SPRING-Clean Declutter - Need Help

Hi all.

A more relaxed day here.

Another ute load of stuff went today. Some purchased some donated. Guy is going to take about a week to get everything be wants but that is ok. Tractor and container and scrap metal is all going on Thursday. Felt good when the friend came this ave to pick up his next load. Said wow this is looking great. There is a stack more stuff he might buy yet that he found. Just needs to ask his wife. Don't know what the real estate thought when they came for photos. We were not here but it looks completely different to when they appraised and did the valuation.

@Determined fingers crossed the valuation might go up a little for you 😀

@Former-Member, that might be a worthwhile option down the track, but until we've actually been able to look through everything ourselves we don't know what's "unwanted". We've got a pretty good idea by now of what's in the house, but our Dad's shed is packed full, to the point where there's a narrow walkway in, but no access to most of what's there. We suspect we could furnish the house over again from its contents, as long as we were happy to eat at a well used but very solidly made workbench... He was mostly very orderly about how he stored his things, but he had a lot of them. The shed may turn out to be where the stuff we really want is, for the most part. The house furnishings are either "heirlooms" or "junk" with not much that's in between, so those things have been the easy part of the decision making.

Everywhere we look, there's lots of clutter but a few real treasured pieces mixed into it. Even among the scrap metal, we found a complete antique fireplace fender, and parts of a second one. We'll probably take the "parts" one for our Victorian era house, and let my sister have the complete one. We also found some classic car parts, and owning a classic ourselves, we know that they will be snapped up quickly by enthusiasts.

Bleah.... sorry, it's all pretty overwhelming. So many decisions to make, and with so much else going on in the family, it gets to the point where the brain just shuts down. I'm seriously considering the idea of doing neat outdoor stacks of whatever's either rubbish or weatherproof enough not to matter, just so that we can clearly see what's what. We started doing that with some of the items from the "scrap metal" corner, and it was good to be able to easily look over it with my sister and go "Well, I'd like that and that, this will be worth selling, that's junk".

Sounds like a big job @Smc

Even bigger than ours and we have unloaded so much.

@Former-Member our clean up won't change the listing price but the real estate agent did say it will make it much easier to sell and hopefully get a price above listed. Our first open house is booked in for this Saturday. I just filled another wheelie bin out of my office tonight.

While a lot of what I have gotten rid of has been very hard at the same time it has been so freeing. Cant explain it but I just feel so good about it all after has gone.

I have found it liberating too @Determined, but the best thing is we have been able to maintain tidiness in the rooms we have cleared too which I am ever so pleased about. Have only taken about 5 things from FIL and will be applying my one thing in, two out rule when we get home.

My scrap metal pile at our front gate has been reducing despite me being unable to contact the scrap yard for pickup. Someone has asked if they can have an old roller door. Someone else has *taken some steel car rims and a lady asked this afternoon if she could take some mower parts. Putting everything on the footpath has its advantages lol.

*Had to fix the spelling. Was trying to ignore it but it got the better of me and I had to fix it lol.

That happens a lot around our town, @Determined. People put stuff out, then put up a "free- no holds" post on the local facebook page.

We were interested in picking up a damaged sideboard recently- old Victorian or Edwardian, a bit beyond repairs, but beautiful old hardwood timbers. Would have been lovely stuff to use in our planned house rebuild, but we didn't have time to go and get it. Having been through flooding, we found old timber is quite resilient even when totally saturated. Modern timber not so. It warps and splits really badly. So we're planning on using "reclaimed" old timber wherever possible.

Heard about a fellow that put a sofa out with a "free" sign on it and there it stayed. He then put a "donation to charity" sign on it and the next morning it had disappeared @Determined

Another trailer load ready for the dump today.

Another car load to charity op shop

Got rid of a trailer load of old car batteries and some old arc welders. And it seems my scrap metal pile has further reduced overnight.

While I am feeling good with how things have progressed and how good our place is now looking and I feel extremely blessed with the help we have had to achieve this in such a short amount of time this afternoon I have also been overwhelmed with the fact that I have been too useless to achieve this myself and so reliant on others to achieve this. And that it should have never got to the state of disrepair it has been in in the first place.

Another "well done", and don't kick yourself about it. We're in the same position here, struggling to regain lost ground. It's been years since the house has been anything approaching ordered, but our daughter is still alive ("a bit of a miracle" according to the psychologist I see), and she knows we love her and are there for her. Our other offspring know that despite the pressure we're under, they're not forgotten, and have our love and support. My parents are in a safe place, and while clearing their house is a long, slow and frustrating job, we will get there somehow. In the end, the people that you've been there for and will continue to be there for are the really important thing.