I’ll preface this post by saying organizing and striving for efficiencies in both my personal and work life are the things that make me tick and give me satisfaction. And, if I do say so myself, I’m, pretty darn good at keeping things under control!
But, then again, maybe not…read on.
On a recent Sunday morning drive through our neighborhood on the way home from church , we noticed a For Sale sign posted at the entrance of a twin home complex. To my surprise, RC said, “let’s drive in and see what’s for sale.”
Now, I’m not sure I’ve even expressed it out loud, but recently, I’ve fantasized about moving into a twin home/townhouse type of dwelling, and leaving the work of maintaining a single-family home behind…in particular, leaving behind the maintenance of the exterior of the premises and taking care of the yard/gardens. We do love our back yard and during suitable weather, spend a good amount of time on our patio enjoying the gardens and grass. However, as I like to say, we have created a monster – it takes a lot of hard work (manual labor) to keep everything looking nice. My back, for one, often rebels when I’ve spent time planting, weeding, pruning, etc.
So, my fantasy is to move into a place where I have just a nice patio or deck suitable for growing my favorite flowers in a couple of pots – low maintenance!
Also, it would be nice to have someone else be responsible for the exterior of the home and mowing the lawn, shoveling the snow. (RC claims he does still enjoy doing those things.)
As I said, moving is my fantasy and not one, I think, my husband shares. So, I was surprised he wanted to do a drive-by of this twin home that was for sale. Turns out, it was a lovely-looking unit – single story, relatively new structure in a small complex of similar homes.
Well, conveniently, our son and daughter-in-law, Pete and Karen, are in the real estate business. I seized the opportunity to have Karen get me the specific details about the unit being sold. She found it has a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms, a family area, nice kitchen and patio. It would be perfect except for one thing – it has no basement! Not for me so much, but for RC that could be a deal-breaker.
I’m married to a salesman – one who keeps “samples” of his wares and “demo equipment” on hand in his basement, garage and, I might add, his car. A good friend teases me about the fact I won’t allow anyone other than family to see our basement. It is full of stuff and not the tidy, organized basement I assume most other people have.
How will we ever be able to move into a home without a basement?!
This brings me to what I considered to be the topic of this post when I started writing today – lightening the load
I’m speculating we won’t live in our current home for the rest of our lives, however long that might be – 20-25 years if we are really lucky – realistically, probably a shorter time period. I think we should start cleaning out unwanted, un-needed stuff now while we’re able so a move someday can be a much easier process.
I fear I’m in this cleaning out mode by myself. I don’t think RC agrees with my idea of moving someday and he has a hard time parting with things. I will say, since he is still working, there are many items in our basement we can’t get rid of yet.
But, back to my opening paragraph, though I have maybe let things get a little out of control as far as accumulating things, given my personality, I’m having a very satisfying time now, ridding the house of things not needed or useful anymore. Driving by the twin home and checking out its features has given me the impetus to start preparing in the event I ever realize my moving fantasy. Our garbage can and recycling bin were full to the top this week. I have a few boxes ready to go to the Good Will also.
I’ll continue to whittle away at de-cluttering. It entertains me for now; and, perhaps someday we’ll be glad I did lighten our load!
Oh, Maggie, am I there with you. I enjoyed your article so much. I have been after Tom to rid our garage of “sales stuff” which he believes is needed because he still works three times a year. We talk all the time about moving because of the outside maintenance. And this spring the clean out began, and organization, and then….it stopped like it usually does. I think it will go like this: we find a perfect place to purchase and our current home will need to be cleaned out right away. I do believe I need to plan my strategy.
Sometimes I pretend like I’m preparing for an imminent move. Puts me in the frame of mind – what do I really want to move. Finding a place you really want to buy would certainly force the issue of cleaning out, wouldn’t it? Thanks for your comments, Mary.
I love it! I, too, truly get enjoyment out of de-cluttering and re-organizing. Each move we’ve made there’s always been more than I thought to get rid of. This last move was probably the best for getting rid of unused, unwanted stuff. I like to think that if we haven’t used something in a year, consider it gone – doesn’t always work. This goes especially for clothing. Why should I store things that others might be able to really use and benefit from. Jake has a harder time parting with things – maybe it’s a “man thing”.
As I said, I love it!
You’ve definitely experienced some moves over the years, Cheryl. If I ever get in that situation again, I may need your advice how to approach preparing for the move. Thanks for commenting.