Stripping Myself of 90% of My Clutter

 

I've been decluttering for years. Every time I've moved from one place to another, I've sold or given away tons of stuff. I always had room in my new place for the rest of it -- until now. I told myself that I wasn't unpacking boxes because one day I would move to a larger place, and they would already be packed. I looked at this apartment as being cheaper than renting a studio and a storage space. 

But now it's getting to be ridiculous. First, I had no bedroom, because it was 90% packed with boxes. Now I have no living room or dining room because I decided to move all the boxes out there to spur me to go through them and get rid of stuff. I've gone through them -- all of them. I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff, but not enough.

Organizing the Clutter

I don't have but one bedroom closet and one hall closet -- both full of boxes. I thought if I bought some storage shelves to "create" another closet that spanned one long wall of my BR, that would be enough. It's not. I thought that if I got bookcases for the living room they could  hold all the books and knick knacks. They do not. I still have maybe 80 boxes that need to be decluttered.

Changing My Mindset

But I've been looking at this all the wrong way. I look through boxes and decide what I WANT to keep,  not what I NEED to keep. I keep things for the worst reasons, like "I may need this one day" or "When I get a larger place, I'll need this."  

Then there is the bringing things into an apartment that is already completely overstuffed with stuff I don't need. I don't need to organize my clutter, I need to get rid of it. At this point, it's gotten to the point where I actually hate living in my apartment, and I don't see myself being able to move anytime soon, what with rents going up so high. All I want is to be able to move freely around my home without having it look like a storage space someone is living in.

It also doesn't  help that I'm hopelessly sentimental, and too lazy to take pictures of things and store them online as memories. 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

 I can't live like this anymore. I've read enough about living with clutter to know that you have to be ready to let go of things, and I'm finally ready. No more saying I'm going to do it and not doing it. No more going through boxes and only getting rid of one thing, then packing it back up. 

My goal is to get rid of 90% of what I own by June of this year. To do that, I'm going to start selling things online. I'll set a time limit and if they haven't sold by then, I'll just donate them or toss them. 

Why Now? Why So Quickly?

I need to get out of Gainesville. I don't know where I'm going now, but my lease is up the end of August, and I need to be packed and ready to go by then. I like my little apartment, but they've started raising the rent too much every year, so now I'm paying more than I can afford. It's either work harder to earn more money or move, and at almost 70, I don't want to work any harder. I'd actually like to retire, but with the rents going up and up, I can't. I used to be able to pay my rent, utilities, and internet out of my social security check, but not anymore. I need to move somewhere cheaper so I can afford to actually live instead of just survive.

I've been looking into a lot of options like van dwelling and moving to another state or even to Mexico. So I don't know where I'll land, but it won't be here, and I can't take all this stuff with me, so it has to be now.