YOUR LEGACY, YOUR JUNK, WHOSE PROBLEM?

Have you ever been called upon to clean up the family home of an aging or departed loved one?  If so, you understand what this process entails, and have observed the unbelievable amounts of JUNK that people accumulate over their lifetimes.

If you have not yet had this experience, let me briefly summarize the process:   a loved one needs to move into an assisted living facility for medical reasons (or she/he has passed on).  The actual clean-out of this person's home begins with a few family and friends going through the house searching for "treasures," i.e. junk they either want to keep or think they can sell for big bucks.

Then they begin to clear out the remaining household goods and personal effects.  And clear out.  And clear out some more, over weeks and sometimes months, until finally, in desperation to be done with the mess, the relatives and friends shackled with this chore pitch the remaining household items into trash bags without further thought on their usefulness or sentimental value.

By this time, EVERYTHING is junk.

Why such a heavy topic for a Monday morning?

I want you to understand WHY decluttering an estate is so difficult:  the original owners of this junk did not recycle, give away, or throw out enough stuff over their lifetimes.   In short, THEY KEPT TOO MUCH.

And I want to prevent YOU from doing this to your loved ones.  

Truly, leaving a legacy of junk is slapping your family and friends in the face.  Sure, you may be only 28 (or 36, or 55, or 72) right now, but if you can't motivate yourself to clean up your junk FOR yourself, at least do it for the people you care about, so that they won't be left with the fallout of a lifetime's worth of your lack of self-management.

NOW is the time to begin creating the habits of uncluttered living: throwing out genuine trash, recycling what can be recycled, giving things away you're no longer using, and keeping up with regular maintenance of your possessions. 

These small jobs are part of LIFE.  But when people ignore them (and frankly, most people do ignore them), stuff piles up, and a lifetime's worth of accumulation is sheer torture for family and friends to have to process at an already  stressful time in their lives (losing you, or placing you in assisted living).

An easy way to begin?

When you bring home a new purchase, get rid of something in your home approximately the same size, that takes up the same space.  The "one in, one out" rule.  If you bring home a new pair of slacks, throw away a ripped one (or donate one that has "shrunk" and no longer fits).

That is so simple: one thing comes in, one thing goes out.

You'll save your family and friends weeks of torture by this simple little habit.

May you live a long and blessed life filled with friendship, love, and happiness, not JUNK!
 

STRETCH YOURSELF

I'm writing to see if you want to go along with my experiment today:  I'm going to take Cheryl Richardson's advice* and throw away (or give away) more than feels comfortable to get rid of.
I have a modest amount of possessions, and I run an uncluttered home, but I keep some "useful" things (that I'm not currently using) because

a. I'm a homeowner and need to keep up a large home on my own.

b.  I'm a parent of kids under 18 and I never know when one of them will need a _____________ (fill in the blank) for a school project, or art project, or any project.

c.  I'm frugal.

But at what cost do I keep these things?  Here are some of the prices I pay to keep "useful things" (i.e. junk).

~ Less space in my home for actual living.  Clutter consumes square footage, and I actually like my footage clear, thank you.

~ Not enough space to spread out and do paperwork, because I have "useful" things around my computer desk/work area.

~ It takes more time to find things, get them out of storage, and put them away with clutter around.

~More time cleaning (ugh! the more clutter, the longer it takes to maneuver around it to clean, and I also have to clean the actual clutter too).

So I'm going to take 20 minutes and get rid of more than feels comfortable.  Want to try it with me?  Let's do it, and risk...well, what are we risking, exactly?

We're risking making a mistake by throwing or giving away something that we might need someday.

Let's think about this.  If we discover that we really need something again, something that we got rid of today, then we could

~ buy another one
~ borrow one from a friend, neighbor, or family member
~ rent it
~ figure out something else to replace it
~figure out a way to live without it.

I can live with that.  We're not talking about throwing or giving away expensive or truly loved or really useful items, just things that have become (or always were!) clutter.  

Should regret sweep over me, I have the funds to replace a five-month old copy of Traditional Home magazine, a turtleneck whose neck doesn't fold right, and a half-used bottle of facial toner.  I could easily replace these things, if I truly regret getting rid of them.

I'm taking the risk.

How about you?

Let's spend 20 minutes getting rid of more than feels comfortable to us.  Come on, let's do it! 

*Richardson, Cheryl. Life Makeovers. Broadway Books. New York. 2002. Pg. 78.