Susan: Hello, new home. Goodbye, useless junk.

This is Susan’s 3rd post in our Customer Blogger series. Read her previous post here.

Moving makes you realize just how much stuff you have. Especially if you have way too much of it. After paying for hundreds of cardboard boxes and packing materials ($210), professional movers (four separate visits! $2,200 total!), storage unit rental ($280) and junk removal ($450), not to mention spending countless hours packing and unpacking (time = money), I also realized how expensive it is to have all that stuff.

Yes, we just moved out of the house we sold and into the bigger, nicer, newer house we bought. Happy day! The whole thing was ridiculously exhausting and pretty much wiped out a week of our lives, but we’re awfully glad we did it. It’s lovely to have more than one “real” bathroom. I adore the quiet, tree-filled neighborhood and our park-like backyard with a deck to enjoy the view.

And all that extra space! A girl could get used to this.

But coming to grips with our overabundance of crap—not so happy. How did we accumulate so many things? And what are we going to do with it all?

Before we moved, we cleared out quite a bit of clutter—or so we thought. We sold most of our books, CDs and DVDs. We donated boxes filled with unwanted stuff to local charities. Trash bags (or recycling bins, when possible) went away with the garbage truck.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to thoroughly de-clutter before moving day. So a lot of junk ended up getting moved along with the good stuff. (Hello, hubby’s super-ninja sword collection? My inherited 70s pinball machine? The ancient-but-definitely-not-antique coffee table?)

After the movers left and the dust settled, we faced stacks of boxes in every room of our new home. Of course, lots of them contained things we actually wanted and needed—you know, plates and bowls, diapers and bibs for the baby, bath towels, clothes.

But what about all those other ones? The ones that—if they mysteriously disappeared without a trace—we would probably never miss? I’m pretty sure I have about 20 boxes full of random stuff from my childhood. My husband has boxes he hasn’t even opened since he moved out of his college apartment in 2000!

Now, we’re on a mission to simplify as we unpack and settle in. Every box is being opened and scrutinized. The two-car garage that we can’t wait to start parking in is currently a staging area for trash and donations. Every single thing we keep must be something we need, want and use, with a specific destination (NOT another box in the basement).

And from here on out, I pledge to be uber-vigilant about the things we bring into our home. If something new comes in, something old must go. Before I buy something, I’ll ask myself if it’s worth the price—not only to get it, but to maintain, keep, store, and eventually (in the faaaaaar-distant future), move it.

Our new motto: Simplify and save!

Check out our other Customer Bloggers: Alicia, Matt, T.J., Nancy and Alison.