by MilitaryByOwner Staff Writer Karina Gafford
While last month we were encouraged to embrace and appreciate our emotional attachments, for many military families, this month is time to start creating an emotional detachment. PCS season is nearly upon us, and that means that it’s time to emotionally detach from your home, my dear military families! So save up the hugs and kisses for your loved ones, because it’s time to break up with your house.
- Stop Calling Your House Your Home
Though you’ve referred to the place where you eat, entertain, study, rest, and sleep for the last couple of years as “home,” once PCS orders arrive, it’s time to break out the word “property.” That will help, at least semantically, create the psychological distance between you and your house, giving you time to create the emotional detachment you need. Come moving day, it will be far less of an emotionally jarring experience for both you and your children, particularly if it’s the only place that they have yet understood as “home.” So, repeat after me: I am living in a property that I need to rent or sell before I PCS. The actual renting and selling part is easy. We have lots of resources to help you with that!
- Turn up Some Idina Menzel and “Let it Go!”
That’s right. I just told you to turn up some Disney music in your property. Oh, and I just referred to it as your property because we’ve already graduated from step one. Congratulations! Back to facing the music, though. You know who had a beautiful piece of property? Queen Elsa. That ice palace had absolutely no furniture in it (I’m still curious where she was supposed to have slept, eaten…), but it was splendid in its airy, spacious, and uncluttered rooms. Keep this as your inspiration as you purge the clutter. Just let it go, baby! If you need more inspiration to declutter, here are five tips to help you create a neat house and help you sell faster.
- Get an Objective Eye to Look Over Your Property
Whether you have to ask a friend (not a “yes” girl; one that will bluntly tell you the truth) or hire a stager, you need an objective eye to look over your property and assess what aspects of your home need touch-ups or renovations prior to putting it on the market. When you’re still living in your property, you are still emotionally attached to your personal space. A blunt but wise friend or a professional stager can help you prepare your property to make it show-worthy. To read more about staging, check out these great resources:
- Recognize that Moving Forward Doesn’t Mean Forgetting Your Past!
Your memories are precious. You’ve spent time with your loved ones in this property. It’s especially hard to sell or even move from a home when you spent time in the property with a loved one who is no longer with you. Know, though, that your loved one wouldn’t want to be the reason that you would remain behind when life is compelling you forward. As military families, we realize that the only thing constant in life is change. Take mementos from the home to keep and preserve your memories in a box to have, no matter where in the world you are.
- Start Calling Your Future House Your Home
Even if you haven’t yet set foot in the state that your military family is about to PCS to and you haven’t the slightest idea whether you’ll even rent or buy, let alone where you’re going to live, start referring to your future location as your home. As a very wise military child once explained to an innocent inquiry of whether she would miss her home, “This is my home,” she said, indicating her prized belongings that were being packed onto crates with the rest of their family’s household goods, “I just don’t have a house to put it in yet!”
