stuff'. Not hoarders by any means, but just accumulated stuff. Material stuff that is absolutely meaningless to us at this stage of our lives.

The tough part is actually getting rid of it all. We've been working on it for over 2 years and are just finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Even giving it away is hard work and time-consuming. It's liberating to not own anything but a few essentials. When we're done, my entire wardrobe will fit in a duffel bag.

BTW, I've heard from many people who go full-time in an RV and fill a couple of storage units with 'stuff' they just don't want to get rid of but don't have room to take with them. In every case, after a year or 2 they sold off everything in the storage units as well and never looked back.

[mrbeverlyhills]

letgo.com

If you have it your area its amazing what other people will pay to make your junk, their junk.

[Tobra]

Y'all need to wear masks when you go in the attic and other dusty spaces.