Cleaning and decluttering

At the moment I am down at our Brisbane house with Kasey cleaning and decluttering, getting the house ready to rent out. It's been a BIG job. 21 years in the same house, and you tend to accumulate a LOT of stuff. Especially when we have been running our own businesses over that time, we had 15 years of paperwork stored in our attic space above the office! It's been exhausting, and I think we are probably only 50% done. I have been listing a lot of things on the online facebook garage sale sites for our area, and I have been having a good amount of success with that, so I am hoping I manage to get rid of some more things before the end of this week. It all helps, and all of these things we have cost money, so it is nice to recoup some of that, and as they say, one persons trash is another persons treasure! It's funny though, things you think will sell in a flash, don't, and things you think you'd never sell rush out the door. Our shed was full of bits and pieces, and we now have that down to a couple of shelves in there, neatly stacked in plastic sealed storage boxes. Our garage and carport was pretty full as well, and that is nearly empty, it mainly has things that still have to go to the dump or things we are transporting back to the farm. The attic above the office is now totally empty. I think we must have looked really dodgy throwing all of this paperwork on the fire on the weekend, but we only have 3 plastic storage crates left of current year's paperwork that we have to keep for the tax office.We have taken 2 full horse float loads of rubbish to the tip, and I think we may have 1 other load by the time we finally finish. And we haven't even started on the maintenance things we need to finalise before we finish either...
I have discovered that soapy steelos are soooo good for cleaning, they have been a godsend for getting things really clean. I am working on the kitchen at the moment, and they just get through the dirt that accumulates on the shelving so easily. My hands are like dry little prunes though with the combination of soap and scourers on my poor skin, I have been piling on the moisturiser.
Damian headed back up to the farm on Monday to do a couple of jobs, and he should be back down, probably on Thursday so that he can get some of the maintenance jobs done. I will be so glad when this is done, it's hard work, but cleansing at the same time...like a fresh start...
Oh...and I brought ALL of my chooks , and my new chicks with me so that the mongrel FOX does not help himself while we are down here...9 big chickens and 25 little chickens. The 4 guinea fowl stayed home because they all sleep in the trees anyway...it was a bit of a hassle, but I feel so much better being able to look after them and keep an eye on them...anyway, off to do a bit more cleaning, and then off to bed....zzzz