When you live in the same house for over-thirty-some odd years you accumulate way to many things.
Does that sound familiar? Too be honest it does not take thirty years to accumulate too may things. However, it does take lots of stacking, organizing, and storing to manage it all.
Too be honest I am getting a little tired of my old habits, and I want to spend less time managing, and more time enjoying.
The realization of this leads me to one of my New Years plans. Not a resolution, but an actual plan.
I have three areas that are a constant unorganized mess for me. It seems as if I organize them, and before I know it, they are right back in the same shape they were in before I cleaned them out!!
Since I am such an analytical gal, I thought I needed to spend a little time figuring out what my problem is.
No time needed to figure it out, “I have too much stuff that I don’t need, or use.” It is that simple.
So what do I need to do? PURGE!!!!! PURGE!!! PURGE!!!
I don’t live in a huge home, it is around 1,800 sq. ft. By today’s standards that is not terribly large. However the builder of my home seemed to have a very practical, good idea of how much storage a family would need.
I have nice sized closets, and a two car garage. So what is my problem? I am not purging enough seasonally, that is the bottom line.
I am pretty organized by nature, and I have organized areas in my clients, and friends homes. I can tell others exactly what they need to do. It is so much harder to do it for myself.
You know the show the Hoarders? I can not even watch that because it makes me nervous, I just want to jump into the TV screen, start cleaning and purging for those poor people.
Notice how I said, “poor people,” like I am not anything like them. I am not a true hoarder, but to be honest in certain areas I am what you might call an, “organized hoarder!”
Maybe they should have a show for the people that fall in between a hoarder, and a minimalist. I think they would never run out of material for their show!!
The three areas that are a constant thorn in my side are:
Garage ( the dumping ground.)
Walk-in closet ( or what I refer too as my throw-in closet, these days!)
Staging closet ( this is where I keep all those little pretties that come in, and out of my rooms seasonally.)
When I purge I have four boxes:
Donate
Throw away
Keep
I Don’t know (I use this box for items that I can not instantly make a decision, then I can go back at the end of the purging process and ponder. I found this helpful to keep my momentum)
In theory this works great! So why does it get cluttered again??
A couple of reasons:
I don’t purge enough! I tend to keep things that I , “might!” use some day.
I think the item has some value and I would just be a silly girl to get rid of anything valuable.
Do you see my problem? Writing this is making me see it loud and clear!
Two phrases are causing me my problem:
I MIGHT USE IT SOMEDAY, and Valuable.
I need to redefine these phrases
There are two types of valuable as far as things are concerned:
Money value
Sentimental value
If it is truly valuable financially, and I am not using it, I need to sale it!
If it is sentimental then it needs to be place in a place of honor where it can be stored away from any harm coming to it.
The phrase, “ I might use it someday!” is really a problem for most of us. I have read that if you think this way you should put it in a box for 6months, and if you have not used it, donate it!!!
So in my next purging process I need to add two more boxes. Here are the boxes I will be using next purge!!
1.Keep
2.Donate
3.Throw away
4.Don’t Know
5.Sentimental
6.Possibly Valuable
I wrote this post, because I need to be accountable to someone,(YOU!), and hopefully in my own personal analyzing I might give you all a little helpful tip from time to time.
I am going to try this as I clean out my closet. I will let you know if this works for me!! I will keep you posted.
Kathysue is going to try reallllly hard too:
“Enjoy the Process!”