Argh!!! Sometimes I just want to throw everything away

[minisaremighty]

And I wouldn't have a fraction of the amount of stuff I currently have!!!

:

:

: I'm in the beginning stages of preparing our house for sale :517:

: What a HUGE undertaking this is!!!! We are clutter masters and I have a 3000 sf home with 6 clutter freaks living in it that I have to clean up! After all the clutter is cleared and removed (no, I'm not really looking to put any of it away, I just want it all GONE, so it's going to Goodwill or the dump) I have to paint the entire house inside (one room has 17' ceiling!). Then I'm going to tear out all the carpet myself and put in tile in the 4 bathrooms and one hall (fortunately, a carpet layer will be putting in the carpet). I'm going to replace all the toilets, bathroom sinks/faucets and all lighting fixtures throughout the house.

Then there will be the exterior work. OMG. :no: There is NO landscaping. So I will be putting in grass and other landscaping, weather permitting. Clean up all the "clutter" outside. Clean and stain two huge decks. Build a small deck at the front door (and stain it). Finish a treehouse and finally paint a two-story playhouse.

On top of all this (there is much more that I didn't mention) I am selling all my livestock. No more horses or goats for us for a long while. :no: Oh and first I have to kid out 3 goat does. Gonna miss all my critters :no:

I get to do the majority of all this work by myself since I'm home full time and hubby has to work overtime for a good while (which is good, we could use the extra money).

I just needed to vent and whine a little bit. I have soooooo much to do and a deadline of May to get it all done. :new_shocked: I am just having such a hard time getting my butt in gear with the de-cluttering. It is taking longer than it should.

: We need it to look like a "model home" when I'm done for the price we are hoping to get. I also have to find time to buy nice furniture too. Ours is soooooo old that even with no clutter, the room looks horrid.

Oh well, I just hope we can sell this place for a pretty penny and be able to move on (our goal is to be mortgage free

: and I think we just might be able to pull it off!). On the plus side, when we move, I won't have any clutter!!!! :aktion033:

Thanks for listening

:

 

[royalview]

Kathy I know how you feel. I have a 200 yr old farmhouse that we are trying to put on the market. It is overwelming!! I dont even know where to begin. we started by boxing up everything we we going to keep but were not using and putting it in storage. I had a yard sale last fall and got rid of alot of big stuff but I am throwing away all of my old junky furniture. Finally my kids know how to make the food get to the mouth hole instead of the furniture and the floor and I think for the first time I can get new furniture. It is a huge project but I cant imagine any other way to do it. Good Luck!! Kath

 

[minisaremighty]

Boxes!! That's what I need. We've decided to put our KEEP stuff in storage too (we've got boxes and boxes of books and photos, etc.). But I have a lot of stuff that is not in boxes yet. I just need to get some and pack up what I truly want, then the rest is give away or dump!! We did the garage sale last year too but didn't have much luck being so far out of town.

LOL!! I hear you about the kids and furniture!!! I'm opting for leather this time though. No more fabric furniture for me. The doggies will get to learn a new trick too! How to lay on their BEDS instead of the couch! LOL!

Good luck to you to Kath!! I know it will all be worth it in the end, it's just the long road to getting there!

: :bgrin

 

[justaboutgeese]

I am supposed to have this place ready to show on two hours notice. That means I should be living in a hotel room with the two dogs !!!!! It has been a good motivation to cull some collectables that have been stored in boxes for years. I used to think this was a small house but bigger than it needs to be. I see a storage locker in my future.

 

[Miniv]

As you know Kathy, been there and done that! Not that long ago......

HINT: For boxes -- go to the Post Office and get a bunch of #7 size priority mail boxes.....they are free, a good size for easy lifting, and you can re-use them for what they are intended for in the future.

MA

 

[minisaremighty]

I am supposed to have this place ready to show on two hours notice. That means I should be living in a hotel room with the two dogs !!!!!

:new_shocked: :no: I know how you feel! When we do get it on the market, I will have 4 kids home for the summer and two dogs and we'll all need to vacate every time it will be shown. How on earth I'm going to keep it clean while all the kids are home, I don't know!!! :new_shocked: :new_shocked:

As you know Kathy, been there and done that! Not that long ago......

HINT: For boxes -- go to the Post Office and get a bunch of #7 size priority mail boxes.....they are free, a good size for easy lifting, and you can re-use them for what they are intended for in the future.

MA

Oh yes, and you had a BIG house! How you got it all into your cute little farmhouse I don't know! LOL!! :bgrin

That's a good tip about boxes. I ship stuff all the time with my ebay sales. And most everything I currently need to pack is stuff that will be moved into the next house.

 

[CKC]

I feel for you. I just started de-cluttering my house. My husband is NOT a clutter bug. I found an ebay trading assistant that lives really close(lucked out) I drop my junk on her front porch and she researches it, prices it, sells it collects the money and sends me a check. This is stuff I could care less about. So why not try and make some money.

 

[minisaremighty]

I feel for you. I just started de-cluttering my house. My husband is NOT a clutter bug. I found an ebay trading assistant that lives really close(lucked out) I drop my junk on her front porch and she researches it, prices it, sells it collects the money and sends me a check. This is stuff I could care less about. So why not try and make some money.

I do have an EBAY pile going. I finally de-cluttered my desk yesterday, so now I can list some of it this weekend! :aktion033: I totally agree, might as well get some money out of some of it since garage sales just don't fly out in my area.

:

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Hire Marty!!! :bgrin

 

[Miniv]

Kath,

We did two yard sales before our move, plus LOTS of E-Bay selling. I STILL have a big box marked "E-Bay" that I haven't gotten into yet!

:

We also moved tons of stuff into storage early on so things weren't so cluttered for showing the house. Oh! And you might try the garage sale thing NOW. People are HUNGRY for Garage Sales this time of year!

Please be careful about just how much work you put into the house. I've read lots of real estate advice on what to do and not to do over the years.... what pays off and what doesn't. I suppose your mom may know some of that. Painting, and simple landscaping is usually a good thing, but expensive replacements of major fixtures can backfire because of people's personal taste.

Our carpeting needed to be replaced, but our realtor(s) -- the two we dealt with over the two years -- both said carpeting was very personal and we should plan on offering a carpet replacement allowence in the listing. We ended up doing some painting inside and out, stained the decks, and spruced up the landscaping immediately around the house.

As it turned out, the new buyers tore out the carpeting, replaced all the tile counters, replaced the stove and dishwasher, plus did some other changes.

MA

 

[minisaremighty]

Oh, don't worry Maryann! I'm not doing anything that I don't feel truly needs to be done. For instance, the heating system is "tired", but I'm certainly not going to replace it! But the toilets are original 1970 and desperately need replacing. I'm just putting in the least expensive stuff I can that will look nice and new and won't break the bank, but will help "sell" much better than it currently is. As for the carpet, I thought I'd have a realtor out before we go that far, just to be sure. But the bathroom carpets HAVE to go. They are NASTY and in my opinion, there shouldn't be CARPET in bathrooms in the first place!

I think I'm more overwhelmed by the de-cluttering than anything! LOL!! I don't truly have enough left for a garage sale now, it's mostly down to junk as I donated the left over garage sale stuff last fall. :bgrin

 

[wcr]

Hey Kathy,

Looks like you have your work cut out for you. Lots of hard work but the mental rewards you get from uncluttering your life is unbelievable. I have gone through every drawer, nook and cranny and got rid of everything that wasn't absolutely necessary to my life. Very freeing.

I have thought out what my plans are when I leave this place and have decided to have an auction company come in and auction everything off. Yard sales drive me nuts. When I make my move I will keep only what is irreplacable and buy all new when I decide to settle down again.

Good luck, Kathi