This is a decluttering book for interesting people who have lived a great life and know they need to downsize a bit sometime (or at least not leave a mess for their kids to manage when they pass on!)
Who Is This Book For?
If you are picking up a book like this one, you are probably a person with stuff! Normal people, who don't have stuff aren't reading this kind of thing, and don't even get me started about those minimalists who don't have any stuff… they are just weird!
But who might you be, the reader of a stuff book?
Could be you are like me and starting to look at an empty nest! Your kids are getting older and you are not going to need as big a house to hold everyone.
Or you are getting ready to move into a smaller home because you are retiring and want to cut costs so you can keep doing interesting things.
Or you are moving to assisted living and want to figure out what matters most of all when you are going tiny size.
Maybe you are just sick and tired of your stuff cluttering up your life. Or your family is sick of your stuff and grumbling all the time.
Perhaps you are looking around at all that stuff and thinking that someday your kids will have to dig through it all after you are gone and you don't want that for them!
Whether you are a lots of stuff gal like me, or just a medium “stuff driving you nuts” gal, this is the book for you!
Seriously, you brought all this stuff into your home, and you have to be the one to get it out!
My Stuff Story
Alright, let's start this stuff book out with a confession of my very own… I like “stuff”.
I like collecting weird cats and Christmas decorations. I have lots of furniture that I treasure, and a room full of craft supplies that I adore.
I have a few rooms of our house full of my stuff, and a couple of closets too… if we want to be all technical here. And I do have stuff in the garage too!
I know, it sounds like we live in a mansion, and we do!
My husband and I had been living outside of Denver, Colorado for a few years in a pretty small house. It was a three bedroom, with a livable basement where we had his Mom staying with us too!
Well, we adopted three kids from foster care and they had a bunch of stuff too, courtesy of a loving foster Mom and Dad who gave them things to bring along! YAY, great foster parents!
Anyways, that house was bursting at the seams with SIX of us living there now, so we decided to move on back to Florida, from whence Johnny and I had come almost five years before.
The nice thing about that was the Denver real estate market was booming, so we got a good price for our house. And the Florida market was not booming yet so we could buy a super big, giant, I mean HUGE house for the five us… whoo whoo!
Grandma Linda, as my Mother-In-Law was known at this point, moved back to her little condo about forty-five minutes South of us, so it was me, Johnny and the kids. Oh, also two dogs, and one cat!
Over time that number shuffled around a little bit as Britty (my big girl) traded places with Grandma Linda and moved to her condo. Grandma Linda eventually moved to assisted living, we had three dogs and two cats at one point, and as usual, general chaos was the norm here in the castle.
Where we stand now, at the start of my decluttering story, is me, my husband Johnny, two kids (Desy and Josey), two dogs, one cat and some fish… and MY STUFF.
Why I Have To Declutter
At this point you might be thinking, you have a castle, why not keep all your stuff?
Well, as happens to a lot of people who have kids, they are getting older and our house is gradually outgrowing us as the kids start to move out.
I had a talk the other day with Johnny, who HATES his job, and we decided on a plan to have him retire and move to a smaller space after the last kid graduates… in FOUR years.
For you four years may sound like an eternity, but I am a planner and I LOVE a long window like that to get my affairs in order.
Looking around, I can see that I am the problem with moving to a smaller space… well, maybe not me, but for sure my stuff.
And here is the thing… I love Johnny more than I love my stuff by a long shot!
So if getting him out of a job he hates means that I have to start on a decluttering journey, so be it.
And if I have to go on a decluttering journey, I am dragging you along with me and we will make it FUN!
Stay tuned for next week, because I will be sharing “before pictures” of my mansion and my stuff!
Jenni Glenn
Wednesday 7th of December 2022
Wow! SO many things in common. We were late in moving into our mansion. We moved from a University house with a full basement into a dinky house - both in Kentucky. Boy Howdy, did we have to get rid of stuff! We set it mostly all at curbside and people came and took it away: Full sized standing freezer that was really old, kid's wagon, chairs that needed to be re-caned, lamps that needed to be rewired, and all sorts of goodies. This was the house that our kids grew up in, and the University kicked us out (after 22! years) and then tore it down. Sad. It was a really cool, funky house with an arched window over the stairs and hardwood floors throughout (not to mention the full basement). There was another year til my husband's retirement, so we were stuck there for a while. My mother had moved up there to be with us, and was surprised that we were moving back to the Carolinas. She thought we were through moving. LOL! Both kids wanted to move with us, and we arrived at the motel in Raleigh looking like The Beverly Hillbillies. We had two trucks, two cars, three dogs and two cats. What a sight. We had found a three bedroom house with a garage, but we just hadn't signed the papers. I finally have my own craft room, and we are down to the two of us now. I still have so many supplies and getting real: I really need to pass more on. I thought I had cleared a lot out before moving, but my storage systems seem to be bursting at the seams. I am really looking forward to your journey, and I am hoping to be inspired! Good Luck!
Ada
Tuesday 6th of December 2022
I live in Florida, South Florida to be exact. Our home is two stories and I don't want to get older (early sixties), and be in a two story home. We have decided to move eventually (hopefully in under ten years) further north in FL or out of the state. The process of decluttering is on and my goal is to work mainly on the items in the garage. Somehow, this area is the most organizational deprived of our establishment. The hardest one for me is my crafts, although I contain them pretty well and organized, I'm attached to every piece of paper I own. It is hard to throw out a piece of paper, a piece of fabric or anything really, because it all has potential in the junk journal world of creativity. I do keep the area clean and organized, but I am slowing realizing that-that too needs to be clutter free. I wish you success in your endeavor and thank you for sharing with us your journey to a clutter free life. Good Luck!