Got Junk?

We are moving.

I hate even typing that sentence.

Oh, how I hate to move.

Hate isn't even a strong enough word.

Abhor is more suited to how I feel about it.

I abhor moving.

To make matters worse, we are downsizing. I didn't realize it was possible to downsize from a 975 square foot apartment, but I assure you that it is.

The new apartment is 650 square feet.

And it is upstairs. So the balcony is half the size of the outdoor patio we currently have.

Don't ask me how we are going to condense all of our junk and our entire lives into 650 square feet. Because I don't know.

I just keep telling myself, "It's not forever. " It's not forever. It's not forever."

Right now it feels like forever.

We have a lot of stuff. Too much stuff. I can't for the life of me figure out why we feel the need to hang on to so much junk.

Because that's what it is. Junk. We have too much furniture, too many knick knacks, too many books, too many clothes, etc.

Too. Much. Junk.

What's that rule if you haven't touched it/worn it/used it in a year you need to get rid of it?

Well we have been abiding by the 16 year rule.

We have moved 4 times over the last 16 years and some of the stuff we brought here from our first house(and I'm not talking about just photos or family mementos either).

Every spare moment I have had when I am home over the last few days has been dedicated to sorting, cleaning, throwing away(or giving away) junk.

It is time consuming and exhausting.

I have been searching the internet looking for ways to make it easier to get rid of Joe's our junk.

In my internet searches I came across several companies that will come to your house and remove your junk for you. They bring a truck to your house(like a huge trash dumpster on wheels) and you simply point out the items you want to get rid of and they make it disappear.

Like magic!

This is just what I need!

So I went to their website to see what it would cost us to get rid of our junk.

This website I went to charges by volume, not by weight. The minimum amount of junk you must pay for is 1 item. So let's say you want to get rid of one dresser.

It costs roughly $130.

The next amount is 1/8 of their truck. It looks like this:

That costs about $180.00.


For 1/4 of a truckload, it is about this much junk and it costs around $300.00




This is what 1/2 truck load looks like:
That much junk will cost you almost $400.00.
To fill the whole truck it is approximately this much junk.





A full load will cost you almost $600.00. To take away junk that you don't want anymore.

Does that seem like a lot to you? Because I about fell over when I saw how much it would cost.

Let me just tell you that we have at least a full load's worth of junk to get rid of. Possibly even a load and a half.

Needless to say we will not be using this company and will be carting our stuff to Goodwill ourselves. I am also planning on using Freecycle and Craigslist for some of it. We don't have an extra $600 laying around to pay for the convenience of someone else coming over to our house and getting rid of it

It was nice to dream though.

I gotta go. I really should be sorting and throwing away stuff right now!




P.S. We finally received a check from the unemployment department on Monday. A full seven and a half months after we filed. I am beyond relieved about it. I truly thought we would never see a cent of that money. Now I can concentrate on getting ready for the move without constantly wondering what the heck was going on with that.