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How to simplify, declutter, organize and downsize in preparation for MOVING by jane

"I made small efforts here and there to scale down and shed the unnecessary odds and ends - but found in the grand chaos of moving that a more radical approach would have served me better."

How I did it: One doesn't realize just how necessary it is to make radical breaks with the objects in ones life - to scale back MARKEDLY. I didn't do this nearly as well as I needed to. But I tried to go through the things that one always means to go through (books, mostly) and make some merciless decisions - tossing them into piles for donation. Thinking about how life is too short and I'm really never going to read any of them... Also clothes... With furniture, CDs and an old guitar, I had a yard sale and made a couple hundred bucks one day - reminding myself that it would all be put to good use in other people's homes. 

Lessons & tips: MORE RADICAL IS BETTER. Even more than you think is necessary. And then even more than that. 

When moving, you can't even imagine the way things keep spreading out in front of you. The objects are never ending. Try to pack EVeRYTHING a week in advance - every last box - just so you can see how impossibly never ending it is. Ones ability to estimate how much there is, and how much needs to be gotten rid of, is ROTTEN. Pack EARLY and get rid of stuff EARLY. Because in the end you'll find yourself having to throw stuff on the lawn for garbage that you really want to keep and mourning the fact that you have all kinds of garbage in your car that you would happily trade if you just had time to take it out of the car to make space for that stuff you have to now leave on the lawn. 

Resources: I love watching that show, Hoarders, while trying to declutter. It's sometimes so extreme and disgusting that it's hard to relate to at all, but it does really illustrate how, ultimately, in its final form, loving STUFF is a form of madness, and all STUFF is really just dead and in the past. It's a way of being tied to the past, and taken away from life and the now. 


3 people found this helpful
 

Sep 02, 2011, 08:21PM PDT | 2 comments | 14 cheers


Comments:

kmom2468 is knee deep in the hooah!

Thank you for sharing

I’ve moved across the country a few times, and what you write is the cold, hard, Truth. If only I could actually DO what we both know is right…

Hope you had a wonderful move in spite of probably having a few too many things with you! :-)

Sep 02, 2011, 09:51PM PDT | Respond to this 1 cheer

SimplicityInTheLBC "Energy and persistence conquer all things." - Ben Franklin

And now

that you’ve done this in order to move, you can keep your new home from becoming cluttered with the kinds of things that you ultimately ended up getting rid of!

Hoarders is an inspiration to me too. I find myself getting up during commercial breaks to go do the dishes, or vacuum the stairs, or wipe down the bathroom counter or something :)

I’ve moved a few times, and helped friends move…it is so true when you say the process needs to start EARLY. We began packing boxes a month before we moved and had a pretty easy time of it. A friend of ours that we just helped move had packed only a few boxes on the day of, and spent so much time going through stuff…it made me want to hit her with something.

Sep 03, 2011, 11:04AM PDT | Respond to this 1 cheer


jane has gotten 14 cheers on this entry.

 

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