Tired of Being a Stuff Manager {Day 7}

I know I said that I was going to do part two of the moving sale today, but I am nothing if not a rulebreaker. *cough* I can hear Lover laughing somewhere. Anyways, on to today's post.



It was really interesting to watch people's reactions when we told them we were selling just about everything we owned before our move. Some people applauded us, some (a lot of) people thought we were crazy, and some people were downright upset. I tried so many times to explain our thought process, but I just never seemed to be able to really put it into words. Maybe today I'll do a better job.

Have you ever thought about how much time we spend taking care of our stuff? I'm talking about working on our houses, maintaining our vehicles, sorting our paperwork. Washing our clothes, our dishes, and our linens. Dusting books and baseboards and knickknacks. Winterizing the lawnmower, summerizing the snowblower, raking fall leaves, replacing blown lightbulbs. Decorating, redecorating, tweaking and revamping. Washing clothes, ironing them, putting them away, sewing on buttons, matching up socks, hanging clothes on hangers, putting away out of season clothes.

Some days, it drives me bonkers. Why am I doing this? Why is such a huge percentage of my time taken up by caring for my stuff? Do I really need sixteen nail polishes and twenty Pyrex dishes and eighteen coffee mugs? Do my kids need so many toys that putting them away at night takes too long for a toddler to do in  reasonable amount of time? My husband has so little free time, why are we spending it on oil changes and mowing and yet another kitchen project?

There was a time that I pretty much stopped blogging because I had grown tired of talking about decorating all the time. What was the purpose? How was talking about decorating doing anything of merit? When I get to heaven, will God compliment me on my perfectly matched curtains and decorative throw? If I styled my mantel perfectly, who cared? Did it help anyone?

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with decorating your house. In fact, my conclusion from that year or so off was that it was necessary for me, in order to create a home for my family. I think my blog also helps other people see how attainable decorating and projects can be, and encourages them to give it a try too. But, like everything else, there needs to be a balance. I needed to find a way to create a warm and welcoming home, but to be able to look at a room and say "enough is enough."

Basically, it boils down to this. I'm tired of being a "stuff manager." Today my kids and I went to the library. We don't have a second car, so we walked the two miles there and then rode the city bus home. It took us FOUR AND A HALF hours to do what would have normally taken about 12 minutes round trip in a car. Back in Rochester, if you had suggested that, I would have said no. Heck no! Why? Because there were probably two dozen other things on my to do list that seemed more pressing than a trip to the library, and I can guarantee that at least three quarters of that list would have been "stuff" to-do's.

So when we were given the chance to start with a clean slate, I considered it a gift. I could get rid of the "just in case" paperwork. That gift that someone gave me that I don't like but felt like I should. The clothes that didn't fit, and the fifteen mugs that I didn't really like as much as my favorite three. By renting a much, much smaller place, there's just physically not enough room to have much. And yes, I will decorate and cozy-ify this little place to make it feel like home, but there's only so much you can do in a two bedroom apartment. A few fun projects and a handful of furniture purchases, and we'll be done.



As we downsized, whenever I hit a particularly difficult group of things to purge, Matthew 6:19-21 would play in my mind.

 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

It was always the reminder I needed that things are not what this life is about. I won't look back at the end of my life and wish I had owned more stuff. I won't regret not purchasing the latest "necessity". By reducing the amount of "stuff" we have to manage, we're freeing ourselves to have more time for family, friends and God. It's not an easy process, nor is it an easy adjustment. But I do think, for us, in this time and this place, it is exactly what we need to be doing.

The Nester wrote a great post on this topic as part of her 31 days series two years ago. It's worth the read.

And this is a very interesting study on how possessions shape us. Notable quote "our possessions become an extension of who we are”"

The Most Epic of Moving Sales - Part 1 {Day 6}

Yesterday I talked about how we sold most of our high value items. Today, I'll talk about our huge moving sale, and what we did in order to make upwards of $1500 in three days.

First of all, in order to make a lot of money at your moving sale, you need to follow three absolute rules: 1)Price your items to move! 2)Advertise and get the word out! 3)Be very, very willing to negotiate. Let's chat about each one.



1)Price your items to move! The goal of having this sale was to get.rid.of.stuff. The goal was not to get what each individual item was worth, but rather to lure people in with great deals, hoping that they would end up with several things instead of just that little 50 cent sale. I'd say, on average, each customer spent between $10 and $20, which is so awesome for a yard sale! here's a sampling of what we priced items at.

• Kids' clothes 50¢, kids shoes sizes 0-3 $1.00/pr, 4 and up $2.00/pr. If clothes were a matched set or brand name or adorable, I sold them for $2.00/set. On the last day of the sale we did "fill a grocery bag with clothes for $5 and sold at least 5 or 6 bags this way.


• Glassware (glasses, vases, small bowls, etc) and mugs were 50¢ each or 3/$1.00 I sold all of my kitchen utensils (spatulas, whisks, tongs, etc) in a big bin $1.00 each or 3/$2.


• Women's shirts $2.00, pants $2.50 and dresses $3.00 (Remember, I had already set aside the best stuff and sent it to Thredup)


• Men's shirts and pants $2.00


• Boots (adult or children's) $5.00/pr


• I grouped a lot of stuff in ziploc bags - so 5 bottles all together for $5, two hooded towels for $2, etc. This makes people buy a little more, and it kept me from having to price every.single.thing. If someone asked to just buy one item from the bag I said yes, then adjusted the price of the bag accordingly.


• DvDs $1.00 each, CDs 25¢ each. I sold ALL of our DVDs and CDs at these prices.


• Techie cables were $1.00 ea or 3/$2.00 A surprising amount of these sold.


• My higher value toys were priced individually (Melissa & Doug toys, wooden puzzles, Tinkertoys, etc) All other toys were 50¢ each, stuffed animals were 25¢ each.


• Picture frames were $1.00 each, $2.00 for very large ones. These all sold. I guess I have good taste in frames!


• Board games were between $2 and $5 depending on their condition. If I had purchased them at a yard sale, I tried to list them for the price I bought them for.


• If items were brand new, in their original packaging, I sold them for 50% of their purchase value.


• For everything else, I tried to price things at a price I would be happy to pay if I were the one at the sale. Pretending I was my own customer helped me to not be sentimental about the "value" of any said item.

2)Advertise and get the word out!

• I always list my sales on Craigslist, and this time was no different. This time, however, I listed the sale each day so that the posting would be at the top of the page each day, instead of people having to scroll down to find my listing. In the listing, I uploaded pictures of the things I had for sale, as well as a picture of my moving sale sign. I told people to look for the hot pink signs!

• I paid $50 to list my sale on estatesales.net In order to do this, I had to let people into my house - so I cordoned off the upstairs, kept the garage closed, and allowed people in the first floor, basement and of course the front yard and driveway. I was nervous about letting people into the house, but everyone was very nice and respectful of our home, and it worked out great since the weather didn't cooperate with us! We got a lot of traffic from this site, and I would have gotten even more if I had listed the sale earlier. They do email blasts in advance, and you can list up to seven days ahead of time. I listed mine Wednesday night, so I didn't really get traffic from this site until Friday afternoon and Saturday.

• I also posted the sale on my personal Facebook page (and several friends were kind enough to share my post!) as well as our local Mom's Resale Page on FB. I got quite a few friends and other traffic from Facebook, which surprised me!

• Great signage. I put up about 17 signs in our neighborhood. I put them at every large intersection surrounding our house, on the sides of the street that you would make the turn from. I used hot pink posterboard and a black sharpie, and taped the posterboard to foam board to make it stronger. I put them all up on Wednesday, but drove around each evening to check on them. Some had blown away or gone limp from the rain, so I replaced them as needed. I made my signs as simple as possible: MOVING SALE in big letters, the days of the sale, the address and an arrow. I've found that people never pay attention to the times of a sale, and any additional info (what you have for sale, etc) just makes the sign harder to read. One additional note: when the sale is over, please take down your signs! It's the polite thing to do!

3) Be very willing to negotiate. People love to haggle at yard sales. It's just what people do. They're looking for a deal, and you're looking for the items to no longer be in your possession. So - make a deal! People often asked me what was the best price I could do on their selection of items. I would add up the value of their items and round down to the nearest whole amount. So - if they were buying $17.50 worth of stuff, I would say $15. There will always be the people who try to point out all the defects of an item in order to get a lower price. I knew that I was selling nice stuff, at very fair prices. So if they started to point out problems, I would simply state my price and say "I'm not willing to go lower than that." You have to be firm but friendly. Most of them time people were very willing to meet in the middle, at a price both of us were happy with.

So those are my absolute rules for a successful yard sale! Tomorrow I'll talk some more about my particular sale and some general tips for a great sale.

Flat Acres {Day 5}

Yesterday was a day to relax. A much needed, long overdue day to spend together as a family, not roadtripping across America, not packing or shopping or unpacking or assembling furniture, but just having fun together. We spent the morning at Flat Acres farm in Parker, Colorado, meeting some new friends and enjoying a few fall festivities. I really enjoyed just taking some nice pictures and watching the kids have a blast. Fall is here in Colorado but it is a little different than in upstate NY! It was 73 degrees, and so sunny that we all got a little sunburned! That was a first for us. :)


We checked out the little pumpkin patch first, Javi made a beeline for the huge ones and we got some classic pumpkin pictures. My kids are apparently little rebels though :)

We constantly joke that Javi is so timid and terrified. He just won't try out anything new. :) The boy seems to have no fear, especially not of anything regarding people. He checked out every activity, tried every new thing, and took it all in unafraid. I hope that courage is a quality he continues to have throughout his life.



The tractor ride was a hit - our driver was very friendly and talked the entire ride to us about the farm, which would have been nice except for the fact that the PA system made everything come out completely garbled! Peanut loved the tractor ride, and did her best to fall off the wagon several times.

The corn maze, however, was not a hit. I think the kids were just too little and it was a little too overwhelming. We lasted for only the first few turns and then ended up having to find the quickest exit. :(

Javi and I got our faces painted, and throughout the rest of the day I would forget, think something was on my face and try to wipe it off before I remembered it was paint. :)


The petting zoo was also a hit, although Peanut had absolutely no interest in it. We bought her a soft pretzel which she happily munched on while Javi and I visited the animals. The alpacas were awesome - they looked like stuffed animals!




They had a fun water slide for rubber ducks set up for the kids that was Javi's absolute favorite. I think he would have stayed here all day if we had let him. He only liked the yellow ducks though, and at one point had both yellow duckies and would send them zooming down the slides. He was very particular about them facing the right way on their way down the river! What you can't see in these pictures are his happy screams each time they floated down the pipes. :)


Our last activity for the day was the big corn boxes. This was such an awesome idea! No mess, no yucky sand stuck everywhere, tons of fun. Both kids got a huge kick out of them.


All in all, it was a really fun time together. We met up with a friend of friend who lives here in Denver, which was great. It's nice to know at least one person in a town, right? Andrea, her parents and her kids were so nice, and we had a great time chatting in between kid wrangling. We laughed and played with the kids and just relaxed. It was so needed after the last few weeks. After the farm we grabbed lunch and then drove to the mountains. I'll show you those pictures later, but they were just breathtaking. The perfect counterpart to the fun at the farm.

Burn All the Things! {Day 4}

Alternate title for this post: How we got rid of 80% of our stuff in a thrifty and stewardly manner.

Once we had decided to get rid of the majority of our stuff, there remained the question of how to do it without being wasteful.  Obviously the easiest thing would have been to call a company like 1-800-GOT JUNK and have them clean out our house. But - God has blessed us abundantly with our possessions, and we wanted to be conscientious in getting rid of them - we weren't blessed so that we could just turn around and waste that blessing! If you're considering being crazy like us and selling everything, hopefully you'll find this post helpful.

High Value Sales: So my first priority was selling things that I knew had held their value, to companies or individuals that would pay us what they were worth. This included furniture, tools, kids clothes and tech gear that I knew was still valuable. Keep in mind that very, very little is worth what you initially paid for it. As a general rule of thumb, I sold things for a third of their initial value. Here are the companies I used and what I sold to each one.

• Thredup - I've used this company both to sell women's clothing and to purchase, and I've been very happy with both options. Once I knew we were moving, I requested a clean out bag. I filled it with my winter coats, shoes I wouldn't be taking, and my nicer, more professional clothing. It will take a few weeks to find out what I've made off those clothes, but last time I made $20, which I considered a win since women's clothing doesn't resell well.

• Kid 2 Kid - I had SO MUCH kids' clothing. I pretty much had every size, boy and girl. My sisters in law helped me sort through all the clothes and we brought the best stuff to Kid 2 Kid before the moving sale. I made about $16 off what they selected, and put the rest in my moving sale. I brought in another bagful of the best of what was left after the sale, and made an additional $16. Not bad for what essentially amounted to about a large bag of kids' clothes.

• Ebay - I've been a seller on eBay for years, so it wasn't any additional trouble to list a few items on their site. They've improved their listing process making it much simpler, and you only pay if your item sells now. I sold my jewelry supplies, mailers for my photo business, two camera lenses, a DVD set, and two small tech gadgets. I netted about $122.50 after shipping costs from these items.

• Craigslist - I sold a ton on Craigslist. I sold furniture, mattresses, large baby items like our swing, Graco travel system,  and Keilana's crib. I sold most of Lover's tools which sold incredibly fast and for great amounts. I made close to $1,000 by selling individual items on Craigslist. I utilized their "other items by this user" link, and always mentioned in the listing that we were moving. I also asked every buyer if there was anything else they were looking for.

• Facebook Sale Groups - Whenever an item wasn't moving well, especially baby items, I cross listed them in local sales groups on Facebook. I got a lot of interest each time and it was more of a pain to sell through these groups, but it brought me in some additional traffic. My goal was to sell things, so I used all of the resources I could find! I also got lots of traffic at my moving sale by listing the sale on these group sites on the days of the sale. I got lots of parents, especially once we got to Saturday and we were doing fill a grocery bag with kid's clothes for $5.

• Furniture on Consignment - I left three dressers, a cabinet, two wooden chairs, a pair of nightstands, an upholstered chair on consignment in Rochester. As these sell, the store will mail me a check for my percentage of the sale. If they sell well, I could get an additional $400 for these items.

Most Epic Moving Sale - I want to go more in depth about the sale and how it went in another post, so I'll save this for another day. But I netted almost $1700 from our 3 day sale.

Giving Away - We gave away a lot of things. We figured, God has blessed us abundantly, and if we knew someone else would benefit from those things, then we were happy to give them away. We gave lots away to friends and family, and left furniture, curtains and decorations for our friends that are renting from us. I also donated unused toiletries, blankets, towels and men's clothing to Mission Share, a local charity. We dropped off several boxes worth of stuff to Goodwill. All of the remaining kids clothes and our leftover moving sale items went to a foster care children's ministry for the kids they take in and their fundraiser sale next month.

Throwing away - We did throw out quite a bit of stuff that had no resale value, was opened, used or just needed to be thrown away (i.e. I don't want anyone purchasing my old undies!). I'm glad that this amount of stuff was very minimal though.

Burn all the things! And lastly, we did burn something. On our last night in the house, after our open house and the packing was done and everything was finished, we piled up all of Lover's old work shirts in a wooden crate, doused them in lighter fluid and set them on fire. It was a sight to behold. :)

Selling vs. Moving {Day 3}

When we began making plans to move out here, we decided that we would only be bringing the bare minimum. At first we were going to be ultra crazy and bring only current clothes, shoes and like five other things, but then we decided to scale back the crazy just a bit to the things that we could fit into our van. After the last week of crazy shopping to get life workable again, I'm really glad we decided on the latter.

A month ago, we owned three cars. :) Now we have one. We had purchased a Grand Caravan with Stow n Go seats back in February, which replaced my Buick. The Buick sat in the driveway until August, since we weren't sure that Lover's beloved Saturn would pass inspection. The Saturn passed right around the time we started job hunting, so we agreed to go ahead and sell the Buick. Once we knew we were moving, we also decided to get rid of the Saturn. We didn't want to drive both cars out (that would mean that we would be separate for the entire trip, with one of us driving and responsible for the kids) and the Saturn wasn't worth paying to have it moved out to Denver. We ended up giving the Saturn to Lover's dad since they didn't have a second car, and he couldn't be happier.

So, we had the Grand Caravan with the stow-able seats. Our plan was to stow the last row of seats in the van and use that space to bring everything we needed. Need is such a relative term, isn't it?

We had looked into the cost of moving all of our stuff cross country, and decided that we would either spend the same amount or come out ahead by selling everything in Rochester and purchasing new stuff in Denver. It really appealed to both of us to have that fresh start, with all new stuff, and to really, truly, purge our belongings.

With all of those decisions made I tore into the house with a vengeance. Stuff fell into one of three categories; Going, Selling or Storing. I suppose there was a fourth category which was "this is trash, why hasn't it been thrown away?" We held a three day moving sale the weekend before we left town, sold stuff on Craigslist, gave lots away, stored a few things and brought even fewer.

I'll delve into details of how we got rid of all of our stuff, but here's a look at what we brought and what we left in storage at Wendhurst. About a third of the attic was unfinished, and so we left that section full of our things that we weren't quite ready to let go of. Things like my Spanish china, baby and maternity clothes, books I want the kids to read when they are older, some Christmas and other seasonal decorations and a few other things I wasn't ready to part with. We also kept three pieces of furniture for my mom (or brothers, if they end up wanting them), along with our dining room table, our headboard and a wooden spool that has a long story attached to it. So that's what's left behind at Wendhurst.





As far as what we brought, honestly, the majority was clothes. Clothes for all of us, for all seasons. The next size up for the kids that I had already purchased. Some toiletries, kitchen basics and lots of techno gear like our laser printer, laptops, etc. We purchased a pack n play for Keilana, and brought a queen sized blow up mattress for us and a twin for Javi. We brought my guitar and a small box of tools. A file box with the important paperwork that you can't leave behind, and a box of my photography stuff. Then there were the sentimental things or things that would hopefully help this house to feel like home - the kids' growth chart, a few pictures in frames, some favorite toys, Javi's quilt and Keilana's blankie. This isn't an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. As little as possible.

All in all, I'm happy with how little we brought, and I'm glad we didn't try to bring more. I'm not going to lie, it has been stressful and tiring to shop for furniture and kitchen basics and towels and hangers and EVERYTHING, but it's allowing us the opportunity to be really thoughtful with our purchases and weigh whether or not we truly need it. It's hard to not be surrounded by all of the familiar things of home, but that is a difficult but very needed reminder that we are not truly at home anywhere on this earth. Heaven is home, and when I am there worshipping my Savior, I won't be lamenting the loss of my favorite picture frame.



 

Why Denver? {Day 2}

One of the most frequent questions we were asked when we started telling people we were moving to Denver was, "why Denver?" My first thought was always, why not? :) We were looking for a change, and a great job opportunity came up in Denver. Lover had traveled to Denver several times for his previous job, so he was familiar with it. I knew that it had the Rockies nearby, would be a completely new place, and was a large enough city that we would have all of the familiar stores and conveniences plus more that we never had in our hometown. Plus, who doesn't want to live a mile higher than everyone else?

We had actually been talking about moving to the Pacific Northwest, so Denver was a bit of a surprise to us to. When the recruiter called Lover, we were both kind of taken aback, but then we realized "hey, we hadn't really considered it, but sure!"

Now, we've only been here a week, but our first impressions have been good ones. It is so interesting to be in a city that is thriving and growing by leaps and bounds. One of the leasing agents we spoke with said there are currently about 15,000 apartments being built over the next year alone! Everywhere you look something is being built, in fact one of the apartment complexes we looked at was being built while we were there! They were literally finishing a building, renting it out and working on the next one. As we toured the apartment, we looked out the windows at the crews rolling out sod and planting trees.

The climate has been really interesting so far. The first four days were really warm, - 86 and sunny. Since then it has been more fall-like, some clouds, some rain, lower temps. But the storms are what really get me. They seem to come out of no where! Lover was stuck on the highway for 25 minutes in a hail storm - it was hailing so hard that people just gave up on driving and parked under bridges in an attempt to protect their cars. I'm definitely learning that I need to be more prepared for the swings in weather.

One of the things I love the most here (besides the mountains) is what I've always called "big sky." You can see for miles. There are some more settled/wooded areas, but for the most part it is open and clear and there is sky as far as you can see. It's awesomely freeing for a claustrophobic like me.

I'm so excited to have a new home base. We are 6-8 hours from awesome places like Mount Rushmore, Salt Lake City, and Yellowstone National Park. We've got an entire new state to explore, mountains to visit, and favorite places to find. The possibilities are endless, you might say. :)

31 Days: With the Mountains In My Sights {Day 1}

1,740 miles.

4 people embarking on an adventure of a lifetime.

23 days of controlled chaos, emotional goodbyes, life altering decisions.

What am I talking about? Our most recent adventure - moving our family to Denver, Colorado.

The last five weeks of our lives have been some of the most interesting to date. If you’re new here, we packed up our lives in suburban upstate NY, sold the majority of our stuff, and moved most of the way across the country to Denver, Colorado. We arrived on September 24th, and we will be here for at least the next eighteen months. Over the next 31 days I’ll be chronicling the whys, hows and what’s to comes of our latest adventure. I’ll show you our new apartment, and little glimpses into our life as we settle in to our new city.

Hopefully, I'll also be showing you some simple, renter friendly decorating ideas, and some updates on how we're adjusting to life in a city where we know no one. We made this move to broaden our horizons and strengthen the bonds of our nuclear family, so I plan to talk a lot about how we're adjusting. We also sold just about everything we own, and we're attempting to live a much simpler, streamlined life for the next year or so.

So that's the plan for the next month of writing. I've participated in the last two years of 31 Days series, and as challenging as it is, I really enjoy doing it. There are thousands of others participating, so when you have some free time, make sure to check out some other writers' series!

Day 1: With the Mountains in My Sights

Day 2: Why Denver?

Day 3: Selling vs. Moving

Day 4: Burn All the Things!

Day 5: Flat Acres

Day 6: The Most Epic of Moving Sales - Part 1

Day 7: Tired of Being a Stuff Manager

Day 8: see Day 9

Day 9: Giving Myself Grace

Day 10: The Most Epic of Moving Sales - Part 2

Day 11: The Mountains

Day 12: Beauty Around Us

Day 13: Saying Goodbye

Day 14: Road Tripping - The First Day

Day 15: Road Tripping - Day 2

Day 16: Meet Me in St Louis

Day 17: Road Tripping - Day 4

Day 18: Infographs for the Win!

Day 19: Apartment Hunting

Day 20: In Which We Find a Home