With the holidays coming up, that means it's time for finals and time for new things to be taking up space in a tiny dorm room. To try and minimize these effects, especially before I have to really buckle down and plan this wedding, I'm doing a mini 30 day challenge, starting today.
Rather than starting with a full blown "this amount has to be accomplished" plan, I'll instead be going through everything and deciding if it's worth paying for housing it in a storage unit over the summer or if I should just get rid of it. It's also giving me a chance to see what all doesn't need to be added to our registry either- because trust me, the initial list is long, even with both of us removing items. (To be fair, dish sets and pretty much any other kind of dinnerware are designed for the typical American family of 2 kids, but we also aren't going to assume we'll be that size family either. We do know that anytime we invite people over, we'll need at least 5 of each dining item, so no matter what, it's two sets of dishes and 2 sets of glasses.)
My system for this 30 day declutter spree is based off location:
1) dorm room- this is a big one, but will probably be one of the easiest. All of my stuff here is mostly organized and necessary to start. I have to go through my papers and my food, but other than that, there shouldn't be much to do.
2) mom's house- this one will take longer than the dorm, but like my dorm, I already have most of that purged and organized from my move last summer. I mostly just need to go through the items that got brought from the family storage unit because I am missing some things.
3) dad's house- this will be the hardest, I'm sure. Since I don't see my dad frequently (really, I see him maybe 3 or 4 times a year), the stuff I have there has piled up exponentially, even though I did a thorough purge the summer after graduation. This is where I want to focus my efforts, since I'm fairly certain I can use the furniture and decor from this room in my future house. I'm expecting to see the most bags leaving from this room.
There is a two-fold benefit to this: not only do I get to free up space, potentially making money, as well as mentally shift my preparations towards Christmas and the Sacrament of marriage, but I also get to help others by donating or selling items. Maybe others can get their Christmas presents from the items I have that are either new with tags or gently used. Maybe someone just genuinely needs what I have. Either way, this will be a good way to lose some of the focus I have on unnecessary material items.
My challenge to you, dear readers, is to do the same thing. How much will you be getting rid of to prepare for the holidays? It can even be digital clutter. I know that's where I tend to start. Let me know in the comments and on the updates!
