I have been on a mission to declutter and prep Natalia’s room for her arrival in late July. I have to admit this task has been a little daunting because we are also preparing to put our house on the market at the same time…so needless to say my decluttering calendar has been moved up. I really had to ask myself what was needed on a regular basis, what was really just clutter and what did I need for her when she arrived – to assist with determining what needed to be put into storage and what needed to just vacate our lives lol. So, this past Friday night I decided to tackle the massive amounts of office supplies I had in the room. See, 13 – 14 years ago I had embarked on starting a consulting business in another city. After determining I really wanted to move back to Nashville, I packed all that stuff up and moved it with me. Four moves later and the stuff is still in this house and still primarily boxed up. I decided to go through each of the boxes and realistically determine if I was going to use the items or not. I found so many supplies that I didn’t know I had it was unreal. I even found some colored stickers for my moving boxes that I was about to go and purchase! I tell you the truth!!! So, I decided to take everything whether slightly used or not and make a decision – Keep, Donate or Trash. I am proud of myself in that I didn’t really keep very much. I then decided to have a little contest on facebook for the box of to donate items. I was able to find a winner who received the donated items for free. I was so happy, I found a wonderful home for the supplies and feel better about how they will be used going forward.
During this supply dump I also determined that I had a ridiculous collection of pens. I’m not quite sure where all these pens came from, but I knew it was wayyyy more than I could ever use. I embarked on what I like to call Pengate LOLLLLLLLL yes I am special! So, I again developed my three categories, donate, keep and trash. The process although it appeared daunting went very quickly. Here is what I ended up with during wave one of pengate:
Just to give you an understanding of how bad wave one was. That pink vase was completely filled with pens. Yes, see I had a problem. LOL so after completing wave one I then moved on to wave two. Wave two consisted of another blue box (really about the same amount of pens as wave one).
All in all, I can now say that I have a manageable amount of pens in the house and I feel good in that I was able to donate useable pens to a friend starting his own business and to the winner of my impromptu teacher contest. Although pengate was a seemingly small task it cleared two spaces in my room and allowed me to get rid of unnecessary clutter.
Overall, I went through majority of the supplies in the room and was able to declutter many of those items I would never use. This process was a little overwhelming at times because I had to think…what will happen if I need this after I get rid of it. Really??? and then I had to be honest with myself…if I haven’t used it in 14 years I don’t think I need it now and if I do I can always go purchase a new one…yes I would be spending money but in reality what is more important in our life today? To hold on to supplies I MAY use in 5 more years…or to clear the space I know we will use tomorrow?
Decluttering is about being honest with yourself…come on and join me on this journey to Happiness!
