Today’s episode on living with less was inspired because I was asked this question when doing a free Facebook Live coaching session this year. 2020 has made many people re-evaluate their lives. Some have been forced to live with less due to financial constraints while others have used this time to rethink if they need all of their stuff. How about you? Has this year made you rethink all of your possessions?
This episode also focuses on other aspects of your life that might need downsizing. As I take a very holistic attitude on decluttering your life and organizing your life, I thought it was really important to examine other areas in your life that might benefit from downsizing. For example, downsizing and living with less can bring up a lot of emotions, some expected and maybe some not so expected. Learn to honor the process of everything you’re going through.
Take Actions from today’s podcast on living with less:
- Examine where you can live with less
- Be very aware of garage sales and what’s worth your time
- Consider if you can plan for the year and buy used
- Honor all the emotions that you’re feeling
- Prepare if you’re downsizing a home and know your new space
- Take a moment to reminisce when letting certain pieces go and let others do so
- Have gratitude for your space your leaving and possessions you’re letting go
- Notice where you can have an experience instead of buying something
- Begin to remove items you no longer need or love
- Be gentle with yourself through the process
DIY Options to Clear Clutter
Purchase Julie’s books on how to clear clutter from your life: https://www.amazon.com/Julie-Coraccio/e/B07JGGL7ZL/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
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Check out more of my decluttering tips and how to get organized on my YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/SeibertRadio?feature=watch
Transcript Living with Less
Julie Coraccio 0:01
Today on clear your clutter inside now, we’re talking about living with less. Has this past year made you rethink all of your possessions? Did you discover that maybe you don’t need so much after all? Would you like to learn some tips when working with seniors and memories when letting go? Learn tips for living with less as we continue our month focused on wrapping up 2020? Do you control your clutter? Or does your clutter control you? unclear your clutter inside now. We’ll teach you awareness as well as action steps to create change in your life. Come on. Let’s get started. This was from a live presentation I did. And I was taking questions. What topics Do you want to see? And it’s going to be a twofer. And so the first half today’s podcast will mainly focus on what I prepared and then questions and then the second half a lot more questions and my answers to that I always tend to find that valuable, someone might ask a question that you’ve been wanting to ask. Because everything that’s happened this year, it’s been my observation that it’s causing people to evaluate, you know, we downsized last year in 2019. We did another round in 2020. And it’s interesting, as we’ve been looking at houses, we don’t have a house in West Virginia, yet, that’ll happen in the spring. But it’s a hot market and wheeling West Virginia, in the sense that what we’re looking for because it’s smaller one floor houses are what are hot right now, if they have a bigger house that’s sitting on the market longer, I noticed laughter when we moved, I would see in some groups, hey, if you have a one floor, we’re a flipper and looking for one. And so there has been what I have seen. And I’m sure that it’s not just in this area where I am, it’s because it’s in Wheeling in West Virginia, it’s in the Raleigh area to move towards living with less, and you can have a smaller space, if you don’t have a ton of stuff, right. And I know a lot of people probably found in the year they’ve tighten their belts. I read a really interesting article on super wealthy people. And they were reevaluating how they were spending their money. So I think that a good thing that’s come out of this year is really what’s important. Do I need all this stuff? As we wind down the year, I think now’s a great time to think about living with less, as we say by 2020. And you’re deciding what am I going to focus on in 2021. I just want to add a note on Facebook was a little jacked up when I recorded this. And I give up trying to understand social media and Facebook. And so when I went to record I couldn’t record from my desktop, which is how I normally do things. And so little bit of the parts. Okay, I did the best I can to clear that out. Because I couldn’t use a pro mic. I was doing the non mic. It was kind of funny for my little iPad trying to do this. So I apologize for that. And I thought the information is really good. It’s not throughout the entire episode, just a few moments. So I hope that you find this beneficial and take time to think about how can I live with less? What am I ready to let go of.
So today I’m gonna talk about downsizing. And I’m just going to share a little bit about what we ended up doing last year. So we made the decision. We had been thinking about it for a while, and I had anyone knows 2018 was a really challenging year for me. And so I just couldn’t get my act together. But once 2019 hit, we’re like, we’re going to downsize. We’re going to do that. So we downsize roughly 45 minutes. We live in North Raleigh and now we’re in Angier, which is literally 45 minutes door to door. But it’s been a big change in a lot of ways. So one of the ways that we wanted to downsize, there were several things. First of all, when you downsize you have less stuff. And if you have stuff, there’s the upkeep, you know, you always have to declare you always have to organize, and there were costs. We also saved a lot of money we saved I would guesstimate 1400 dollars a year in taxes. And so that was a huge savings. The only thing that we didn’t end up saving money on which Duke charges higher rates here for Johnson County. You know, I don’t understand that why that is if there are less people, but because we are very have a lot of energy savings. We had a house audit and he and I set our bills higher and we went from two stories to one and he said it’s the rate he was a contractor and couldn’t say it was rate but basically that’s what Was and so downsizing has saved us time it saved us money. And it has been wonderful. We have an elderly cat Joey just turned 16. And that’s the equivalent of 80. And so having him not have to do stairs every day has made a huge difference. And so there are lots of good things about downsizing. And so I wanted to talk about a little bit about the process. Because when people talk about downsizing, they always think of the physical stuff, which of course, we’ll talk about the physical stuff. But downsizing is so much more than physical, you have the emotional, mental, and what I believe are the spiritual aspects of downsizing. So those are some things that you’re going to want to think about.
So with downsizing,
I think if you’re really clear on why you were downsizing, it’s going to make it easier for us, we had numerous reasons we want to retire. And one story, we think about aging, you know, Tony and I are both 50 or older, I’m heading towards 51 next week, but it was part of the Let’s save money. Let’s think about as we age, we just want less stuff to deal with. And so some people might want to go into a teeny house, right, you’ve seen those really cool things that they make. And so I’m encouraged to be really clear of why you’re downsizing. Now, for some people, you might have a senior who isn’t I just saw this really amazing post this woman’s like 100 and lives in Maine, and there’s a really great website or group on Facebook view from my home. And I’d encourage you if you’re going to get onto a Facebook group view from my home is awesome. You see people all over the world, and they’re sharing the view from their home from their backyard from their front door. And I’m amazed I see all these brilliant and amazing places and reminds me that we’re all connected. And I think I felt personally very disconnected. There’s such strife in our country right now that this reminds me, you know what we the people are what’s awesome, our government might stink, but we are all connected. And to remember that we have a lot more in common than not. And so anyway, this woman posted this morning about her 100 year old mother in law who still mowed the lawn. And my first thought was, she’s in a huge house, I can’t imagine being hundred and taking care of that house. So maybe you have a senior that you were helping downsize. And so that’s something because you’re going to ask yourself a little bit of different questions or be very clear, why am I downsizing, maybe you have to downsize to a condo, or maybe a living care facility. And so if you’re really clear, that’s going to help you make more decisions easily on your physical stuff. And so an example of that would be when we downsize, I go, if you have listened to me or listen to the podcast, clear clutter inside now, I go through everything we own every year, I make my husband do it to just keep on letting go. If I downsize last year, like I kept a lot of my clothes. But if you were downsizing with the senior, and going from say, a house to a condo or condo to living care facility, they’re not going to need as many clothes. So you might think we can have three dresses, one for social one for church, maybe, and one for everyday wear. And so you would ask seniors a little bit of different questions. So again, if I’m really clear, why am I downsizing, then that’s going to help you eliminate physical stuff. plan as much as you can when downsizing. So for instance, when we downsized, we had time. So we did a 60 day clothes, because we hadn’t sold our house yet, quite frankly. And we were able my mother had come down to help. Hey, Lauren, Michelle, and Tess and my mother had come down to help. So we knew the plan of the new house. And so that helped us eliminate furniture, we got rid of empty, don’t even try to sell it the brown stuff doesn’t sell better, we’ll get a couple hundred bucks, we had someone else sell it. And that’s another thing you’re going to want to think about. What can you delegate, I’ll get there in a second. But let’s get back to planning I’m sorry, with live Facebook, I do more off the cuff than I do on the podcast a little more plan. So plan as much as you can, because we knew the space we could plan our furniture. And that’s the same thing if you are downsizing from a four bedroom house to two bedroom condo, if you know the space ahead, then you can say Okay, you know what, I know that I can eliminate this entire room of furniture because remember, the more you can clear out the more that you can release before you downsize because imagine you have a four bedroom, you’re not going to be able to take all of your furniture and if you do, that’s kind of not fun because you have a smaller space and if you’re like I’ll just take everything, you’re going to have to go through it so and remember when you move it cost you money, the less stuff you have, the less you have to do so let go of as much stuff as possible. But if you were to plan and know where the furniture placement is, that’s going to save you a lot of time and effort. And also,
here is a good rule of thumb, I wrote this down. So if you are reducing your size by a third, then you’re going to want to let go roughly half your stuff, if you are downsizing from what you were. So if you’re going from four fourths to one fourth, and you’re going to need to eliminate three quarters of your stuff. And that’s easier said than done. But you know, the average person has something like 300,000 things in their home 300,000. So think about that, if even you’re eliminating half, and that’s 150,000 items that you’d have to eliminate in the average home. So again, with planning, thinking about what you want, the more clear you are, the more you know what’s important. And, you know, I used the example of houses a moment ago, or I’m sorry, dresses a moment ago for someone who’s a senior maybe going to living care facility that needs less clothes. So if you know that as you’re retiring, that you want a garden, then you are going to want to keep all your garden tools, but maybe you’ve decided you know what, I’m going to read less, or I’m switching to a Kindle. So then you can release a lot of your books, to again, when you understand your priorities, and can plan and that just helps you even if you’re not downsizing with any decluttering or organizing. The other thing to think about is what do you want to take on for yourself. Now because this is what I do for a living, I was really clear, I can do a lot of decluttering. But we have, as I mentioned a moment ago, antique furniture, which no one not, I was about a decade behind, I could have made probably 10,000. He said, I made with my took 50%. But I made $250. But be very clear on what you can do and what you need to hire someone to do. I have no idea how to tell do the antique furniture, we had a couple garage sales, which I was really comfortable running, we got a neighbor to join us and I knew where to advertise online. So I was like, Okay, I can do this antique furniture in and you know what, I don’t want to deal with that. So I hired a pro. So understand what you can do and understand what you need to hire professional to do. Or if you have a family or friend that is really great at organizing or sell stuff online. But downsize and we’ll talk in a moment. Most people talk about the physical aspects of downsizing, but there’s so much more, there’s the emotional aspect, and you’re probably going to have a gamut of emotions no matter what’s going on. So you need to be really clear, what do what’s costing me my peace of mind? What can I give to someone else to do because if you have a lot, if you’re in a situation, when you’re say with an elderly parent, that can be very emotional. It’s very different than the downsizing that we did. But you can say, Okay, this is what if you are really clear on what you can delegate to someone else, because if you have to, if for instance, you’re moving or seniors or parent, there’s a lot of emotional stuff, moving your parent out of a house, they’ve been in 40 years and any of the physical aspect, but I want to focus more on the emotional aspect. That’s a big different project, then a husband and wife in their 50s downsizing. So what you can delegate, and have that in mind, and that all goes back to planning, I know the space, I know what I can do, then I need to figure out who are the pros that I need to handle and hire. So for instance, there are some places that will come in, they’ll remove what you no longer want, and usually pay for it. So again, you have to figure out like we are, we will be moving next year back to West Virginia. But right now we are an HOA and we are not allowed to have a garage sale. So if you’re really great at garage sales, and no that’s an option. That’s something that you’re going to want to go and plan about. So one of the things also that we’re fortunate and that I’m starting to do there things I want to give to my nieces, for example I’m like I really don’t need as much and one thing my grandmother did before she died she started probably a couple years and started to give us stuff and I remember at the time being like oh, I you know I don’t lose your grandmother, I want you forever and it was really emotional but having some distance from the situation. It was really beneficial to us because she wanted each of us to have something special. It was less stuff to take care of in the end so I’d encourage you you know where can you downsize? Yes, I will be moving home in a year hopefully in a year. I’m very excited I miss I miss tremendously the seasons and I miss West Virginia with all my heart. So let’s talk a little bit of we’ve talked a little bit about physical but look let’s look at the mental part of downsizing. You know I mentioned my grandmother like passing along what’s happening According to you, what is it that you want to do? Not only the physical stuff,
what do you want? What’s your legacy? What do you want to be remembered? What do you want your family to know, for instance, you might want to pass on values, I would say, a Seibert value, which I was raised as hard work, and giving back to others. That’s something that instilled was instilled in me by my parents. So maybe there are things that you want to share. And so if you’re always thinking about these things, remembers mental clutter. So get that down on paper, as you as you downsize, that’s really important. Be aware of the charities that you’d like to donate to remember, this is going back to planning if you have a really a charity that’s dear to your heart, that not just in downsizing helps you release clutter more, it helps you release clutter, because you know what, this is something I’m passionate about, I know this is going to help children. I know this is going to help women who are victims of domestic violence and that you know that it’s going to someone that’s going to take care of it. That’s going to honor it, it’s easier for you to let things go.
So emotionally.
Ah, I love this. This is for my friend Meredith. I’ve known Meredith since we were in grade school. It’s just a couple years ago, Steven and I are downsizing at the house to remodel. I take forever to get rid of things emotional. I’m so glad. Let’s talk about this. Great question, Meredith. And everyone post a question. I already have one that from MJ about garage sales that I will get back to but you’re gonna have a lot if you started this. Meredith, you’ve probably experienced this. I found in the downsizing process, I had a lot of unexpected emotions come up. You know, I was thinking Think of your podcast, when I clean out it does help mentally good. Listen to those because they’re either a couple things and a couple stories on downsizing. And for anyone who’s not familiar, my podcast is clear clutter inside now it’s free, you can find it anywhere, also on YouTube. And I’ve also transcribed so if you’re visually impaired, or have hearing challenges, oh my i all 2020s done all through 2017. I’m starting on 2016. That’s what I’ve been doing during the the code COVID prices. So when you’re downsizing, there’s a good chance you’re going to have a lot of unexpected emotions again, I had been when we left our home and it was the first home ever brought. I know I was in Los Angeles for 10 years no way in Heck, I’d ever be able to afford a condo out there. And I was excited. I’m moving to Raleigh, I can purchase a home, how great is this, I’m gonna have grass, I’m gonna have trees. And it was emotional. My husband ended up saying I didn’t like this house. God love him. He’s wonderful. And we lived there for six years. But for me, it was like I’m leaving this house. This is where I fell in love. This is where Joey our cat came there a lot of unexpected emotions for me. So during the downsizing process, I’m going to encourage you take time for yourself Take time to process your emotions. If you burst into tears, suddenly, that’s okay. Maybe you’re decluttering and going through things. Allow yourself that time to go through memories. And if you have a senior that you’re downsizing, this is super important. When I work with elderly people, there are a couple things. One is when I normally work with I work with people in decluttering and organizing, I do four hour blocks. And I just tell you that because if you haven’t decluttered or organized, it takes a really long time. And for seniors, I like to do two hours because it can be just as age it can be draining and pending if there’s some dementia going on. But especially with seniors allow them to share that memory. And a lot of times when they share that memory, it’s easier for them to let that go and you might find with you you know you just need to take a moment like I kept talking to the house. Thank you for being so great to me. Thank you for showing me that I could do it because I bought a house on my own. So just be prepared for unexpected emotions and allow your time to memories reminisce, and that’s okay. That’s part of the process. I think that a lot of times we don’t process our emotions and we don’t do that they’re still everything’s energy. So the emotions are still there and they can get stuck so they will come out at some point they might come out as getting frustrated at your spouse or partner because you didn’t process that you were sad that you were downsizing. So honor your emotions as much as possible. What’s your holiday clutter kryptonite? Are you aware of your holiday triggers? Where are you doing something just because you overindulge overspend and over commit Ready to enjoy the season and focus on what matters most. get control of your clutter, your clutter doesn’t control you. reclaim time, money, sanity and resources. Holiday got clutter 365 journal prompts, support you and clearing your holiday clutter, free gift with purchase to support you even more in your journey to declutter your life. Spiritually, here are some things to help with downsizing. And again, going back to planning as much time as you can allow to downsize we had five months. And I think mentally and emotionally and spiritually I was in good shape and checked out, we used the entire five months for to let the physical stuff go, because that involved a couple garage sales that involve promoting the garage sales. And I still have my work to do my husband’s still working. So it’s not like we were sitting around and had all this free time. So just take into account, it’s probably going to take much longer than you think.
So visualize each day. So I encourage you to visualize each day going. Well, I mean, not just with downside, Okay, I’m gonna visualize being able to clear the living room today, it’s gonna be easy, breezy, I’m gonna allow myself to feel things. And visualize that every day, I’ve encouraged you to connect with your higher power, whether that source is source, God, the universe, whatever you say, I’m continuing to be spiritually connected supports you in so many ways, it allows you to remember what’s important, why this is challenging, I have support, I’ve got back up, it’s all good. So when you maintain that connection, I think that that’s really important. And, you know, if you need help, and you say, Hey, I’m struggling right now, or I’m thinking of my mother’s. And one of the things if you can downsize yourself if you can downsize parents as much as possible, because you want to be able to grieve when people have moved on to the next adventure. And I’ve worked with people where it’s they’ve had so much to do, one of the reasons I got into end of life organizing, is because I want people to be able to celebrate and grieve for their loved ones. And when you haven’t done this, and it takes away from your grieving process, it doesn’t allow you because you’ve had all this other stuff to do. And I’ve seen people overwhelmed with so much to do, and that they’ve almost collapsed afterwards, because it’s been so challenging.
So
I just encourage you also, it’s a really great time spiritually as you’re downsizing. And moving on to the next adventure. Where do you need to forgive? You know, I had lots of great things happen in my old house falling in love coming to cat mom, but they’re also in 2018 was challenging. I also lost a lot of hope that year. That was really so I worked on who do I need to forgive? When I go on to the next adventure, I can leave that pain in the old house, and not bring it with me. And as always expressing gratitude, I think is very important. So as you’re downsizing, I think that those are some things that you want to remember. So plan as much as you can look at the cost benefits. I think that that’s really important that if you know if you’re thinking has downsizing for me, then you’ll have a good idea of whether or not that you want to do that. And so those are just kind of some suggestions for downsizing. Let me know if you have any questions. I can see the chat much better here. I’m going we had one question on Facebook. And so just as kind of a summary. When you’re downsizing and plan as much as you can, if you know your layout that’s really going to help you I think that that’s will help you declutter as much as you can. Again, if you’re working with seniors, and you’re saying moving from my home to a condo, you have to think about if you got to get rid of half your stuff. So be really aware of and what you want to new do in the new place, are you going to garden and you didn’t do that before and then you want to bring anything that can help with the garden if you’re going to read less books and release lesser books, just as much as planning and preparation as you can allow you to do something like a mindfulness practice every day because downsizing is physical, but it also can take a mental toll on you it is as organized and the cluttered as I am it was mental because there was also emotions attached to everything. I had to release all of that. So if you have a mindfulness practice, be aware of your motion honor all your emotions, there are no wrong emotions are no good or bad emotions. Anger can be great. catalysts for change. So Meredith says, Wow, so true. Forgiveness is important. Why take bad feelings the next part of life, that’s huge. It absolutely is more you can forgive, the easier life becomes and be gentle with yourself when you’re forgiving, because forgiving can be a process. There are some people I’m working on, I’m down about two or three.
That and I’m
at peace with that. I’m like, you know what, okay. I’ll continue to feel my emotions to release that, but it’s okay. And there’s some times or other people that are really challenged to live up to, you know, forgiving life. And that’s all right. So the more you can forgive, the more you can be in gratitude. The better that is. So we have a question from rose. And then I’ll get to em Jays question. Hi, pick up great one. pictures, pictures? What’s your advice for downsizing picture quantity? Not too big a fan of digital because of constant upgrading of digital platform? And what has been your experience of elderly parents downsizing? Great question. I’m so glad that you brought this up. So first of all, I’m going to encourage you said fine First of all, a lot of times you can then how many duplicates? do you have? And I share this because you might be thinking Hmm, but just trust me on this one. Many times there are duplicate pictures. So if there are duplicate pictures you can give to others. I would encourage that. If there are words, you know, pick the pictures that really mean something to you like on my wall I have. My parents were downsizings when my father retired, he has this picture and I’m in a little anchor dress and um, we used to go to the beach when I was little with our dear friends Carter’s and so they’re some pictures of me on the rocks. And he left his office space. So he wanted me to have that. But it was special enough that he kept that on his office wall. So really, what are the special picture? What really means the most to you? And with elderly parents? Great question, because it’s the same thing you’re going to know the space you have, what pictures are really important, what picture speak to them, like a lot of times I found with elderly people, like they always want pictures of their parents usually pictures from the younger years, they want pictures of the grandkids a family portrait. And if you haven’t gotten a family portrait, that’s something I’d consider get everyone as possible into the picture at something I am and my mom doesn’t watch these, one of the things I’m working on is a surprise anniversary party. And that’s what I want is like, okay, we have everyone’s old enough, and let’s get a family portrait. So that’s going to be one of the things that I coordinate. So it’s about what pictures are most special, what pictures speak your house, your heart. And then remember, if everything special than nothing is right, that kind of defeats the purpose a picture of me. Maybe lying on the beach that I go to every year isn’t a specialist, say my wedding pictures. And I have an album like one album, that we got a wedding picture. So that’s all something like an album. And you can create because you don’t like digital. But I would also encourage you when my aunt was elderly, we got her a digital frame. And she really liked it because we were able to upload a bunch of pictures. And that gave her great comfort now, I’m semi elderly and I have trouble with technology. I you know, today is a great example. And so, but a lot of times depending on they are there’s usually one smart person in the family, but I will let you know because for Valentine’s Day my husband got me a digital photograph and uploaded a picture. But we had to send the first one back that he got because they said it was easy. And that wasn’t the case. So I definitely get the technology but just something rose to consider for elderly parents or anyone else who’s watching but really go through what are the photos that mean the most you you know I recently I have all what I call my memories down to one box. I gave away my senior yearbook from high school, for example, because I was like and how often do I look at that and if I go to reunion someone Ras for you and I went to I don’t know, maybe 20 years ago or so. Someone had yearbooks from all our, our sophomore. I was only sophomore junior senior for high school. So I was like, Okay, I can reminisce a little bit and just isn’t something I looked at not interestingly, I still have because there were a lot thinner. My junior high yearbooks for whatever reason, and I don’t think Junior High was that great, but I’ve kept this but so I’ve released all my high school yearbooks. I think I’ve kept my senior college yearbook that I’m like, how often do I look at these they aren’t that important to me. So that’s about prioritizing what is important to me and I have a photo album. Which Meredith, if you’re still watching, I know you’re in that photo album, I have a photo album from grade school that I’ve kept. But it’s I’ve really narrowed it down because it’s like, it’s, I want to be present as much as possible. It’s not saying that I don’t want to reminisce, but I encourage you go through what are the photos that are most important? And you know, it is a, okay,
if you fill an entire wall with photos, you know, if you have an album, like I look at our wedding album every year, for sure. So it’s just again, what is important and what means the most. And you know, when you’re decluttering, not only duplicates for what pictures are fuzzy, you know what pictures do not look good. Hey, Meredith, you’re still here. So you’re in my, my grade school, and we took a trip on the Ohio River. And I know that you’re one of those pictures, and whatever is important to you, then you can that’s what it is. downsizing and decluttering is about so you can focus on what is most important, and I’m not saying get rid of all memories. That’s not how I roll if it’s special to you. I encourage you to keep it. But again, it goes back to everything special, but if everything special, then nothing is. So rose, let me know if that helped. And yes. Meredith has a photo of us in preschool advanced, it’s a keeper. I’d agree with that. It is definitely a keeper. So let me know if you guys have more questions. I’m gonna actually pop on to Facebook again. Can I just say for the record, I hate Facebook. And when they said Oh, do you need to help? I said, Facebook, you think? So here was m J’s questions. So from MJ, I’d love to know how you feel about garage sales. I did too. Last year. So I have a definite opinion on this. And garage sales, new selling apps and buy sell Facebook groups. Have you ever tried any of these what you recommend? Okay, so let’s break that down with the first one. So how I feel about garage sales, you need to be very clear and understand what you want out of a garage sale. I had a client I worked with, and it was a VA rose. It helped. Fantastic. And if you have any more questions, please let me know. So this has been so I had a client and we did a garage sale. And boy was she frustrated because she had a close with the tags still on and when people are coming to garage sales, they’re not going to pay top dollar. Okay, when we I met a woman last year, I have to admit I was pretty impressed by and she told me what she does. And what if you’re doing a garage sale for someone advertise it, advertise the heck out of it. There are lots of places online to advertising and not just saying, Hey, I’m having a garage sale on Facebook, there are sites like garage sale online, I’m pretty sure is one where you can say hey, this is the address and we’re having a garage sale because people this woman I met maps out everything she needs to buy for the entire year. She should be an organizer. And then she goes to the garage sales and to get them to pay pennies on the dollar for what you need. So comment from Eris, I’m glad you’re doing the podcast, Julia helped me realize my thoughts when clear and decluttering are normal. They are absolutely normal. Okay, and I want you to be kind to yourself, and I want you to tell you’re awesome, Steven, and I know he is kind to you. That’s I’m so glad you brought this up and you need to be gentle with yourself. You’re perfectly imperfect. It is a process you’re going through how would you say to your best friend, Meredith, I know you wouldn’t be amini mean to your best friend and be like, hey, I’ve got your back. Let’s It’s okay. To Be gentle with yourself. No thoughts are wrong, everything processing is wrong. Ah, john McNichol. Hey John’s another friend from junior high, got the wheeling crew on today. I just start everything away day to day. See downsizing, you’re already Yeah, you’ve gotten you’ve gotten the hardest part done because usually physical releasing physical clutter is hard for everyone. So a plus for john today. But getting back to garage sales. People are going to pay pennies on the dollars they are. So if you’re thinking I’m going to make a ton of money, it’s probably not going to happen. And you and I have to tell you, there are moments thank goodness my husband was with me because I’d be like what they want to and a couple times I just said no. Like they’re a teacher came like I your teacher. Yeah, I want you to have all this stuff. But the people just asked for just nickel and dime and me I thought now I will donate it before I’m very stubborn. Sometimes. I will donate it before I give it to someone who’s just being totally stinky. So what I say to you is are you having a garage sale to the clutter and ask yourself these questions? Are you having a garage sale to make money? And if you are you might want to rethink that and just prepare yourself that you’re not going to make as much money as you think now we had sold so much stuff. I think we ended up with maybe 500 bucks, but I was like we’re decluttering and as soon as we finished the garage sale, we loaded up the Subaru. There’s a great Charity near where we used to live that helps animals and it helps animals get spayed and neutered and just takes care of the homeless animals. And so that was something we were really excited to donate to. So we had to garage sales last year twice did that I
had zero expectations of making money. I really did. I was like, I just want this stuff to be gone. So just prepare, I would say if you’re gonna do garage sale, advertise it online, lots of places you can do that for free and do it with more than one neighbor if you can. Because if you can say, Hey, we’re having a neighborhood garage sale, but people are another we’re gonna couple areas and different homes I can browse. Next week. I believe it is there is the big first aid plus I ever got. Now, john, I don’t believe that I bet you have gotten eight more a pluses and you’re just being what’s the word not shy, you’re being you know what I’m saying? You’re being humble. I know that you’ve got more than one a plus, and I’m very proud of you. advertise online, there’s a thing called the 301. Where it’s a huge stretch, it comes all the way I don’t know if it ends in Denmark, Carolina, which is right around the corner, but it’s a, I think the 301 corridor, so they have a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and garage sale. So you can just drive all the way and check out tons of things. So if you can get your neighbors involved, do that. And most people want to do a garage sale again, give yourself a month or two. Like I always like to get it online. Okay, this is when we’re having the garage sale. humble. Thank you. Yes, Meredith. This is when we’re having the garage sale. So you can create excitement. And you know what I do on Facebook, like, hey, we’ve got this great table, and kind of give a preview of what items are going to have. So you plan you get people involved, and you get organized, make sure that you have cash, I’d get a roll of quarters, I wouldn’t get pennies, just don’t do that get a roll of quarters and get have a little change purse or something where you can keep the change, have everything organized, like put clothes in one area put household and the other, you can put price tags on stuff if you want, we actually didn’t do that. And like and I’m not bothered with that I have an idea in mind of what you want to charge for things and is organize it as much as possible. I say say no early birds, we are not morning people. So we didn’t want anyone an hour before the week just move the cars out and kept everything in the garage. Okay, nine to 12 on Saturday or whatever time you’re going to do that. And then closed out if you have to have a couple garage sales, go for it. But I also was mentally prepared for the most part, like I’m not going to get everything that I want. Then people were just going to want to nickel and dime me. And then what I would say to you is have the charity that you’re going to donate to and do what we did. We loaded up the Subaru and donated right away within South like I don’t want to carry this over to the next garage sale. It’s just it’s too much. Mentally I just need to clear it out. And remember I shared that statistic earlier that most households have 300,000 items. Think about that. That’s insane. And that’s the average. And I definitely when I lived in Los Angeles I did some babysitting in there. Some homes have way more than 300,000 items I once babysat for this child whose bedroom was bigger than my entire apartment. It’s a sometimes a different lifestyle out there. take actions from today’s podcast. Examine where you can live with less. Be very aware of garage sales and what’s worth your time and energy. Consider if you can plan for the year and buy used to honor all the emotions you’re feeling. Prepare if you’re downsizing and know your new space. Take a moment to reminisce when letting certain pieces go and allow others to do so. Have gratitude for your space you’re leaving and the possessions are letting go and notice when you can have an experience instead of buying something. Begin to remove items you no longer need or love. Be gentle with yourself through the process of living with less. On our next episode, we’re talking about part two of living with less. Go out and clear your clutter to create the life you choose deserve and desire. When you clear your clutter, you can share your gifts with the world. Sign up for our free newsletter at reawaken your brilliance calm. If you’ve enjoyed clear your clutter inside now, please rate review View and share us
Living with Less Transcribed by https://otter.ai