THE SKINNY ON DOWNSIZING

My mom informed me, this morning, that I was kind of bossy. Me? Bossy? Okay, when you tell me that I am the person that is going to have to help you with your move I may get just a wee bit bossy. Mom is on the move again and will be moving into a different independent living apartment that doesn't have quite as much closet space. As I am also going to be downsizing into a small apartment, I decided we both need a refresher course in downsizing. 

some of us like to pretend like we are a maid. others of us don't

I've been doing a lot of reading on downsizing and decluttering. (It's quite possible that all the time that I spend reading is keeping me from actually having to do it)  I have been taking notes and now I may actually be ready to get to work. 

There are some pretty basic points on downsizing.

• The first thing you need to do is be prepared to let things go. I think this can be the hardest step for a lot of us. We love our stuff. We collected it for a reason. It has meaning. But, we also know that we can't keep all of it. 
• Walk around your home and write down things you definitely want to get rid of. Make plans to decide what you will throw away, donate, or sell and then organize into three separate containers as you downsize.
• Work on one space at a time. Choose a closet, drawer, cabinet or corner. This is easier than trying to do an entire room in one sitting.
• Immediately throw away items bagged for the trash. I recommend taking the donation items right away to somewhere like Goodwill and putting the items you want to sell in the garage or basement if you have one. Out of sight means out of mind and you are less likely to pull them out and put them back in your house.

So Mom just called me up all excited. She cleaned out a corner that she has wanted to do for months. "Good job, Mom." "So what have you done," she asked. "Ummmm, I wrote a blog post about downsizing." "Doesn't count," she said. Moms are just so tough.