The DU Lounge

Our biggest problem was that this house doesnt have a garage while our old home had a huge double garage.

We were renting the last house, my wife lived there 20 years with various roommates until we met, got engaged and then married. We wanted out own home however so we saved 8 years later we bought this house.

Like you we down sized and threw away as much as possible. I rented a 20 foot dumpster and had it hauled 3 times before we moved.

We STILL has a spare room with boxes and the entire finished basement is full. I also have a storage unit.

My wife is a bit of a pack rat though and when it comes to clothes and shoes.... let's say she could cloth a small nation. Hyperbole yes but as much as you would think.

Money is tight with the stuff we need to do for the house (windows, new fence, paint etc etc)

So, not the same but I totally understand what you are feeling. Before I met my wife I moved often and I have had more than a few apartments that have had piles of boxes in various rooms.

Storage units are the way to go if you can afford it but that's the key isnt it? We need a bigger one to clear out the basement and spare room but the money isn't there.

One thing I learned after moving so much though is to dump anything that hasn't been looked at or used in 2 years. I mean everything, clothes, papers (except financial and tax stuff), gadgets and appliances that once seemed so appealing. If it can be donated it goes to Savers or Salvation Army. That helped me personally but it requires a change in personality. I held on to things and had to rip the bandaid off so to speak and just dump things. Sure every now and again I will look for something that I once had but its rarely a big deal.

If this is the route you were going to go then start separating your items. You may have to re box to organize but you can place the items that are truly sentimental on one side and stuff that is more likely to be "junk or useless" truly important things should go in a location that you will decide to never touch things like photographs sentimental objects. You have to really dig deep though to identify how important those items are because it is quite easy to get to the point where a lot more is deemed important then it really is.

This is where the storage unit becomes useful because you can put the important items there and the clutter in the home/apartment is more easily dealt with over time. Put labels on your boxes for how long it's been since you've looked at the items because that will allow you to decide or quickly what to get rid of.

I hope this helps and I'm sorry you're in that situation. I would also look at organizers. I was finally able to get my wife to start using them for her clothes and other items she found a lot on QVC and HSN.