Decluttering Happens When You're Ready

Self Storage Units, Danbury, CT. by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube. Found on Flickr; licensed under Creative Commons. Not the storage unit referred to in the following story.

Have you struggled to deal with a deceased parent’s possessions? Have you ever kept things in storage for far longer than originally planned? Then you might resonate with the following story I read on a mailing list a few days ago (and which was later expanded upon in a private email); I’m sharing it here with the author’s permission. 

I've had numerous clients who went through similar experiences, and I thought it might help others dealing with these challenges to know they are not alone.

After my mother died seven years ago, I put a bunch of furniture into storage with the intention of getting it reupholstered or otherwise using it “within two years.” Two years passed quickly, followed by some other events that delayed action — a move, multiple renovations, surgeries, etc. — and for the next five years, I “visited” the storage once or twice a year to check on things, but immediately got overwhelmed at the thought of dealing with it all and walked away without doing anything.

Then, in November, I got a notice that the monthly storage fee would be jumping from $110/month to $250/month, so I knew I had to act. I put “figure out storage” on my action list and, since that is a terrible, unfocused, non-action Next Action, I did nothing for two months.

So I changed my next action to “Visit storage to make an inventory,” the first step toward making a plan of action. I wasn’t busy yesterday, so I drove out to the storage place with the intention of just inventorying — I told myself I didn’t have to “do” anything beyond that.

Visiting storage with that small goal in mind took so much pressure off that I was able to view the situation much more clearly. I was soon sorting out things I decided to donate, and within a couple of hours, I’d loaded up the car twice and made two runs to Salvation Army. Then I went back and got a load to bring home with me.

Now, I have a plan. It will take a few more visits — and a session with a rental van to move the big stuff — but I have some clarity on what I’m doing. Weather permitting, I should have it all done by the end of the month.

I realize now that I’m in a different place emotionally than I was seven years ago — or even one year ago. When I rolled open the storage door yesterday, I didn’t have the emotionally charged or sentimental reaction I’ve had before. Where I once saw my mother’s things that I felt responsible to maintain, now, I just see “stuff” that I want to get squared away.

Seven years is a long time to pay for storage, but before I kick myself too hard for wasting money, I’m trying to keep in mind that I was going through something, not just being lazy. Expediting that process would have been helpful (and saved a lot), but that’s not how it went. Time to move on.

The funny thing is now that I’ve made some progress, I want to get it all done as fast as possible. I can’t tell you how frustrated I am that a snowstorm predicted for this weekend is going to slow my roll for a few days. I don’t want to lose my momentum on this!

Cool Clothes Hangers: The Practical and the Fanciful

Do you struggle with using hangers? Organizers often recommend using hooks, since they are easier to use than hangers. But here are two types of hangers that might appeal even to the hanger-averse —and everyone else, as well.

The Jean Hanger makes it super-simple to hang up a pair of jeans. There are no clamps or clips; you just take the belt loops and hook them over the hanger. You can look at the video from the Kickstarter campaign of a few years ago to get more of a feel as to how these hangers work.




Holding Hangers, designed for skirts and slacks, are another way to make hanging your clothes extremely easy.  (They also work for strapless dresses and off-the-shoulder blouses.) Again, there are no clamps or clips — the hangers go inside the waistband. The company founder, C. Lee Crawley, says these hangers are widely used in boutiques in Europe, and she’s now made them available to those of us in the U.S.




OK, let’s move on to the fanciful. The hangers from Stupell Industries feature mostly dogs and cats, but there are other animals, too. Stupell promotes them as gift items, which sounds good to me — I think they’re a gift that would be likely to get used rather than one that becomes someone else’s clutter. They might also encourage some reluctant hanger-users to be more diligent, just because the hangers are so darn cute. (I don’t see using them for all of someone’s clothes, but rather for a few select items such as a jacket or two.)

For many more interesting hanger possibilities, you can look at the posts I wrote for Core77:
Hanger Design, Beyond the Basics
Not Your Ordinary Clothes Hangers

And if you just want recommendations for good basic hangers, given the huge number of options, this prior post points you to recommendations from The Container Store, Wirecutter, and others.