How to de clutter when it's hard letting go

Do you find it difficult to throw something out and you are convinced someone else could still use it?  An older appliance maybe?  Books? Clothes?

Over the years I realised I had placed more importance on possessions than was healthy and now is as good a time to address this as any.

For me, hanging onto all my 'stuff' has to do with emotional baggage.  Doesn't make sense does it?

I have held onto items, ie clothing, knick knacks, furniture etc with every intention of achieving goals.  Fitting back into a certain size, fixing up broken items, restoring an old 50's style bureau.  The longer I hold onto these 'hopes' the more of a failure I feel when the goals aren't reached.

My clutter is a very effective way to self sabotage and I didn't realise I was doing it.

The only way to make a start, for me at least, is to be ruthless.  Reassure myself that it's ok to get rid of things, and in the long run my life will improve in ways I couldn't even begin to imagine 💜

It's all about compromising

If you are anything like me, and your possessions make you feel secure (more about that another time), then initially the mere thought of getting rid of any of my furniture would have me feeling anxious.  Because of the main reason I'm so willing to compromise, this is something I'm just fine doing.

The last residence I lived at was in a semi rural area, and literally right outside my back door was my horse.  The whole property was 2&1/2 acres and his paddock took up two acres so he had a reasonable space.

The circumstances behind my having to move were stressful and due to reasons out of my control, I had to move into suburbia again and this meant Brego had to be agisted.  I'm incredibly lucky that he has been holidaying with a close friend and he is treated like one of her own.

The exciting news is that I am again going to be living in a semi rural area which means Brego will again be living with me!  So I'm sure you will understand why I'm so willing to compromise.  Who wouldn't?

Downsizing - will I cope?

For at least the last 15 years I have lived in a house with minimum two bedrooms etc and I am currently getting ready to pack up and move into a granny flat, with an open lounge/bedroom space, seperate kitchen and seperate bathroom.

I have managed to accumulate extra furniture over the years and am now in the process of deciding what I can do without, so I can transition to living in a much MUCH smaller place.

I am surprised as to how willing I am to down size as drastically as I am going to, and the reason why may surprise some.

New Beginnings

Here I was not long ago typing a post on being organised to move house, and now I'm getting ready to pack up and move house, for real!

Normally, after only having moved 14 months ago, I would be stressing about another move.  I'm moving to a part of south east Queensland I have never lived in, know very few people there and am not exactly flush with money to spare for the actual physical move.

But after making the last move relatively easy, I'm not quite as nervous this time around.  I'm already making lists in my head and have written down all the items I will be getting rid of before I move.  I also plan to keep a folder with important papers for the move.

Most organised house move ever! Part two

Pinterest was my salvation with my most recent house move and I'm fairly confident that some of the ideas I used could come in handy for others too.  Especially if you are challenged when it comes to being organised.

I typed in key words to Pinterest, then once I started finding pins (picture boards) that I liked, I created a board (cork board), named it Moving house and pinned everything I thought useful to that board.

First off I spent time moving from room to room, writing up a list of all the items, furniture etc that I decided I no longer needed, that I could get rid of.  Next to each item listed I noted the places I thought I could get rid of them through, ie Gumtree, Facebook etc.  I advertised the items and was rigid in times that people could collect the items, so that there was minimal disruption to my packing.

Next up was a really ruthless spring clean where I threw out anything broken, damaged, not useful and made trips to the tip etc.

Even though I didn't have a firm moving date at the time, I acquired moving boxes and started packing anything I knew I didn't need to use between now and when I moved.  I packed all my linen, except for two sets of bedding, two towels, one face washer, one hand towel and the bath mat.  I did the same with my bathroom items and packed everything except my makeup, one shampoo, one conditioner, toothpaste, face wash, body wash and my skin care.

Kitchen was next, same method.

I applied the same method to every room in the house and as boxes were packed, I made sure they were clearly marked and I allocated one room to store all the packed boxes.

I also took the time to mark which boxes were heavy, which I knew would save time (and injury) when the moving started.  As I shifted packed boxes into the one room, I took the time to arrange them neatly so they weren't a hazard when I was still doing anything in that room.

Once I had a fixed moving date I packed everything bar the essentials and worked on clearing rooms so that all I had left to do was vacuum, wash floors, windows, remove cobwebs etc.  Seeing my progress was highly motivating too!

The day before the move I had an insulated bag ready for any cold food that was still in my fridge (and I didn't do any grocery shopping in the week leading up to the move, besides milk & bread) and sat it next to the fridge.  I also had a milk crate ready to place my kettle, toaster, coffee mug, teaspoon etc so that at the other end I had my most important items easy to find.

Besides one major hiccup, the move went far more smoothly than I could have ever thought possible. One suggestion I will make is to have a blow up mattress handy!  I had moved everything over, including my dismantled bed and found that as there was a broken power point in the kitchen of my new place, that there was no power!  I was too exhausted to move the mattress to anywhere with enough room, so I slept on three lounge cushions on the floor for one last night at the old house.

Even though the thought of ever moving again makes me feel nauseous, I am at least confident it will be a smooth process again 💜

Most organised house move ever - I'm shocked! Part One

I will be the first to admit that every time I have moved house, it's been very disorganised and very much a last minute effort.  Since I moved to Queensland in 1998, I have moved 9 times!

My method had been to make a half baked attempt at packing boxes and then close to the date, I would just shove things into whatever was available, hoping I would be able to find everything at the other end.

The place I was moving from this time I had lived in for nearly four and a half years and had somehow managed to acquire even more things.  I realised that I couldn't keep packing up the same way and something had to change.  Moving house was just a stressful nightmare (which lets face it, it is anyway right?) and it was up to me to minimise the stress.  And the best way to do that was to make it an organised shift.

Enter stage left .......... Pinterest!

If you have never seen Pinterest, oh are you in for a surprise.  Imagine a cork board on your home office wall, where you pin all your ideas, you know those pictures you cut out of magazines etc?  Well Pinterest is a digital cork board.  Literally!

Stick around for my next post on how I finally achieved my first organised house move!

Laziest blogger ever!

I started my blog with great intentions, and life kind of got in the way.

A house move, health issues for me and huge health issue for my beloved dog Logan.

I am slowly getting back into some sort of routine and am determined to get this blog back on track.  My YouTube channel has also been sadly neglected.  See a pattern here?

To hold myself accountable I took the plunge and dobbed myself in to Facebook, so every single person on my friends list now knows this blog exists!  I am designing a schedule that will hopefully work for me, but like everything it is going to take consistency for it to become a habit.

I have some great ideas though, so that helps!