Selling the house part 2
Every room we looked in we could just see stuff.. All the things we’d collected over the years.. Alright – all the things I had collected over the years. I’m a bit of a hoarder and John is the total opposite whereas he’ll buy something then as soon as he doesn’t need it, it’ll be given away or sold (to be bought again at a later date sometimes.. haha)
So as we were looking we decided to start with the easy stuff (or so we thought!) DVD’s, Books and CD’s – I downloaded the Music Magpie app to my phone, grabbed a coffee (or beer.. It was stressful! haha) and headed upstairs. We sat on the landing for about 2 hours scanning all of the DVD’s. We had a bit of a system where I scanned, John checked the right DVD was in the right box and put in a pile to be sent off.. It was a strange experience as the DVD’s you think would be accepted – the really popular ones like Back to the Future Trilogy or Die Hard, they wouldn’t accept – big fat computer says no from the app! So we had a big pile for music magpie and another charity pile for the things they didn’t want.
We then grabbed the box of CD’s from the loft and went through those too – John thought this part was hilarious! All of my CD’s (soundtracks, R&B, love albums, spice girls, The drifters – you see where i’m going..?) either received a bit fat no or we were offered a penny for them.. A PENNY!! Whereas all of Johns (Jean Michel Jarre, Gary Moore, all the old Hed Kandi mixes, The Police..) were offered Top Dollar.. I’ve never felt such a slap down from a mobile phone app before.. Haha.. That did make the rest of the time fly right by – we were in stitches guessing what we’d be offered next. A rather large pile of CD’s and DVD’s accumulated on the Landing so we added books to the pile too. I used a few of my keeper cards, as books i’d had for years & years and those bought when I was much younger were moved the the keep pile for storage, I think John could feel a paddy coming on so thought he’d best agree! Haha..
We’d been advised that we needed to do a little “Staging” of the house for the photos which we had to have a chuckle at.. It’s a lovely big 4 double bedroomed house (do you want to buy it??) and only 1 room has a proper bed in it – John has his Gadget Cave, I pinched 2 and have (or had now..) a Gym in one and a sewing room/spare room if we pulled the sofa bed out so not really a good way to show it off.
After much pushing and pulling and moving of heavy treadmills and spinning bikes and sofa beds we managed to cobble together what looks like an actual second bedroom! No point going through the Gadget Cave to take photos just yet and the Sewing room (which is still a sewing room – Yay!!!!!!!) is also now a charity bag pile room.
The tidy and declutter continued downstairs with a quick cull of grandsons toys (not the ones he actually likes – we’re not that mean, although he must have a sixth sense as the next time he came around he asked for his bike that he NEVER plays with..) We moved a big set of glass shelves which housed olive oil and a breadbin out of the way which made the kitchen look massive and generally did what our daughter has been trying to get us to do for years – and boy does the house look good for it!!! We managed the sort out in time for the estate agent to come to take the photo’s – and who in the end, decided that the pictures John took with all the camera gear and lighting he has looked far better so used those instead.
As we were tidying and clearing things up it was decided that we would go to a car boot sale that is on every Sunday and see how much stuff we could get rid of, so a mad Saturday afternoon was spent (with wonderful help from Gem) grabbing things from the loft and cupboards (including Ewan’s bike of course) and books and cd’s and dvd’s and kitchen things so much so, the van was chocca – thankfully John had thought ahead and chose to fill the fridge with snacks and drinks before we crammed more stuff in front of it and we were ready for our 5.30am start.
The blurb on the website stated gates open at 6am so we thought 5.30 up, quick walk for Coop and off we’d go – we were stuck in a queue of traffic to get in (as expected) but the car park we thought we’d get in to was absolutely packed already (we’d wondered why people were walking past us with arms full of things they’d bought) so we were diverted to a field and given lots of space to park and get set up. We had crowds of people around us as we were unpacking and trying to open boxes while making sure everyone knew the dog was not for sale – although we could have sold him and the van 10 times over..! Anyone who has ever sold things on a car boot will know the mayhem and bartering madness that we had over the next 5 hours. We spoke to some lovely people who wanted a tour of the van and just to stop and chat which was lovely too but it was exhausting! We had a guy wanting a refund for a cable out of John’s £1 box (never come across anyone wanting a refund from a car boot before.. Is that normal?) and a bloke who had bought a chair from someone who was not either John or myself but was milling around our stuff 🙂 It was an experience in itself and we’ll be back at it before we move i’m sure (maybe John will choose to Grandson sit and I’ll drag Gem – who knows.. haha)
At the end of the day (which was actually about 1pm) we had only some books and dvd’s and a few bits left over and £290 in our pocket to go in the Adventure Fund! I had a lovely day – the sun was shining and providing lots of coffee power so I was a happy lady!
Monday Gem came to see us and was even more excited than the Saturday – It was time to go all Marie Kondo on me and sort my Clothes, shoes and bags out. She started with clothes and went straight into the “shock” phase which was emptying all of my wardrobes, drawers and shelves onto the bed.. I must have stood mute for a couple of minutes..! I only wear about 6 outfits on rotation so where the heck did all this come from..!! Some stuff I don’t even remember buying and still had tags on, it was a bit embarrassing to see it all there, I’d had all the time to go through and wear them but in my head I was saying “ah, that’s for best, that’s for going out at night to a disco with the pants I don’t own anymore” it was ridiculous.. I started on the pile (Gem was on hand for advice and decision making but left me to it) and anything I didn’t like went in the charity bag, anything that was one colour but is now another or had rips or bust zips (I’ll fix them one day dontcha know..) went in the bin bag. I was then left with a much smaller pile but Gem hadn’t finished there – oh no..! Which of these left sparks joy she said with a giggle, which are my faves, which had I forgotten about and just couldn’t bear to part with..? So a further cull was in order.. then “why do you need 5 blue T-shirts Mum..?” Because I’ve only realised for the past 5 mins that I HAVE 5 blue t-shirts maybe..? Because there is a slightly different hue to each one or that one is plain and one has a logo or branding or a silhouette picture of James Gandolfini in The Sopranos (fugget abaht it..!!) for instance.. so guess what..? I now have 2 blue t-shirts and James Gandolfini gets to stay 🙂 it took a while but I now have winter clothes to go in storage and any other time of year clothes and it actually felt really good to go through.. I’ve not had to stare at my wardrobe wondering what I’m going to wear since and I think with careful rolling/packing that it’s all going to fit nicely in the van..
Shoes and handbags were much easier.. I had the same thing again “mum, why do you need 2 identical pairs of black Toms..?” and “why are you keeping those when you had to walk around barefoot last time we went out..?” Because they are soooooooo pretty that’s why.. haha.. she loves me really and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my Gem.. the charity bags are still in the sewing room but I’ve not been rummaging round them once.. yet..! If you’re tempted to declutter or sort your clothes then give it a go.. you’ll feel so much better for it.
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