purging before a move!

Happy Friday, y’all! Today I have a brand new blogger to share with you! She has wonderful things to bring to blogland, so without further ado, now introducing: my beautiful friend Kelly!

Hello friends!  This is a first for me!  My name is Kelly and as a brand new blogger, I have a lot to learn; but I am excited, it’s so much fun sharing my life with others!

I am honored to share with even more people here at Ring Around the Rosies!  Thanks so much, Jaima!  A little about me…I am a homeschooling mom of three boys.  I love getting outside with my family and exploring nature!  We love to travel, to learn new things everyday and just enjoy God’s many blessings and gifts to us!  For more cleaning tips, yummy recipes and projects for the kids, follow my family’s adventures at Eyes on the Source and you can also keep up with me on Facebook! I look forward to meeting you all!

Are you preparing for a big event or moving to a new home?  Feeling overwhelmed? Needing to kick out some clutter?  I’ve been there, no, wait…who am I kidding, I am there!  My family and I currently reside in Illinois, but we are planning a big move to Florida, come December.  Excited and panicked, I think that sums it all up for me!  So let’s get into gear and kick this clutter out of here!

Hmm..where do we start? Well, every big job has to start small.  Choose a focus and make daily goals!  Start sooner rather than later, before complete panic has a chance to settle in!

I like to choose one or two areas per day.  In the area to be "de-cluttered," I set up four boxes.  I label them with these names: Keep, Paper to Keep, Give Away and Garbage.  You can add or change these categories to work for you, but I find that these four usually cover it for me.

My latest project involved our downstairs storage closet.  We use it for storing suitcases, clothing, bedding and anything else not currently being used.  As you can see, it was literally piled to the ceiling!  There had to be something in there to throw or give away.  This is NOT all going on the moving truck!

Now, usually, when I encounter a job this big, I tend to freeze or to flutter.   Freezing involves staring at the mess and deciding it’s too big, thinking "I’ll never accomplish it!"  So I freeze and quit before the job even begins.  Fluttering involves a lot of busy-ness without any accomplishment. Fluttering from one task to the next until I am exhausted!  Nothing gets done with either of these reactions!

So that is how I began my box system.  With my boxes ready and waiting, I tackled the closet, bin by bin and shelf by shelf.  Do I REALLY need this item?  Or am I keeping it for sentimental value?  One step at a time, throwing each item into the appropriate box and moving on to the next thing. Every once in a while I had to stop and bag up boxes that had become too full.  But other than that, I never had to stop and figure out where to put something.  Amazing how much unneeded stuff was in that one closet, just taking up valuable space!

Now it is all bagged up ready to go to the local thrift shop, baby clothes to my sister, and garbage…lots of garbage! Kicked out!  What is lurking behind your closet doors that you need to kick out?  Don’t get overwhelmed, make a plan and start small, you’ll get there every time!

Thank you so much, Kelly! Great post! I too have a very hard time letting things go, but this past year we have gotten rid of TONS of stuff! It is so “freeing” to not be burdened by stuff. Less really is more for me! In my house, if it doesn’t serve a good purpose, or if I don’t just really love it, it doesn’t stay!

What about you? Do you have a hard time letting things go? You have a long weekend ahead! I challenge you to collect just 1 garbage bag full of extra stuff and let it go!