Making Space...

I'm on a roll this week, and with something of a plan (which I'll explain below), I decided to start my week purging picture frames that have been in storage.  Some had pictures in them, some didn't.  I've decided old frames are an inefficient (and ugly) way to store pictures we're not currently displaying (or may never display again).  So photos got pulled out, and these bad boys left the premises a few days ago:

Don't worry...  there are still more in storage - ones that I like enough that I think I might use them someday.  But honestly...  I think those need to be gone over with a more critical eye too.  Saving those for another day.

I'm not going to itemize things from here on out, but I thought I'd make mention of some ideas for rehoming stuff that some might not be aware of. While the organizations I donate to are local to me, it's possible you can find similar organizations near you.

The two overgrown-for-their-containers plants below were given to a friend who ended up passing them along to someone else when she realized they were larger than she wanted taking up space in her home.

I had taken to calling them my death plants. One was given to us when my MIL died last spring, and another when my brother died in December.  I (sort of) enjoyed tending them over the winter months, but they are big and I was finding them cumbersome.  Mementos of sympathy should never become something that is a burden.  With a tiny question of "will I miss these?" I sent them packing.

My personal feelings about plants and funerals I've developed over the last 3 years of losing loved ones and gaining plants are this...  I love when they are small.  While these large peace lilies were beautiful at first, they eventually became something of a burden - and then getting rid of them felt hard too.  If sending something like this to a funeral, my vote is to send flowers that have to be tossed at some point, or smaller plants.  I've really enjoyed transplanting and growing the smaller plants we've received - some three years ago when my father-in-law died.

Unused (or sometimes used, but still well-functioning) medical items are donated to a ministry in Indianapolis called FAME, an organization that sends medical equipment all over the world to help doctors and clinics serve people in sometimes very hard to reach areas.

Shoes are now donated to Changing Footprints.  

Sometimes we take books to Half Price Books to sell, or I'll swap them on Paperback Swap, but otherwise books and sometimes magazines are placed on the free shelves at our local library branch if they are in reasonably good condition.

Craft items find new homes in a variety of ways - friends, school teachers, nursing home, thrift shops...   

Now for an explanation of a plan I've come up with.  This Making Space project was originated with the idea that it would last for 52 weeks.  Well, regular readers of my blog know my little world flipped upside down when I lost my brother at the end of 2020 and I was thrust into the role of Personal Representative of his estate.  Not only was this a difficult time emotionally, but I was suddenly dealing with a whole 'nother (albeit small) house full of items.  Dealing with my own stuff became impossible for a while.  And as I've come out of the hardest part of the PR-ship,  a certain amount of inertia has been really difficult to overcome.  

But I think I'm finding my motivation again (will talk about that in future posts, perhaps), and I've come up with a plan for finishing out the last 15 weeks of my year-long downsizing plan I dubbed Making Space (I don't claim it to be original).

I didn't set out with a number goal, but as I'm closing in on the last quarter of my downsizing year, I'm thinking a goal of number of items leaving the house could serve as a real motivator.  On the other hand, I also know that once I pick up steam, the numbers will start to become irrelevant.

But to get me in gear for finishing strong, I'm going to set a goal of 1,000 items leaving our house by the end of the 52 weeks - from when I started this project (which I believe should be the last week of October).  

I did the math and figured I need to get rid of 54.4 items each week from now until the end of October to meet that 1,000 items goal.  That's easy enough to do, I believe, but I'm also a realist and I know that life has a way of throwing curve balls (some good and some bad), and there may be weeks I don't manage to clear out 54.4 items.   Here's my plan...  I'm going to shoot for 60+ items each week so that hopefully by the end of 52 weeks, I'll reach (or even surpass) 1,000 items gone.  We'll see!

While, if counting actual individual items, there are more than 60 items pictured above, by counting some groups of items as one item, I'm adding 62 things to my count of things gone from my house.

Making Space Week 38:  246 things gone!