The last big move was from Australia to Canada. As we laboured over sorting, selling, shipping and otherwise disposing of 'STUFF', we vowed to never, ever, never, ever have so much STUFF ever again!! We had good intentions . . . but then we bought a house, unpacked my STUFF that had been in storage for 5 years, unpacked the STUFF we had shipped from Australia, received STUFF from every relative and friend within a 1000 kilometre radius, bought STUFF, inherited STUFF, were given STUFF . . . and we are now the owners of easily 5 times as much STUFF as we had in Australia. Truly, I believe I can spend entire days just shuffling STUFF around our house, thinking that I'm accomplishing something but really just rearranging STUFF!!!
So . . . now that our move is getting much closer to being a reality, I am getting more anxious about all this STUFF! Our kids are all in school now, the preschool/plethora of toys in the sunroom stage is past, I have a few more hours in each day when I can accomplish things without interruptions . . .
I'm going to move some STUFF! Out. The. Door.
Every once in a while . . . when I should really be doing something else . . . I waste some time on Pinterest. Mostly I just find projects & ideas that I will do in the mythical 'someday', but every once in a while I come across things like this:
So I explored Snail Pace Transformations: achieving success inch by inch in finances, homemaking and time management/
This was a good site for me to explore. It was inspiring. First of all, it reminded me that this is a very doable thing. Secondly, she gives some good tips and provides a free printable. The other thing that really helped me out - in a backwards sort of way - is that it helped me realize that my house is actually in pretty good shape!! My STUFF is mostly organized for the majority of the areas of my house. I am a bit of a neat freak and I love organization i.e. I make my lists on grid paper!! Apart from a couple of problem areas, my main issue is TOO MUCH STUFF.
So . . . I printed out the free printable, I read through some of her entries and saw her general process and tips, and then made my plan.
In a nutshell:
1. I have made a list of the areas of the house, top to bottom, to be dealt with in order of listing. I will tackle a minimum of one entry on the list per week. (But will do as much as possible, as determined by what else is packed into the week!)
2. I have identified two major problem areas: my basement space and our crawlspace. I will spend 15 minutes minimum in these two spaces daily Monday to Friday.
3. I have three bins: 1. recycle, 2. donate, 3. sell.
4. Rules for recycling: drop off every 2nd week.
5. Rules for donating: drop off whenever the bin is full.
6. Rules for selling: Items worth $5 or more I must list on Craigslist immediately. Small items/garage sale items will be boxed and stored under our mudroom. (At this point, I won't put a time limit on how long I will hold Craigslist items waiting for them to sell and the garage sale date is TBA.)
7. I will take photos and post them to prove my commitment to the plan and to document my progress!
Okay, that's it.
I've got to go look after some STUFF!
