Moving House

My house became like one of those plastic puzzles that only has one square open 
except those squares were boxes of stuff from another family, era or time.. 

Moving House

Moving, it's the pits. The actual process of packing and sorting and boxing and unpacking seems to take forever. And if you are moving someone else's things, it is even harder. I feel like I am an expert at this now-- as it has taken up much of my time in the past 5 years.

I have lived in two different homes and I seem to be moving things back and forth every season. Finally one day it all stopped and everything ended up right back where I started. My house became like one of those plastic puzzles that only has one square open except those squares were boxes of stuff from another family, era or time..

So what to do with all of this stuff that we have accumulated? Four piles; Keep, Donate, Sell, Recycle..

This is a time of great movement in the United States. The baby boomers are down sizing, their parents are dying, their children are moving out and the demand for housing is greater than the supply..

Everyone wants a beautiful crib and they don't make things like they used to.. Home Depot and Lowes are killing it and today the yard sale, tag sale, estate sale, flea market business is worth over a billion dollars in the United States..

There are many venues for your ancestors/old things; Salvation Army and Goodwill now have drive through drop offs. In many states there are clothes and shoes bins for education. Local listings on the internet and in the paper can be found for donations needed for ski and skate sales, tag sales and yard sales.

If you live in a highly populated area, you should use their recycling facilities as they charge a lot less than a transfer station in a smaller town. You can bring things like old computers, televisions, fans and appliances that someone else may be able to fix or recycle for parts.

It's a great time for movers and shakers..but movers charge a bundle so beware and plan accordingly.

If you can drive a truck big enough to handle all of your wares, you can save a lot of money on your move. We hired some young men to load all of the heavy furniture into a UHaul truck and we packed the rest ourselves.

When we reached our destination, we unpacked the truck ourselves and then hired a young man to help get the heavy pieces into the garage and upstairs. All in all, by doing most of the work ourselves and driving our own truck we saved 3K on a 200 mile move.

There are many venues for items recovered from an old house and using your fingers via the phone or the internet will save you lots of time and money. And the old adage is true -- Less really is more.