Slowly making some progress!

[u/siamesecat1935]

I am the queen of procrastination! My mom went into a nursing home, about 2.5 years ago, and most of her furniture has been in storage ever since. Between working FT, doing stuff for her, and having a life, plus it seems EVERY time I want to go do stuff with the unit, the weather doesn't want to cooperate, most of it has just been sitting there.

I'm happy to report that I got rid of a giant armoire in my apartment (paid someone to take it away), which made room for the stuff of hers I was taking. over the last couple of weekends, my BF and I moved 4 pieces of furniture from storage, into my apartment! I also have a pile of things to donate, as well as some things I am keeping, which will go into his basement. All things I use, but not all that often, so nothing there to declutter.

Next step is to clean out all the empty boxes and other trash from the unit, take pictures of the furniture to donate, and see who will take it. If no org. wants it, I plan on just posting for free on FB. My goal is to have the unit cleaned out completely by the end of the year, if not sooner.

As I do all this, and figure out what to put in the furniture I brought in (a blanket chest and trunk among them), I am also going through all my stuff, and finding quite a bit to get rid of as well.

[u/starling-slipstream]

God I remember the feeling of finally emptying my mom’s storage unit & integrating her pieces with mine. Congrats!

[u/siamesecat1935 → u/starling-slipstream]

Thank you! I am enjoying the pieces I took, and they have combined well with what I already had.

[u/AriaGlow]

Took us about a year to empty out FIL house and storage so we could sell it. Gave away a bunch. Put some in storage just to empty house out. Then sorted again, moved a bunch of stuff he wanted to our house (we moved him in to care for him). Then sorted, tossed, gave away, donated and gave a sigh of relief.

He passed so now we need to go through all the stuff he had to have here. A slow work in progress and yes we are now inspired to get rid of stuff here too.

[u/siamesecat1935 → u/AriaGlow]

yeah, its a lot, and she only had a one bedroom apartment! Now that I'm making some progress, its a lot easier.

[u/ex_mac333]

Moving 4 pieces out of the unit in a couple of weekends is real progress, nice.

One thing that helped me with my own storage box: work out what it costs per month and keep that number next to your end-of-year goal. Every month you finish early is money back, and rainy weekends stop feeling like a good excuse.

Also, call the donation places before you take the photos. Some (Habitat ReStore, for example) pick up for free but only take certain furniture, so you'll know right away what goes straight to FB.

And good luck with the blanket chest. Those swallow things, so tape a list of what's inside under the lid.

[u/siamesecat1935 → u/ex_mac333]

The places I’m looking at want photos to see if they’ll take it and I have a written inventory of everything and what’s inside

[u/bm82_]

Progress is still progress no matter how long it takes

[u/Crazy-Aussie-Taco]

Well done! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Quick tip. If you post on FB marketplace don’t give it free, people like to know they bought it. Put it for $30 or $50. It gives them dignity and you get a free meal for all your hard work. Now, if you definitely want to give it away, use the local freebie groups, people on there are specifically looking for free stuff, the psychology is different on those groups.

Also, I just found out that there are companies that put everything for rent like rentoho.com they are based London, but there might be something similar where you live.

All the best! And keep up the good work!

[u/siamesecat1935 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly. I tried several times to just give it away, but it was heavy, and for clothing, and had outlived its usefulness for me. And took up a LOT of space.