Alexplainlater

Moving house isn’t anything like on the Sims where with one click of a button you can sell everything you own and be rich again (No motherlode here). Trying to sell or gift everything we own is proving to be quite the challenge. Our military house is behind the wire, so we can’t really add any furniture to the public marketplace as we would have to deliver it to people who do not have access to camp and that’s a faff we don’t want to have to deal with.

People on camp usually take anything if it’s for free, but if you want money for something, it probably won’t sell. If you’ve lived in military housing before you will know exactly what I am about to talk about. There is usually this one person that must be chronically scouring the buy, sell and swap pages like a hawk. They will literally take anything if it’s for free, within seconds of you posting a “FREE ITEM”, there they are with a “Hi is this still available?” and you know what? I’d love to know what they do with all this free furniture and household decor. Is your house a tardis? I’ve seen people take six beds, four sofas, two fridges and a partridge in a pear tree. WHERE ARE YOU PUTTING IT ALL? maybe they have a side hustle where they are selling all this stuff and making money. Genius. Kudos to you.

So far, I’ve managed to declutter and empty out the majority of the rooms; however, every time I succeed in emptying one room, it seems inevitable that another room becomes cluttered again. It’s a vicious cycle of convincing myself with phrases like “I’ll deal with you later” or “You might come in handy one day”. Each time I clear out a space, I find a sense of accomplishment, but that feeling quickly fades as I glance over at the other rooms, which begin to overflow with items that I haven’t yet sorted through. It’s frustrating to realise that despite my best efforts, I am perpetually trapped in this chaotic dance of tidiness and mess, where every small victory feels undermined by accumulated hesitation and the emotional attachment to things that I struggle to let go off… such as the fifty allen keys in the tool box. What? I might need them.

I think our biggest issue in the 7 years we’ve been together is that we said “Yes” to everyone who offered us furniture, which at the time was very helpful as it provided us with a house worth of items. However, as our tastes evolved and our needs changed, we found ourselves surrounded by items that no longer match our needs. Now we’re trying to give this furniture away, hoping to pass it on to someone else who might appreciate it, but we have no takers, leading us into a somewhat frustrating predicament where if no one will take it, and we’ve ran out of time to take it to the tip… we will have to store it for three years.

I started writing this post a week ago, and I am happy to announce that 80% of our furniture has a new home. Big thanks to the mess for agreeing to take our massive sofa. There are still some cupboards that need a clear out, which is proving to be a daunting task; I am dreading starting the kitchen. So many accumulated types of spatulas and a variety size of tongs clutter the drawers.