Since mid-January, I have pretty much been absent from WordPress, apart from a number of pre-scheduled posts in February and the One Photo Focus posts. I’ve seen all of your wonderful comments (albeit not in a timely manner), but haven’t had a second to sit down and respond. That has weighed so heavily on my mind. But I also know that each of you has points in your blogging cycles where real life kicks in and all the things you love to do go by the wayside.  That’s what has happened to me these past three months. Why? Because my husband and I are now empty-nesters; our youngest of three began her first year in college on the opposite coast, and we decided it was time to sell our home of 20 years, downsize, and move into the city.

And so began our journey of decluttering (which really is a euphemism for getting rid of all the truly needless crap accumulated over the years) and preparing our house for sale. Here are a few (pretty crappy) photos I shot with my iPhone in the midst of the madness:

IN PROCESS

Family Room (Before)

Office (Before)

I have never done anything so physically and emotionally demanding in my life. Every single day from the time we began has been devoted to this house, as well as finding a place to move to. I worked with a phenomenal stager (a necessity in our area to sell quickly) and I have become intimately familiar with our local dump, a number of new local charities, a mobile shredding company, and a wonderful crew of workmen who spent four weeks in our home helping us transform it into something that would photograph beautifully for the internet.

In the end, all the angst, hard work, sore muscles, and emotional fatigue were worth it. The house showed beautifully and we had an offer on the second day and a ratified contract two days later! Here are just a few after shots (all photos credited to BTW images). Gotta love the wide-angle lens!

AFTER

Is the work done? I wish. Now I’m dealing with what to do with all that’s left in the house that won’t fit into our much smaller apartment with 1/4 of the number of closets we currently have. And then there are the logistics of the move itself. So the weeks continue to be jam packed, though I can now say I’m finally beginning to see a smidgen of light at the end of the tunnel.

Lessons learned these past months? Many. But the biggest one is this: stop accumulating “stuff.” We truly do become a slave to our possessions and I have to say that the idea of moving ahead with a much lighter and smaller load will be wonderfully freeing. And if any of you are thinking of moving in the near future, start decluttering NOW when you don’t have to. You’ll thank me in the end 😀