Decluttering Update

I started this blog when I was in the midst of a major decluttering project.  We were preparing to move and put most of our stuff in storage for a while.  I originally kept track of everything leaving our home but then it got to be too much because we were so busy. 

We had to be out of our apartment at the end of July and we ended up living in a hotel for a week as we emptied our apartment and then waited for Brian to deploy.

Here's all of our stuff in the POD.

We had some awesome friends come and help us get all the stuff out of our apartment and figure out how to make it all fit in the POD.  We rented a hand truck from Home Depot since we lived in a second floor apartment but the guys who helped us never even used it.  I was very impressed, especially when they moved our washer and dryer.

Here's the POD closed up and ready to go.  I can't believe all our stuff fit in there.

 At the end, we had a hard time deciding what to do with a bunch of stuff.  Should it go to storage or should it be shipped to my parents?  Since we weren't sure, it ended up in our hotel.  There was so much stuff in our hotel room that there was barely room to walk.  Most of the stuff ended up being shipped to my parents' house.  There were about 20 boxes total shipped starting in July until the day we left El Paso.  Some of the stuff probably could have gone to storage but we just weren't sure about a lot of it since the next year of our lives was so up in the air.  So we shipped my clothes and personal things; Julian's clothes, books, and some toys (including his tricycle); lots of baby stuff; most of Brian's clothes; and other miscellaneous items we didn't really want in storage. 

Embarrassing photos of our hotel room with all of our junk.





We also had as much stuff as you could possibly fit in our car while there were three people riding in it. 

When I arrived at my parents' house and saw all the boxes, it was pretty crazy.  Fortunately, my sister was totally awesome and helped me unpack them and get everything put away somewhere before the baby came.  At 8.5 months pregnant, I definitely needed the help.  Now, you'd never know that we brought that much stuff with us because I've hidden most of it away in dressers or in Julian's closet. 

This is what my room looked like shortly after arriving in Tacoma.

I found so many bizarre things that we brought with us that should have ended up in storage.  Two salt shakers (but no pepper), the cord for my Shark vacuum, random magnets that are part of one of Julian's toys (that's in storage), and other fun stuff.  I just took an empty suitcase and filled it all up with this random stuff and shoved it in the back of the cloest.

I realized that I still had a lot of decluttering to do so I've continued to get rid of things pretty much every day (inspired by 365 Less Things, one of my absolute favorite blogs).  Things that have been leaving lately: maternity clothes, baby clothes that Mati has already outgrown (or hand-me-downs that are not right for this season), and toys.  My mom has a free table at work and several of her colleagues are pregnant so everything has quickly found new homes.  I love knowing that stuff I don't need is being used by someone else who appreciates it.