One thing I have noticed when working with listing clients is that the hardest thing for home sellers do is to depersonalize and edit down their belongings. Selling a home and moving are already some of life's biggest stresses so to add in editing down your belongings into the mix, the process can get to be way too much.
It can be debilitating
It can be demoralizing
It can be paralyzing
Why do people wait until selling their homes to start weeding out their belongings? I think it is mostly out of sight, out of mind. But also when getting rid of things you come full circle with those items and it can become blinding. We see the excess we live with and the waste of money we spend. Not to mention finding the time to really dig into the organization process.
Over the holidays my relatives espoused the virtues of an organization book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing – by Marie Kondo. While the book wasn't necessarily for me, I liked the overall concept of getting rid of everything that does not give you joy.
Armed with the knowledge of how hard it is to get rid of things all at once, I decided to attack getting rid of the clothes my family no longer needed.
And you know what? Even without the pressure of a move on the horizon it was REALLY hard. The realization of the clothes I bought that were never worn, the sizes I would never fit into again, the past stages of my life over and gone (even though I'm happier now than then).
This can be tough stuff.
But every time I now walk into my closets and see organization, order and can actually find something to wear I smile. Better to do these tasks now then with other overwhelming life events.
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