After giving to others all season I’ll bet most of you are looking at the same thing I am looking at, a house full of new “stuff” trying to find their space in your home. Each year I try to disguise this clutter by just removing the holiday decorations. It always seems to work as a stalling tactic as I gather into boxes the decorations and by removing those I am at least somehow convinced that the new “stuff” will find their home. This can only last for so long…I tell myself.This past fall that telling myself came to a head when it seemed that behind every closet door was a set of scary shelves packed to the brim just waiting to spill out. My assistant started “working” on the office when we decided to do a shift in who worked where. By moving the digital upstairs we opened up a can of worms downstairs in my office. It took several weeks to get organized with other more important things taking the hot seat. We got through it of course, just in time to create more “stuff” with holiday garlands and lights and such. LOL
As I began planning for this year and making all those promises to myself about organizing I decided to take some sound advice from Martha Beck. She mentioned in her column for Oprah in December, tips about giving. I was actually on a plane reading the magazine after having spent some considerable time organizing at my in laws home. It is amazing how much “stuff” we accumulate over years. Ellen’s house was decked out for the holidays and we talked about the fact that once you throw out something invariably then you find yourself needing it and so there’s the case for not doing any throwing away at all!
I liked the ideas that Martha had in her column. For one thing it stemmed from the concept that each time you give a present you should also gift one to yourself. I liked that concept for obvious reasons! LOL She had asked her readers about what gifts they would give to themselves and their answers, really were not things at all but rather three intangibles such as more time, stufflessness and acceptance. I decided to adopt all three for myself in 2015.
Martha mentioned “Enough with the stuff!” and her way of finally ridding ourselves of it made me feel comfortable with actually letting things go. She said we should get several boxes and several times each day try to look around and see if there’s anything that is not needed. Stick those things in the box. Once full, stick them in the garage or in my case the attic. Let a year, or in my case two go by with those things there. If you need them, go get them no worries! If by the end if a specified time you did not need them, then take them to the Goodwill etc. and let them go. This also means placing in the “box” magazines that have not been read, clothes that have not been worn etc. This is going to be really tough I know!
I started with putting into boxes all the holiday decorations that we did not use this year. I am also going to take this a step further with making boxes for the children. Clothes and dolls that I think they might want for my unborn grandchildren might sound crazy but I don’t want to throw away stuff that they may need at a different time in their lives. Those star wars figurines that were Brian’s have been treasures with James Edward and now that he no longer plays with them they have to find a new home waiting for the next generation to discover them! 🙂
Take Care of YOU!
