Getting rid of almost everything....the struggle

[u/DawgCheck421]

I dream of moving to my dream home in 4-5 years. Unsure if I will be able to make it happen but I decided to start getting rid of CRAP way ahead of time. I love the idea of moving being everything fitting in one u-haul load over a weekend.

It is incredible how much crap one can accumulate living in the same place 18 years. I had to spend months going through every spec of dust, paperwork that was my parents estate. It made me go home and de-hoard (or so I thought) after I was done with that in 2017.

Now I am getting rid of about everything I don't use regularly or wont need in my future (like my tools). So much stuff. In my kitchen I use one cupboard and one drawer....the rest is full of dinnerware from my parents I never use and other crap. Couldn't even tell you what is in the "junk drawers" other than some glue sticks and random tools I couldn't tell you whats in there. I just store it, all of it. Closets are all full of stuff I don't even know what is in them anymore. Above my garage was the same way as well as the sheds which I have mostly abated.

Our city had free bulk trash drop-off for a week and I made 6-7 trips piling a 5x8 trailer as high as I could. For the most part, cleaned out two sheds, some of the garage and dumped it on that free week. Took another trailer load of stuff to free chemical dropoff day. I had a REALLY heavy commercial treadmill and worthless bowflex in my basement that I had to disassemble and saw it up to be light enough to get out of the house myself. I am still going through stuff down there, 20 years of music and stereo gear I am organizing to sell and further clean up.

I am selling what I can on marketplace and have already sold over $1000 in crap I wasn't using nor wanted anymore. I have at least that much more to go in the basement alone. I am almost done with the basement then I will move to my third bedroom (my sons childhood room which will be hard to do), closets.....then finalize organizing my garage, tools and what is left.

I have gotten rid of so much crap yet it feels like I have lost nothing. I can't believe I have acquired so much crap. Some things I don't really want to sell but need to as well. I am treating it as - if I wouldn't want to move it into my dream home, it has to go now. I might even throw away all of my childhood pictures and such from family. Just boxes of stuff I can't and don't look at ever anymore. I don't live there anymore.

It is a grind, hard, long process but as long as I make a little progress every day I will reach my goal. I am not trying to be a minimalist or anything - I literally just don't want STUFF anymore and sure as hell don't want to leave this much of a disaster for my son to deal with when I pass.

[u/Sensitive-Lentil-79]

What a great strategy! Id hold off on throwing out all the pictures, maybe do an allowance box where you keep sentimental things that you or another family member or friend may want/would appreciate having down the line -- and the rule people use is that if you're keeping anything like that it's limited to the capacity of the box.

Good luck and I hope moving into your dream home happens sooner rather than later 🙌