Since we are renting our house while we are away it was necessary to put all of its contents (including furniture) into a room Clay and his Dad built, for that purpose, in the basement. For those of you who know me, I enjoy organizing things so I didn’t see this as a daunting task, and I also loved the idea of getting rid of some of our “stuff”. I believe that our “stuff” complicates our lives – we spend more time organizing it, taking care of it, making sure it is looked after while we are away – and it was time to get rid of a lot of it. So, the thought of having only our necessary belongings housed in a small room in the basement was quite appealing. As the trip departure date drew closer, however, the job of packing the room started to become less and less exciting and rather exhausting. I am so happy it is done but I’m not sure I’d want to go through these steps ever again!! Here you have it – the steps we took to downsize into a 600 square foot room!

1 Garage Sale – got rid of a couple things but the seniors who dropped by weren’t interested in the the kids’ stuff!

3 Mom and Tot Sales – these are much better for getting rid of young kids’ items

18 trips to Goodwill

4 trips to the dump

12 trips to family and friends who agreed to store some things for us!

74 bags of garbage and recycling put out at the curb

30 items sold on Kijiji – thank heavens for kijiji!

3,400 steps up and down the stairs delivering all of the essential items to the room

The results:  our house in 600 square feet!