Sometimes you just feel like speeding up, even when the deadline for your downsizing is far down the line. That’s what happened to me several weeks ago, spurred on by our upcoming first appointment with a professional downsizer. It’s kind of like when you pick up your house before the cleaning service arrives, not that we have one, but I believe that’s what people do. Of course, we wanted to be ready for the visit and not waste the valuable time we’d paid for in advance. (More on professional downsizers in the future.)
First, the attic, which I had attacked early on in my slow downsizing because I knew I wouldn’t want to climb up its rickety fold-down ladder as I got older and which John had stripped of his 40 boxes in the past year, still had a few items that haunted me. These included four boxes of china from John’s mother, a box of silver-plated flatware, and a doll’s chest of drawers and a closet made by my grandfather 70 years ago for my sister. From the four boxes we rescued a few useful items that matched the set we used. Everything else, like the cups and saucers, could go.
Since our professional downsizer, Lisa, had offered to take a carload of items to Goodwill at the end of her visit, we needed to round up likely suspects. We’d already accumulated some games and puzzles, and we still had two boxes of records that we knew we wouldn’t be able to sell (mostly classical, some spoken word) plus two unwanted framed pictures, and a small bag of clothes. I threw in my old “Visible Man” as a bonus. It had been collecting dust far too long.
The next thing on our list was to give a critical review of our home decorations and knick-knackery to determine what we wanted to take with us to our next home. (More on this topic in another post.) This action prompted me to polish three tarnished silver bowl type objects and decide that anything that needed that amount of polishing was in the “do not keep” column. We had objects we were willing to part with right away and others that will go prior to a move but that were still a part of our décor.
We took Lisa on a “tour” of all our spaces (except the attic), including our chock-a-block basement and our off-site storage unit. She helped us determine which things might sell through consignment, which through some other means, and which to donate. Lisa was totally non-judgmental, but showing her our vast accumulation triggered my need to see more progress.
Over the next three weeks following her visit, I packed up five more boxes (including two very large ones) for the local charity that picks up monthly, with a variety of knick-knackery and household items, including a couple of wedding gifts we no longer use (look for a future post on downsizing regrets), and a box filled with not valuable jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, and some jewelry from my childhood).
With a couple of shelves from the basement now cleared for the first time and the two cartons of records gone, I felt motivated to attack the basement with gusto—sorting through four boxes of books (two for donation and two for possible sale to a dealer), a box of my mother’s art supplies that I’d had sitting there for years (I found some useful items in good shape there), two boxes of “gifts” bought on spec but never given away. I kept a few, immediately donated most, and rescued several children’s items to give away to our local Freecycle site. (See previous post.) I finished going through old greeting cards and removed the fronts for a friend of Lisa's who repurposes these.
With the cleared-out spaces, I was able to rearrange boxes on the various shelves to create a more logical pattern—items to keep, items to donate, and items to go through. I regularly brought things upstairs to sort and make decisions about, usually winnowing them down.
In the meantime, John completed sorting through, weeding out, and organizing the contents of his 40 boxes, so that they now occupied only 10 boxes. He plans to do another run through.
All these actions are similar to ones I've taken earlier but carried out in a more intensive timeline. Coupled with Lisa’s visit, the upcoming holiday season was a motivator as I had items I thought people might want to use as presents (in addition to the children’s items) or for entertaining. Overall, I successfully posted over a dozen things on the Freecycle site for contactless porch pickup. I took advantage of winter not having fully settled in to spend time in the basement, which can feel cold when the temperature outside falls.
Although I don’t expect I will continue at my current pace, I am glad I made the sprint. Here’s why:
If you are in the process of slow-downsizing, I recommend planning a sprint of your own if you have the time.