May...where did you go?

The month of May has just flown by! Can it really be June already?

This month was, by far, the most whirlwind month of my entire life.  We started the month with our trip to Calgary to candidate, and ended it with a house nearly sold and the countdown on until we move and start a new chapter of our lives.  In-between this month also included: announcing our resignation to our church, spending a week plus the  long weekend cleaning/packing/decluttering/beautifying our home to list on the market, listing our home on the market, showing our home (only lasted 3 days), taking a trip away to family camp with our church, and accepting an offer on our home!

Has anyone experienced such an action packed month?


As crazy as it was, it felt SO good to get to work and get so much accomplished.  And let me tell you, we purged more than I have ever purged before!  There's something about having a big house and accumulating stuff.  Plus we have been married for nearly 13 years and never purged.  Plus, we have lived most of our time in this home in a house of 6 people (with students) so naturally we had built up SO much stuff.

So, how did I go about this massive de-clutter?

I really tried to apply the rule of, "If you don't love it, don't keep it."  Now, it's not entirely possible with children and this stage of life, but as I looked around my house, there were so many things that I really didn't love, and actually things that annoyed me.  For the past year, I have been walking around my house noticing the things I don't like and making a mental note that they have to go.  So, on the purge weekend... out they went!  From lamps, to pictures hung, to clothing (so much clothing).... we piled and stacked everything to get rid of.

We had planned to garage sale, but with a timeline that was suddenly much quicker than expected, I decided it was just easier to give it away.  We loaded our entire van FULL of all the stuff to go, and off it went.  Then we had a trailer come, and we loaded up the whole thing with stuff to go to the dump.  After that, there was STILL stuff left, like random pieces of furniture, and I posted them all online for free, and within days they were gone too!  The last few things we have to go are larger pieces of furniture that we still need to use for a bit longer.

I'm sure there is still more stuff to get rid of, but even that amount felt SO freeing and suddenly I love our house again.  It was just filled with too much stuff I didn't love, and now I can enjoy all the little spaces and corners because there is room to breathe.  Know what I mean?  I'm going to make such an intentional effort in our new home to make this a regular habit.

After the purge, we had a work crew who came to paint, wash windows, touch up repairs, mow the lawn, weed the garden, and clean the place top to bottom!  Then came the fun part of staging the house.  We packed up the kids and spent a few nights at nana and papa's home to keep the house in a nice state, and within days, it was all over.  Now we wait for the final conditions to go through, and then the real packing begins.

Tell me, what are your tips for packing with little people underfoot?  It seems whenever I have a job that actually needs to be done, they are the most needy for attention.  This month ahead is our chance to wrap up our jobs and pack up our home, before the final weeks of goodbyes.  I have many goodbyes planned, not only to the people we love, but also the places that I am going to miss so dearly.   I plan to share them all with you too... my way of marking these precious moments!