Why Organizing?

I grew up in a home where my grandparents saved everything. If they bought a new microwave, the old one went to the basement. New phone? New outfits? Tokens from vacations? You name it, they saved it. After living in the same home for over 30 years they had accumulated a lot of stuff.

After making the decision to relocate, they had the perfect opportunity to downsize. Only instead, they filled a semi trailer full of their stuff and brought it with them to use as a shed. It was amazing how much stuff they held onto. 

My mom lives in the same home and still has many of their things even though they both have passed. Clothes, cologne bottles, items of the life they used to have. 

This is where my story begins. 

I grew up emotionally attached to the items I was surrounded by. I lived in the ghost of my grandparents simply by walking into their room. A half tube of lipstick wasn't a useless item; it was a memory. 

I remember one day a few years after my grandfather had passed, my uncle finished the can of WD-40 that was in the laundry room and threw it away. I was devastated. A remaining piece of my grandfather was gone. 

Since then I have graduated from college and relocated to an apartment two states away. We now have a baby on the way, and space is a precious commodity. Therefore, I made the decision to start weeding through our stuff to make way for LJ. I did what most women do before they begin a home project, I started perusing Pinterest for ideas. 

I became engrossed in what I read about organizing. After I could not read enough, I began listening to podcasts on organizing while I cleaned and drove in the car. It was as if a wave of inspiration crashed over me when I found Nikki Kinzer at Taking Control Organizing. As a professional organizer and ADHD life coach, she meets people where they are. And her words were meeting me at a very big time in my life. 

Material possessions used to run my home. Since then I have begun working to reshape my thinking about the items around me. I have gotten rid of several boxes of stuff that no longer add value to our new life, but have also parted with several trinkets with which I thought I could never part. Even though I am far from having the level of organization I would like to have, I have taken the first step. And that, my friends, is a success I will celebrate.