The Allsorts household have some exciting news – we are moving!
After a challenging year with the devastating loss of my mother-in-law just a couple of months ago, we have revisited our lifestyle and our priorities and decided to downsize from a 4 to a 3 bedroom home.
We weren’t ever blessed with children and found that our formal lounge and dining room are only used a handful of times a year as even with guests, they tend to congregate around the kitchen and family room despite my best efforts. We are also not gardeners and looked at it as a chore rather than a pleasure.
So, not only am I excited about the move, I am excited about refocusing and clearing out the stuff that has built up over the years that we don’t need, want or have a place for in our new home.
I am looking forward to a simpler lifestyle.
We have the benefit of knowing that we have about 12 months to do this (we have purchased a townhouse off the plan) but I don’t want to leave all the decluttering to the last minute when the packing has to happen. Moving is one of the most stressful events in our life, so why make it harder on ourselves? We also want to make sure that we don’t take anything with us that we don’t want or need because I don’t want to pay a removalist to move stuff I don’t want, nor do I want to end up with “those boxes” (you know the ones!) that sit in your garage consuming space for months on end post-move.
So how am I going to handle this?
The same way I work with my clients – little bit at a time. I have developed a list of 52 categories to work through (don’t let that scare you!). This will maintain our focus each week, helps me feel in control and also give us the pleasure of crossing things out as we do them.
I already know that there will be a few challenging categories of items for us. For me, it will be kitchen/baking stuff and for hubby, tools (be they IT stuff, or garage stuff).
Would you like to join me?
If you would like to follow my journey or declutter alongside me regardless of whether you are moving, downsizing or just want to simplify, I will be posting each week a new category of items to focus on here on our website so make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss anything. There will also be a weekly post on our Facebook page.
I will provide you with guidance on how to approach the category, some tips for getting it done and avoiding procrastination, and also suggestions for what to do with unwanted items. I will also share updates of how we are going, what challenges we are having and how we are managing it.
Here is the full list of weekly categories for you to follow along with: Allsorts Declutter Challenge Categories
You might like to print a copy and tick things off as you go, or write down some notes for future reference.
Do I have to get rid of everything?
In short, absolutely not. This challenge is to help you to refine and refocus. Refine what you have by refocusing on what is important to you and what you need to maintain a fully functional home.
How long will it take? I don’t have any time to spare!
I am presenting this in categories so that we can maintain our focus, minimise distractions and make it manageable. Some categories will take longer than others and some will be super speedy for you. We are all different so may struggle with some areas. My approach is to do a little something every day. That reduces my overwhelm and I can’t find too many excuses for not being able to etch out about 10 minutes a day whereas if you told me I needed to find an hour or more a day, I would easily be able to come up with a myriad of reasons why that is impossible. That 10 minutes could be a couple of ad breaks in my favourite TV show, or while the kettle is on. It doesn’t have to be a solid block of time. I will share some other tools to help with procrastination and focus as we progress. You will be amazed though at what you can achieve in such a short period of time with the right tools and focus.
What if I don’t have any items in that category, or I get it done really quickly that week?
Yay for you!! You can choose to review, revisit or move on to something else. There might also be a category that is going to take you a little longer so you can use these weeks to continue working on those areas.
So what do you need to get started?
- good quality garbage bags
- a couple of boxes (for the fragile items)
- newspapers or similar to wrap fragile items for transport
- a commitment to do something every week.
When do we start?
Today (29 September 2017). There is no better day to start than today!
Spring clearing (no that isn’t a typo J) here we come!
Who’s joining me?
Melissa x