ondreeuh Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 We are in the first phase of a big overseas move: the purge. I have been thinning my stash of materials over the past year, filling up our garage at one point. I finally just donated most of it since I wasn't getting around to trying to sell it. Now that the job offer is in, serious culling is happening here. Oh my. I have SO much stuff I never used. Lots of it is reference type books, idea books, project books, most of which I got for a quarter. I am really not a "living books" type of homeschooler - I am a do-the-next-thing in the textbook kind of homeschooler, with rabbit trails that happen organically. I obviously can't stick with anything that requires coordinating 20 resources. It only took me 8 years to figure that out. ;) I am only bringing things that I think I will really miss not having. I likely won't be homeschooling, but I am taking future core curricula just in case. And I am bringing the best-of-the-best science and history reference books (lots of Usborne), plus math enrichment. Lots of the stuff I bring will be stored in the attic (crossing my fingers we get an attic) but we will have bookshelves by the couch. The bathroom purge was so much easier. The kitchen will probably be easy too, since we're not bringing 110v appliances. But books - this is taking forever! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutamattatt Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 We just moved (but only across our town), and I discovered the same thing! I am a HUGE book lover, and so many books catch my eye when it comes to homeschooling. I need about 2% of the resources I own, but I can't bring myself to get rid of any of it. I was terrified of the bathroom and kitchen purges too, but ended up just moving tubs and tubs of books. :lol: I hope everything with your move goes smoothly!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 I hear ya! DH and I went shopping this weekend in preparation for our move. We got several large Rubbermaid-like totes to declutter. After filling every one with books/curricula (sorted by subject, and historical 4 year rotation, of course ;) ) um........I have to get more, or declutter better. :laugh: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 I'm in the same boat. We are moving (probably locally) within a year. I am way over-resourced and I only have one kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Dh is the worst declutterer. He just stores things. Honestly, our last two houses he has had multiple bookshelves FULL of books and he has read maybe 3? He likes knowing he has them. I am being pretty ruthless though. My youngest is 9 so I am cutting out anything too young. Sorting through board games is going to be the other huge headache. We have SO many, and probably many of them that we never play are very good (and we would know this if we just pulled them out before 6 pm and played before our youngest gets overtired and un-fun). DH is storing his Avalon Hill games but of course is reluctant to get rid of anything. I filled two large moving boxes earlier this year and I will keep going until we have the bare minimum. :crying: Luckily we will return in 3-5 years, so we can reclaim everything we store. We currently live in a 1900 sq ft house (with attic and garage) and will be moving to a place that is maybe 1200 sq ft with only a tiny amount of storage. We have to be ruthless. I hope that we will be so busy exploring Europe (and doing homework :huh: ) that we won't have to fill too much time inside anyway. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 You declutterers might appreciate Melissa Wiley's latest blog post about KonMari for the homeschooler. It absolutely resonated with me and made me laugh. Enjoy! http://melissawiley.com/blog/ 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Geek Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Where overseas are you moving too? If I remember right you were in the bush in Alaska for awhile right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fralala Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 I am ruthless with everything except books and curricula. (Truthfully, I re-read your post with the question, Ooh, where does she live and is she giving anything away? because I kind of hoard homeschool-related stuff. Because, you know. Maybe someday.) But I laughed at your DH's style, because mine is the same way. I will triumphantly fill 5 garbage bags full of outgrown clothes and toys to be donated, and he will look at the bags and say, "Well, I'll put them in the attic. Just in case." Just in case we feel like cleaning the attic one day, I guess. Good luck with the move! It's so fun starting fresh when everything is clean, uncluttered, and full of the promise of "This time, I'm really going to keep it this way and not let things pile up." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 (edited) I am ruthless with everything except books and curricula. (Truthfully, I re-read your post with the question, Ooh, where does she live and is she giving anything away? because I kind of hoard homeschool-related stuff. Because, you know. Maybe someday.) But I laughed at your DH's style, because mine is the same way. I will triumphantly fill 5 garbage bags full of outgrown clothes and toys to be donated, and he will look at the bags and say, "Well, I'll put them in the attic. Just in case." Just in case we feel like cleaning the attic one day, I guess. Good luck with the move! It's so fun starting fresh when everything is clean, uncluttered, and full of the promise of "This time, I'm really going to keep it this way and not let things pile up." DH was so proud that he went through his books yesterday. He filled 30 small packing boxes of books to store, and filled one to sell/give away. :001_rolleyes: Meanwhile, I have set aside at least half of my stuff to get rid of. Half of the remainder is to be stored, and the other half is to move with us. We worked in the garage today - I was debating whether I should get rid of paperbacks and replace with Kindle versions of our literature - and he found a box of yearbooks. In there was our wedding album. We had only filled out like five pages and the rest was blank. I said to toss it, and he put it back with the yearbooks to save for another day. Seriously. We will NEVER dig up that book to answer the age-old question "Did we have chicken or fish at our wedding?" I am kind of stuck because I don't know if I should bring much of my homeschooling stuff or not. Reference books, poetry, art books, that stuff is easy to sort. But high school textbooks that I bought in anticipation of the next few years - should I bring them as a back-up plan, or store them? I am not ready to purge those. I really think my oldest needs to go to school. I even told my husband to not let me change my mind. :tongue_smilie: I'm bringing the basics for my younger son so I can afterschool or switch to homeschooling if the school is a poor fit, but he is easy and most of his stuff is digitized. We are looking into the feasibility of buying a house in Belgium - we can use our housing allowance to pay the mortgage, and we can get a much bigger place (with lots of storage, lol). Edited March 27, 2017 by ondreeuh 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CadenceSophia Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 I am super excited for you. We had a brief look at a job in Luxembourg this year and DH has his eye on jobs there and in Germany. I've told him to apply for any job that looks like a good fit in any part of Europe :) Hopefully we'll get to go in the next few years. Books would be so hard to sort. I'd take a bare basics for any grade you could possibly need -- your AOPS books, etc. You never know how your child/ren will react to the school there. I'd store only things that are super sentimental or absolutely amazing reference, and cull the rest. If you come back to Alaska, you'll get your allotment to restock any books you mistakenly tossed. I tossed all my own paperbacks except a very few given to me by friends that are sentimental or not available on kindle and I am not regretting it at all. By contrast, DH has paperbacks we have moved 8-9 times and I have never seen him crack the spine :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 You declutterers might appreciate Melissa Wiley's latest blog post about KonMari for the homeschooler. It absolutely resonated with me and made me laugh. Enjoy! http://melissawiley.com/blog/ WELL DONE, Blogger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 (edited) Where overseas are you moving too? If I remember right you were in the bush in Alaska for awhile right? We are moving to Belgium, in the French-speaking part. None of us speaks French, but I'm excited to learn. Yes, we were in a remote village for a year. Then we moved to a small town near Anchorage almost 5 years ago. It's pleasant here, but pretty boring for us (but not as boring as that village!). I'm ready to move on. Edited March 27, 2017 by ondreeuh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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