Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
In today’s strategy session, we discuss:
- how to get your home office under control.
- keeping the inside of your car clean.
- how to figure out a system to help with massive paperwork and emails.
Mentioned:
My Writing Journey (Live on October 5th)
Want to be a patron of the show? Find out how at Patreon.
--Nony
Today I was decluttering some old jewelry, and regretting that right now I have no way to get stuff to my local Goodwill to donate it. I have a “donate” box in my dining room which is kind of a huge clutter item that I’ve been walking around for weeks because I don’t have a car and I couldn’t get a friend to drive me there to do the donation.
Then it hit me — I AM NOT THE JUNK-WHISPERER! It is not my job to save things that *might* have a little bit of value left for somebody. My first responsibility is to my own household, and what MY household needs right now is the peace that comes from getting rid of stuff I no longer need or want.
If nobody ever got to have/use the stuff I’m letting go of… nobody would actually miss it! So I grabbed up all my courage, and just threw the stuff away.
It feels weird. But it feels liberating too. I’m used to seeing the value and potential in everything, and it does bother me to be letting “good stuff” go to waste. But…. really and truly, in my current situation, getting rid of it by ANY MEANS feels like throwing off the shackles that have tied me to my overwhelmingly out-of-control life!
From now on, for me, if I know someone specific that might actually need a thing I will certainly offer it to them. If I were the type of person who enjoyed selling stuff on Ebay or something, I would do that to things I thought were truly valuable. But being very honest, I know that my old stuff is worth maybe a dollar or so at Goodwill, and they are not hurting for lack of donations at the moment. The only reason not to throw it in the trash is pure pride, imagining that just because I once saw value in it that it must still hold value somehow. But now I know better. I don’t owe that junk any remorse. Even if it means throwing it straight in the trash, even if it still seemed “good enough for somebody else”, the main goal is just to GET MY FREEDOM FROM IT.
Thank you so much, Dana, for all your help in opening my eyes to the value of FREEDOM from clutter!
Dana – Id love to connect with your guest from podcast 303. Im a home builder too, struggle with my own clutter and paperwork, take care of my 87 yr old mom, etc. Years ago, I worked as a Professional Organizer. While I have my own paperwork overwhelm, I think networking with your guest could help us both. Not looking to do any official work for her at all. Would just love to connect. Can you forward my info to her? Thanks.
The office and mail-sorting tips are great. In these days, we really all need to stay on top of our home offices to keep ourselves on track. Good episode!
Dana – this lady really needs to read “The Paper solution” by Lisa Woodruff. It would be very helpful for her.
Great episode as always! I identified sooo much as I work remotely from home full time, do the bookkeeping/paperwork/computer stuff for my husband’s Heating and Air business, and run our house/pay bills and store my crafty stuff in my home office. Whew… that’s a lot to type, let alone a lot of stuff in one room!
I’m catching up, and then my sister in law is going to start helping out with data entry a couple hours a week, hopefully that works out for all of us 🤞🏻
Hubs and I are completely opposite, and I have trouble delegating, but giving him one spot to put new stuff means it doesn’t get mixed in the shuffle, and alleviates the frustration of coming in to a big pile of receipts on my keyboard.
Once the papers are entered in our accounting, I file by vendor or category and newest stuff goes in the front of the file always. Then it goes in a plastic bin with a lid that holds hanging file folders. At the end of the year, that gets emptied into a bankers box, and it all starts over. I also cannot recommend enough- it’s so much easier, if you stay on top of it and don’t get too far behind. Remembering what that strange expense for $97 from last week is so much easier than guessing what it was 6 months later.
I’m trying to get a system going in his truck where the receipts go into file folders for each of his major vendors and common expenses like tools, meals, general job supplies- pray for me! I think this will be a huge help instead of the receipts getting thrown in the dashboard and arriving to me in chaotic stack.
My day job stuff has a file tray on my desk, and one notebook. And I have a command center portable