The Line Between Keepsakes and Hoarding

I’m in the process of “getting my life together”… as if that’s a surprise right?! The real question is, “What the hell does that mean!?”

For me, that entails quite a few different things. I want more room in my home which requires that I declutter, more time to focus on the things that matter which requires that I get this stuff done, and the peace of mind that when I die, my son knows what the hell is here which requires that I get organized! But I keep putting these things off because life is happening. But this is ABOUT my life so it’s time to get it together!

The Priorities – My “Organize My Life” Checklist

So here are the things that have been bugging me because they’re not getting done… in no particular order

Getting the crap out of my house that I don’t want or have a use for anymore – this is partly to free up space, partly to eliminate the amount of stuff I’ve gotta pack for my next move, and mostly so my son won’t have to sort thru it all when I die.

Getting my photos and photo albums scanned so I can put together some really cool slide shows and such for my son, AND so I can get them labeled so he’ll know who the hell everyone is in the photos!

Getting my shit out of storage that’s been sitting there since 2008! (I can’t believe that even my Dragon NaturallySpeaking wants to AutoCorrect me!!… Dear Dragon… Spell that s-h-i-t!) 🙂 One, I’m sick of paying the storage fees. And two, I know there’s stuff there that I stored with the intent of having another home, but that’s no longer useful because it’s been in storage for so many years. And while I’d love to say that since it’s been there this long and I haven’t brought it home, that I can just wash my hands of all of it, but that’s just not the case. I’ll explain that on another day as I wade thru it all.

Getting my important data lists updated so my son can find everything he needs to keep my business running and to access my life after I’m gone. I didn’t have to deal with some of this when my mom died because her life was contained in a file cabinet drawer. 🙂

Hey! Not bad! There are only four things I’ve gotta get done!! Piece of cake, right?! Yeah right…

Four things are definitely doable. After all, even I can count that high… on ONE hand! It’s the amount of stuff involved in getting each one done that makes it a bit more daunting than just “I’ve got 4 things on my to do list.”

The Dilemma

I’ve got years of my own photo albums (high school, my son’s life, my travels, etc), plus I have all my mom’s photo albums (my childhood, my family, and our family trips).

I have a 10×10 storage unit that things got thrown into so we could get moved in a timely matter.

I’ve got an apartment with boxes that have a mish mash of things thrown together during the 3 times we moved in a 2 year period. Hell, I’ve been at my current residence for 3 years now and I STILL haven’t unpacked the boxes here!!

As for the electronic stuff… I’ve changed computers several times since I began my electronic “map” for my son years ago, so there are things I no longer use, accounts I no longer have, and passwords that have changed.

Needless to say, I’ve got NO clue as to how long it’s gonna take to get it all done, but I can definitely tell you it’s not going to happen overnight… or even this month (which also means not this year)! I know this because when I went out to my storage unit, I figured out that I’m gonna have to go through every single box before it ever comes into my house.

The dust storms have left a ton of dust on everything. The humidity during monsoon seasons have weakened many of the boxes. And there are remnants of 6-legged creatures that decided to make my unit their home during the summers… They’ve died off with the cold which is a big reason I’m doing it now! I am NOT a spider person in any way, shape or form!

Because of all these things, everything is gonna have to be cleaned, wiped down or discarded.

Prep Work

Once I got an idea of what I had in storage (meaning I stood inside my storage unit for an hour looking around until I could no longer handle the overwhelm), I came home and started looking around to figure out where I was going to put the things I keep. That just brought me to a new level of overwhelm. This is all gonna be SO much fun! Ugh!

1. My second bedroom needs to be more organized so I can bring things in and still know what I have and, more importantly, where to find it.

2. My living room has boxes that need to be sorted through, and organized as well, because I’m gonna have to shift some of it to the bedroom.

3. I got the prep work for scanning done already. Honestly, I was a bit worried that the scanner I had wouldn’t work with my laptop. It’s an Epson Perfection V300 Photo scanner that I bought over four years ago. I was pleasantly surprised (ok, I was SHOCKED), that it worked on both my laptops beautifully. Admittedly, I’m still running WinXP on one and Win7 on the other. I’m not sure whether it would run on Win8 or Win10, but I hated Win8 and I’ve not been ready to brave the world of Win10 because of that! If you use Win8 or Win10 and don’t have a scanner yet, I’m sure that there are newer Epson Photo Scanners that would be more version friendly.

I’m not sure exactly how to organize all of this yet or, more importantly, prioritize getting it all done, but I will definitely do it in time blocks.

I could just empty storage, bring it all home and then let the process begin. But if I do it that way, it leaves me with too much stuff to work around during the whole clean, sort and discard process.

Tonight was a good example of that. I spent about an hour in the bedroom moving stuff out of the way in order to make space for the things that I’ll be keeping. I brought in and wiped down most of the stuff that I brought home from the storage unit yesterday. And then I spent two hours scanning photos.

So I may not be getting one thing completely done right away, but I am getting everything that I want done, accomplished a little bit at a time.

Do you have any “undone” things in your life that you keep putting off and saying “I need to get this done.”, but then aren’t sure how to fit it into your day-to-day have tos? Or are you one of those super-efficient people who has everything caught up, and keeping up is just a daily part of your routine? I am SO open to any ideas and suggestions that you guys have, so feel free to let me know in the comments!

Take care,
Debi aka @GenXBrat

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