I felt much better this week. Happily, our house didn't fall down around our ears while I was sick. Having routines in place for the everyday tasks like laundry and dishes really made a difference. Knowing that each thing would take less than 15 minutes to do made it possible for me to wrap my head around actually doing it. Also, knowing that the laundry is mostly caught up, it really was not a big problem to skip a day here and there. Now that I am feeling 100% again, it was easy to pick up where I left off and do just one extra thing each day. That is pretty unusual for me, and felt great!
I am still digging out from when we were putting our addition on. One would think you'd start with this great, empty new space and only bring into it the stuff you need on day one. Unfortunately, there really isn't a day one when you do something like this unless you are living elsewhere! We wanted to get rid of the expense of having a storage unit as quickly as possible, so the furniture and boxes that were stored went right into - you guessed it - the new parts of our house. I am still digging out almost a year later. I got through 6 boxes this week!
In those boxes were many items that we no longer want or need. Many of them came from when my in-laws moved (almost 10 years ago) from a 3 story house with full basement to a four room condo. I didn't realize until recently how much of the stuff that was in the old house found it's way to our house. I thought we did a pretty good job of turning them down, but it is now clear that we really didn't. (Avoiding the mounted buck's head seemed like a big victory at the time.) Most of it is just stuff - we don't need it and we don't particularly like it. We are not knick-knacky people, and my in-laws definitely are. Also, our taste levels differ wildly. So many of these items must go. I don't have room to store other people's cast-offs.
Now the trick is disposing of these things. Having had a couple, I am opposed to yard sales. I end up storing stuff that I do not want for months on end until I find a convenient day to hopefully have lots of people tromp all over my front lawn, with no guarantee that the stuff will actually depart. I like donating things, but some of the items can't be donated to my favorite charities, and some of it is actually worth enough that I am considering selling it on eBay or craigslist. I don't love that either, as it still means dedicating part of my house to storage until I take photos, figure out how much I want to ask for it and then hopefully sell and ship it. These are all steps that take me longer than they should. I think I am going to test run 1 or 2 items and then if it is too much of a hassle, I will have to freecycle them or figure something else out. I'm hoping that having a plan helps me to overcome my inertia on this. I'm becoming highly motivated to get the white elephants out - they take up too much space. I've also realized that many of them stress me out because of negative relationships with those who caused them to come into my home.
I am trying not to get too far ahead of myself with the decluttering, lest it become overwhelming. I get overwhelmed by this rather easily, and then instead of taking a few minutes to accomplish something small that moves me in the right direction, I find myself completely incapable of getting anything done.
I also promised myself that I will spend as much time as possible outside this summer. I will need to make this work with continuing to move myself forward with decluttering the indoors. Maybe I will commit to maintaining and making sure it doesn't backslide, then anything else I accomplish is icing on the cake. Yes, I realize I am playing mind games with myself, but it really does seem to work. I apply the same principle with my employees at work - set clear, attainable expectations. It works there, so why not give myself the same?
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