On My Mind: I Feel Free!!! – Getting Rid of the Junk

No one would have ever called me a hoarder because on the surface, things around my home and office looked okay.  The problem was hidden.  Over the years while I had done some major throwing away or donating things that were in good shape, I still had a lot of stuff packed away in boxes.  Closets and storage areas were filled to the brim, and so were any drawers or file cabinets.

Some of the stuff I’d moved from Texas twenty-six years ago and it had since traveled to D.C., Baltimore, Charlotte, and back to Baltimore.

On top of that was all of Bob’s stuff from his years before me, and then, all of the stuff we accumulated together.   Lots of stuff – but probably no more than many other people I know unless of course, you are a declutterer extraordinaire.

Well, guess what?  I now qualify as a brown belt declutterer… not quite at the top but pretty damn good.  How did that happen?  Simple.  We put our house on the market to sell, and unless you’ve done so in the last ten years, you have no idea what comes after you’ve made that decision.

What happened to us was… the real estate agent, who is fabulous, came over with her team for a pre-staging walk-through.  O  M G.  By the time they left, I was embarrassed (not because of anything they had done, but because of all of our stuff) and sick to my stomach because of what we had to do before the first Open House.

We had one month to get ready.  Painting, floor polishing, carpets cleaned, windows washed, needed repairs and yard work had to be done.  And, furniture had to be moved out so the rooms would look more spacious.  Bookshelves cleared and rearranged.  All personal photos gone.  Closets cleaned out so they wouldn’t look crammed.  And, the excess stuff… had… to… go.

I gotta tell you, forgetting about the wild fit I was in that month to accomplish the task, it’s the BEST thing that’s ever happened to me (well, maybe not THE best, but pretty close.)  I decided that this was my opportunity to clean up and do it right.  I was ruthless.  I was able to train Bob to be ruthless.  I emptied closets and drawers and put back only the things I absolutely knew we wanted to keep.  The rest went in the trash or was donated.  Along the way, I packed moving boxes to put in storage for things I knew we wanted to keep but needed to get out of the house for staging.   I even got rid of things that, in the past, I would have called “sentimental.”

The keep/get rid of questions I use are:

• Do I love it?
• Can I live without it?
• Do I want to move it Vermont?  Will it have a place in our new home?
• Can somebody else put it to better use?
• Should it be trashed?

Living in a cleaned out, decluttered environment became a big gift for both of us.  We can breatheeeee.  Stuff is not all over the place.  New systems are in place and I cannot imagine ever filling up again.  The S P A C E is energizing and calm at the same time.

So what about you?  If you’re feeling a little cluttered and moving is not an option for you right now to get you super motivated, I’m here to tell you that you can do this.  Enlist the help of a professional organizer if that’s what you need to get through it.  Or, spend 15 minutes a day until it’s done.  With each cleared shelf, drawer, cabinet or closet, you will feel as if you’ve lost weight.  You have, along with lots of old, tired energy that’s kept you from moving about freely.

Ahhh.  It feels so good.  This is one habit I intend to keep.

Got any decluttering tips?  I would love to hear about how you go about decluttering  and how you keep clutter-free after the initial process.  Your great tips may help me get to the black belt declutterer level.