Keep Clutter at Bay
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Tag Archive for: de-clutter
Downsizing Action Plan
One of my most popular workshop topics is downsizing. People want help with where to start and how to progress through the difficult task of letting go. They’re looking for guidance on how to make decisions about sentimental items and all the other things that have been accumulating in their homes. They’re hoping to get rid of stuff so their children won’t have to deal with it all. Therefore, I’ve devised a 7 Step Downsizing Action Plan that I share and discuss in my workshops. Here it is.
Step 1 – Prepare
Get ready for the transition by taking a close look at your options and where you are headed. Psych yourself up to make decisions about your next home and material possessions. Share the news with everyone and ask for help from family and friends, or seek professional assistance.
Step 2 – Write it down
Plan to work 8 hours for every year you’ve lived in your current home. Schedule 2 or 3 hours at a time and work for 20 minutes followed by a 5 minute break.
Step 3 – Get started
If you have a far off deadline (more than 8 months), start by removing items that you don’t want, use, or need. These items will include things that have been stored for others, unfinished fix-it projects, old hobbies, duplicate items, surplus stuff, items of which there are excessive quantity, broken things, expired items, outdated stuff, and damaged goods.
If you have a near deadline, divide items into 6 different categories and tag them. (I use colored painter’s tape to tag items.) The 6 categories are keep, recycle, toss, donate, give or return, and sell.
Step 4 – Reduce
Set limits by taping off cabinets, closets, storage areas, and rooms in your current home that won’t be available in your new home. Work to empty those areas of their contents.
Ask “W” Questions to help you make decisions:
Who? Who will use and maintain this item? Who gave it to you and is that relevant?
What? What purpose does this item serve? What would the giver tell you to do?
Where? Where do you want to make room for this item?
When? When is this item used, appreciated, viewed, treasured? When is it maintained?
Why? Why would you need this item in our new home? Why are you holding onto it?
Step 5 – Address Sentimental Items
Consider the cost of clinging to sentimental items. It takes a lot of money to pack, move, ship, insure, store, and maintain our belongings. Concentrate on keeping the memories, but not the stuff, by preserving them with words and photos. Do this with digital scrapbooks, videos, and a gratitude journal. Instead of having them gather dust in the attic, treasure them by highlighting the best and letting go of the rest. Re-purposing them or use them in a different way so they sever a current need or look for a way that items can bring joy to others.
Step 6 – Establish Exit Strategy
An exit strategy is physically removing stuff by giving, donating, selling, or recycling what you no longer want, need, or use.
Give options: Ask people you know if they want what you’re discarding. Ask family, friends, neighbors, club members, church members, past co-workers, and others. Put items on the curb with a free sign. Use Freecycle or Buy Nothing.
Donation options: Give to charities, non-profits, religious organizations, Boy/Girl Scouts, senior centers, schools, camps, day-cares, shelters, libraries, theater groups, historical societies, and food banks.
Selling options: Look into antique dealers, auctions, estate sales, consignment shops, on-line sites, newspapers, garage sales, estate liquidation.
Removal Companies: Consider junk trucks, dumpsters, all-in-one clean out, complete house clean out companies.
Step 7 – Thrive in Smaller Space with Less Stuff
Here are a few tips for creating and maintaining order in smaller spaces. I hope they help you enjoy your new downsized, simplified lifestyle.
©April 2018 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer All Rights Reserved
Paper Purge
Schedule 2 hours for a paper purge after your taxes have been completed with the goal of cleaning out and shredding old, outdated, and obsolete information. Archive the previous years’ tax and financial files, and keep current active files separate from the archived ones.
Janine Cavanaugh, CPOWhy We Hold Onto Things?
A common discussion I have with my clients when we’re working together is why they are holding onto something. The more information I can gather about the item in question the easier it is for me to understand “the WHY”. What I’ve discovered over the past 10 years in assisting my clients is that although there are several reasons we hold onto things, those reasons fall into one of three basic categories, the past, the future, or both.
We hold onto things from the past, because they were significant and important to us in our past. They help us remember and honor a past event or memory. Some examples may be a bride’s maid dress that was worn at a friend’s wedding, paper products from a child’s birthday party, or Dad’s wood carving tools.
We hold onto things for the future, because we think they will be significant or important to us in our future or the future of someone close to us. Some examples may be furniture our children will use in college, papers that have resources we think we’ll need in the future, or dishes our children will use in their first apartment.
A combination of the two is when we hold onto things from the past for the future. For example I have two cool swivel chairs in my living room that were originally in my grandparent’s front parlor. They were saved and used by other family members before I inherited them, and I plan on passing them along to another family member in the future. Another example is my old photographs and scrapbooks. I enjoy sharing them and reminiscing about past events, holidays, and special occasions. It also makes me smile to think that they will bring joy when shared in the future.
As you may be able to tell, things that have an impact on both the past and the future, are usually the most sentimental items, and thus the one’s we cling to. If this is what my client and I discover in our conversation about an item, then it’s usually a keeper. Otherwise we discuss some qualifying questions to determine whether it’s worth holding onto.
- How much joy and happiness does it bring you?
- What amount of regret or disappointment would you feel if you let it go?
- How would you feel about keeping part of it or a token amount?
- Who values and treasures this and in what way?
- Where does it reside – on prominent display or hidden away?
- When is it used, shared, and enjoyed?
- Why do you want to keep it?
Whether it’s a keeper or not, answering the above questions help establish some objectivity to the sentimental attachment we me feel about our things.
Want more help letting go? Here are three blogs that offer more assistance.
©February 2018 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer All Rights Reserved
Innies or Outies
Have you ever heard the terms innie and outie? If so, you may be looking at your belly button right now, because these words refer to the shape of it. Are you wondering what that has to do with organizing, and why I would write a blog article about it? It’s because a friend of mine, who is also a Professional Organizer, mentioned that she uses these terms when organizing. She uses the term innie to describe situations where clutter and mess are contained behind closed doors and outie for when clutter and mess are visible. I have found in my 10 years as a Professional Organizer that the projects with which I help my clients can be categorized as one or the other.
Innies stash clutter in drawers, closets and file cabinets. The surfaces of the counters, desks and tables may be clear, but the real issues lurk behind closed doors. Here are four solutions that may help control the clutter and create order in the hidden areas.
- Practice the one in one out guideline to keep the quantity of stuff manageable.
- Devote some time to answering the question, “When is enough?“
- Follow the 3 step organizing process on the clutter that’s stashed away.
- Schedule time to edit items from your space.
Outies have piles of clutter everywhere, which can create stress from the constant visual reminder that something needs to be done with it. Here are four solutions that may help lessen the stress.
- Schedule clutter aerobics at least 3 times a week to attack the piles.
- Practice the confirming process to help continually remove what is no longer used, needed or wanted.
- Mark off time on your calendar to reclaim order in your home. I’d recommend at least two hours twice a month.
- Incorporate one or two daily organizing routines into your day.
Which term would describe your home situation? Whether your answer is innie or outie the solutions above will help you remove clutter, establish order, and feel less stressed. I would like to hear of your progress, please email me with details.
©January 2018 Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer® All Rights Reserved
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