Month: September 2018

It’s Expensive To Pay Someone To Archive Your Stuff!

GETTING STARTED IS HARD

I’ve discussed how difficult it is for people to dig in and get started on archiving in earlier blogs.

*For any new readers here, archiving is a practice that allows you to honor and preserve the stuff that matters – the things that help tell the story of your life, or your family’s. A prerequisite to archiving is to complete the declutter, sort and edit steps which allows you to identify the things that matter and get rid of the things that don’t.*

Folks can’t get started on the archive because they often get hung up on the declutter, sort and edit steps for a variety of reasons. Lack of time, amount of time the items (boxes) have been waiting for attention, guilt, emotions – all the overwhelming feelings that convince you to wait and start the process another day.

LET’S TALK ABOUT DOWNSIZING

For those folks who are considering downsizing, this post is really meant for you.

This may sound harsh but …

…it is not going to cost less money or less time if you procrastinate and wait to declutter, sort and edit your things that matters.

Quite the contrary, mon ami!

In recent years, the downsizing, home organization and decluttering industry has been rapidly growing. Why?

   1) Growing aging population interested in downsizing

   2) Growing popularity of minimalistic lifestyle trends

   3) Growing weight and burden of too much stuff

SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Well, there are a lot of seniors (with a lot of stuff) in the U.S. 8,000 Americans turn sixty-five EVERY DAY. There are also many people interested in simplifying their lives and moving to smaller quarters. Great idea! But first you have to get rid of one to two thirds of everything you own. Everything you inherited, acquired and paid good money for. Where would you start?

Check this out — the average U.S. home holds 300,000 items. How many items can you count? How many items do you need, love and use?

Home sizes have also increased, yet we still have stuffed garages that cannot be used to park our cars because … they are full of stuff. And a large number of us are paying $ to store more stuff offsite!

So, we are spending a lot of money acquiring things and then will likely spend more money storing or getting rid of things. Crazy. In the meantime, the stuff that really matters (the heirlooms, the photos, the documents, etc), the things that tell your story are somewhere in the garage, basement, attic or house. I hope you know exactly where they are – I mean those are the things you need to grab and protect in an emergency, right? RIGHT?!

THE EXPERTS CAN HELP YOU … AT A PRICE

I recently attended a seminar on decluttering and downsizing sponsored by a local realtor’s office. Various companies described the work they do to coordinate and manage downsizing moves for clients. It can take 100-200 hours to process an entire home and can cost $750 a day for two people, working 8 hours a day. (Bonus: I share a few tips I learned at the end of this post).

This growing need to reduce ‘things’ and ‘space’ has lead to the following list of experts you can now pay to help you with the tasks surrounding decluttering, sorting and editing your stuff:

• Estate Sale Coordinator
• Appraiser
• Home Organizers – (this field alone grows by 10% a year)
• Declutterers
• Moving Managers (specifically for seniors)
• Special Relocation Services

Fellow Archivist, these experienced providers (typically bonded and insured) come at a price. No doubt their services are worth every penny. I’m just not sure everyone anticipates needing these services when they plan and budget for their own downsizing. Unless you start digging in and tackling a corner or closet bit-by bit, you will likely need to hire experts at some point.

I hope these thoughts will inspire you to take the steps you need to declutter, sort and edit in order to get to the fun stuff – archiving. It will be so satisfying to create storytelling displays with the things that really matter. The things you love, need and use.

BONUS!

For those who read this whole post – here are a few fun facts I gleaned from that recent downsizing seminar I attended. The following items are actually worth quite a lot of money so if you come across them – save them to sell:

• Used dentures can yield $125-150 a set!
• Used hearing aids can be sold for $700-1,500!
  (A knowledgeable buyer will invest $300 to recondition them.)
• Old sewing supplies
• Fountain pens – any maker
• 125+ year-old chocolate molds – the old ones sell for $300!

What other unusual items sell for unexpectedly high prices?
Let me know in the comments!

(and how to fix it)

You and your family have a unique history and plenty of stories worth telling and sharing.

So why aren’t you doing that?

Why aren’t you creating fun and unique storytelling displays that reflects the awesomeness of your people?

You’ve been to others’ homes and seen the cool collections of their kin and want to create the same for your own family … what’s holding you back?

Here are the 3 top reasons why you’re not archiving and how you can fix it:

REASON 1: Avoidance

We all have those corners, cupboards, cardboard boxes and collections in our attics, basements and garages that must be decluttered, sorted and edited. Why – oh why – do we try to forget they don’t exist? We attempt yoga-like moves to step around them and strain our backs to lift and move them out of the way. It is time to STOP avoiding all that stuff and time to deal with it.

Look, wishful thinking will not make all this stuff go away. You want to clear that space, you want to ‘feel lighter’ and you want to stop feeling guilty about how this stuff that you think matters is being handled and stored. You’re not feeling great about that, so do something about it.

There will not come a day when your family history magically appears in wonderful displays and scrapbooks. You have to create it, but first your have to declutter, sort and edit it.

Get started NOW. Take one step and identify what box, corner, cupboard you will begin with. Put on some cool music and grab your favorite beverage. Think about how great it will feel to clear out that first box and find and display the stuff that really matters!

THE FIX: Identify where you will start. Pick ONE box, corner or cabinet and commit to it. Then do it.

REASON 2: Emotions

This is a biggie so let’s talk about it. I avoided going through my mom’s stuff for a long time. I know how hard this can be. But I can tell you that the process is so worth it and that grief will yield to happy memories.

Perhaps guilt is the emotion holding you back. Guilt about the time and money you invested storing and moving the stuff in these boxes around and with your every move. Ugh.

Maybe you can’t imagine sorting through or parting with any of the things that belonged to your dearly departed love one or your own dearly departed youth. Chances are you aren’t even sure what’s in those boxes and haven’t looked at them in a very long time. How attached to them are you really?

Look, you have to see what’s there and decide what you love, what you can use and what you will keep. The rest … donate, sell or dump. It is that easy.

THE FIX: Remind yourself that keeping stuff you don’t love, need or use is not honoring the stuff that matters. And if you do let stuff go that you don’t love, need or use, remember that the memories remain with you. Keep only what brings happy memories and … let the rest go.

Reason 3: Lack of Time

We’ve all said it: “I’m just waiting until [fill in the blank]”…. No. Let’s not do that. Tackle it now and live guilt-free without the weight of these things.

We only have so much time for all the things that matter in life. Approach this like any other to-do event in your life. Calendar it and stick to it regardless of how you feel that day. You manage to get to work, attend to school or charity functions and still deal with all the family – in-laws and all, regardless of how you feel.

Apply the same approach to archiving your stuff. Decide what box, corner you will tackle and when. Set a timer and get to work. Done. Try this several times a month and watch the clutter dwindle.

THE FIX: Set a doable goal and target — and use a timer.

If you need more help just getting started, check out the free guide ‘How-To Start Archiving 101’