I worked in the garage yesterday.
Wow.
I’ve been decluttering like a slow-and-steady madwoman since this blog began last August. And organizing things really isn’t my . . . well . . . thing. So the get-this-out-of-the-house-right-now-and-stick-it-in-the-garage technique has a few flaws. Because now, I have a mass of stuff to get ready for the sale. Oh, how I wish I could just open the garage and say, “Go for it!”
But decluttering can be fun, right? I ran across the video that I made for my husband (pre-husband) when I lived in Thailand and he was here. I wanted to show it to the kids for Valentine’s Day, but couldn’t find it.
Shocker.
As soon as that warm-fuzzy moment cooled off, I was back to being overwhelmed by the sheer hugeness of the task. But I kept chugging, and did make some real progress.
The thing that is most difficult for me is the “little piles.” Little piles happen when I’m going through the big piles, making progress, and run across something that I really should keep. Like hairbows, or scissors, or photographs. So I make a little pile. And when I finish going through the big pile, I feel this great sense of accomplishment until I glance down and see . . . the little pile.
Generally, the little piles take longer because they involve taking all of the little items to their homes, or to what should be their home. It is my goal to not add them to other piles, but sometimes I can’t help it.
The master bedroom has come so incredibly far. When the cousins were here this weekend, I even left the door open. The light was off, and in darkness it looked okay from the doorway. When I heard my son say, “Come in here!” I did let out a shrieking “No, not in there!” but hey, the door was open and that’s a big step.
But in one corner, over by my side of the bed, a pile is growing. It is the loose recipe and photo pile. It’s a monster. As I go through every other place in my house, I find photos and recipes stuck everywhere. EVERYWHERE, because they had no real home. And since it’s my goal for the year to find homes for everything, I have them in one big pile until I figure out what to do with them. The pile includes albums and notebooks, but this pile is truly big enough to be a 3 day project.
Then hubby got in on the sorting. Which is lovely. So very lovely. He truly does help, but then his “little piles” are more “little piles” for me to go through.
And I get overwhelmed.
