It was August 2011 and my hometown was close to flooding. These flood scares happened so often that I knew the drill. What to move up to second floor and what to move out to a moving truck. The following year I finally convinced my parents to downsize and move out of the flood zone. I literally inherited every picture I ever drew since birth and about a third of the contents of their house. It filled a half of an extra large 2 car garage.
I was paralyzed when I looked at all of the stuff. I had no emotionally attachment to a finger painting I did in preschool. Yet every time I looked at the piles of over flowing boxes I became paralyzed. The stuff sat there for four years.
My husband gently suggested that I go through the pile to see what I wanted to keep. But deep down I knew that nothing there was sentimental to me. Some of the stuff I never saw before. Other stuff included a doll collection I guess I was supposed to display for my whole life. I had no emotional attachment. This stuff was in a detached garage that I never used. It was out of my sight and out of my mind.
Eventually we decided to redo our kitchen in 2016. I asked the contractor if I could toss some things into the dumpster if there was space left over. Thankfully he agreed. I started blindly tossing these boxes away until there was no more space left in the dumpster.
I was not done with the pile though. But the decluttering bug was in me!
In May of 2018 I finally read Marie Kondo’s books because I was aware of the spark joy notion from listening to a By The Book podcast episode. I spent that weekend reading both of her books, tidying my closet, and donating books. That summer I took a long weekend to do the rest of the KonMari process.
- Pay stubs from my first job. Why?
- Doctor notes from my birth. Why?
- Decorations that clearly my parents did not want but couldn’t bear to toss out. Why?
My husband and I made about 5 or so trips to the Salvation Army plus tossed close to 15 bags that weekend.
I skipped the Christmas decorations until it was Christmas time. The last piece was a plastic tote of lose pictures that I happily discarded about half of them.
My personal tidying event was over! Nothing falls out of my closet, I wear all of the clothes in my closet (because I only kept the ones I love!), and I can find anything else in under 5 minutes.
We worked together to go through the kitchen and other joint spaces.
My husband agreed to letting me refold and organize his clothes. At the end of that process I made some suggestions on items he might want to get rid of. Like a sock that was missing its mate. A jacket with a broken zipper.
Now I walk around our house feeling weightless.
Fall in my hometown
So great. My decluttering efforts always falter because it’s really hard for me to physically get stuff out of my house. I live in Manhattan, so I have to either wait for someone to get my stuff, carry it on the train to a donation drop-off point, or throw it in the trash (and I can’t bear to waste usable stuff). Oy.
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That is a tough one! During one episode of the By the Book podcast, they mentioned setting a box in their city apartment lobby marked free. Maybe that could help.
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Muchas gracias. ?Como puedo iniciar sesion?
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