h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The daughter's old enough, now, I've been passing a lot on to her.
Many of the videos are finding their way to the library, though.

I am bringing this up to the top of the lists again, because we are moving house in just over three weeks.

I know that working for h2g2 that panicking is a sackable offence, but what the hell! I am doing it any way.

Still at least it will mean that I can get rid of shed loads of stuff I don't need. Unfortunately this includes my Morris Minor

You can't plant something in it?





Thanks For The Memories!

I'm right in the middle of moving home myself.
Last weekend I boxed up all my junk and rather than taking it to the tip/dump, I spent a morning at a local boot fair.
I made 200 quid for my trouble.
Everything I didn't sell got dropped off at the tip on the way home.

Good Luck!

The getting-rid-of-things is one of the best bits about moving house, and one of the reasons I like to move every 5 years or so. Maybe it will be easier to keep the total volume down now that it is only my stuff.

Over the last 18 months I have moved 5 times, and I have got rid of over a thousand books, about a dozen bin bags of clothes, (which shocked me), about a dozen boxes of assorted charity-shop and jumble-sale doo-dads, stacks and stacks of things like curtains, bedspreads, throws, rugs, and more shoes than Imelda Marcos ever owned. I have another tranche of books to get rid of soon, and I need to do another clothes clear-out. I am getting close to having nothing that I do not either know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

Enjoy it Abi - it is tough but worth it.

a moving target called Ben

Thanks Ben! I think I am going to need but at the same time, I think it is going to be a bit of a rite of passage. Time to get rid of all the CDs and books I don't need any more, to redefine who am I.

What with that and my new sooper-dooper healthy eating plan, I will be completely unrecongisable. I will use your mantra of 'having nothing that I do not either know to be useful or believe to be beautiful'!

When we moved (not just house, but country ) earlier this year, my son was having great difficulty in deciding what to take and what to throw away. He didn't want to part with any of it. I eventually persuaded him by telling him he was the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter, and everything had to go into one of 4 piles:

Luxempuff - coming with us
Grannyclaw - old schoolwork etc to be stored in Granny's attic
Bring-and-buy-dor - junk that went to charity shops, school bring and buy sales
Slithernick - sentimental value stuff he wanted his Dad to look after.

it certainly made

it certainly made what?

What a creative idea
I'm guessing the country you mved to was Luxembourg right?, and his dad's name is Nick ?

You're good!

Sorry, my computer took a funny turn in the middle of that post and I had to abandon ship. so to speak.

It certainly made sorting the stuff out a bit easier for him to deal with.

is what it should've said.

My strategy (has worked effectively on six different occasions)

1) Sort out all the things that you _really_ can't live without.

2) Put everything else in a box and sell it at a car boot.

Although, I must add, that I am particularly unnostalgic when it comes to memorabilia and nick-nacks. I like the challenge of starting anew - makes packing much easier, and shopping more fun.

Even better, ratherr than car-boot it, auction it off on h2g2.

£5 for Abi's pressure-cooker, anyone?

B

The permanent man toy (yet another reason for men to be the reality behind pmt) and I are in the process of buying a house. We thought that we needed more space, what with me having an expanding belly and both of us having expanding retro gaming collections, another couple of bedrooms would be nice.

I don't hoard. I have moved a lot in my 22 years as resident of this planet. Before I moved in with Mark my bedroom was 7 foot square... No room for gubbins. I had a couple of bags of clothes, a few boxes of books and a small cd collection. Not bad. It's roughly the same, but increased by three and a half years worth of books, clothes and cds.

Mark... Oh dear. He hoards more than a cleptomaniac dragon with magpie ancestry. He has four bookcases stacked with books, and a couple of boxes more to that. An extensive vinyl collection, and lots of videos and dvds. We have between us (I have claimed ownership of the better parts) an immense cd collection which may well prove to be a colonising force if ever NASA decide to make a go of Mars.

Now I've been trying to pack. I got all the videos and a hefty chunk of the cds packed. All labelled and ready to be shifted. I also got all my books packed and labelled. Some of my clothes have been packed as well, they don't fit me at the moment, but they will in february so I'm keeping them.

Mark has managed to clear three shelves on his bookcases. Three. And he packs weird as well, he leaves loads of space at the top of a box. Okay so I know the boxes we have at the minute are a wee bit big to *fill* with books, but he could top it all off with videos or clothes. But he wont. I have tried reason, and I refuse to get shouty. I'll let him do it his way. When he runs out of boxes, I wont laugh. Much.

The problem that may well cause shouting is the throwing away of stuff... He likes to keep things, I have a habit of chucking it all away. We are moving to a three bedroom house, and we currently live in a small shoebox-esque flat. If we don't get rid of some of the junk we own, we may need a bigger house already!

Ah well, we have six weeks to go. Maybe I should send him a link to this forum and see what he says? *ponders*

Thanks for all the tips

Space at the tops of boxes?

If you do that they don't stack securely. If you fill them carefully but completely then they stack properly. Boxes of books should go at the bottom, because books are HEAVY. Use towels, clothes, bedding and cushions to pack fragile things. But fill the spaces.

Ben

I'm hoping to move house in two months (we've found another house to buy, better but more expensive) so I'm reading this with interest. I recommend a hearty sort out of clothes which is always good for the soul. Any books you may never read again or are embarrassed by could go to. These can go to charity shops so someone else gets to enjoy them and you get the space.

The three piles idea is good too. I envisage putting many ornaments on this that I hate and would probably get broken in the move anyway. Now is the time to get rid of your less than favourite breakable presents!

Doh! that was meant to be at the end. Apologies, its late.

I've just moved.



My dining suites are in the garage, I have to decide which one I'm keeping, the posh one or the practical one.
(I have to consider my son!)
I have two dismantled wardrobes also in the garage, along with my brand new kitchen.
My lovely larder fridge is currently in my son's bedroom, because he bags the biggest one.
And there isn't room for it in this small kitchen

I did a massive clear-out before I moved.

But I still have to shift a lot of stuff.



I'm never moving again!



Good luck Abi!

for AGB - it IS worth it, really it is.

B

I wish I'd moved.
Entire house contents in storage mid point between the empty house I still own and the new job I started a month ago 100 miles away.
However, even when I have moved I'll be doing it again within a year.