The Clutter Fairy Weekly #164
Everything Must Go! Decluttering Strategies for Your Next Move
The pressure of an upcoming move sharpens the urgency of eliminating stuff you no longer want or need. You can purge by making careful, calm decisions, or you can do it in a panic because you’ve run out of time and energy to pack. The choice is yours! In episode #164 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, explains how to optimize planning, packing, and moving your household. We’ll also talk about how to leverage moving strategies even when you’re staying put.
Link mentioned in this episode:
- Alexis’s survey response (quoted in the episode)
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The Weekly Tittle is an exercise designed to focus your attention on a specific space, aspect, or challenge of decluttering and organizing your home. We assign a new tittle in each webcast/podcast, then check on your progress the following week.
Your Moving Challenge
This week’s assignment is to answer the following question from our survey—if you didn’t already respond to the survey—and then to take action to address your biggest moving challenge:
Considering the present condition of your home and its contents, if you had to move from your home in a short timeframe, what would your greatest challenge be?
- Think about a category of stuff, a piece of furniture, an overstuffed closet, a jam-packed room, a collection of items, a physical limitation, a time constraint, or any other moving challenge that comes to mind.
- Jot down ideas about how you might face the challenge. Here are a few questions to get you started:
- Who could help you (friends or family, social-service agencies, church groups, volunteer organizations, paid help, etc.)?
- What tasks could you knock out far in advance of the move?
- What are you ready to give away, donate, recycle, or dispose of right now?
- Plan one or two next actions you can take now to tackle your challenge.
- Schedule an appointment to work on the project.
For the full discussion of this week’s tittle, watch the Weekly Tittle segment on YouTube.
We are looking at downsizing and moving after 30 years in this house (and after 11 years in another house before that). We have been looking at property and it’s beginning to get real. I knew who to come to for advice! (Already took on board your advice to stop accumulating stuff at the current house – or trying to, it’s hard at Christmas.) My spouse and I just did this exercise and it was very helpful. We have a huge list of items and categories we can start disposing of one way or the other after the holidays. We will have to time share this job with looking for property and with repairing our current house. We’ll try to be smart about what we spend time on!