183 | An Easy Solution to a Common Decluttering Setback

There are a lot of excuses that you can make when it comes to starting a purging project or taking something on like this, or even talking about getting organized, but never actually doing any of the steps to get started. And move towards the decluttering and really get your home organized. But today we’re talking about one thing that comes up every so often.

It’s a different kind of excuse, and it can set you back when you have already taken time to declutter when you’ve already started the process and you’re in the middle of the purging.

I know you can relate to starting a project and not finishing it, not ever getting to that final step where you would say it is a hundred percent complete. That scenario can be said for a lot of projects. And decluttering is one of those things that people often start, but they never finished with the end result of being organized. When [00:02:00] you desire an organized, a room or an organized house, a house with less clutter. The first step is always to Berge. You’ve heard me say before, and I will continue to say that over and over, over and over again. You have to remove the excess before anything can truly be organized. And why that is, is because when you try to organize first without purging and without getting rid of the excess.

You are wasting your time and you’re wasting your resources by attempting to organize the material possessions that you don’t need, the things that you aren’t using anymore. And probably when you really take an honest look at it items that you don’t really want anymore, you don’t even want these things around. You can feel the stress that they are adding to your life and you know, that it has become overwhelming. that’s part of the desire of that organized space of a room that is orderly and then actually functions for a purpose that works for you and your family.

we don’t have endless hours or even endless days to tackle projects that’s real life. when we are in a situation like that, where we don’t have this endless amount of time, it’s common to do a little bit here a little bit there, or even sometimes I recommend setting a timer, setting a timer for 15 minutes or 30 minutes.

To zone in on that specific project, really work on it. And then the next day do the same thing or a couple of days later set a timer again. So that you can get through the project without getting burned out. And you keep working at it until the project is complete. This works for a lot of people it has made it possible so that if you are the type of person that doesn’t have the ability to focus for a long amount of time, or you simply are not at home for big chunks of time, you can finish the decluttering projects by.

Doing a little bit here and a little bit there. And working until you finally finished the room or the drawer or the space or the one closet, whatever it is, you don’t have [00:04:00] to do it all in one setting. if this is something that works for you, that is great. But sometimes when we can’t complete a project,

And we leave it in this incomplete. Phase it’s become something that’s kind of hanging over our head. Sometimes this is left on a finished for longer than we have originally intended at what we thought might take a couple of days or a few weeks could be months into the future now.

This incomplete projects leaves us in a situation where there can be kind of a hiccup that can happen with the things that you have already placed in the bag or that box, or that container to donate. When you have these things with the intention to donate. Now, this is different than being hung up on what to do with each item that you don’t want anymore, because sometimes people struggle with where to donate something and they want to find.

The perfect location to donate something that’s not realistic for most of our stuff because of the over consumption that has taken place when we have too much stuff. If you are stuck on that part and you’re wanting to know. What should I throw away? What should I donate and where should I donate it? Then go listen to episode 166, that episode explains what to do with everything that you don’t want. You know, you don’t want it. And where are the proper places to either toss or donate it? That episode 166 will give you a lot of good ideas and point you in the right direction to figure that out.

But in this situation, if you have bags or boxes or some type of container of items that you have already made a decision about, you know, that you want to donate these things and these containers are hanging out in your house, they might be just sitting on the floor in the room that you’re working on, or you’ve pulled them out into the hallway and they are to go.

They are to get out of the house. They are for sure a donation. Occasionally, you might [00:06:00] get the idea to look back into the bag and you end up in a situation where you’ve second guessed. What is in the box? You second, guess what you place in that trash bag to be donated? This situation can work both ways.

It can be a motivator for you because you see that three-quarter full box with things that you don’t want any more sitting there waiting to be filled up the rest of the way. So you can take it to a donation place and you see that on Use it as motivation and it makes you think I want to do more. I want to finish this project. I want to keep going on the decluttering because I want to get this to the end result of the organized home, the orderly home. You.

You have that desire and that box is sitting there. Almost full, but not all the way full waiting for the rest of the stuff. And you want to fill it up and get it out of the house. That’s when this situation works as a positive and it’s great because it’s kind of a temporary motivator to get these things out of the house.

This sometimes works in the other way and it’s not helpful. what happens in that situation is when you have the bags and boxes and all of the containers in the room or in the hallway or somewhere in your house, maybe even sitting by the front door. Waiting to go. Some can be full, some are not full, and they’re waiting for you to keep going on your decluttering process and fill them up so they can be removed from the home.

And all of a sudden, you start to look inside and you go through them and you remove things from the bag. And you think, well, what if, or maybe I need this, or I didn’t really mean to get rid of this. And all of a sudden these things that a few days ago, or a few weeks ago were thing, is that you felt like they could be removed from the home, that they are access. That they’re things that you don’t need that you’re not using, and that you don’t really want.

All of a sudden you have this guilt and you feel [00:08:00] like you need to keep them. When this happens and you get hung up on this, and this is a problem. We can prevent that from happening by removing the bags immediately. And that’s why I always say as soon as possible. Get these things out of your home when you are decluttering and you fill up the bags and the boxes, put them in the back of your car, put them in your trunk.

And make it a plan to go by the donations that are wherever you choose to take your donations to make it a plan in the next couple of days. To drop those off. So you’re not hanging onto these things months later and wondering what is in them, it’s kind of silly that this happens, because if you think about it, they’ve probably been in your home for years without being used. And that’s one of the ways that you know, that you can confidently get rid of them

that you’re not using them. They’re not serving you and your family. it should be easy in theory to donate them and get rid of them. once you’ve put them in the donation bag and then they’ve been sitting there for months and months and months, and no one has looked for them and no one’s wanting to use them.

Then that should be confirmation that these things really can be removed from your house. And all it is going to do is be beneficial for you and be beneficial for your family. for some reason, You’ve started second guessing yourself. And you think, well, maybe I’ll just pull this out. Maybe I’ll just keep this.

To prevent that from happening, remove the bags and boxes with the items that are no longer wanted in your home. Get them out of your house as soon as you possibly can do not let them hang out in your house for months and months and months, especially do not do that. If you are prone to second guessing your decisions and going back to the bags full of things.

An example of this is a lot of times I hear clients talk about, they have so much stuff that they want to get rid of, and they have a [00:10:00] garage full of things, and they’ve been saving all this stuff and they want to have a garage sale with the. Expectation that they’re going to make a lot of money and get rid of all this stuff. And it could even be a semi-famous project.

To take on the garage sale. They have the garage sale. the majority of the items do not sell. So instead of having the plan to immediately box those items up and take them to a place where they can be donated or set them on the curb and put a sign that says free, and then if whatever is left in 24 hours, then take it to be donated or schedule for.

A donation center to come pick up these items, especially if they’re larger, like big furniture pieces. Instead of doing that, they bring the stuff back to the house, they bring it back to the garage, they bring it back inside and they think, well, this wasn’t a great time to do that. I will just have a garage sale in the future.

But these are things for years that have not been used. They’re not serving the family. They are causing overwhelm and stress. It’s probably making it even. So you might not be able to park your vehicle in the garage. There’s all kinds of things. And we can get into that in great detail on another episode, but that’s a similar situation. Once you have determined and made a decision to let something go and that you’re not using it, it is not of benefit to your family to keep it around.

Then get it out of your house. So you don’t put yourself in that situation to think about possibly keeping it when you’ve already made the decision. And it’s already had the years of not being used. that is when something is. It’s a great idea to let that thing go. So just remove it from your house, put the bags and boxes in your car and get rid of them as soon as you can, by driving by the donation center.

Dropping them off. And then you will be free of the burden that those objects have been having on you for many months or many years. Don’t let that be the experience [00:12:00] with your bags and boxes of donations, where you go back to them, take the necessary steps, take that next step and remove them as soon as possible. Put them in the car and get them out of your house. So you can keep going with this project and continue to make progress.

To that room that is organized and orderly, and that functions for your family that you can finally use and the way that you want to without feeling overwhelmed and stressed out just by being in that room. So that’s a simple solution. It’s something easy to do, and it will help you. If you find yourself going back to.

The things that you have made decisions on when you are purging and decluttering. To wrap up this episode. I do want to share with you one thing that is coming up. Next week, we are going to have a series of episodes, a back to school series with a Sarah from the peace and productivity podcast, and myself are collaborating on this. We really want to help you calm the chaos of this school year. Last year, we did a great episode together where we covered so many different things from routines to homework, helpers, to meal, planning, to weekly prepping to getting your kids to get out.

The door on time and figuring out what to wear ahead of time, all kinds of things. Anything that is an issue as the school year starts in something that you might be struggling with at home. And with that back-to-school routine, we covered it. Uh, last year in a back to school episode. And that episode is a full, full, full of so much great information, but we are going to do something similar and next week we’re going to kick off on Monday, the back to school series, and we really want to help you calm the chaos of this upcoming school year.

And we will go back and forth throughout the week with one episode on her show. And then one episode over here on the intentional edit podcast. So look for that next week and get yourself set up for a year of. Success [00:14:00] with those episodes that are coming up next week. I will join you then.