222 | How to Get Back to Decluttering When You Feel Stuck

Sometimes we have been making progress for a few months, and then all of a sudden we get to an area or it could be a certain room or some kind of particular items that just for whatever reason are more difficult to part with, we know that we need to continue. We actually want to keep going after losing the momentum with the decluttering projects on this journey to an organized and simplified home. This is a common scenario. You’ve been moving right along with the purging projects. You feel good because you’ve decluttered. You’re finally living with the feeling of getting rid of these things that have been burdening you, the purging at home is working, and then all of a sudden you come to an area and it’s like, yikes, what do I do?

It’s all of a sudden become so difficult to work on. And you thought you were really in the swing of [00:02:00] things, getting everything. Done. And now here you are, you feel stuck. For whatever reason, whether it is actually the room that you are in that physical room or the item. That you are dealing with could be a collection of something There is a reason for why this space is more difficult. What is that sometimes it can be difficult to tell and sometimes it’s pretty obvious.

It’s just something you don’t want to do with now, whether it’s hard because these are sentimental things and you have put off dealing with this for some time or. There’s a more recent attachment or a loss connected with these things is so you are struggling with getting rid of them or you want to get rid of them, but there’s guilt associated with getting rid of those. Maybe you have just been avoiding this or these could really be thing is that you feel guilty about getting rid of, because you had an intention to use them, but you never did.

you tuck them in and out of waste space thinking I will use the someday. If I hang onto these and here we are at someday and they still haven’t been used, you just simply never use them, or it could be because you feel like you wasted money. remember we waste the money. When we spend not when we donate the item that that money has already been wasted.

whatever the situation is, it is possible to keep going to pick up where you left off to get that momentum going again, and to keep decluttering. Even when you do feel like you are stuck or like you’ve really slowed down, or you don’t know what to do to keep going, but it’s possible. And we’re going to talk about that here today.

As I answer the listener question of the day on. Tuesdays. I love to answer your questions. So whatever you are struggling with, whatever you want to know more about, you want me to elaborate on, or you just want to get my opinion on go to intentional edit.com. And a little record and Al button pops up.

It’s just a little button. It [00:04:00] says record. Now, if you click on that, you can leave a message. It’s just like leaving a voicemail. Ask me your question or explain the situation to see what you’re struggling with. And I will use what you submitted on a future Tuesday episode. just like I am answering this question that we’re going to hear right now. First off, I have to say awesome job for getting to where you are and making such progress through your home. I know the garage could be difficult. But here you are, you have made a tremendous amount of progress. That is awesome. I am applauding you I want you to know that you are doing awesome. To answer the question. The garage in general can be a place that we avoid when it comes to organizing. There’s many reasons for that. One of those being that there are so many different thing. That are often stored in the garage. Those are things that really should be placed into different categories, like outdoor activities, gardening yard, work tools for home projects.

And those tools are different than the tools that you have used for yard work or home repair or. Car repair. All of those would go in different categories. And then you have the, like sometimes the machinery involved in these things, holiday decor, large item is that you simply don’t have a place to fit in your house.

So you’ve put them out in the garage. Sports equipment. Sometimes luggage is big. So you start luggage out [00:06:00] there or extra decorations and things that might not fit the holiday decor category, but it’s just home stuff. That doesn’t really go in the house anymore or does it fit in this home? So you’ve put it out in the garage.

Many times, what is in the garage is simply been moved to that space because you don’t feel ready to get rid of it, or you don’t want to deal with. With getting rid of it or taking it someplace for donation, but the reality is you don’t need it anymore.

When it’s the garage of its entirety that we are trying to tackle.

I really recommend breaking this up into different sections. And you would follow the same steps as you do inside the house. So you’re grouping like items together. You’re purging, whatever is broken. If it doesn’t work anymore, if it’s a duplicate item or if it’s something you just simply don’t need anymore.

And once all of those categories have been sorted out, you determine the storage needs. Once you’re at that place where you can take inventory of each category and then you think, how can I store these things properly? the thing is that you don’t need to. Keep those things you donated. So for this specific question, the one thing that came up was craft items.

Craft items are mentioned, and family items like family type keepsakes. If these are true family keepsakes, is there a place if it’s a piece of art or something special that can be displayed in the house, is there a place that can be displayed? Is there a place that it can be used? Can it come inside so that if this is a true keepsake, instead of just shoving it away on a shelf someplace, it can actually. Be used and enjoyed.

And if not, why is it a special keepsake? Why are you putting it in that category? Now? If it truly is a keepsake, you don’t want to get rid of it. It’s a sentimental item that is special. This is something I’ve talked about on other episodes. [00:08:00] Have a designated storage space, whether this is a small box. usually this is going to be some type of plastic box with a lid, maybe even airtight, depending on what you are needing to store.

If these are something like photographs, think about scanning these, or even having these professionally SCAD using a service, if you don’t want to do it, to get these things so that they don’t take up physical space, if you don’t have a lot of physical space and then you always have those pictures or those photographs available to you. what’s great about when you make them digital is it’s unlimited what family members can have access to those, it’s much easier to share a digital file and sometimes impossible to share those photographs when, and they are printed. Does it matter where you’re located? You can get that digital file and then everyone can have access to these. If these are a larger items that you’re going to keep, think about how they can be stored.

So they’re stored safely in a place out of the elements where they’re not going to be damaged. They’re not going to be. At risk to be broken and then have one designated spot where these are stored and they’re out of the way. I do encourage you to take a look at how many of these items you’re saying are truly keepsakes and think about what is really a keepsake.

Why are you keeping it? And why did you determine it to be a keepsake? if it needs to be kept. figure out a way to store it so that it makes sense and it is safe and it will be safe for many years to come. do you want it to be out of your way? Now in terms of the craft items that were mentioned, you most certainly can donate craft items. Yes, Kraft items, hobby items, things in those categories can duplicate quickly.

They usually do well. If you start off with a little box or some type of container and you have this new craft or this new project, and then all of the sudden there’s more [00:10:00] and there’s more and there’s more. And I like to see that they duplicate quickly. And the reality of it is they more than duplicate. It’s not just the supplies that you need to do these crafts in these hobbies, but it’s the tools that you need to actually be able to use the supplies. So if you are at a place where you are not involved in this crafting or this hobby anymore, Find a place to donate everything.

You can donate it as one big group usually. one thing I do recommend contact a local school. specifically look for the art teacher at that school. You could find these things by going to the website. Send an email to them. Take a couple pictures submit this email saying that you are interested in donating these items to the school and put a date on there.

about 10 days to two weeks into the future. Put a date that if they don’t contact you by that date, then you will donate them to another organization. if you haven’t heard by that date, then you’re going to donate those elsewhere. If there’s not a school nearby or ups, get in touch with that.

Our teacher. Afterschool programs or programs like boys and girls clubs or anything that is local and specific to where you live, you can reach out and contact those people. Just take a couple pictures of what you have. Write up an email that is a couple of sentences. Don’t make it longer than that.

Or they’re probably not going to take the time to read it It’s no strings attached donation. All you want to do is get rid of this stuff on your part and you want it to go to someplace that will actually use it. if you try this, maybe try one or two of these places, if no one responds to you, or if they say that they don’t need it at this time, then you can take it to a donation center.

Goodwills are usually huge. They’re usually the large donation type. Centers and stores and our areas. They will take craft supplies. If you have smaller donation centers or smaller stores that you like to donate to, make a phone call to them and tell them what you have ask if they [00:12:00] take those things.

And if they do put them in the car, drive them there, donate them. You are not using them for some reason, this craft did it stick, you thought you were really going to get into this and you didn’t that’s totally fine. That’s completely normal. I think that happens more often than not. someone else will want to be able to use these things and they will be happy to get them at a much lower price than if they were purchasing them brand new at a store somewhere. With any project, keep going, keep moving forward.

Just keep moving along.

If you need to break the garage, cause it’s a large space in two smaller projects. If you’ve accumulated a large collection of something, you can break that down into smaller purging sessions, make it manageable for you for the time you have available to you. But whatever you do, keep moving along.

Keep going.

You are doing amazing. And before you know it, this project will be behind you and you will be on to the next thing to let me know how I can help you. If you want your questions answered on a future Tuesday episode, go to intentional edit.com. Click on the record.

Now button that pops up on your screen. Leave me a message that I can answer on a future episode.

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