Instead of the post I had planned about the monthly budget audit, I'm writing today about downsizing. I've been spending much of my time this weekend packing for our impending move. Part of that process has involved sorting through all of the girls' belongings. They are moving from two separate rooms to sharing a room in the new house. This means that we have to turn two rooms full of stuff into one room. My oldest daughter is a pack rat and keeps everything so this has been far from a simple process. Here is what I've learned about downsizing stuff this weekend.
1) Sort everything into a keep pile, a donation pile, and a trash pile. Look at everything and make a decision. Don't just assume that you'll be keeping something. You might be dragging stuff around because you got it as a gift but maybe it has no real value for you. Be ruthless.
2)Force yourself to make choices. My daughter has a huge stuffed animal collection. I would present her with two stuffed animals. She got to pick one to keep and one to give away. You might need to do this for yourself too if you have large collections like books, dvds, et cetera that you need to downsize.
3)Don't spend too much time thinking about things. Your gut feeling about whether or not something is important to you is probably the right one.
4) Keep your new space in mind. We're getting rid of some of the toys that we just bought the girls for Christmas just a few short months ago. It is a little disappointing that we just bought these toys but if we have no place for them in the new house, then they need to go.
After all, things are just things. So don't sweat the small stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment