Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Today I had a clutter clearing volunteer, Lauren, come to my house. This was Lauren’s second, and last, trip to my house to help me unless I still need help at this time next year. Lauren’s business is naturally slower in the winter and very busy in the spring, summer, and fall, so her free time has just dried up. Honestly, I may still need help clutter clearing a year from now and Lauren will likely be back.
Most of my friends have been a disappointment on the clutter clearing front. I had several people sign up for a shift when I posted dates in January, and half of them cancelled for legitimate reasons, but did not sign up for a replacement day. The two times I posted in February, with February and March dates, I did not get a single reply. (I email Lauren separately because she is not in any of my Facebook groups.)
Some of my friends have told me they are not available during weekdays and I get it. I do not expect, or want, anyone to take a day off work to help me at this point (other than my family). Most of my networking friends have flexible schedules and could work in a couple of hours one day in two months. My friends are killing it volunteering to record videos for me, and I want those numbers for clearing clutter too.
The clutter clearing volunteers who have come to my house have been amazing. Every time a volunteer comes, they work hard, and we set aside plenty of unused items for donating. I thought I had sorted all my seven-year-old’s, Mika, toys already, but Lauren and I discovered a large box full of toys hiding from us today. We did a quick sort of pieces of toys, which we set aside for my helper to put with the other toy pieces tomorrow, toys to keep or donate, and trash.
Mika was home from school sick again today, so I had her come out of my room for a few minutes to decide which of the keep or donate toys should be kept or donated. Mika took way too long to decide which toys went in which pile. I told Lauren this was a good reason to not have children, it takes Mika so long to do tasks because she wants to play with each toy as she sorts.
Lauren and I sorted through a bucket of photos. We split the photos into a Marcus pile, a Donald pile, a Megan pile, and a scan pile. Mika does not have a pile; she has digital albums on my computer and very few printed pictures (unless you count the several hundred promotional post cards we printed to promote her YouTube channel). When I get more clutter clearing volunteers, scanning will be a very large project that may need 20 days or more on its own. Now you know why I may need Lauren’s help again next year.
I have made a lot of progress on my clutter clearing project. Yes, I am still rolling around too many storage buckets in my lower level great room, but there are far fewer buckets I am rolling around. There will be clutter in this area until I finish my project because this is my preferred work area. Ninety-five percent of the items we cleared out of the shed in January were brought into my lower level great room to be checked before going into the donation bags. When I clear my items out of our unfinished storage room, they will come into this room to be sorted.
My lower level great room looks neater with the help from my volunteers. When my sister comes to visit (and clear clutter) in a month, my plan is to finish moving the rest of Mika’s belongings into her bedroom. We will probably immediately fill the emptied space with the stuff in the storage room, but then I will know there is one room in the house free of my clutter (three if I count Mika's and my significant other’s bedrooms).
My piece of advice to you is to be thankful even when you want more. If I was given news my life expectancy was much shorter and I told my friends I need help right now, I am sure they would come.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
Today I had a clutter clearing volunteer, Lauren, come to my house. This was Lauren’s second, and last, trip to my house to help me unless I still need help at this time next year. Lauren’s business is naturally slower in the winter and very busy in the spring, summer, and fall, so her free time has just dried up. Honestly, I may still need help clutter clearing a year from now and Lauren will likely be back.
Most of my friends have been a disappointment on the clutter clearing front. I had several people sign up for a shift when I posted dates in January, and half of them cancelled for legitimate reasons, but did not sign up for a replacement day. The two times I posted in February, with February and March dates, I did not get a single reply. (I email Lauren separately because she is not in any of my Facebook groups.)
Some of my friends have told me they are not available during weekdays and I get it. I do not expect, or want, anyone to take a day off work to help me at this point (other than my family). Most of my networking friends have flexible schedules and could work in a couple of hours one day in two months. My friends are killing it volunteering to record videos for me, and I want those numbers for clearing clutter too.
The clutter clearing volunteers who have come to my house have been amazing. Every time a volunteer comes, they work hard, and we set aside plenty of unused items for donating. I thought I had sorted all my seven-year-old’s, Mika, toys already, but Lauren and I discovered a large box full of toys hiding from us today. We did a quick sort of pieces of toys, which we set aside for my helper to put with the other toy pieces tomorrow, toys to keep or donate, and trash.
Mika was home from school sick again today, so I had her come out of my room for a few minutes to decide which of the keep or donate toys should be kept or donated. Mika took way too long to decide which toys went in which pile. I told Lauren this was a good reason to not have children, it takes Mika so long to do tasks because she wants to play with each toy as she sorts.
Lauren and I sorted through a bucket of photos. We split the photos into a Marcus pile, a Donald pile, a Megan pile, and a scan pile. Mika does not have a pile; she has digital albums on my computer and very few printed pictures (unless you count the several hundred promotional post cards we printed to promote her YouTube channel). When I get more clutter clearing volunteers, scanning will be a very large project that may need 20 days or more on its own. Now you know why I may need Lauren’s help again next year.
I have made a lot of progress on my clutter clearing project. Yes, I am still rolling around too many storage buckets in my lower level great room, but there are far fewer buckets I am rolling around. There will be clutter in this area until I finish my project because this is my preferred work area. Ninety-five percent of the items we cleared out of the shed in January were brought into my lower level great room to be checked before going into the donation bags. When I clear my items out of our unfinished storage room, they will come into this room to be sorted.
My lower level great room looks neater with the help from my volunteers. When my sister comes to visit (and clear clutter) in a month, my plan is to finish moving the rest of Mika’s belongings into her bedroom. We will probably immediately fill the emptied space with the stuff in the storage room, but then I will know there is one room in the house free of my clutter (three if I count Mika's and my significant other’s bedrooms).
My piece of advice to you is to be thankful even when you want more. If I was given news my life expectancy was much shorter and I told my friends I need help right now, I am sure they would come.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.