Sort, Gift, Sell, and Purge

Julia and I have been working very hard to get the house ready to sell and get ourselves ready for a significant downsize.  Over the last 30 years of living in this particular corner of southern Wisconsin, we have accumulated a lot of possessions and crap. 

Sorting:  Going through everything we own and making a determination of what to do with it.  Our house isn't particularly huge, but we do have a lot of storage space--a full basement and outbuildings.  It's too much stuff, and it isn't going to fit into our new place, which may be as small as 1100 square feet with very little storage space.

As we go through things, we are realizing that a lot of stuff is just plain worn out and not worth hauling half-way or more across the country.  Other stuff isn't going to be useful wherever we end up.  This week, I said goodbye to my Polaris Sportsman ATV with a plow, which was primarily used for digging us out during winter storms.  At the time I bought it, I was the one primarily maintaining the 1/4 mile shared driveway.  

After 12 years, we have more responsible neighbors with even bigger toys (tractor with a loader).  I haven't used the atv all winter, and it's time to let it go to a close friend who has recently moved north of Green Bay, where the winters are longer and the snow is deeper.  I gave him a very good price and also threw in all of my beer-making and wine-making equipment.  

 

Plus, he received his rototiller back, which he originally sold to me when he got divorced half a dozen years ago.  His new wife likes to garden, and the old house he bought has a big lot for plantings.  If our house sells quickly, he will also get my old John Deere lawn tractor. 

A lot of our furniture isn't going anywhere but the dump.  Old beds and mattress sets don't have any value on Facebook marketplace.  Neither do worn-out couches and futons. Or cheap end tables and coffee tables. At the end, we hope to do some kind of sale, but I don't have high hopes for any of it.  The hardest part, especially for Julia, is sorting through all of the kids things' and old photographs.   They all have sentimental value, but, honestly, there are lots of things we haven't touched in over twenty years.  Placed in boxes and moved from our prior house, they never got unpacked, and now it's time to say goodbye.  

Julia has found a new home for her large floor loom. It was a gift to us from someone who didn't know how to use it, and it will now be a gift to someone in Julia's weaving guild.  Once that's gone, the wood stove room (family room) will be almost empty.  But there are many more rooms and outbuildings to work on.  Our local transfer station (the dump) and Goodwill are going to be seeing a lot of our vehicles during the coming months.  We plan to list the house for sale in mid-March.