Well, I'll be doubling down on my efforts to clear out her after spending 3 days with my daughter - as sure as I'm sitting here, I know she owns more stuff that I do after 37 years in this house - and we moved her there only 3 1/2 years ago.
She's moving to a temporary 1 BR flat while she searches for a house near her sister and us - so most of her possessions with go to storage.
On the positive side, she got rid of most of her textbooks, no longer wanted furniture, extra pots and pans, old camping equipment, etc. Dad took all of her old computers home to "wipe" and pass the still-working ones on to charity and the others to recycling.
Tomorrow we will go through her 100 plus pairs of shoes and keep only the still-good ones. Might as well put the worn out ones in the apt dumpster.
I located all (I think) the boxes, bags and totes of paperwork she had stashed and brought them here for her to go through between calls on her tele-health job. My next task for the day is to make her a clear chart of what to keep/what to toss (she has severe ADD) then give her a small stack at a time. I'm thinking about suggesting this as her mailing address, and once a week she can come and go through it right here until she develops a habit.
We will spend the winter "curating" her belongings a couple boxes at a time. At 41 she still has her T's and sweatshirts from HS, tech school & college, and even some jeans that old. Plus uniforms from RN, paramedic, 911 & police jobs... Then there's all the yarn, clay tools, paints, fabrics,at least she got rid of the 100 pounds of clay she had last time. And enough blankets, sheets and towels to start a B&B! Plus pet supplies for a herd of 20, even though she only has 3 guinea pigs.
She has about 150 plants (now living on a huge rack in my family room - she will be taking care of them herself.)
So, to try to set an example, I have begin pulling out my fabric boxes one at a time, sorting what I will never use and designating it for quilters, charity sewers, or the Textile Center. Looks like I'll be keeping about half and recycling half. All the notions and organized were already done 2 years ago, and I have been very disciplined about only buying supplies as I run out. This will make it a lot easier to move everything in the Spring to paint and do the floor.
Sue
Well, Sue...look at you! When are you heading to Florida? You are the help I need to finish my clearing out, downsizing and the renovating. I need someone with your organization skills to help me get more accomplished. But, I can't keep up with someone working too much and I do need to be part of this project! Sounds like you've actually done a lot yourself, for yourself. Congratulations to you both. Blessings in 2021!!!! Elizabeth