No Internet made for a productive day, but wow, did I ever feel disconnected!
Only a few hours after publishing Friday’s post, my Internet went down. Based on the storm we had, it was surprising that was all that went down. Our lights flickered a few times, but thankfully we never lost power. Not much our provider could do as it was the transmitters that had no power. It was pretty much a matter of waiting for the power company to make their repairs.
The first few hours weren’t terrible as I had a boatload of things to do in the house. Admittedly, I did periodically check if it was back up and running. Once I finished with what I initially set out to accomplish and still had no internet, I moved on to purging the house of things we no longer needed. Crazy how much stuff finds its way into ones home!
We have now been in our house for just a little over two years. Before our move, we got rid of a lot of stuff. A safe guestimate would be about 50%! I held a one-day garage sale, had an antique dealer come to our house, donated lots of stuff to the Goodwill and also had Habitat for Humanity come to the house and pick up a trailer full of stuff. We weren’t what I would call packrats. We had a much larger home, plus a 1,200 square foot pole barn, plus an enormous horse barn (which at one time housed 12 horses!), an attached over-sized garage plus various other small sheds. Spending 18 years in one home, things also seem to multiply!
Our current home, while still spacious enough for the two of us and our critters, is much smaller. Additionally, it came partly furnished. There were also things like kitchenware, games, linens, etc., left in the house. Upon moving in, we donated many of these items, but there were a few things I thought we might eventually want to use. I decided that it was time to part ways with whatever we hadn’t used. It only took a couple of hours before I had a trunk full of things to donate. Additionally, I had two full garbage bags of trash.
You know what? This purging of stuff felt good! I like the feeling of having less. Do things look any different in our house? Not really, unless you look in some kitchen cabinets or open a few closet doors. I also know by staying on top of things, we are doing our kids a huge favor. A good friend of mine recently spent well over a month cleaning out her mom’s home. Hopefully it is still many, many years away, but after hearing my friend’s horror story, I don’t want our kids to deal with what she had to contend with.
24+ hours without internet turned out to be a good thing. Although there was a tremendous feeling of disconnect, it gave me undistracted time to focus on things that no doubt would have otherwise remained undone.
It also gave me time to reflect on material things and debt. Both are a lot alike in that they can weigh you down. If you aren’t careful, it can be easy to find yourself overwhelmed. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away, but choosing to take action and do something about it will! One item at a time, one dime at a time, the feeling is truly amazing!
Material possessions and debt, YES, they are a lot alike. I totally get what you’re saying. So sorry to hear about what your good friend went through cleaning out her mom’s house. That seems to be a more and more common story these days. I am enjoying your blog. Glad I came across it!
Thank you, Priscilla. I enjoy reading your blog, too. As for cleaning out a parent’s home, I think it may be an age thing. That generation went through a lot of tough times. As a result, they also tended to hold onto things. I think frugality was also more the norm, which is something many of us could learn from. I’m not looking forward to the day I have to help clean out my dad’s place. The same goes for my mother-in-law’s place. There is little (if anything) I want to take home with me. We already have enough stuff!
in 2013, we moved to from CO to Texas and it took a moving truck, and 2 full trailers full to get his stuff there. In 2014 we moved back to CO and there was in NO WAY I was paying 5,000.00 to get it all back, plus we were moving into an apt and I wasn’t gong to pay to store this crap.
He SOLD it all and it nearly “killed” him. I think we netted 15,000.00 but of course it was worth at least double that. Some of this stuff we had already moved 6 times. Now I am a minimalist at heart and he’s trying but still likes to spend too much on tools and motorcycles.
Still,every season change brings me to de-cluttering and donating anything that I haven’t used. Its VERY freeing! Even if you don’t have much, there is always something that was purchased that wasn’t the best decision.
Funny story…he swore that here was a 2×4′ folding table in the house, I kept saying it wasn’t because I know EVERYTHING that is in the house because 1) I moved us myself this time and set up the house while he was in TX 2) I look at everything at least 4x a year to see what I can get rid of and 3) he has very little here since his stuff is all in Texas. Guess what! He looked everywhere and couldn’t find his table…imagine that!
Isn’t it insane what we will spend just to keep stuff? I figure if you truly needed it, you’d be using it! Don’t blame you a bit for doing with less. I often watch those shows on tiny houses and can’t help but to be intrigued. I love the simplicity of it all.
It is amazing what you accumulate after a lot of years in one place. I could totally (and tried my best) to get rid of stuff, but DH is a packrat/hoarder. Even though he’s neat and organized about it, it’s still TOO much stuff. My mom’s place is really neat and tidy and she still keeps cutting down stuff, even though she didn’t have a lot anyway. Her place will be easy. My inlaws, on the other hand, will be one of those month long jobs, when the time comes. And it’s all junk that will just get thrown away or donated to goodwill. Maybe a few tools DH will want. I told DD that if DH goes after me and she has to deal with all his stuff, she completely has my permission to just sell all the shop stuff in one big lot. Otherwise it would take her years to clean up. Honestly, if he dies before me, that’s what I’m going to do with it all – probably have to pay someone to come and take it all!
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I think that is a great way to handle things. When the time comes to clean up my dad’s place, we will probably have the siblings and the grandkids take what they want (unless a specific item is assigned via the will) and then have a company come get rid of what remains. As for my mother-in-law’s place, I’m staying out of it! I just pray that my Hubby will have the willpower not to bring a bunch of stuff home with him! After hearing what my friend went through with her mom’s place, I absolutely do not want to do that to my kids.
That’s what I will do as well…..one giant sale of his stuff. Both of our mothers are sentimental keepers and I just plan on a dumpster for each of them
I’m with you on that!
When we moved from California to Minneapolis 8 years ago, we were moving from a 2,800 sq. ft. home with 3-car garage and storage to a 950 sq. ft. townhouse with a 2-car tuck under garage. We got rid of a lot of stuff in California and put all the rest in an 8x8x16 moving POD. It’s amazing how much you can pack in these if you do it well.
When we arrived at our townhouse, we still sold or donated a lot more–collections, furniture, tools etc. We overestimated the space we had. Now, we are very careful of clutter and use the one-in-one-out rule. I love the simplicity. And we, too, do not want to burden our children with getting rid of stuff!
That must have been quite a move! Talk about a huge reduction in space. I feel that having less is freeing. I find myself getting rid of more and more items. Your children will thank you for your efforts!