Being Ruthless
Should it Stay or Should it Go?
Bringing a Minimum of Junk
When we moved into this house in 1996 from our place in New Jersey, we did a really good job purging all the stuff we no longer needed. We were ruthless. So, when we got here, we had a minimum of junk, and more space than we knew what to do with. We’d gone from 960 square feet to 2,200.
Accumulation Through the Years
Over the years, 23 in all, we’ve managed to fill most of that space up with junk. Many times, over the past 15 years or so, I have set out to declutter the basement. Usually what wound up happening was, all the junk would just move from one room in the basement to another. I would organize it better, make it look like less junk than it really was — but the volume of it never really went down. It continued to grow.
Now, we’re making a move we never thought we’d be making. Up until two weeks ago, we truly thought we’d be living in this place until we were taken out, feet first. Then, suddenly, that all changed.
Houses Under Contract
Now, we have the home of our dreams under contract in Fredericksburg, and this old house is under contract in Vienna, both going for the respective listed prices.
We at first weren’t worried about all this junk, since we weren’t expecting to be showing the house to anyone. We’d listed it as a tear-down, so what people would really be buying is the lot location. We sit on a choice piece of property in one of the best spots in town. Tear-downs, especially in our immediate neighborhood, have become much more common when older houses like ours get sold. (Our house was built in 1956, when I was just 2!)
Getting Ready to Show
However, when the first potential buyer backed out after their builder said the demo costs would be too great for them to be able to afford to build their dream home here, we realized we might have to show it, after all. I took a few days off work, starting with today, to start getting ruthless with our junk.
The timing was good, as the buyer who is now under contract wanted to do a walk-through this evening. I got a ton of work done in the laundry room and my work room (for years, it’s been more like the Junk Room — now, it’s beginning to look like a work room, again). I was actually able to sweep and mop the floor back there — there hasn’t been enough floor showing to do that in years!
The Buyer’s still not sure whether he’s going to do a tear-down/rebuild, or renovate the existing structure, with an addition, as well — so, he wanted to see the inside, just in case.
I hope to finish that room by tomorrow — I at least had it so it didn’t look too bad when the buyers came through. They seemed to like what they saw.
Loading the Pod
A pod will arrive tomorrow, which I’ll start filling up with all the stuff we’ll need down in our new place, but that we won’t need in our first month or two. Once I fill it up, they’ll take it to storage, then deliver it when we’re ready. This will greatly reduce the stress of the actual move, and give us an opportunity to do what we did when we moved here from Jersey — declutter.
I feel like my muscle memory from that move has kicked in as I finally seem capable of shedding some of the unneeded junk we have. It’s definitely all in the head, but I’m feeling a different kind of energy this time, like I’m actually confident I’ll get it done. Granted, I had to struggle through some frustrating thoughts when I was just starting on the laundry room — the old, familiar thoughts of “It’s just too much — I’ll never get this done.” But, I managed to push through them, and now, at the end of the day, I can savor how much progress I made today.
A Seven-Mile Day
My Apple Watch tells me I walked 7 ½ miles today, most of it in the house. I climbed 54 flights of stairs.
I can feel the load lightening already. While the house in Fredericksburg has close to twice the square footage of this place — I don’t want to bring any unnecessary junk with us that will just sit and accumulate dust down there. I’m being ruthless.
I can’t wait until this is all done.
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