After a very quiet period and with time marching on, we were wondering how things were going.

Our New Place (hopefully!)

There may have been a lot of hornet’s being disturbed, because we went from ‘there’s no way’, to ‘maybe’ to ‘doable’ to let’s get this thing done. But nothing much has happened for a few weeks since our buyer asked for a structural report. Several things came out of this which, in the buyers eyes, required ‘specialist’ second looks and reports as to the condition of them: gas, electrics, flat roofs. There was no need because any major issues wouldn’t necessarily be a blocker on the sale, and things that weren’t up to date could easily be fixed after the move.

We’re now sorting and decluttering. What an exercise! The junk that was lying around the house, garage and loft had been there in some cases for over 25 years, so we had to ruthless. A lot of stuff and I   mean a lot went to charity shops; clothes and ornaments and the like to the local hospice charity shop, and electrical items to the BHF (British Heart Foundation) shop locally who sell such stuff in their furniture shop. The rest and no score stuff went straight down to the council tip. My van has never been used so much to move junk around. In the course of finding boxes of paper, school books, photographs and ephemera, looking at it takes time, not only to decide if it IS junk but also to reminisce and bring back memories of a past life, or in some cases ancestors lives. This exponentially increases the time taken to do the sorting, but it’s no bad thing. What you’ve got to be sure of is that what you are chucking is no longer needed, once it’s gone, it’s gone.