From trips to the tip to tearful breakdowns, moving house is an emotional journey. Photo: Getty
I have been experiencing all the high and lows of moving and downsizing over the past few months, having just sold the family home of 21 years in a frenzied Sydney real estate market.
What an emotional journey it is to clear out a house. A smarter, or perhaps richer, person would have just called in the experts and had everything packed up in scented tissue and spirited away to the new house to be unpacked and arranged perfectly, but I decided every single thing in the house had to pass through my hands at least once so I could decide whether to keep it or not.
That included everything my sons had left behind in the back of their cavernous wardrobes, including old school ties and bad artworks, about 2000 of my husbands prized CDs, my insane collection of interesting scarves and accessories, and a very perplexing linen cupboard.
After three trips to the tip, endless charity drop offs, several auction sales, two council clean ups, some offloading to friends and about half a dozen exhausted and tearful breakdowns I have discovered some moving truths.