A couple of Fridays ago, my husband and I each took the day off. We decided that we needed to devote the WHOLE day to cleaning out our garage.
Amazingly, we are still married.
A year ago my grandmother who was feisty and amazingly independent at age 92, fell in her apartment and was stranded on the floor for twelve hours. We made the difficult decision that it was time to move her to a nursing facility, and while I waded through all of the emotions and paperwork that came with this transition, we had to put her STUFF somewhere. That place ended up being our garage.
What do we need to create optimal clutter-breeding conditions?!?:
STRESS.
CHANGE.
HIGH EMOTION.
Oh, great. We have all three.
When I work with clients, I encourage them not to keep anything they don’t love or know that they will find immediately useful. A lot of Grandma’s things didn’t fit that description. SO, we brought some things to a friend’s yard sale (the poor lady who bought my grandmother’s china hutch! I cried all over the money I was handing her for change) and donations were given to Goodwill with a prayer that they would bless someone who truly needed them.
HOWEVER, there was still a lot of things that couldn’t be decided on YET. And, if you have a pile of STUFF, what does it encourage you to do? Pile more stuff in that same area….since it is already a disaster anyway.
A year later, the time had come. We were ready. We would not be deterred…..
Wanna see what it looks like now, after only a day’s hard work???
OKAY. If you believed that one, you have been watching WAAAYYY too much reality TV.
In true reality, the “after” picture wouldn’t show you much, because it isn’t about how it looks, but about how it feels. And it feels SO much better.
What project around your house is ripe for your attention? Roll up your sleeves~ you can do it!! The positive vibes that will go through your house will be a fantastic reward!
