One of the things currently on my to-do list is "clean out guest room." I may be getting a roommate in the next few weeks, which means that I have to have a place for this roommate to live. Since nothing is set in stone just yet, I'm not worrying about completely emptying the room. Until I know for sure that she's moving in, the books will stay on those bookshelves.
That doesn't mean that everything is staying in that room, however. For my most recent move, my belongings were all packed by the moving company. I had just taken the bar exam and admittedly had not done a whole lot of decluttering before I moved. When unpacking, I would open boxes and laugh, finding things that I had no idea I still owned. Many things got tossed almost immediately, but there were a number of things that ended up in closets or in drawers because "I might need this someday."
I've been in my apartment almost a year, so I think that if I haven't used something yet, it's time to toss it.
The plan is to go into the room with four bags/boxes. One for trash, one for things to donate, one for things to sell and one for "things I want to keep that don't belong in this room in the first place." I'm sure I will have a number of things for each box. I am also hoping this plan keeps me from getting distracted from the task at hand.
I have already started selling books on half.com again, mostly old texts from school. As an English major, I ended up with a sizeable book collection, that's for sure. I'm also hoping to list a few things on eBay as well. My theory is that if it's not worth anything to me, then if I can make even a few dollars, it's worth it. I've made about $22 after shipping so far this month, which isn't a lot, but as anyone who's done snowflaking knows, every little bit helps.
Also on the list of things to do to clean out that room is to go through my file boxes, start scanning documents, and get rid of documents I really don't need to keep. But that's a story for another day.
Ideally, I would just like to be able to pare down the amount of stuff I have. It's all too easy to continue to accumulate when you have the space to fill. It's time to simplify, regardless of how much space I may have.