I have been preparing our house for the market and in doing so, I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff! I am definitely the hoarder in our house. My husband could live out of two bags, use about five kitchen items each year, and doesn't gather anything for future use or hang on to much for sentimental value. (Which probably means the items he has hung on to mean a whole lot more!) I am always tucking something away here or stashing materials thereall in preparation for "some day." It's also part of the teacher in me. Do you know many teachers that don't have a ton of stuff or utilize every bit of storage available? But, over the last several years, I've been fairly good about going through things every six months and weeding out a little here and a little there. Today I'll be sharing six simple ways to declutter your home and why you should! GIVE THINGS AWAY It's nice to make money, but sometimes you come across something that you really think someone else could use and you don't want to throw it away. If it's the perfect fit for that person, they may adopt the item and add their own wear and tear! Anyone that's had children knows that kids go through things so fast and it's nice to save a little money by taking hand-me-downs from a friend or relative. If the receiver decides they don't want the item, let it be. They'll either get rid of it on their own or decline the offer. If they choose the latter, maybe the rest of this list will help. PACK If you know you don't want to purge an item from your house AND you know that you will use it in the future, but it's not an everyday use item, pack it up. We have several containers of things in our garage that are full of items we use once or twice each year. I have added close to 100 boxes of things to simply declutter our home while it's on the market. I took a look at everything and kept the essentials (well, maybe even more than the essentials), and packed up the rest. Question: Based on the text, what is highly likely to be true about the author? === The answer to the above question is
OPTIONS:
- they like to shop
- they intend to live in their home indefinitely
- they are preparing to move from their current residence
- not enough information

Answer: they are preparing to move from their current residence

I have never had a lot of money. But I don't believe you have to have a lot for it to become burdensome. Money has always seemed to be a burden. Either you have it and the obligation and responsibility becomes a burden (so I've been told, ha) or you don't have it and life without money becomes a burden. I guess money became a burden to me when I started paying my own bills. Let me explain. I raised my 2 girls by myself. I was fortunate to have a good job as an office manager for a doctor in Dallas. I was able to pay my bills and juggle things around to afford what the girls needed for school and what not. When I didn't have money for something they wanted I felt like I carried the world on my shoulders. I didn't let them know how stressful it all was because I felt like it was none of their business. They were kids and needed to be kids. They would soon enough be feeling the stress of managing their own household and shouldn't be asked to help shoulder that burden as kids. Once, me and my youngest daughter, who was an adult at this time, went to a drive in fast food place and got a couple of drinks. My daughter was treating me and when the car hop came to deliver the drinks, my daughter gave her $5.00 as a tip, which was more than the drinks! I, of course, asked why she did that and she told me that they live off their tips and she knew what that was like having been a waitress before. I said something about her needing the money as well and how money makes the world go around. She said "No, Mom, you can be dead-assed broke and the world is still going to go around." That was when I quit letting money be a burden. Question: What is probably true about the mom? === The answer to the above question is
OPTIONS:
- not enough information
- She is not too concerned about being a mother
- She is a good mother
- She tries to be a good mother but just isnt

Answer: She is a good mother

We had a light bulb that stopped working and when a new bulb was placed it wouldn't light up. We eventually had a technician from John Moore come out to fix this problem. He was nice enough and took the time to explain to me why it had stopped working and how he would fix this. After about 30 minutes he had completed this and then offered as a free service to inspect the electrical parts of the house. He went out back to the fuse box to look and then after inspection offered to show me what he had found. It was mid to late afternoon in the back yard and that's when the sun is aiming straight to my back yard. I should mention we live in Texas. He went over ever single fuse and wire that we had and explained about the piping and all the other things that go with it and that what we have isn't what is recommended anymore. Our house was about 9 years old at the time. We were back there for more than 90 minutes. I started getting very restless because I wanted to work on dinner, the sun was blazing hot and I needed to do many other things. It was coming up on 5 o'clock. He then went to his truck to write up an estimate. After 20 minutes or so he comes back and tells me it will be about $10,000 to fix our fuse box system. So what started out for changing a light bulb was going to end up costing 10K. We did later get it looked at by someone else that is qualified in this field,m who was there working on some other project and he said there was nothing wrong with what we had. Question: After the end of the story the writer probably === The answer to the above question is
OPTIONS:
- went over the estimate
- finished up her cooking
- checked the other bulbs
- not enough information

Answer:
finished up her cooking