Taking the time to get organized over a year ago is still positively impacting my life today, though my life then and now is drastically different. My name is Lindsay. I packed up the family and six suitcases this past May and moved to an approximately 900 square foot apartment in Switzerland.
Last year, I owned a house of approximately 2000 square feet. Into it, I crammed most things from my childhood (including tubs of stuffed animals, picture frames filled with pictures from high school, and my unicorn and white tiger collections), lots of clothes I hadn’t worn since I was a smaller version of myself, furniture that didn’t fit in our living space, a husband and his gatherings from the years (though he hadn’t accumulated nearly what I had), two toddlers and two cats.
I realize now the huge shift in mentality that occurred in the past year regarding the items in my house. I give credit to Jessica for being the catalyst of that shift, that made such a drastic downsize into a fairly low stress process. So, here’s the story from the top.
I thought I was pretty well organized last year, before Room to Breathe came in. I mean, I had about 25 plastic tubs in the basement, all labeled with the contents. The tubs were lined up neatly against the wall, and I felt like they were easily accessible. There were some boxes of children’s books and a big shelf of board games. In the living area, my kitchen was overflowing with a variety of appliances, cookware and gadgets. Here’s where I give a shout out to my mother for buying all kitchen items in threes: one for her, my sister and me. She always felt that if she needed it, chances are that my sister and I did as well. According to friends, my house wasn’t cluttered. But somehow, the house felt completely full of stuff.
A friend gave me one of the best gifts I have ever received: the gift of Room to Breathe. Mom, if you didn’t live so far away, you’d be getting Room to Breathe too!
Enter Jessica Dolan. She came in, took a look at the place, and we worked out a plan. I got rid of the things that were obviously not needed, like 15 empty diaper boxes. We discovered that a lot of my children’s books were mildewed, sadly. And I committed to finding new homes for 33% of my board games. I began Freecycling on a regular basis. I had a plan to organize the kitchen in a way that would work for our family. Actually, in hindsight, I think I kept a pretty open mind to the whole experience. The only thing I resisted was touching my unicorn collection.
Afterwards, I was feeling pretty good, though I still had a mild unease about the contents of my house.
In a short time, my husband and I decided that our best next step as a family would be to try to move to Switzerland, where my husband was born. Before we knew it, our house was on the market. At the same time, my husband was being offered a temporary position in Switzerland. I was working at lightning speed to get the house ready for showing. Jessica came in again, this time to stage the house. The house was beautiful and we had a buyer rather quickly. By then, my husband had been offered a permanent position in Switzerland, so we knew at that point that most of our things had to go.
That’s when the real excitement began…
Written by RTB client Lindsay Furer
