Reading the comments from Erica and others has been eye-opening. I rent an 800 sq. ft. apartment so I don't have the problem of feeling like we have too much space, but it is helping me to realize how little space we need as a family to be happy, when we do finally settle in one place. When we look to buy a house, I will know how much space we realistically want and that is a great feeling.
You've also been helping me to realize why I've been getting happier and feeling lighter as I declutter. In many ways, I'm letting go of my aspirational self. Am I the kind of person who wears clothes like that? No, I'm not, and I'm just fine with it. I like to knit and crochet, and I've been doing them since I was 9 so I feel like that's part of my personality, to be a crafter. But do I actually make enough time for it to justify all the half-finished projects and the yarns and fabrics waiting for me to get around to them? No, I don't. It's so freeing to let go of those projects which, realistically, I will never get around to. I've given myself permission to let go, and the lightness I feel is the weight of my own self-expectations dropping away.
Because I packed up to give away the projects I realized I'd never do, or the yarn with no specific project in mind to begin with, I actually completed one small project. I turned two stained, ripped old t-shirts into nightgowns for my daughter. :) Non-useful items were turned into useful items, and now I don't need to buy summer jammies for my daughter. Additional bonus: midnight diaper changes are ridiculously easy.
We've reached the chapter entitled "In which we can reach the baby's closet". A couple of items will be headed to the dump next time I need to drive somewhere, but some of the cleaning was simply because I packed up items from that closet. People who brew beer, where do you keep all the stuff? My husband does and he really enjoys it but I'm finding that it's really not a space-efficient hobby. So many bottles need to be kept, and in a small space like ours, it's been taking up most of the space in my daughter's closet. Even with the clearing out of our kitchen, we don't have space there to keep it, nor do we have the right size of shelves for the giant pot and whatnot. So where do you keep your beer-making supplies? I'd like to come up with a better solution for wherever we end up.
Am trying to decide if I should try to get Marie Kondo's book here (we leave the state in about a month, and might be leaving our town before that) or wait until we get to where we're moving. Apply her principles so that we don't move as much, or realize that I probably won't have time to get through the book before we go?