Preparing To Sell Our Home - The De-Cluttering Begins

Just over 2 years ago we purchased 5.5 acres of bare land in New Zealand with the intention of moving there, closer to my family, to live.  I have been mentioning this upcoming move here and there for the past 2 years and some of you (like some of our family) might be wondering if we will ever actually make the move.  Rest assured we will be moving, and this stay in Australia after purchasing the property was always part of the plan.  Since then we have been renovating our home here and tidying things up both inside and out.

The renovations are now finished and the plan is to put our home on the market and if sold before August we will move back to Brisbane into rental accommodation.  We are then hoping to take a few months off to go on a bit of a road trip around the country to see friends and family before heading back to Brisbane and biding our fond farewells.

Even though we have been slowly but surely de-cluttering over the past few months it is now time for the last big push and get rid of everything we know 100% will not be going to New Zealand and to get the house 'dressed' for sale.  Over the Weekend I tackled a few areas of the house to get this started.

I started in the kitchen here I removed all of the magnets, photos, kids paintings (from my nieces), menu plan white board and other bits and pieces from the fridge, then I gave it a good clean.
The only thing that has been returned to the fridge is the menu planning board which can be removed at the drop of a hat for inspections.
I then removed the 13 salad bowls, pie dishes and casserole dishes from the shelf above the pantry and after giving everything a good clean, returned only 5 bowls to the shelf.  Two of the other salad bowls have been set aside to find a new home and the rest were put away in the cupboard above the fridge.

A nice clean and tidy top shelf

Excess bowls and dishes set aside

My next area to tackle was part (yes this is just part) of my cookbook collection.  I keep the ones I use  lot on the kitchen bench stacked up wedged between the wall and my kombucha.

Just some of my cookbook collection

In an effort to clear some of the clutter I have cleared off the two shelves just above, of their normal bits and pieces, and selected just a few cook books to dress the shelves. 

A few books selected to dress the shelves.

The remainder of the cookbooks made their way to join the rest of the collection (after a de-clutter where a few were packed in the Op Shop Box) in the bottom draw.

I have not started de-cluttering the rest of the kitchen but it feels good to have this part done.

A little tidier at this end of the bench

Then it was on the the book shelf.  Sorry no 'before' photos here.  But there used to be a second row of books on 3 of the shelves as well as many other books stacked horizontally on top of those.
I have gotten rid of at least 40 books (to be sent to the Op Shop), packed 2 other boxes to be stored away and removed all the remaining books and given the bookcase a good clean.

A nice tidy bookcase with only a single layer of books

After the big bookcase was done I decided that while I was there I may as well tackle the small bookcase filled with magazines.

The before shot

All the magazines were sorted and some added to the Op Shop pile.  The book shelf was cleaned and the remaining magazines stacked neatly.

The after shot

Then it was on to out side.  One of the things that we cannot take to New Zealand due to quarantine rules is garden pots.  So they all need to find a new home.  I have already donated all of the tubestock pots to our local Landcare group and now I have about 2 dozen of terracotta pots and a heap of plastic pots.

I have washed all of the pots to get rid of the spiders, ants and dirt and all the plastic post have been sorted to size.  Now I just need to find them a new home.

So that is a few small jobs taken care of and while there is a lot left to do I am glad we started de-cluttering a few months ago.  We have a lot less 'stuff' to deal with now and the plan is to get the rest of the rooms ready over the next few weekends, for the agent (not yet chosen) to come and take photos and hold inspections.

Have you got any tips for getting your home ready for sale?

The Great Wardrobe Clear Out of 2014

Over the last 10 months I have been loosing weight slowly but surely and have so far lost over 30kg.  I won't go into all the ins and outs of it, but the excess weight was mainly due to a medical condition.  However when you add a office job and a love of cooking and eating it was a bad combination.
The medical condition has now been addressed through medical intervention and this along with a reduction in calories has facilitated the weight loss.  

This has resulted in my wardrobe getting a great big clean out.  So far I have cleared out over 70% of my clothes and I am looking at getting rid of more all the time.
Every week I go back to my wardrobe and review everything again as some clothes have been harder to get rid of than others.  Some items  that were hard to get rid of were clothes that were still in really good condition and others were items that I really liked.  For a while I was tried to convince myself that I would wear them again or would alter them.  I was kidding myself in 99% of cases.

At this stage I have now gotten rid of all of my winter clothes with the exception of a few woolen items that can be layered with other clothes.
I have also gotten rid of most of my summer clothes except for farm clothes as those do not matter if they are baggy and unflattering and just add a belt to pants that are too big and you are good to go.

I have not been replacing things except where absolutely necessary and I have made a decision to dramatically reduce the number of clothes I own moving forward.
I still have more clothes than I need and therefore I am going to just keep giving a few away every week to the Op shop until I feel that my wardrobe has slimmed down (excuse the pun) to a more minimal collection.

I must say I never thought I had that many clothes but once I started getting rid of some I realised I was wrong.  Perhaps I did not have many compared to a lot of people but I still had far more than what I actually need.

I am not sure how few clothes I can get away with but I am on my way to finding out.

Has anyone else dramatically scaled back their wardrobe?  
How many/few clothes do you own?

Storm Season Begins With A Mini Tornado

Well storm season has kicked off with a bang with 3 very hot days (37 - 40 degrees Celsius) followed by storms in the evening.
On Saturday night there was lots of wind, thunder and lightning but very little rain.  Monday night there was lots of everything including rain which was such a blessing. But Sunday night we had a storm with lots of thunder and lightning and a burst of storm activity that I can only describe as a mini tornado.

We had all the doors and windows open and the cool breeze was cooling things down and the rain was pattering on the roof.  But then I heard the wind pick up and I could hear it roaring through the trees that line the creek nearby.  
I started rushing about shutting doors and windows and called for Hubby to come and help (he was already in bed) and within about 30 seconds it hit the house.  The wind was so strong that I could barely pull the door closed against it and as Hubby was closing  one of the windows the wind slammed it on his finger (enter a few choice four letter words at this stage).
The wind slammed against the house for about 3 minutes and then died back down again.  A little while later just as I was going to bed the rain stopped.

The next morning I was astonished to see that our garden shed has been demolished with a few panels in the neighbors place.

The roof off Jessie's kennel had been blown off (we had her inside with us because of the storm thankfully) and it takes the two of us to lift it as it weighs about 40kg.  The tree branches above her kennel had been torn off and flipped over the fence.

The tree at our neighbors gateway lost a huge branch and locked them in.

The main reason that I think it was a mini tornado and not just a wind gust is the randomness of the things that were affected and where some items ended up.
The roof on Jessie's kennel was only 6 meters from the front porch yet the cane furniture on the porch was still there the next day.
The peg bucket from the back yard was found around the corner of the house and almost in the front yard (so at 90 degrees from where it should have been) about 40 meters away.
One of the flower bushes was blown over but the tomatoes that were staked nearby were still standing.
Our shed was blown to bits but the lid on my worm farm right beside the she was still on the worm farm in the morning.
So many random occurrences.

We spent Monday morning gently removing items from what was left of the shed and having a good old throw out before dismantling the shed and taking it to the dump.  I was a good excuse for a clean out and we had it on the cards for the near future but now it has been done.  It was great to get rid of a whole lot of junk and I hope to get rid of a bit more in the weeks to come.

Hubby pulling the shed apart and loading the trailer

My next job is to deal with all the empty garden pots that were stored behind the shed.  We can't take them with us to NZ so I plan on washing them all and giving them away.

Te cleared shed slab

Today we headed out to buy a new shed but I am not sure when it will be assembled.  I know one thing for sure and than is that noting is going back into the shed without first being scrutinized.
Hopefully the heat wave is over for a bit as it is too early in the season to be getting 40 degree days, it's still supposed to be spring for heavens sake!

How's the weather been at your place?