{"id":462,"date":"2020-05-05T20:52:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T20:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/?p=462"},"modified":"2020-05-05T20:52:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T20:52:04","slug":"secrets-of-a-professional-downsizer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/secrets-of-a-professional-downsizer\/","title":{"rendered":"Secrets of a Professional Downsizer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Everyone expects that, as a professional Downsizer, my home must look like something out of a magazine shoot<\/strong>.<br \/>\nAnd the truth is \u2013 it\u2019s OK. It is reasonably well organized. I can find things when I\u2019m looking for them.<\/p>\n<p>But while helping others downsize and organize is something I very much enjoy, I rarely have the time or energy to work on my own things. The truth is, I have more than my share of papers, files, books, pictures and electronics. And, I have avoided going through them for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>With the Covid-19 lockdown, I had plenty of time &#8212; and no excuse &#8212; not to go through the stuff in my office.\u00a0Here are the steps I took that you can take, too &#8212; even without a professional\u2019s help!<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll let you know how I did on my project at the end.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Before starting<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have a clear, compelling reason for why you\u2019re taking this on. Remembering <em>why<\/em> you\u2019re doing what you\u2019re doing will help you stick with it.<\/li>\n<li>Designate staging areas for stuff you\u2019re getting rid of. Charities and places to donate are closed now. Find a place you can store things so they don\u2019t get in your way.<\/li>\n<li>Print out the <a href=\"https:\/\/demos.sourcecodesolutions.net\/onthemove\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Organizing-Cards.pdf\">Organizing Cards<\/a>.<u><\/u><\/li>\n<li>Work on one area at a time to prevent overwhelm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>While sorting<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use the <a href=\"https:\/\/demos.sourcecodesolutions.net\/onthemove\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Organizing-Cards.pdf\">Organizing Cards<\/a><strong><u>\u00a0<\/u><\/strong>to help remember what goes\u00a0 where.<\/li>\n<li>Post a copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/demos.sourcecodesolutions.net\/onthemove\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Questions-to-ask-yourself-when-sorting.pdf\">Questions to ask yourself when sorting<\/a>\u00a0where you can see it to keep yourself on track.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t keep it if you don\u2019t need it. Be honest with yourself.<\/li>\n<li>Handle everything\u00a0only once. Decide what to do with something while you\u2019re holding it.<\/li>\n<li>Remember why you started this project, and how good you\u2019ll feel when you\u2019ve made progress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>After you\u2019re done<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Put KEEP items away, neatly where they belong, boxed and labeled, if appropriate.<\/li>\n<li>Put GIVE TO SOMEONE ELSE items out where you\u2019ll remember to give them to someone else.<\/li>\n<li>Put RECYCLE and TOSS items aside for pickup with your weekly trash.<\/li>\n<li>Put DONATE, SHRED,\u00a0 HAZ-MAT and E-WASTE items out of the way, for pickup or drop-off when it\u2019s safe to do.<\/li>\n<li>Decide on a time you\u2019re going to continue working on your project.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How did I do? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Quite well! I let go of many old magazines, and tossed binders full of school projects I\u2019d been holding on to for years. I cleared out files I never referenced and gave away books that someone else would enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>While I was on a roll, I cleaned up the email and documents I didn\u2019t need in my computer and on my phone, too. Now, I have the things I need, both physically and electronically, within reach. It\u2019s much better this way!<\/p>\n<p>I also achieved one of my significant goals: Gathering all important family documents (insurance, passports, birth certificates, etc.) in a single well-marked box \u2013 in case we have to evacuate for any reason.<\/p>\n<p>My biggest challenge, which I have yet to tackle, are all the shoeboxes filled with years of family photos. My thought is that I\u2019ll scan the ones I want to keep, and throw out the print versions. Or, maybe I\u2019ll just keep the best of the best in one shoebox. I\u2019m still trying to work it out.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s the biggest secret every downsizer knows: Downsizing is a process. And it never ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone expects that, as a professional Downsizer, my home must look like something out of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-declutter","tag-doitnow-corona-downsizing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}