Unknown (11:59)

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Dana K. White (12:12)

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Some of the things I know will be used when we move into a bigger home, but there is just so much in there. I've decluttered a few times. Trash and donations were pretty easy, but I can't use the take it there. Now I would like to simplify that shed so it's easy when we have to switch clothes stuff for the season and know exactly what I have and where it is. Okay, I love this question. All right. So you have decluttered. You have seen the power of having less stuff in your space. Your solution is to have this storage shed, okay? You're very grateful for that and you, you can use it well. Well actually the goal is to use it well, right? And to remember that a storage shed is not the same thing as a dumping ground. Okay? They tend to turn into dumping grounds and it tends to be equated in the brains of people like me that storage equals dumping ground. And so take the dumping ground thing out of it and go. This is a storage space, which means it is for things that will only temporarily live here. And its purpose is to hold those things in a way that I can access easily. So you said seasonal clothes and decor, kids, toys, collectibles, anything we don't currently have space for. I am going to say that if you take it and say the function is the key, that means I need to be able to see and get to what I need without having to move a bunch of other things. When you look at it that way, it is no longer just how much stuff can fit in this space, but instead what can fit functionally in this space. All right, that means I may only have what is up against the walls and can be stacked on top of each other. And the things that are not going to be accessed would be the things on the bottom of the stack, Meaning not stacks and rows all the way to the front door, but stacked around just the edges. Right. If you can have. If you have shelves in there, then you need to be able to get to the shelf without having to move a bunch of things first. Because you said collectibles things for a future home. When you get into a bigger home, those things will be the things on the bottom of these stacks that you can walk straight up to without having to move a bunch of stuff in front of them. And then your seasonal clothes and decor that you are going and getting and using and switching out in your home, those need to be the things that you can get to. You should not have to move a bunch of stuff that's on top of that in order to get to that. Okay? So that's going to need to be your top thing on the stack. But the stack may only need to be three tubs high, right? Because if it's too high, then you can't get that thing off of the stack. So the accessibility and the function that comes through accessibility is the deciding driving factor. Okay? So it's not about filling it up. It's about I can only have the ones that I can easily access for the things that I need. Now, when you think of it that way, that significantly limits. Like if you take a storage shed and you go from it being full to the front door, everything is packed. And the only way to get to anything is to pull everything out. If we go. If we have the mindset that I'm not going to have that anymore, that means a lot of stuff has to leave this space forever and always for good. Like, it just has to be gone, gone from this space. Right. When I look at it that way, then I know that there are going to Be some great things in here. Because you said you've already done trash and donations, they're pretty easy. There are going to be some things in here that aren't going to be able to stay because I'm going to have to get rid of a ton of stuff to get it to where it is easily accessible. Right. And that determine, you know, the. The number of tubs that can be. There are. Those are your containers and you remove as much stuff as you can from those. And then that opens up space for the things that really matter. And then once those are full, those are full. But the function is the key. All right. How to establish new homes for everything after a move, when it is a deep reset move, not a put it where it was before move. Thank you. Okay, so this is something that is a legitimately challenging challenge, right? Like it is moving is a challenge no matter what for everybody. It's not fun. Right? And as you said, it's a deep reset move, not a put it where it was before movement. Anything that you put it where it was before. That's actually easy, right? Like that's in the decluttering process. That's easy. Things that have their obvious space, you know, like, I always kept this in the. The drawer next to the kitchen sink. So I'm going to keep it in the drawer next to this kitchen sink here. Like, go ahead and do those easy things. But the first decluttering question is the key for this, okay? It is the absolute key. And that is how you establish a home. Either in the house that you already live in, but also in the new house that you've never lived in before and everything is different than it was before. Okay. That's how you establish homes according to where would I look for it first? It feels weird in a new house. It feels weird in a new house that is very different and set up very differently from your old house. So we're going to ask the question, if I needed this item, where would I look for it? First, stand where you are with the item in your hand. Name the item. If I needed a travel size lotion, where would I look for it first? And then imagine yourself in your new house needing a travel size lotion and think of where's the first place where you would look like if you did just start sticking stuff everywhere, which is what you're trying not to do. If you had stuck stuff everywhere and every single time you needed anything, it was this big, dramatic, difficult thing. Where's the first place where you would go with no confidence it was going to be there at what you thought was the beginning of a three hour search through your house, tearing everything apart. Right? Like that's what you do. Where would I look first for this? You're asking that question for things that you don't know what its home is. This is how you give it a home. Where would I look for it first? And this is so important after a move, especially after a deep reset move, as you call it. Okay. Is to really identify and embrace those instincts and go with it that way. And if there is not a place for it, then it can't stay in your home. Right. And if, if you continue, you know, the. Taking it there now is the key to this. Go ahead and take it to that space. As you do more and more and more things, as you, you know, bring something to the place where you would look for it first, you're like, oh no, that place is already full. Well, then you have to make the decision. Am I willing to remove something in order to create the space I need for this item or am I not willing to? And therefore this item is actually not as important to me as I thought it was going to was Right. Next, I have been decluttering my kitchen. Some of the cabinets have very high shelves that require a ladder to reach. Recently I reached one of the shelves and pulled the things out, bending to place them all on the counter. I know, not the best idea. It took me a couple days to clear the counter again. But climbing up and down the ladder for each item isn't good either. I still have several of these shelves to go. How should I go about not making a bigger mess and. But still getting the shelves done. Okay. So this is one of those things where it's really important to consider and this is the reason the take it there now is so powerful. Okay. It's really important to consider that if these shelves are so high that they require a ladder to reach and you feel uncomfortable using the ladder to reach them, then these are shelves that don't need to be used for anything that would be used often enough that it would annoy you that you would have to pull out a ladder for that. Okay. What I mean by that is my high shelves, my difficult places to reach. Those are the places where I put things that I only use maybe once a year, and I'm using it at a time. I'm thinking of my Thanksgiving dishes, you know, like my big platter that I don't use any other time, or my huge mashed potato pot that I only use for this, you know, once a year occasion because I don't make big things of mashed potatoes the rest of the year. Right. But the thing is, when I am in Thanksgiving cooking mode, I'm in a very different mindset than I am on a cooking for a Thursday night when I just realized that we only have 20 minutes before we need to eat if we're going to leave on time for the thing that we're supposed to go to. Right? Like that's a very, very different mindset. So my hard to get to spaces I use for very rarely used things. So if you have that in your mind and you go, you know what? The taking it there now is the thing that is probably going to help me get rid of things. Yes, it's going to go slower. Climbing up and down the ladder is gonna be slow, it's gonna be frustrating. But that process of that helps you really, really get in your brain that this top shelf needs to be either empty or only have on it things that I am willing to pull out the ladder to get. Okay? And therefore that means more things need to go into the trash or the donate box. So having the donate box on the counter means that as I take something out and I go, oh no, okay, where would I look for this first? I have to take it there now. And I'm like, taking it there now is going to mean climbing down the ladder. And I'm like, well, you know what? Actually that donate box, I could just set it in that donate box. Or if it's not breakable, although it probably is because it's in the kitchen, drop it in that donate box. I can just do that and then I wouldn't have to climb down the ladder. That mindset is going to really that that physical situation that you're in, that commitment to taking it there now is really going to identify what's actually important to you and what's not important to you. Right? Because otherwise it's like, oh yeah, I'll set the side because I'll, I'll want it, I want that. Right? But if I have to climb down the ladder, then I really know if I actually really want that. That's a huge part of the value of taking it there now is it will really help you identify what things are actually important to you.

Unknown (24:45)

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Dana K. White (25:40)

Hey Dana, I love the reality check of your container concept. Every time I reach a limit though, I catch myself thinking, well, I can just get a bigger container, no problem, right? How do I handle that? I love this question. I think it's one that a lot of people face. So the container concept, for those of you who are new, I have other videos and blog posts and all of that where I really dive into what the container concept is. The very short version of it though, is that space is finite and containers are not meant to put things in. They are meant to serve as limits. And when I view containers, bins, baskets, all that kind of stuff, and also every physical space, every shelf, every closet, every drawer as a limit, then it makes decluttering easier because I keep my favorite ones in there and anything that doesn't fit doesn't get to stay right. And so it helps me sort out what's favorite and least favorite. Right? So if the thing is full and I've already removed trash, easy stuff, obvious donations, and I've gone through the two decluttering questions to get anything out, but it's still, that doesn't need to be there. But there's, it's still there and it's still full, then I'm going to pull out my least favorites until it fits in that container. But what do you do when you catch yourself thinking, well, I can just get a bigger container. It's not that you can't get a bigger container, but the reality is the room that this is in is also a container. So let's, let's say though, that you're talking about the example I always use, which is, you know, a bucket to put crayons in. Okay, that was exactly what I used to think was I filled up a bucket of crayons and I still had more crayons. So I bought another bucket and I put crayons in that. And then I bought another bucket, put crayons in that. But the reality was, when I went to go put those shelves, I mean, I went to go put those buckets on the shelf. My shelf couldn't hold all the buckets of crayons. The shelf is a container, too. The size of the shelf determines the size of container that it can fit on it. Right? Like, so I could buy a bigger container, but the place where that container goes is also a container. And so it determines how big the container can be. The shelf that the container is going to sit on determines how big the container can be. And if you're thinking, well, I'll just buy more shelves, because that's what I would think, right? That's what I used to think. Well, the size of the room determines how many shelves I can have. And this size of my house determines how many rooms there are. And I carry it all the way out to go this. Every space, every physical space is a container. My house is a container. And here's the other thing. Function. Okay. I used to think buying more shelves was the answer. I would buy more shelves, and it was hard to function in my house. Kind of like we talked earlier about that storage space. It's all about the being able to access the things and being able to do things. I had so many shelves in my house that it was hard to move around in my house. And also, having more shelves never solved my clutter problem. Ever. Did not. I mean, if. If you're like, oh, it would solve mine, I'm going to ask you, have you bought more shelves and did it get any better or not? Right. Like, for me, that never solved my clutter problem, having more shelves, but it always felt like it was going to. Right? And so the people in my house and the things that we need to do, the function that we need to accomplish in our home, that is the key, right? Like, that's the first thing that deserves space in my home. So if anything that I'm keeping in order to keep a bigger container, in order to keep more stuff, any, you know, shelf or whatever, that's making it harder to move through a room or sit at the table. I mean, I can remember having a shelf in my breakfast area where our table was, that we sat at to eat as a family, that shelf made it hard to maneuver around, to be able to get to my chair at the table. That means that that shelf was making it harder to live in my house. It meant that the shelf didn't fit in the container. Of the room because it kept me from being able to function as we needed to function in the room. Right. And so therefore, the shelf had to go. And once the shelf went, it freed up space and I could do the things that I needed to do. So carry the container concept all the way out, like carry it out to the very, very end and acknowledge that your house is a container. And the first thing that deserves space is the people who live in it, and they need to be able to function within that space. Okay. All right. This is a really legitimately challenging challenge. And I'm sorry that you went through this. We got water in our basement and need to declutter and take up damaged flooring. This is me talking now. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. This just sounds dreadful. Right. Advice for how and where to start trash. I know when everything is a jumble and probably needs to be removed and then put back. Is this a time to rent a storage unit, to hold our belongings while we remove, replace the floor? Maybe. My answer is maybe. Maybe it does is a time for you to remove, for you to have a storage unit. But I'm gonna say not yet. Now I'm saying that, and they asked this question a long time ago, and so they've probably already dealt with it, and I'm sorry for that. But I know there are other people facing this and there are people who will face this. So my answer would be maybe. Here's what I mean by that advice for how and where to start trash. I know. Go ahead and do that. Before you make a decision about the storage unit. Go ahead and go hard on the trash. Go ahead and go hard on the donations, which some things that maybe would have been donations before are actually trash now because of the damage from the water. Right? And so really, really go hard on that, because you're going to have to touch every single thing in that space in order to deal with the flooring. So as long as you're going to touch it anyway, if it's trash, it needs to go in the trash and not to a storage unit. If it is a donation, an obvious donation, it needs to be donated. If it's still in donatable quality, right. It needs to be donated and not taken to a storage unit. So just like you would do if you were moving, because that's basically what it says, like to, you know, replace flooring. Go ahead and declutter so hard before you even think about the storage unit, go ahead. And if there is anything easy that actually belongs somewhere else other than in this basement. Go ahead and take it to that place where it already is established that it belongs. Go ahead and get those things out of there. Because the problem is, you said everything is a jumble. Everything's a jumble, and you're stressed out over the situation that you're in. So everything that leaves, that's easy, meaning it's trash. You already know where it goes, or it's an obvious donation. Everything that leaves makes this a little bit less of a jumble, which makes it a little bit less overwhelming. And you will probably make a lot of progress just on those first three steps of my five step no mess decluttering process. Right? Get those things out. Go ahead and ask yourself the question, because you have to move it anyway. Ask yourself, if I needed this item, where would I look for it first? And if you would look for it in this space, put it in the box that you're going to have to move anyway, either to a storage unit or not, if you don't end up needing one. Okay, go ahead and put that in the box or take it to the place in your home, or admit that you would not go looking for it and it needs to actually be donated. Right. Or thrown away if it's not quality. You know what I'm saying? Right? Y'all. Y'all get that. But go ahead and do all of that and then decide, do you need a storage unit? Because what might happen in a lot of the My listeners situations that would be like this, you might realize, oh, once I got rid of anything that shouldn't have been in here anyway, I was down to the furniture. I was down to, you know, some basics. Maybe this collection of trains that we kept in our basement or whatever. Like, I significantly reduced it. And then you're going to have a different perspective on, okay, those things. I could get those things upstairs. And yes, it's going to be really frustrating for a day, but that's just part of the reality of changing your flooring. Right? I'm going to put those things in there, and then they generally can get the flooring done in less time or time, a shorter enough time that you wouldn't want to rent a storage unit. Okay. Because the storage unit can be something where it's just an opportunity for me to procrastinate. Right? So go ahead, because I'm gonna have to move everything anyway. If you start out with the idea that we're gonna have a storage unit, it is so tempting to throw everything in tubs and boxes to take to the storage unit and think I'll do that later, but go ahead and do that now, and then you'll have an idea of whether or not you actually need a storage unit. Okay. I hope this was helpful, and I will talk to you all next week. Bye.