After living in her home for 20 years, my client wanted to declutter her basement and attic before her family moved.
Can you imagine?
20 years of memories with your family.
20 years of decisions to go through.
20 years of STUFF.
It was incredibly overwhelming for her and she didn't know where to start.
It would overwhelm anyone, honestly.
So this is what we did (and some takeaways for you):
We agreed to tackle it over time for just a few hours every week. There is no need to declutter everything all in one weekend unless you are on a quick deadline. And honestly, when you have a job that is this big, doing it all at once creates anxiety and also increases the chances of decision fatigue. I wouldn't be surprised if people with very little time just give up and throw all of it in boxes hoping that they can handle it after the move.
We started right at the door and worked our way through the storage. That way as we were decluttering we could easily take things to the car for donation and to the trash/recycling as needed. That being said, every week there were bags upon bags of items for charity, recycling, and trash.
There was no "right" or "wrong" thing to hold onto. It all was her choice on what mattered to her and her family. I would ask her questions to help her figure out why she wanted to keep some of the items and she always had the final say..
As we've decluttered, I've been organizing her stuff so that when she moves it will be easy to find who it's for and what is in it.
We are almost done, honestly, it is ahead of schedule. This was because I've kept her on task, made sure she wasn't feeling overwhelmed, and given her homework to do between when we meet AND she's worked hard throughout. Because to truly declutter you need to be willing to do the work.
I hope this helps you in your decluttering journey.
If you would rather spend your weekends living life and not sorting through your stuff, I've created a FREE download of the decluttering system I teach just for you. This will help you declutter in a simple, manageable, and achievable way. Click here to download it today
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