It’s Time to Purge
“Stop waiting for the perfect time to get organized. Take this moment and make some progress.”
-Heidi Leonard
There once was a couple who lived in a junk drawer.
They had the hardest time finding what they were looking for.
Day in and day out, they maneuvered themselves.
Stacking more and more piles all around on their shelves.
There were papers, and boxes, and clothes blocking the doors.
There were thing-a-ma-bobs and whatcha-ma-calls-its….all over the floor.
There was a mix of trash and treasures all over the place.
The only thing this couple was missing was any open space.
“What should we do!?” She thought, “How did we let it get this bad?”
The fear that it could never be fixed made her sad.
But with one big breath, and maybe a sigh…
She climbed over the piles - motivated to try!
Theres no time like the present” She said, “To take back our life!”.
She grabbed her husbands hand who was proud of his wife.
She picked up a garment and threw it in a bag marked, “Good Will”
She was surprised how amazing letting go made her feel.
There once was a couple who lived in a junk drawer.
Who decided not to live like that anymore.
They donated, and cleaned and went through much hassle.
When all was organized and put away…they realized they lived in a castle.
-“Reclaimed Castle”/Candice Aldrich
It may have been such a long time since you saw the floor you forgot if it was wood or carpet or even concrete! Stop surrounding yourself with clutter from your past, make room for the here and now as well as your future. You may not realize how great your surroundings are because you have buried yourself in a dark, dusty, and exhaustive space. Let in the light! Pick up a donation bag, a recycle bin, and (yes) a trash can and start going through everything. I am willing to bet everyone who reads this blog that they have forgotten about stuff that at one point meant a lot to them. Let…it…..go.
How do you start? Hard as it is, you just start. Pick up something and decide if it stays or if it goes. If it goes, decide if it’s donatable, recyclable, or trash. If it stays, figure out if its storage or something you use on a daily basis. If it’s storage, REALLY ask yourself why you are keeping it. Is it valuable? Does it bring you REAL joy? Is it truly useful (and have you used it recently enough to justify keeping it)? Push yourself to let things go. If you are questioning it, allow yourself a third pile of things to “come back to”. If you forgot about it while working on other things, it’s not valuable to you. If you are frustrated about feeling like you have to let it go, but in reality could cut the cord on it, do yourself a favor and do it. Cut that cord. Remember you are doing this to make your home and life better and easier. If you decide to keep things, find it a home in the house. DO NOT LET IT STACK UP IN “NO MANS LAND” WHERE IT WILL FLOAT AROUND AND BECOME A PROBLEM FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
Some tips to help you succeed in your “Just Start” purging endeavor would be:
Start with a smaller room that you know you can get done. Give yourself that win to start off with and give you momentum. Then go to the next room, and the next one and the next one. By the time you get to the mother load of projects…you will be a pro.
Follow Marie Kondos plan of action: Go through 1. clothes, 2. books, 3. misc, 4. papers. Clothes help you get the ball rolling until you get to the surprisingly most difficult problem area of papers.
If you have the ability, take everything out of the room and put them in a “working area” in a separate room. This helps you see the end result. Plus it gives you the ability to thoroughly deep clean the area. #doublewin.
When putting things in the “working area” make piles of like items. This allows you to see how much of the one thing you have. Plus it gives you working “stopping points” so that you don’t get too overwhelmed; It allows you the ability to plan ahead with what piles you will get through in that time.
Allow yourself to keep things you want…don’t be guilted in to keeping them. There are things we all keep because it was a gift or it belonged to someone who passed away. We may not like it, but we feel like we have to keep it. Don’t keep it. You don’t like it or need it, you don’t have to keep it! Purge that guilt! And allow yourself more space to keep the things you truly love. If you think a family member would want it, ask them first before you get rid of it.
Don’t convince yourself to keep things! Many of us often fool ourself into thinking we can make money off of things. So we pile and pile stuff in a space and wait and wait to get those few dollars per item. GET RID OF IT. People are cheap and will most likely low ball you anyway. It’s not worth your time or that perfectly good space in your home. If that doesn't convince you…you can have one yard sale at the end of the process. What you get sold, great. What’s left…donate or trash.
Make it fun. I know, easy to say as an organizer! But you forget I started off…probably worse than all who read this. Don’t believe me? My brother once took the trucks off his skateboard and slid down the piles of clothes in my bedroom. Convinced? ;) Put on some music that you can sing loudly to or shimmy too while working. Talk on the phone with friends. Have your friends help you. Or hey! Get your skateboard, take the trucks off of it and slide down the pile of laundry you’re working on. You know what makes things fun. Follow Mary Poppin’s philosophy and snap your fingers to make it a game.
Allow yourself breaks, but don’t take too long or you will quit all together. It is important to not burn yourself out, but don’t wait a day or two in-between your work because eventually you will have just created a new mess that will add to the clutter problem you already had. You’ll have company coming over and suddenly your thought out working piles will be shoved in closets, in drawers, under furniture or in other rooms. You will just shift the problem. Don’t let it get to that. Don’t give up. Keep moving forward!
Take before and after photos. It will be hard to believe what you are looking at when you see the finished project…but then being able to compare it to the original photo side by side will make you PROUD! And after all your hard work, you will see that it paid off.
You know when it’s time to purge. If you have made it to the end of this blog you know that it’s time to get started. My little motivation to help you kick start? Remember the poem. They started in a junk drawer….but they ended in a castle.
You got this! Send pics of your progress and we will post them on our instagram!