How’s your decluttering going? Can’t say I’m full steam ahead every day, but I’m chugging along, a little bit at a time. See, if I make the job too big, I get discouraged before I even begin. I find that chunking it down into manageable pieces is the way to go. When you set a small goal like that and accomplish it, it makes you feel good. Like everything in life, finishing the job is key, right?
I just don’t get these folks who never seem to finish anything. Living like that would make me kind of anxious. You? There’s this house in town where they’ve been putting up shingles, forever. Charlie and me joke that they do one shingle a year. And we probably all know of a house where they started putting up aluminum siding and didn’t finish. Now the Tyvek is peeling off.
Scamp and me walk around the neighborhood a lot and there’s this house on our route 
that is a constant source of wonder, to me, anyways. I mean, they have this faded orange, falling-apart bow on their mailbox from a Halloween party they had back in October, 2019. I know! Okay, they finally took down their Christmas decorations, but now they’re all lying there in a pile on their porch, guarded by a big, nutcracker. Been like that for well over a week. And don’t even get me going on the couch they put at the end of their driveway for “free.” That was a nice couch! Big enough for someone to nap on. They could have called Habitat for Humanity to pick it up, or a homeless shelter, or posted it for free on Craig’s list or Facebook Market Place. Instead, it sits out in the rain, the snow, moldering away for two months. Two months! What a waste! (Sorry, I get a real bee in my bonnet over this stuff.)
Anyhoo, back to decluttering. If you’re looking for something fast and easy instead of a little bit everyday, you might want to try something I call “Chuck it in the Bucket.” (I talked about this in my book Finding Your Inner Moose.) This is a great Saturday morning thing, and if you’re speedy, who knows. It could also count as your aerobic activity for the day!
Here’s what you do. Get yourself a bucket, a laundry basket, or garbage bag and quickly go around the house, attic, basement, your 
drawers, jewelry box, whatever, and grab stuff that you haven’t used in a year, clothes that don’t fit, things you never liked in the first place. Do this for a set period of time, say fifteen minutes. Or by the number of items, maybe fifteen. Once you hit your goal, stop and sort the stuff into throw-away, give-away, swap shop, Goodwill, and sell (on consignment, eBay, Craig’s list, Facebook Marketplace).
Whether you’re going fast or slow, the next step is always to put your unwanted stuff in your car and take it where it needs to go. Do not drive around for more than a week with this junk. That’s just moving clutter from one place to another. Finish the job, then reward yourself with a feeling of satisfaction. Better yet, with maybe some ice cream! You deserve it!
That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!
Hear Ida Tell It: Finish the Job
A Message from Ida
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