The Hits: Declutter for house move unearths jewellery stash

The Hits DJs Megan Banks and Adam Green. Photo / NZME

Okay, it's time to fess up to my own stupidity and lack of domestic prowess. I found my mother's jewellery!

You might remember that I said I knew I would find it one day when we moved house.

As it turns out, in the last 10 days we have bought a house and then gone through the stress of getting our house ready to put on the market.

Part of the process was decluttering. And yes, that's when I found my mother's rings, in the red ring box under a sock on top of the duchess. That sounds like an R18 movie title!

So, crisis averted there. Now on to the other matter, buying and selling a home. We have bought a home once before, but back in 2014.

It was our first home and once the finances were sorted, we were unconditional as we obviously didn't have a house to sell.

We could move right in. It was stress-free. Second time around, well it's a different story, and in particular in this crazy Hawke's Bay market.

All of the ducks that need to line up is incredible. In our case there are about x5 ducks in a row, x5 potential families all going through what we are going through.

No wonder I have no fingernails. Thankfully though, I have amazing in-laws who have been a massive help in getting our place ready, and lots of other people doing their bit by helping with the boys and lending us some of their fabulous stuff to make our house look fabulous too.

While we love our 25-year-old couch, potential buyers might not, so it's in storage. So is our second-hand dining table. It has gaffer tape around some of the legs, not because it's falling apart but because the kids wrapped it around a couple of years ago and no one could be bothered ripping it off.

It also has various stages of the boys' drawing history on it, most of which have been dinosaurs in permanent marker. So the table was replaced and there are also beautiful white dining chairs to go with it.

My house now looks as I have always wanted it to, a tidy clean dream that I could never quite make a reality before.

So while we do love it, we have decided to list it so someone else can continue the dream and we'll go back to our crusty old furniture but in a different house. That makes it better, right?

- Megan Banks