It's great to finally reap the rewards! It's like that saying: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
I've been getting rid of stuff but it all seems like a drop in the bucket. We're going to rent a dumpster this weekend for when 3 of my kids (well, 2 kids and 1 SO and 2 dogs) come to help out. I'm looking forward to giving quite a few things the old heave-ho!
I have to admit, as we pare down to fit 2100 sq. ft. of stuff into 700 sq ft, it's hard and stressful to choose the things that will continue on in the journey. I have to let some things go--things that have a story. Now I'm saying to DH, well, what if we buy up? (We have given consideration to moving to a more winter-friendly part of the island.). I don't think we will, but I keep thinking about all the things I'm now forced to give up and I'm grappling with all the "what ifs"--What if I wind up with room for some of my favorite things that I'm letting go of?
And at the same time, I see how BIL spent a ton of money storing things in a POD, and today he gave half of the contents to charity, and put another third of the furniture that he thought was SO valuable out on the curb. It's just like George Carlin said, "Have you noticed that their stuff is sh*t and your sh*t is stuff?" So when I was looking at the piles of BIL's cr*p all spread out on the driveway, I could in no way judge because I had only to look over his shoulder into my garage and view the piles of my own cr*p.
All in all, I'm happy that I'm putting myself in a position where my kids won't have to despair over cleaning out a 50-year old monument to our meaningless acquisitions when DH and I die, but it's still a lot of peeling off the bandaid one hair at a time.