Sunday, April 5, 2015

Life Happens




I haven't been able to work my plan to purge
my possessions in the last few weeks.

We've been too busy moving my in-laws to a
 smaller apartment in the assisted-living
section of their retirement community, which
will provide them with a higher level of care.

Instead of purging our stuff, we found ourselves
trying to purge their stuff instead.

Because both of his parents were in the hospital
at the time, Wild Bill and I decided to just buy a
ton of moving boxes and pack up everything that
we thought was just taking up space and not
necessarily "sparking joy" in their lives. That
meant we ended up with about 50 boxes
of the in-law's stuff in our garage.

Yeah...that's right...we are definitely headed
in the wrong purging direction at our house!

I am happy to say my daughter Jaysa really
took the book I recommended in my last post
to heart. She and I are 'storage experts' and, if
you remember, the author Marie Kondo states:
Storage Experts Are Hoarders!

At first Jaysa was taken aback by the thought
that her packed storage containers and shelves
were a way of hoarding. Fearing I'd insulted
her, I had Wild Bill order her the book, that
night, from Amazon with 2-day shipping.


 She got the book one day, read it the next,
and began purging "for real" right away. I say
"for real" because she has been purging stuff
for several weeks before reading the book, but
when she read about keeping only things that
sparked joy, she had a whole new focus.


Jaysa has been posting on her blog all the
progress she is making. Here's some pictures
I borrowed from her posts:
Here's the AFTER picture of her shelves...
I especially like how she purged and sorted her
movies. The ones she kept, she placed in paper
jackets and put in two storage boxes...

She even made perfect dividers, then filed
them alphabetically within the dividers!

See...I told you this book was life changing!
Here's Jaysa's post if you're interested
in seeing more of the pictures:
http://benthewildcard.blogspot.com/2015/04/purging-progres.html


Thanks for dropping by!







7 comments:

  1. We have had kids living with us on an off for 2 years and we are once again kid free. It is wonderful to get space back, but also to be purging!

    Hope all goes well with your parents.

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  2. Oh- I know how very busy you have been. That is a LOT of work and I give you a lot of credit for doing it. This is my week to start purging, too. I am kind of dreading it-but know I will be glad once it is done. xo Diana

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  3. Oh I think we might be sisters from another life. That's where I'm at, instead of clearing up my stuff, I'm clearing my Uncle's place to prepare for sale. I'm dead tired. I'm fortunate enough that I distributed much of his items, I am keeping a few mementos, but what to do with boxes and boxes of photos?

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  4. Wow life does happen, doesn't it? I have been at 822 and am just getting to park my car in the garage. I'm guessing if stuff is still out there it needs gone. Can't wait to read your book

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  5. I'm still planning to get that book. Your daughter's shelves look so neat and organized and I love how she stored her movies. I'm on the way to visit her blog now.

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  6. Glad you are able to help the in laws and I know you will get to purge when the time is right. The book sounds like a good one!

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  7. I ordered that book from the library, I am 153 in line. :) Lois from Canada

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