Afraid to Declutter? Don't Stress...Assess!
Easier said than done, but the first thing we need to do is NOT STRESS OUT!
The board on the left is seemingly organized but it is really a source of panic. It reminds me of my kids in elementary school screaming that they had so much work to do. They were often so stressed that they couldn't get started. Sound familiar?
Getting your space organized, needs breathing and time to assess the situation.
I sat with a client who is getting ready to downsize and has to get rid of a lot of things, some to donate, some to sell and some to just dump. We mentally toured the house and here are just some of the questions I asked:
Books and vinyl records (believe it or not):
How many do you have?
Which do you want to get rid of?
Do you feel the need to donate any of them?
Which still bring you pleasure and which can you part with?
Clothing: Imagine yourselves with half the closet space:
​How much doesn't fit now?
What's not in the best of condition?
What are you tired of?
Do you want to donate anything, either to an organization or to friends/family?
Kitchen ware: Are you still going to entertain in the style that you used to?
How many large soup pots will get the job done in a much smaller kitchen?
Serving pieces? How many are heirlooms and how many can be replaced with the more efficient glass ones with fitted lids that go from oven to table to fridge and freezer?
Paperwork: Scanning vs keeping:
​Which bills can go paperless and which do you need to see, touch and staple receipts?
Some people need to be hands on, but what can you "give up" to the cloud instead of a filing drawer?
How much needs to be shredded? Do you need to hire a professional shredder to come and take the whole batch off your hands, 1-2-3?
Now that we had a solid idea of what we were tossing and/or donating we had to find out where and how to do that?
We searched Google and other websites for places to donate, shred and toss a variety of items.
We made sure we knew the rules for each type of discarding.
We made of list of all the websites we found and the information we learned.
We took a photo of each annotated list so that we wouldn't lose it.
THAT was the hard part and it only took about 2 hours of discussion and searching the web!
Now we could make a start in each project.
Once the project is complete we know whom to call to take it off our hands.
Contact me now for more great strategies to make your decluttering, organizing and/or downsizing easier and faster, and stress free!
Gift yourself the gift of time and space, or give a gift certificate to someone who can use my help.
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