Game Plan

I knew I would need to get some sort of plan figured out in order to get this done. This isn't just something you can just do in an afternoon, no matter how much I would love for this to just be done and over with. I know this is going to be hard and stressful for me. I'm a pack rat and it's really hard for me to let things go. But I know how good this will be for me and my family.

So the first thing I decided was to go back to the idea of keeping only things that are useful, beautiful or sentimental. So I wrote out some questions to ask myself as I go through things.

Useful

• Do I really use it? And when was the last time I used it?
• Is it necessary to have? 
• Can I do the same thing with something else?
• Do we have more than 1? If so, how many do we actually need? 

Beautiful

• Can it be displayed?
• Is it broken?
• Does it really fit our personalities and home?

Sentimental

• How sentimental is it, really? 
• Will I miss it if I had forgotten I even had it until I unpacked it?
• Will a picture of it suffice? Are there already pictures of it? 

And I'm sure there are many other questions I'll start asking myself that are more type of item specific but this is my starting grounds. 

Now, I've got my goals, my list of questions and a couple little ideas in my head to keep me motivated and on track. "Simple is peaceful, peacefulness is simple." and "Only keep things to encourage peace of mind, body and soul." Can you tell I'm going for some peace in my life? But okay, now to get started but... where to start. Okay back to planning. I decided to make it easier on myself by listing out categories of types of stuff in our house. Here's my list in no particular order:

• Bathroom
• Clothing
• Garb
• Linens
• Electronics
• Office Papers
• Multimedia
• Books
• Adam's toys
• Kitchen
• Shoes
• Ann/Baby stuff
• Craft room
• Storage room/unpacked boxes
• Crap catchers. 
• Cleaning and laundry supplies
• Candles, incense and other smelly house stuff.
• Holiday stuff
• Furniture

Now my list is fairly broken up. I thought about doing it by room but, like I've said, I'm busy and need smaller goals to try and reach. And that way I feel like I'm actually hitting goals by getting to check a category off my list more often.

So I have my list of categories. I went ahead and made notes about each category about how I want to go through things so when I start I don't have the excuse of I just didn't know how to start.

Example: Clothing- empty closet and drawers. Only put back keep items, rest goes into trash, donate or sell boxes.

Example #2: Kitchen- go through 1 drawer or cabinet at a time. Rearrange after finished going through everything. 

I then wrote up a tentative plan on what order I want to tackle these things in. It's a very loose plan because I know I'll want to change it once I get rolling. One thing will become some glaring spot on my radar while I couldn't care less about the next thing on my list. I was going to go so far as to split things up for a week by week plan, but I know that I won't be able to stick to it because of my weird and wacky schedule and just get disappointed when I don't get things done the way I planned. I'm sure I'll have weeks were I can tackle lots of stuff, while others I'll be lucky if I can get a box emptied. I'm going to take this as it comes. I want this to be therapeutic, not just another stressor. 

So I've got my plan. I've got my goals and motivation. I have my page of things to keep me on track and motivated. I have my notepad and pen to keep track of some stuff and take down notes. I have the camera on my phone to take many before and after pictures. I have the support and help of my wonderful hubby. I have this blog to help keep myself accountable. And possibly the most important thing: I have permission to get upset and frustrated, this is going to be a challenge. Next post, my first category to be tackled. Wish me luck!