Thursday, July 28, 2016

Make Room For Life

Clever Container has recently changed their tagline.  They changed it to "Make Room For Life!".  I was immediately struck by how perfect the tagline is.  It also is very personal to me, as improving my and my family's life through organization has been my goal for the past year.

As this is my first blog post, this subject provides a good reason to share my story and why I became a Clever Container Consultant:

Two years ago my husband and I bought our house.  At the time, I was very sick.  We moved into our new house a week before my scheduled surgery.  I was blessed to have the surgery cure me.  However, it was a good six to eight  months before I actually felt like I was close to my normal strength.  During my recovery what do you think happened to all of our stuff?  It didn't get unpacked right.  Many things were not unpacked and the things I could unpack was not put away in any organized way.  Stuff kept on piling, and piling.  Then when I did have the energy back to actually do something about it, I didn't.  I procrastinated because I was overwhelmed. 

My life consisted of purposely scheduling an extra 15 minutes every morning to find my keys, phone, purse and whatever else I may need.  Every night my husband would curse and yell out of frustration because it was so hard to find anything in the kitchen to make meals with.  I would never invite anyone to our house, and would worry and fret over the thought of someone stopping by unannounced, as I was so embarrassed by our house.  I did not enjoy going home.  It caused stress.  Here we were, paying on a mortgage of a house that I didn't even enjoy going home to.

Finally, I had enough, and in a search for organization ideas I found Clever Container.  I enjoyed the advice and ideas I received so much, that I decided to become an independent consultant with them.  This was to motivate me to organize my house because how could I possibly help others organize their lives if I could not do it myself?  My plan worked!!

Now, anyone can stop by my house, I"m not ashamed!  Now I can stay in bed those extra 15 minutes in the morning!  Now my husband doesn't curse and yell while making dinner!  Now I enjoy coming home.  I can feel relaxed and happy. We now host family holidays and invite friends over.  Getting rid of clutter did literally make room for life!! 

What would motivate you to de-clutter and organize your home?  Is it monetary reasons? 

I can tell you, that is a big motivation for me!  We have a basement now filled with stuff that I have big plans for.  I want to have a board gaming area in the larger part of the basement.  Then in the smaller size I want a cute little family area with a little couch, a tv, and a rug.  I want the guest bedroom suite downstairs to actually be presentable and NOT a storage area like it is at the moment.

I have this entire big chunk of my house that I do not enjoy.  I actually hate going down there because I resent having the stuff that is preventing me from using this space the way I want to.   I also don't enjoy the things we have stored down there because I resent it's presence.  It's like it's holding us hostage, preventing us from being able to set up our ideal basement.

So, how much I am paying?  I plugged in the numbers.  Feel free to use my formula to come up with how much money you might be spending to store your stuff.

You will need the total square footage of your house.  If you are unsure how much square feet your house is that you rent or own you can look it up for free on your county assessor's website. 

Total Square Feet is = 2112
Square footage of space of the basement that is not usable because of all our crap = 900
Our Mortgage = $1150/mo

2112 divided by 900 = 42.61%. (Holy crap!  That is a high percentage of my home that I'm not using for my enjoyment!)

1150 multiplied by 42.61% = $490.01 we pay every month for this space!!  That is some expensive storage fees for all this stuff!!

Here I am, explaining my life transition and how much it has improved.  Then I express my displeasure in our basement and show you just how much money I am paying a month for space I do not enjoy.  So, why haven't I done anything about it?

The very blunt answer is, I am overwhelmed again.  Being overwhelmed often leads to procrastination because it's difficult to find a good starting place to fix the problem.  I am working on this.  I'm not hear to be perfect!  I just share what I learn as I figure it out, and hope I can help others.

For more information about how your clutter could be holding you hostage please read "It's All Too Much!" by Peter Walsh.