Stuff Like Whoa

Here's an interesting exercise.  Give away 1/3 of your possessions, decide that another 1/6 is trash.  Then move into a place 2/3 the size of your current home.  Then watch your things multiply!

This was our fatal error: not taking into account the fact that the garage doesn't "count" in the square footage of our house.  So 1500 feet is actually, well, a lot more.

Luckily, the attic space is ample so we aren't in as bad a spot as we thought.  And we do have most of the bigger furniture still on the way (with drawers and cabinets and such).  And there is outside storage.

But we'll be living cozy for a while until both of us decide we can part with some more things.  Or figure out how to condense it all.  For instance, I have a lot of yarn - most of it came from my mom - but it takes up two 17 gallon tubs.  By winding it up in yarn balls I can fit it all in a hanging sweater...thing.  You know, the thing you put in your closet so you can store things vertically.  Yeah, I can fit three times as much yarn in one of those things when it's balled.

Books.  Oh my goodness, the books.  So many of them.  And I've already ditched the duplicate copies (both in hard copies and the ones I have in digital form).  And the ones that I can get for free on my Kindle because they're in the public domain.  And the ones I realistically won't read.  And the ones I can find regularly for 50 cents at a thrift store.  Goodness.

And bedding?  Holy cow, we got rid of extra sheets and blankets and we're STILL busting at the seams.  The only things I refused to part with were the quilt my grandma made me when I was a baby, and a blanket I knitted myself.  We kept 2 sheet sets for each bed - one for warm weather and one for cold - and a blanket and comforter for each.  I think what we'll need to do is assess how well the wood stove works come winter time and then maybe ditch some blankets.

Camping supplies.  Big sigh there.  How is it that this stuff can take up so little room in the back of my little Toyota and then magically increase in volume once it comes time to put it somewhere in the house?

My husband's clothes.  How is it that such a simple man has more clothes than me?  He wears the same 3 things every week!  Luckily we have a dresser coming that should solve that problem.

Ironically, I think the only stuff that takes up LESS room than I had anticipated is my crafting supplies.  Yarn, patterns, fabric, paint, canvas, all of it is pretty compact.

And the moving continues...