THE HIDDEN POWER OF MOVING

THE
HIDDEN POWER OF MOVING

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I often find myself helping others either with preparing for a move, or with unpacking and organizing once they have moved into their new home.  But in late February, I moved myself, and was surprised at how much I learned since this time it was my own stuff that I was dealing with. 

We See What We Are and Aren’t Really Using
Our move has made me think of Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists. When Ryan first made the decision to downsize and join his friend Josh in the quest to live life significantly lighter and more simply, he packed every single thing he owned into boxes as if he were getting ready to move.  Then, he only unpacked belongings as he needed them.  After 6 weeks, he got rid of everything that was still in boxes.  When we move, we are essentially forced to do the same thing. Packing everything we own into boxes has the power to help us see what we are and aren’t really using.  In Ryan’s case, he had so much stuff that he realized he only really used about 20 percent of what he had. 

In my own move, what shocked me the most is that our family does fairly good job of regularly donating and getting rid of things, but we still discovered that we have a lot of unused stuff.  I unpacked our essentials, giving priority to the kitchen, bedroom closets and bathrooms like usual, then within the first week, I eventually removed everything else that we use from their boxes and assigned homes to it all.  Once that was done I was relieved to be able to get back to our busy life.  But I have to admit that like so many other families, after a month in a half, I still don’t have all of my boxes unpacked. We still have a bunch of boxes sitting in our storage room that have been all too easy to ignore.  
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Those Leftover Boxes are Full of Hard Decisions
Why haven’t I tackled those boxes? Because we haven’t missed what’s in them one bit.  I can’t help but see the irony here, this is the same exact stuff that my clients desperately call me to help them with.  But in their case these same kinds of boxes have sometimes been sitting in their storage areas for years after they have moved.  They often can’t even remember what’s in them.  The stuff they haven’t used hogs all the storage or garage space in their homes.  There is more than one reason that we avoid these boxes; for one, in addition to not missing what's in them, other tasks on our to-do lists take priority, or maybe there’s no place to store what’s in the boxes because closets and cabinets are already full.  But the biggest reason those boxes don’t go away is this; they hold all that stuff that is so hard to deal with. The boxes often represent indecision.  Every single item requires a decision to be made.  Are we are ready to let it go?  Or out of guilt, do we think we need to keep it? What if we might need it someday?  And finally, if we are ready to let it go of it, how do we get rid of it?  Should it be donated, discarded or sold?

It Does Not Pay To Put Those Hard Decisions Off
It’s tempting to move onto everything else on our busy to-do lists and put these hard decisions on the back burner. But I know all too well that that’s not a good idea. Just because we are not missing whatever is in those boxes, doesn’t mean they deserve to take up space in our homes for years and weigh heavy on our minds. If you have a couple of boxes like these in your home, they may not bother you much, but if you have a whole room filled with them, I suggest you don’t put off dealing with them any longer.  And if you are paying for a storage unit, or unable to use your garage for parking your car, the indecision is costing you money or robbing you of convenience.  Decide once and for all to do the hard work of making these decisions and get yourself past them. Because it doesn’t pay to put it off, they will just steal your space and peace of mind.
 
Let Go of Everything That Has Been Singled Out as Unused
If you are in the process of a move, commit to unpacking every box now rather than later.  Take a critical eye to what you allow to stay and be selective. If you have more stuff than you have storage space for, consider letting go of the things that you really don’t use. If in the rare chance you end up needing something that you got rid of down the road, it can usually be easily replaced. Keep in mind that you likely won’t miss 99% of what you let go of. If you decide to keep something, get it out of that box and use or display it.  In the end, it will feel so good to get the job done.
 
Our move has forced us to take a closer look at what we really have, and separate what we use from what we don’t. But, at this point we have to follow through and let go of everything that has been singled out as unused. This weekend I have forced myself to get into my storage room and get through those boxes. Now I have a large pile items ready to be donated. My storage room is finally clean, but it was challenging even for me, because I was the one making the tough decisions about our own stuff this time. I have listed the steps that I took to get though my storage room boxes.  Feel free to use these steps as a guide to get you through your own storage space..
 
5 Easy Steps For Getting Through Your Own Boxes:

1. Get a garbage bag for trash and a few empty boxes for sorting. Label one box “Donate,” label another “Recycle.” Other boxes you may want to label are “To Sell” or “Give To (Enter your child’s or other family member’s name here)” Also label a box “Keep” for general items that need to be stored in another room in the house.  Wait until you are done to find homes for all of these items so that you don't get distracted.
   
   
2. Begin pulling items out of boxes and just sort all like items together into piles or boxes.Make obvious decisions to donate or discard immediately but if a decision is hard just put the given item into a sorted pile. Label sort piles/boxes with a sticky note, examples are:  “Keepsakes”, “Christmas”, “Photos”, “Camping”  etc.
   
   
3. Designate a location for items to be donated in an empty corner of your storage room or garage.Hopefully by the time you are done, you will have a large pile of stuff ready for you to take to the nearest charity.To make donating even easier, just call your local Salvation Army and they will pick everything up for you free of charge.
   
   
4. Once everything has been sorted into piles, then it’s time to make the tougher decisions, but having all like items together should help make those decisions easier. Be very selective about what you decide to keep and remember, these are the things that are here in boxes because you haven’t missed them.             
5. Once you have figured out what you are keeping, you can then decide how best to store it all. Be sure to use containers to keep the sorted categories together. The last and final step is to celebrate and congratulate yourself for getting the job done once and for all!

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