Prosperous soul, mortgage neutrality & creativity Year 2

beanielou

You are on fire 🤩

SandyShores

I love a good tip run, CS run and donating things on facebook.  Its like ebay but without the bother of posting stuff (and without the money either ).  But I love how the house feels when you get back and don't have that clutter around.  Good stuff Saving!

savingholmes

Thanks Beanie, Sandy, Starlight - welcome @Flossymuldoo

Well done to all those also engaging in decluttering.

Today - I swam this morning. Binge watched some garden shows in between decluttering. Wiggled my stand/sit art desk in to position and hoovered. I've moved a 3 plastic drawer unit full of paint up there (in 4 trips). I've also worked my way through two crates of papers and have shredded most. The noise has been excruciating. Sadly there is not a single room in my house that feels valuation ready...  I'm just going to try and focus on decluttering for now and worry about staging later. At the moment there's still too much stuff... 

Tomorrow is due to be much the same. I'm trying to resist any shopping for staging type products so I don't add to the clutter but it's so hard!

skint_spice

You don’t need more stuff! Just keep going. I know this because it is true for me too!

jwil

The clutter isn't really going to impact on the valuation of the property, so unless you are planning on having photos done immediately, you can still get the valuation done even if you don't feel quite ready to put it on the market.

Keep going, you are doing a fantastic job, and don't buy anything for staging, you don't need it.

Merlin's_Beard

Mid declutter is the worst time to take a step back and look around, because you completely miss the massive impact you will have made already because all of the work in progress bits lying around.

savingholmes

Thanks Skint and Jwil

It depends on the level of clutter whether it impacts the valuation. But I am pushing myself too hard to achieve overnight perfection on things that have taken years to get to this level of excess!! My cleaner is a whizz at tidying and making things look organised so that will be her job on Wednesday. If I were to sell I want to get photos done asap as the garden is in flower. I could perhaps get the photos taken of the garden first and then the inside later. I have friends who are professional photographers that I plan to ask to do it.

I am trying to use the external pressure of the valuations to tackle areas that have needed sorting for a long time. When our house was valued at divorce (by one agent) - (I let Ex get away with one agent - as I feared any others would value it higher - and he'd picked one of the lowest valuers in the area which made me smile. His laziness went in my favour). She had the nerve to describe my house and garden as a "project".  Given my house was 20 years old at the time - I was unimpressed and she will not get the opportunity to ever market my home. Looking back she was possibly right about the garden - but that took between £500-1K to resolve. I'm hoping a lick of paint and decluttering will have resolved much of the rest.

However, despite the pressure I'm putting on myself to get everything 'ready' for sale - I still haven't mentally committed to moving - as a) I haven't yet found a property that sings to me enough and b) I'm really put off at the thought of spending £10K+ on moving. That's equivalent to close to a year's worth of mortgage payments. Add to that whatever I spend on the new house to get it more how I'd want and it all feels too scary. We will see what happens. Even if all I do is massively declutter and tart up the place that will be a huge win and make my home and garden a more enjoyable place to be.

It will (hopefully) be encouraging to learn what equity I may have added recently. There is due to be inward investment into the area which should in future push up prices which seem low compared to other areas of the country. I therefore also wonder if I should wait. Dilemmas, dilemmas. My alternative would be to plan more regular cottage holidays - a lot cheaper than moving. If DD isn't around to look after the cat though - that would push up my costs significantly. 

savingholmes

Merlin's_Beard said:

Mid declutter is the worst time to take a step back and look around, because you completely miss the massive impact you will have made already because all of the work in progress bits lying around.

This is absolutely true!! It will get better!

I had the joy last night of finding some pension paperwork relating to a previous job. It is the pension which if I was able to transfer I'd strongly consider - so I could liberate a 25% tax free payment.  However, it looks like I can get my pension at 60 - where I thought that one was 65. That means without reduction at 2021 rates I am due about £4K a year. It goes up by up to 5% inflation each year - so that could be worth closer to £4.4K now. I will email them and check and ask for an updated transfer value at the same time.

That brings me back to the coast FI idea - where I'd potentially go part time rather than fully retire - that way preserving my pension benefits. My options are massively dependent on both mortgage rates and whether I keep p1p in future. If all my bills stayed the same relative to now - I could afford to go to 3 days a week from age 60 even in this house. If however mortgage rates remain high - my costs could go up £250 a month at that point which could make the difference between it being doable and not doable. Planning that from this house seems easier as a) there are more knowns for budgeting and b) it's close enough to work while being far enough to create some distance. This also feeds into my moving debate.

Part of me wonders whether what I really want is a bolt hole in the country... that I could go to at weekends and weeks where I don't have to go to work - but again I can't see how to afford that.

I now need to get ready and go for my outdoor swim. I've been up since 8 after being woken by noise outside - but have just been relaxing.

Flossymuldoo

Maybe take Kirsty and Phil ‘love it or leave it’ approach?   Carry on with your declutter and sprucing up for a bit longer then reevaluate?  

Merlin's_Beard

I always think that coast FI looks like a healthier option than just stopping outright. I've seen quite a few people who seemed to retire in one go, then just stop and get really old all of a sudden because they had no structure to their life, whereas easing into it gives you time to fill the space gradually.