I can’t wait to see it finished!!!

Many blessings,
Laura (I’m an Organizing Junkie)

Good Luck!

I’ve been working on massively decluttering and I still have a LONG way to go, trust me.

The biggest hangups have been (in no particular order):
1. My belief that one day I will use it, need it, read it, eat it, wear it, etc.
If I haven’t by now, most likely I am not going to use it, need it, read it, etc.

2. I cringe at the waste of money I spent on things that I thought I needed, wanted, wanted to wear, listen, read, etc.

3. It’s very overwhelming.

4. It’s a form of security in a warped, weird way.

5. Sometimes I’d get the idea that things were worth money and I shouldn’t give/throw it away.

My solutions have been to be as brutal as I can be.
–If I haven’t read it, it went into a pile of books to be donated to either the library sale or SPCA sale. The exceptions were books that would be very hard to replace but even then, you could be in danger.
–If it’s busted, trash, greasy, stained, or damaged in any way, it’s not worth keeping. Throw it away.
–Like things went with other like things. I have two drawers for computer disks, software. I have Christmas CD separate from other CDs in a box in the closet. (You might be the person who listens to Xmas all year round but I’m not.)
–When sorting, put baskets in the hall for other like things going with other like things/rooms. Things that belong in the bathroom need to go there at some point; having the baskets help organize you during this purge.
–You do have to get rid of things. If you have 100 square feet of space, you can only put enough things to fill that space — otherwise, it becomes sloppy. You do have to get rid of things and use some criteria.
–Clothing — divide into seasons and by clothing size. If you have children who can grow into a future size, put the future size/season in one bin and you can find it. You can probably apply this same principle to books and paperwork.
–Organize by project. Beads go with other beads, scrapbooking goes with other scrapbooking supplies. I’m going to be honest with you — don’t get anything more until you get this straightened out because you will never find the new stuff. I know this from first hand experience.
–You will cringe at throwing out perfectly good things but trust me; once it’s done, you will no longer cringe at your space and it’s really very unlikely you will NEED whatever you threw away. We need food, prescription medicine, water but everything else can be extraneous.
–With the space thing that I mentioned above — I decided that one drawer was enough for my underwear and I organized it — once it was full, I had to get rid of some extra underwear and so I kept only the stuff I really liked and fit well. I got rid of the nasty stuff and made room for the things I really liked. I did this with my closet too.
–I gave away purses and other things. How many purses do I really use? (I’m also not the kind of person who can change out purses easily. It’s like major surgery so YMMV.)
–The other thing is I had to give up a self-image that I had with certain items. WHen I was younger, I liked this writer or this singer — now I’ve changed and it’s okay to say, “That’s not who I am any more.” It was hard b/c to me, rejecting a writer or a singer is a bit harsh. But space is important.

Really, you have taken the first step and feel free to contact me with any questions. I still have big piles of things to clear out — my goal is to get rid of CDs that I do not listen to anymore. I apologize for rambling.

Lori

I have found that the only thing that works for me (and I’m a seriously disorganized person) is a weekly schedule. I break the home into 7 parts, hit one part each day, along with the daily stuff (trash, dishes, laundry), after dinner.

I keep this list on the fridge, and the kids help out; we usually don’t spend more than 20 minutes on any given day, not counting however long it takes the dish/clothes-washer to cycle. Exactly what we do in a given area varies — we just look at it, decide what needs to be done, and do it. Sometimes that’s just picking stuff up; sometimes it’s vaccuuming, Windexing/Pledging, etc.

I’ve never been good about keeping things in “their place” or assigning any permanent location for anything, but this basic “moving clean spot” seems to work — at least, nothing gets terribly dirty/chaotic in the six days since it’s last cleaning.

Anyway, I’m a single dad with two kids (7 and 10), and this seems to keep us within “code.”

You can divide and conquer in small baby steps, maybe set time limits for your sorting and purging each day. Don’t make the task so large by thinking you MUST get it done in one day. Say, maybe you could give yourself a month and do a couple hours a day only.

Good luck!