Downsizing

[fredtoast]

Over the Christmas break I moved for the first time in 15 years.  I moved from the house I had when I had a wife and 2 kids because I didn't need the space anymore.  I was also tired of mowing and maintaining a yard that was over an acre.  It was not a big luxurious home, but it was much larger than the place I moved to.  

I had another house in Knoxville that I had been using as rental property.  By moving there I cut almost a half hour from the distance to my daughters who live in Alcoa. The yard is tiny, but there is room for the girls trampoline, and that is all they really played on in my yard anyway.  When I bought the house with the huge yard in New Market I imagined my kids playing ball and riding bikes all over the place.  But they never really used it.   

The move seemed like a great idea because it would save me a lot of money, labor, and driving time.  But I had no idea how much stuff I had accumulated over the last 15 years.  I had also forgotten what a massive pain in the ass moving can be.  So after throwing away a ton of junk I am still having trouble finding space for all my stuff.

And now I have the lovely task of getting my old home in shape to sell.  There was no real big damage, but when I got it empty I realized that it was a lot more "worn" than I had realized.  Little things like jammed windows, loose cabinet doors and towel rods, nicked up baseboard, tarnished faucets and doorknobs, a little crack in a bedroom window, a bathtub with no drain plug, a ceiling fan that does not work.  Basically a ton of little things that I had gotten used to and didn't even notice, but they all stick out like a sore thumb in an empty house being inspected by potential buyers.  I am handy enough to fix all this stuff but it is going to be a lot more trouble than I had planned on.

I feel like the frog that was placed in cool water and didn't notice the temperature slowly rising until I was boiled alive.  These were all minor things that piled up over the years.  I should have fixed them as they arose, but they were not that bad, and I always had something else to do.

[Benton]

A lot of it may not need fixing. You notice it because it's your house. Someone coming in for the first time may not.

If you haven't yet, I'd talk to a Realtor. They might be able to point out the things that really need to be fixed and the things that don't matter as much.

[Bengalzona]

Sounds like it might be worthwhile to you to hire a handyman to do some of the minor fixes and free you up for the other more important stuff if you can afford it. They usually don't charge much.

I'm getting ready to move as well in a couple of weeks. Personally, I don't own a lot of stuff anymore. I dumped about 90% of what I own about 12 years ago. But my old lady has acquired a lot of crap in past 10 years. Not to mention my son's stuff which he has now outgrown. I'm pretty much loading boxes to take to Goodwill everyday. It's a good lesson to teach my son, though. Sometimes it is good to shed that "old skin".

[StLucieBengal]

Ceiling fan not working and a crack in the window will not pass FHA inspection. So you should sort those out so you aren't limited by who can buy your home.

The rest of the stuff seems minor. Just making sure it looks ok is usually all that's necessary.

[StLucieBengal]

And congratulations on the move. Seems like exactly what you needed.

[XenoMorph]

A few hundred dollars in repairs could increase the value of the sale ... go for it... Or hire some young buck to do it for you.

[BengalHawk62]

I'm in the same boat.  We just got married back in August and she moved in with me.  Well, our house just isn't big enough for the two of us so we are looking at bigger homes.  We just got our first offer on the house last night so I'll be moving here shortly.  Ugh, not looking forward to it.  I agree, it is a gigantic pain in the ass to go thru everything and throw 'junk' away.  I have stuff still in totes when I first moved into the house ten years ago.  Do you think I still need that stuff if they haven't seen the light of day in ten years?  No, I don't think so. 

[fredtoast]

(01-07-2016, 01:48 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: I'm in the same boat.  We just got married back in August and she moved in with me.  Well, our house just isn't big enough for the two of us so we are looking at bigger homes.  We just got our first offer on the house last night so I'll be moving here shortly.  Ugh, not looking forward to it.  I agree, it is a gigantic pain in the ass to go thru everything and throw 'junk' away.  I have stuff still in totes when I first moved into the house ten years ago.  Do you think I still need that stuff if they haven't seen the light of day in ten years?  No, I don't think so. 

Don't forget the "cyber junk".  I have dozens of accounts that have to be updated with my new address and phone number.

[BengalHawk62]

(01-07-2016, 01:59 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Don't forget the "cyber junk".  I have dozens of accounts that have to be updated with my new address and phone number.

Ya, all the porn sites have to have your knew updated information!

[bengal_fan_in_toronto]

(01-07-2016, 02:09 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: Ya, all the porn sites have to have your knew updated information!

never mind a handyman to help him fix the minor things around his house.  he might need to hire somebody to help him update all these accounts!

[Belsnickel]

I dread when the wife and I will move. Thankfully we are still swimming in debt and not really able to save much at the moment, so it will be a while. What is going to kill us is books. My wife comes from two hoarder parents and their biggest thing to hoard was books. My wife would be the same were I not there to grumble every time I see it getting out of hand. I have laid down the rule that if there is no room for them on our bookshelves, then they have to go. But we have four 4'x4' bookshelves jammed full, so it's not a small amount still.

The amount of crap I bring to the clutter in our apartment is so tiny in compared to the wife. I guess that is normal, though.

[fredtoast]

(01-07-2016, 02:21 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: I dread when the wife and I will move. Thankfully we are still swimming in debt and not really able to save much at the moment, so it will be a while. What is going to kill us is books. My wife comes from two hoarder parents and their biggest thing to hoard was books. My wife would be the same were I not there to grumble every time I see it getting out of hand. I have laid down the rule that if there is no room for them on our bookshelves, then they have to go. But we have four 4'x4' bookshelves jammed full, so it's not a small amount still.

The amount of crap I bring to the clutter in our apartment is so tiny in compared to the wife. I guess that is normal, though.

Ans books are some of the heaviest things to move.

One time I agreed to help a friend move.  He was newly married and lived in a small house.  I didn't think he could have a lot of stuff.  But his wife had a book collection that filled half of their garage.  Lots, and lots, and lots of big heavy boxes.

[Benton]

(01-07-2016, 02:16 PM)bengal_fan_in_toronto Wrote: never mind a handyman to help him fix the minor things around his house.  he might need to hire somebody to help him update all these accounts!

Hopefully he won't mix up the plumber from his porn account and a real plumber from the local area. That could get really awkward when he asks if he can "fix his pipes."

[BengalHawk62]

(01-07-2016, 06:16 PM)Benton Wrote: Hopefully he won't mix up the plumber from his porn account and a real plumber from the local area. That could get really awkward when he asks if he can "fix his pipes."

Or the cable man?!??!?!?!  


Boom, mind blown!             :drool:      

[fredtoast]

(01-07-2016, 06:59 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: Or the cable man?!??!?!?!  

It just so happens that my cable is out right now







(in my hand)

[Rotobeast]

Just bought a new house in July/August.
I still have a house full of old crap that I'm not allowed to bring to the new one.
I'm going to have an auction.

[Beaker]

(01-07-2016, 03:16 AM)fredtoast Wrote: The yard is tiny, but there is room for the girls trampoline, and that is all they really played on in my yard anyway. 

[reuben.ahmed]

My neighbor had a trampoline. I despised it. They placed it on the property line, so when I came home from work, it looked like it was literally in my yard.

They had 2 girls, aged 10-11. Not a big deal, except they jumped on it all day, and would invite the rest of the girls in the neighborhood over. This sounds like a Brad Fritz post.

I'd try to go in the backyard after work to do some gardening to relax, and there would be 10 girls jumping on the trampoline yelling. So I'd fake put on headphones, no use. I put up a line of 20 arborvitaes. They'd jump over the top and yell my name. Wtf.

It gets gusty in our backyard because it's open, and one stormy day the trampoline took off and rolled down the side yard, into the front street and got stuck under someone else's mailbox. Some of the metal leg supports were in my yard and had smashed up against my house and broke a speaker grill, lol. That was the last we saw of the trampoline.

Thankfully those bastards moved. I have a picture somewhere of their bent up trampoline taking up half of their garage and sticking out halfway onto the driveway. oddly, most people in my neighborhood don't use their garage for cars - they store a lot of junk in there and keep their cars on the driveway. People say they don't know when I'm home, and I say yeah, because I use my garage what it's intended for!

I landscaped the backyard to the point I can't mow much back there anymore. It takes about 40 minutes to mow now as opposed to 90 minutes, but with less room to landscape I might be on my way out of this house too.

I feel like downsizing is a good move, if I knew better I wouldn't be in a house made for a family - everything is more expensive, heating bill, etc. Right now my retirement life looks like paying off the house and working 20 hours a week. Could have paid it off much sooner if it was a smaller house.

When I moved in, I remember taking 2 days off work and driving non stop back and forth for 4 days straight moving things. Being single sort of helps in the amount of junk. Mine were mainly electronics.

Here's the arborvitae line:

[BengalHawk62]

(01-14-2016, 09:31 AM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: My neighbor had a trampoline. I despised it. They placed it on the property line, so when I came home from work, it looked like it was literally in my yard.

They had 2 girls, aged 10-11. Not a big deal, except they jumped on it all day, and would invite the rest of the girls in the neighborhood over. This sounds like a Brad Fritz post.

I'd try to go in the backyard after work to do some gardening to relax, and there would be 10 girls jumping on the trampoline yelling. So I'd fake put on headphones, no use. I put up a line of 20 arborvitaes. They'd jump over the top and yell my name. Wtf.

It gets gusty in our backyard because it's open, and one stormy day the trampoline took off and rolled down the side yard, into the front street and got stuck under someone else's mailbox. Some of the metal leg supports were in my yard and had smashed up against my house and broke a speaker grill, lol. That was the last we saw of the trampoline.

Thankfully those bastards moved. I have a picture somewhere of their bent up trampoline taking up half of their garage and sticking out halfway onto the driveway. oddly, most people in my neighborhood don't use their garage for cars - they store a lot of junk in there and keep their cars on the driveway. People say they don't know when I'm home, and I say yeah, because I use my garage what it's intended for!

I landscaped the backyard to the point I can't mow much back there anymore. It takes about 40 minutes to mow now as opposed to 90 minutes, but with less room to landscape I might be on my way out of this house too.

I feel like downsizing is a good move, if I knew better I wouldn't be in a house made for a family - everything is more expensive, heating bill, etc. Right now my retirement life looks like paying off the house and working 20 hours a week. Could have paid it off much sooner if it was a smaller house.

When I moved in, I remember taking 2 days off work and driving non stop back and forth for 4 days straight moving things. Being single sort of helps in the amount of junk. Mine were mainly electronics.

Here's the arborvitae line:

You've got an awesome backyard! 

[Bengalsrob]

So you're selling out huh Fred? Knoxville is a nice area, seems like Spring gets there just a bit earlier than everywhere else!