Extra Luggage

Dear Flylady Family

I have been fluttering (and occasionally flying) over the last 5+ years I’ve been a FlyBaby (I lost count).  It has really helped reduce my tendency toward perfectionism and appreciate progress more than the goal.  My habits were recently challenged dramatically by the passing of my mother.  I am the only surviving child so it has become my responsibility to clean out her house while maintaining my own.

When my father and sister passed away many years ago, my mother boxed their things and closed the closet doors.  So I am not only cleaning up one person’s things but three.

She lives in another state and I was trying to sort through things at her house to reduce the amount I needed to ship home.  It rapidly became clear that this would take me a very long time!  So we packed up half the house and shipped it to ours. My DH said “Where will we put all this?”  I said it would fit in our livingroom/dining room.  About half way through the first day DH said “It’s not going to fit”.  I said “no, look, it’s less than half the garage, it will fit in the living room”.  At the end of the day I looked and sighed “It’s not going to fit”.   I have attached the pictures of the furniture and packing boxes that went into my living room, dining room, and patio.  It was overwhelming.

It is now a month and I have almost finished sorting everything using the FlyLady system into “keep”, donate, or trash.  I have a small box labeled for each person when I find items my mother willed certain things to.   I do about 1 box a day after work.  Some things I have to put to the side because they will either take too long, are too precious, or too painful to go through right now…. but each day I make progress.  It’s like 15 minutes a day of decluttering…. but on steroids!  However, I have recovered my dining room and should have my living room back within the week.

In a few weeks from now we ship the other half of the house, but I know I can tackle it and make progress – and so does DH.  Thank you for helping me Fly even with “extra luggage”!

Susan

Woodland Hills, CA

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