By Mark Abromaitis
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

"It seemed like every time we opened a closet or drawer, we’d find a huge job waiting for us," Warren Reed says of all the "things" that had collected over time in his old house. "It’s a big task keeping up on those little mementos and keepsakes that seem to just accumulate if you want to keep a nice house."

"And it’s an even bigger task if you want to sell your home anytime soon," he adds.

That’s exactly what the Reeds were doing. The couple was preparing to move from their house in New Jersey to Maris Grove, the Erickson community in Delaware County, Pa.

Like most people, they had years’ worth of belongings in their drawers and closets that needed to be sorted out. "No matter how fastidious you are, things just seem to accumulate," says Suzy McAllister, the personal moving consultant for Erickson Realty & Moving Services at Maris Grove. "You can be the neatest person around and still have accumulation. It happens to all of us. Between the amount of stuff that comes in the mail, old holiday decorations, and then just getting caught up in everyday life, it’s easy to see how we all have drawers and closets brimming with things we haven’t used in years. Sometimes you just need a little help de-cluttering."

"We weren’t even savers," Reed says of their situation. "But we had a significant amount of things that we just hadn’t used in years taking up space. We needed to get rid of it."

So the Reeds took McAllister’s advice and hired a trusted local downsizing company to help them pare down. "It helped us prepare for the move tremendously," Reed says.

"I’m sure we still brought more things than we needed [to Maris Grove], but it certainly was an improvement," he says with a laugh.