Organizing After a Move

Sitting at the (very loved) table with my oldest son and hubby
playing cards with the sweet scent of a "Sweet Potato" candle.

I know that many of you have moved quite a bit more often than I have as an adult.  You could be a military family or your husband or wife's job relocates you every couple of years.  So, this post is probably "preaching to the choir" as they say.  For me, though, it is sweet reflection over the past year's journey, making realizations about myself and my family.

I started decluttering years ago, thankfully.  I have been using the FLYlady method of doing things since September 8, 2001.  That's a very long time!  Now, I haven't been "gung ho" all the time at every single step of the way, but it has certainly helped me to keep most of the clutter at bay.  [Confession:  As I type this, there are papers cluttering up my coffee table that Lord only knows where they come from!  It's all good though because I know that my young adults can go through it and decide what needs to be kept and what needs to be pitched and take care of it for me!]

I began decluttering in earnest preparation for our move south probably in October 2014.  I had requested at that time a firm answer from my husband whether or not he'd be retiring the following May so that I could make plans to either stay or move.  [Thankfully, he chose to retire.]  I started with books.  I knew that once I went through all the books on the book shelves, getting them put in to boxes to sell, it would be easier to pack up the ones that I wanted to keep.  I went through them with the young folks so that I didn't throw away anything that they wanted.  Surprisingly, they released more than I ever thought they were willing to release!  I was so glad!  This was an ongoing process, too.  I didn't do it all at once because I needed to have surgery in February 2015.  Once I felt like doing things, I had the kids bring me more books that I went through while sitting on the floor.  They did the heavy lifting for me, taking the boxes once packed and labelled to the attic to get them out of the way.  Once the shelves were empty, I gave the shelves to a friend to use.  The books we no longer wanted were sold at our homeschool group's book sale and whatever didn't sell went to Goodwill, never to enter the house again!  Oddly enough, there were more books stashed throughout the house that I needed to get rid of too.  I put those in our yard sale.

The yard sale:  We had a yard sale for 2 weekends, getting rid of lots of stuff.  Once that was over, we packed the leftovers up and took them to a storage unit where a local lady stored leftover yard sale times to sell for a charity.  Those things never came back in to the house.  [Are you noticing a trend yet?]

Once all those things were gone, we started to pack up the house in earnest.  We were still finding things to pitch.  I went through every paper I could find to either file or burn.  We burned a lot of stuff from the garage, so it wasn't a big deal to burn more.

We still had a "give away" pile and we found ourselves giving more stuff away still.  The plan was to sell or give away most of our furniture except for a few pieces that were meaningful to us as gifts from grandparents, or they were antiques.  We ended up keeping one love seat instead of giving it away because that friend didn't have room for it in her new house.  It was a godsend, though.  We have seating here in our living room for it! :0)

Once all of our things arrived here in GA, the unpacking commenced.  I found things that I forgot I had, made a home for them and moved on to the next thing.  I also found things that made me scratch my head and wonder "Why on earth did I keep that?" and put it in the give away box.  Every so often we get the opportunity to bless someone with the contents of our give away box.  We had double just about everything since we had 2 kitchens in PA.  So when we heard of a family who needed things due to a fire, we purged even more!  It felt good too! :0)

I am finding that as I go through boxes, I relive old memories of when that item was purchased or given to us. A lot of times I still find myself saying, "Why on earth did I keep that?!"  I'd love to say that right now everything has a home and everything is in it's place, but it isn't.  I have more shelving and storage to buy to make that happen.  I am saving for some nice storage because it will be in my office where those items go.

I know that there will be times when something isn't fitting right where I put it and I'll think about how to do it differently and it will bug me until I figure it out, but eventually it will happen.  Sometimes I will find something that will fit "just right" at a yard sale to help me get something organized.  It is a wonderful way to adjust to fit the new space.

I am also finding that the organizing of my home after the move began "before" the move.  Ten years worth of accumulated stuff was dwindled down considerably in a matter of weeks, but it continues to be dwindled still, as I continue to get through those not so essential items to get things organized and feeling more like "home."

I'd love to show you what I'm doing differently here (for a variety of reasons) than when we were in PA.  I'll save that for the next post, though.  A little hint is given in the picture above.  :0)

God Bless,