Is it Time to Organize, Declutter or Downsize?

Parents will sometimes put their children's old toys in a trunk and store them away. If they haven't noticed or asked for them, it is a signal that it is time for these toys to go to a new home. The same holds true with us adults. Whether it's collectibles from our travels, clothes that we are keeping "just in case" we lose weight, old books, and electronics, these items are taking up a lot of room.

 

Part of the problem is that when people look at organizing, decluttering, or downsizing, they look at it from a big-picture perspective.  If you look at your house, garage, and property, it will look like an insurmountable job.  My advice is to break the job down into manageable tasks.  Instead of looking at the whole house, look at it from a room-to-room view.  Is it still daunting?  Break it down into more bite-sized pieces.  Instead of organize and declutter the bedrooms, do 1 bedroom a day.  If you have a lot of possessions stored in those rooms, break it down further, such as doing the closet on the first day.

 

 

Heirlooms....... Oh boy!  We have treasures that we have collected over the years.  Whether it is furniture, knick-knacks, jewelry, china, tools, pictures, etc, I would speculate that it is taking up valuable real estate in your home.  If you know that you will be passing something down to a family member or friend, why wait?  Talk to them and see if they will accept that gift now.  Currently, we have a 100-year-old buffet and a piano that was generously given to us by senior family members.  We have family pictures and memories galore!  The thing I appreciated most was that we had the choice, and we were able to plan for these large and small items.  It also gave us the opportunity to decide.  What if we didn't want those items, or didn't have the room?  We may have had to put them into the garage or storage where they could potentially get damaged.

 

 

So what do we do with all of this? There are a couple of options:

Use caution when you are getting rid of things. While some items may have sentimental value, they may also have a monetary value.

 

This can be a very emotional undertaking. I am happy to discuss options or refer a company that provides some of these services. You are not alone!