What is the best method for sorting through my items?
Sorting through your items and making decisions can be a very tiring process. Even the healthiest people will find the mental process of making decisions tiring, especially if they do not like making decisions in general, or if they have trouble letting things go. Add to that the guilt that is sometimes associated with letting go of keepsakes and gifts, it all leads to a mentally tiring process.
Kim Forrester
Senior Move Manager
717-552-5686
kim@freshstart-organizing.com
However, if you can break down the process so that your brain can concentrate on one step at a time, this is very helpful for keeping up mental energy and avoiding overwhelm. At the same time though, it can be hard to do. Your brain automatically wants to go to the next obvious step when deciding on an item.
When going through a room and making decisions about what to "keep", only focus on that step first. If you are not keeping the item, at this point do not think about what you will do with it. Only know that it benefits you to have this item removed from your home. Focus on what is best for you and the goals you have for your home and life. As you are doing this, start a pile of the items you are not keeping. This is your "off-load" pile. For the items you are keeping, you can leave them where they are, or also start a "keep" pile. The most important part of this step is that you are only thinking about whether to keep or not to keep (off-load); not what to do next.
After you have done this, now you can tackle that off-load pile. Your brain will make a shift; you have already made the decision that you are not keeping the items in this pile, so now all you have to do is decide what to do with the items. There are many options for the off-load pile: auction, consignment, donation, give to someone you know, recycling, or trash. Start to sort this pile into piles indicated by what you want to do with the items. It is OK if you want to do the easiest option, this is a big job and you should not feel bad if you do not want to run around delivering items to several different places. For example: suppose you have a trash pile, a donation pile, and a consignment pile. If your donation pile only has a few items, you may just want to include them with trash instead of making a trip to a donation site for just a few things.
When dividing the two steps, it is not necessary to go through the entire house for each step. You can break it down by day, by room, or just by the size of the off-load pile. The main thing is that your brain does not constantly have to go back and forth. For the first step, focus on you and what benefits you or makes you happy. After that, focus on the best off-loading option for the unneeded and unwanted items.
