Until this week I felt guilty when I would strongly, strongly suggest that clients declutter their homes before putting them up for sale. How could I be asking them to get rid of their china dog collection in four glass fronted curio cabinets when I had my own secret - my basement?
When we moved into this home, we had a two year old and a baby waiting in the wings. Two years later our youngest child was born. Moving in was a huge whoosh, then life started happening in a cumulative way. For anyone who has not been blessed with children and a large, loving family on both sides, let me tell you, birthdays and Christmases are times when clutter invades the home like a horde of barbarians. From board games to remote controlled fire trucks with real sirens (deafness is a blessing if this is ever a gift to your son), to books, clothes, dollies, and bicycles, there was an endless procession of stuff into our home.
Being the organized and careful people that we are, we threw everything in the basement, said a prayer that it would disappear, then shut the door and went on with our lives.
At some point recently I decided I could no longer sternly advise clients to get rid of junk while my own basement was two Christmas ornaments away from bursting.
One night after supper we all went down together and faced the ten year old monster. Several hours later, standing in the clean, cavernous space, I had an empty basement and three valuable tips on decluttering that I can now honestly impart to my sellers:
1. Start by getting rid of items with no sentimental strings attached.
One of the boxes in our basement was marked "infant shoes." We opened it and found several pairs like this:
Needless to say, as my wife held these tiny shoes and cried for a moment over years gone by and babies grown older, I knew we wouldn't be tossing them into the big, black trash bag. So we moved on to the ten thousand pound dehumidifier that no longer did anything but take up space. No one complained. No one cried. The dehumidifier was out in the trash and we moved on with no regrets. Eventually, as we reached the end of the chore, my wife and I both agreed that the sweet, teeny baby shoes would look precious on our brand new niece. Starting out with tossing the bona fide junk paved the way for dealing with the objects that held a stronger claim on our hearts.
2. Decide what the actual function of every item is.
Do we cook? Yes! So a pot would seem to be very useful. We found three of them in the basement. But they had been there for years, and we've never lacked for vessels in which to prepare our oatmeal, vegetables, or fudge. These pots are good objects, but not necessary for us. We have what we need in the way of cookware. Which leads to the next point:
3. Donation eases the sting.
So many stuffed animals - fuzzy, cuddly toys that our children really don't use were packed away in the basement. At first the kids howled in protest when we said we were giving them away. But we helped them to understand that there were boys and girls who would cherish and play with these sentimental relics of their childhood. They got excited to think that they might be "secret santas" for some other child's Christmas morning. We have bags and boxes on our front porch waiting for the Purple Heart truck to come take them away, and we all feel pretty good about that. Lots of our possessions are going on to live useful, productive lives in other homes.
I came out of my basement a new man; a new honest man who can look clients in the eye and say, "Get rid of some of the stuff in this home." There are no more clutter skeletons in my closet . . . or in my basement.
Comments(6)