Hoarder or hounder… which are you? The one who can’t throw anything away or the one who is constantly hounding your partner to throw it away?
With a lot of home resale experience as a licensed Realtor, and now a Real Estate Concierge, I have seen my share of homeowners— both sellers and buyers—who just can’t seem to give anything away.
When we decided to downsize a few years ago, I was amazed at how many grocery bags and plastic deli containers I had stowed away in the laundry cupboards.
Some move here and 15-years later, still cannot put their car in the garage because they can’t bear to let go of their mom’s favorite dishes, the kids first blanket, knick-knacks from another bygone era and who knows what else…
The best advice I can give you is to go through those cabinets and storage units out in the garage, assess how many items you have stowed away and truly take the time to start dividing and separating what you can use, what you need to donate and what you should just toss.
With SaddleBrooke’s annual “I Don’t Want It Sale”, you can rent a table or donate to an organization that buys tables to fill with stuff as a fundraising event.
As for those moving boxes that haven’t been opened since you moved in, either unpack ‘em and use ‘em or give them to a charitable resale store. Do you have any idea how many scorpions are inhabiting those boxes? How many spiders are living amongst your past treasures? Don’t even get me started on the danger of attracting termites, or, the costly repairs you’re inviting from pack rat damage to a car that has to be left on the driveway. They love brake linings!
If you must rent a storage unit to keep the overflow in, then you truly need to sit down and go through each box, keep what matters most and consign or donate all the rest. Granted, you may stress over getting back what you paid for with valuable items, but consider the reality of renting a storage unit versus getting a little less and I do believe you will come out ahead.
Truthfully, how many times are you going to visit that storage unit or open those boxes and admire what is packed away? At some point you will stop visiting and eventually they will end up in an estate sale—still waiting to be unpacked.
Original ChopShop is making its Tucson debut this summer
