A bonus post!!! I thought about one more thing that was bothering me and knew was time to go…PHOTOS!!!! Everyone I have ever worked with has some sort of photo organizing project on their to-do list, and I think it’s the last one to ever get done. We can talk more about that another time. I have purged, organized and scanned photos before.
It may not look like it, but I’m sure there are a couple hundred photos there. Most of them were already digitized on my computer (backed up too). Many of them are bad quality photos too! Sure, there were some great ones of buildings and travel, but I can look that up online! I wasn’t going to put them into an album? Who wants to see my photos of the Eiffel Tower with a bunch of strangers in it? Or sunsets, trees, churches and buildings I can’t name, etc.? They were doing nothing for me! I didn’t do every photo, nor did I complete the entire project…I just started and got rid of stuff I didn’t want or need!
A recap of my challenge:
I hope you have enjoyed reading about my personal organizing challenge! It was so good for me to do, for myself, but also because I really wanted you to know that I have the same “stuff,” the same questions, the same doubts and struggles.
Of course, I organize myself often and I’m starting from a pretty good place, but this was hard to do! The things that went out the door during this process were all items from my past and my possible future. They were not at all a part of my present. And that is key to being truly organized…living with only what you currently love, need and use. So many of us can look around and feel overwhelmed in our spaces, stressed and we can see everyday things that we don’t want anymore. That’s usually when people call me. The deeper and more challenging part of the organizing process is digging into those past and future items. (Don’t worry if you want to get organized and that sounds intimidating…it’s a second level of the process and you can do so much without going this far, once you’re really ready.)
We simply cannot keep everything we’ve ever had and “used to use/need/do.” Can you imagine how much stuff that would add up to??? It’s everything that you used to have time for, like hobbies and these things have not fit into your current lifestyle in how many years? For me, this time, it was just so much stuff that was just sitting there (craft stuff, CDs, DVDs, etc.). It was doing nothing for me and once I realized that, I let it go! I’m not sure I’ll never miss any of it, but that feeling will be temporary and isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things.
The other part of this stuff was the future thoughts or questions of what if I might need or use this again? The way to know is to look at your present and recent past. You’ll know. And remember that we are constantly evolving and changing, ourselves and our lifestyles. I can’t believe how many entertaining items and decor that I was keeping that were no longer my taste. Or how many pairs of shoes that I wouldn’t even consider buying today? I think I got rid of 20 pair!
Letting these things go has given me more space, order, peace of mind, and I feel more in-control. When you let go of “the stuff,” you realize it’s not about “the stuff” at all. It’s about you, what you want in your life and your home and how you want to live.
Happy Organizing!
