Decided I really needed a break. I still dropped off a couple of kids books at 2 different little libraries in the neighborhood to do at least a little bit of good, but wasn't able to sort with my kids home for Veteran's day. I also pulled my back and was taking a break on my couch, while my son served me breakfast and lunch (Heaven! Thank god, we started him early with meal preparing and pan-frying stuff) and I had a friend come over with her daughter for a play date with my daughter. It was very much appreciated.

Later that day, we had a doctor appointment, finding out my son is also (like me) allergic to diary, egg, almond and gluten, additionally to citrus - and we'll have to get him started on a 6 week elimination diet very soon. It's a bit of a shock, but fortunately he isn't the most pickiest eater lately and I am a real pro by now knowing where to buy what and what to make working around the allergens. We immediately went to PCC shopping some gluten free items for him. He picked rice crackers (who he apparently LOVES. Who would have guessed!), mochi squares, rice bread, hazelnut milk and some other yummy non-allergy items.

I had a massage scheduled in the evening - and almost fell asleep twice, while MJ, my great massage therapist, fixed my back. I did not sleep the night before because of my back pain, could not find a good position that would be pain free. After the massage I found some dinner in the kitchen and went straight to bed (overly tired), sleeping for almost 12 hours. 

Today I felt much better but had a completely booked calendar from 9 am to 9 pm. Office tour followed by start up meeting followed by Coworking meetup followed by Angel Conference followed by kids homework and making dinner followed by school performance followed by conference call. 

Still the day went by quickly and with ease. That's what I expect if I get a full 12 hours of rest. Nothing can knock me down. But seriously, I had no time for sorting stuff or doing 'do-gooder' work today. I'll do some more tomorrow as I'll volunteer at Sarah's globetrotter program tomorrow, presenting Germany to her classmates. I hope this goes well. I get super nervous around kids. They speak the truth and I rather get my critic served in an adult fashion. I also plan on writing some letters that hopefully will make someone smile.

Wish me luck.

Got some bins in the empty shelve space after the sale. Got my consignment report and made $240 bucks and will split my profit with my kids. Told them to sort out a lot, so they can make more money and will have to stick to my word.

Started with our big metal rack full with paper stuff, files, letters, old cards, pictures, receipts. Many are way old and easy to throw out. Filled 2 garbage bags with paper for recycling, but not done yet. Will take me another day to be done with just that one shelf. It's a marathon not a sprint. ;-)

Not too much report on the 'do good' front today. I sorted out a couple of things, I know exactly where their perfect new home will be, but haven't had the opportunity today, but might be able to do good twice tomorrow.

Wrote my blog post but unfortunately it seemed to not have saved it.

In short:
- volunteered for the consignment sale, sorting donations from seller items going back,
- donated probably 5 or 6 bins of clothing and toys to Westside Baby
- brought back home only 2 bins of stuff
- very happy to have so much space empty in garage
- finished an intense week
- have to catch up on sleep
- will continue to sort out paper starting tomorrow

Night. Night.

Spent the day catching up with work after being home with my sick kid, but having lots of time to sort through stuff. It was kind of a nice break from regular life to just stay in all day and sort.

Today at 5 pm was drop-off for the preschool sale. I dropped off 12 bins of outgrown stuff with a combined value of over $1000. I might get some items back to sell that had a higher value, that I didn't want to donate just yet. I am a little frightened to see too much going back and then starting over with finding a new home for these items. Just wish me luck it all sells. That would be awesome!

We had a nice lunch with my Coworking members today, giving out meatballs. Everyone enjoyed this and Marco was happy to share his great cooking skills.

I am a little exhausted from long nights (stayed up til 2.30 am on average this week) and had to take a nap this afternoon to catch up on sleep. It's 2 am again while I write this. I am a night owl. I really should go to bed after this, but I have a hard time falling asleep if my head still spins from unfinished tasks.

We had a nice and well deserved date night tonight - drawing 'Sharknado' together with acrylic paint in the Mind Unwind Lounge.

With all the space leaving our garage, I will have some room to do the next step: sorting out paper!

Proud to show the progress (compare to picture from day 1)

My morning started by rushing to school, stopping at the store, but accidentally slamming my daughters finger with the car door. I still got to drop off a little something at my friends house on our way home. Thanks for the nice lady who got us a bandaid out of her car. :-)

After some tears I got to sort through our play kitchen and doll clothing with my daughter today and was surprised how willing she was to 'let go' of many items. My tactic is to remind her why we do it (less clutter, more space to play, reuniting items that where long lost, finding old stuff, downsizing so we can enjoy the important stuff,... she got the idea by now). Once in a while she freaks out if I touch a favorite item before she gets to tell me what she wants to do with it, but other then that, we are just zooming through 2 to 3 big bins of toys in about an hour.

I spent a significant amount in the garage, sorting, packaging, tagging the consignment items for Saturday's preschool sale. I found about 300 items so far, clothes, shoes, all kind of toys, games and only had to fight a few times 'not letting go' but realistically never using it. Knowing someone else might and if it's not sold, it will go to Westside Baby is a great way to make it easier for me to let go. I think I made good calls. And I also filled a few garbage bags. It always hurts me knowing my consume produced trash for the landfill in the end. Very happily I caught the trash pick up right before and could get rid of all bags.

With all the toys sorted and stored, I would think I freed up about 10 % of the space. It was about 85 % packed, just a slim trail through, but I can't believe if I look in the other corners and see that many stuff still left. Untouched. Overwhelming. But my goal is to tend to all these step by step and I am doing it! Yeah!

After that, I'll hope to have some space for a table so I can start sorting out old paper (currently about 5 big moving boxes) and getting rid of one big metal shelf, then moving on to seasonal stuff - reducing 3 moving boxes of Christmas stuff to 1, then cleaning up my gift wrapping and craft table in the corner (it's piled in 3 tiers, no way you can wrap anything there), sorting out luggage, selling IKEA corner shelf, installing bike rack, sorting books, boxes, gardening and outdoor stuff with the big goal to have only the important stuff on shelves and a completely clutter free space.

I end an intense week of toy sorting with 2-2.30 am night sessions tonight. I hope I'll be done with labeling and packing up for tomorrow sale before 1 am. Wish me luck.

Sorted out some major clutter spots. Reunited some sets. Always makes me happy.

Gave away some big toys today and sold a toy rack. Got a message later from the mom saying her 2 year old loves his new toys. Makes me happy to know they are in little playing hands now again.

For sorting, I have 2 garbage bags and 2 bins open and sort through one mixed stuff toy bin:

1 bag dedicated for landfill
1 bag dedicated for Goodwill
1 bin for sale
1 bin for keep

'Keep' has still plenty left, probably a quarter or third of what I go through.

Works like a charm. Not too attached to anything right now, so sorting goes quickly. I remember the mantra. I don't care who gave it to us. I think about if we used it in the last 6 months and will use it again.


Missed recycling on Tuesday. Would have had plenty of paper. Would have opened up a big space in the garbage instantly. I am still piling stuff on top of stuff to make my way through. Can't wait to see all the stuff gone, so I can start with sorting out paper soon.


I am very happy I made the decision to stretch this process over 30 days. I feel a little overwhelmed even I have plenty of time left. Initially I planned on conquering this on one weekend. No way.

Planned my day a little differently. Had a book box ready for a friend I wanted to meet, but my daughter woke up sick and I had to cancel all my arrangements. The first half I was tending to her needs til she felt a little better. Then I started tagging kids clothing items for the co-op sale. I got about 100 items in the system. Took forever and I really hope they all sell and make some money for the co-op preschools and my kids savings account.

I got out of the house briefly and got to drop off some of last years school uniforms to go to the uniform closet at our old school. I saw another little library on the way, which I'll have to visit soon to give some more books away.

Now, to 3 years of outgrown kids shoes.

Spent til 3 am sorting through the kids stuff in our garage, getting stuff ready for the Co-op Sale this Saturday, while making piles of stuff going to different institutions and charities.

Today we brought a big box of art supplies to the art studio and another one with books to the school library. While cleaning up I also found a book a friend wanted for a while. On our way back home, we dropped it off at her house. 

It feels good to give, especially if you feel you found a good new home for your stuff - and also good to have more and more space empty.

I also try to come up with a system for the remaining items in the garage, like each of the 7 shelves will have a purpose:

- Camping, sports and outdoor gear
- Board games, toys
- Electronics, DVD/CDs
- Playmobil (yes, one entire IKEA shelf would be needed)
- Kitchen, Truffle Making Supplies, Gift wrapping
- Seasonal (Christmas, Eastern, Thanksgiving)
- Tools, paint, cleaning supplies, tarps, emergency supplies

Bikes in the corner on a wire lift. We might be able to put a couch or lounger in and a white board for video streaming. Ideally something that does not take much space, so we could also pull out the trampoline or just play on the floor.

Spent all day sorting, organizing, thinking. Ran up and down and all across the house to reunite parts, put stuff in piles and boxes. Got an overview what needs to be done for the next 30 days. Felt really overwhelmed, but tried to think of taking tiny steps. I won't need to get it done in one day. I will give myself 30 days to go through and decide what should happen with all our stuff.

Today, I sorted through 4 book boxes and remembered my neighbors email more kids book would be needed for our little free library at the pond. I packed up a bag of books and went for a walk.

Energized and happy I found a worthy spot for some of our favorite, but outgrown kids books, I started making piles. I really didn't have much room to start with. It was very challenging at first to find room to even make piles, to come up with a system, piling stuff on top of piles, but once I got going, I opened up more space to store stuff and half way in I realized I accidentally sorted even more then planned. I only wanted to look at the toys today, so only the bins and right site of the garage.

I listened to a very funny comedy show and some upbeat music while organizing and our bunny kept me company.

I stacked boxes, got about 3 garbage bags full of broken, no need at all items and sorted some more items. Now, I can at least walk through the garage again. Yeah!

Except for a handful of books, I did not get rid of much yet today, but it already feels great. I can do this.

My 30 day declutter challenge

I guess I hit my mid-life, if it is true that most women spend the first half of their life gathering stuff, building 'nests' and once they hit the second half, the spend their time getting rid of all the stuff. I truly crave a simpler life. Less stress. Less to do. Less noise. Less news and on top of all less clutter.

It's unbelievable how much more stuff piles up in our house: paper from school, work, bills, flyers, to little toys they kids get where ever they go (store, parties, friends, events), tons of toys from baby - toddler - preschool to elementary age, stuff for projects, retired electronics, clothing, seasonal items (Christmas, Easter, Halloween). 

We are raised as good consumers. Marco and I both love shopping. Besides eating, it makes us happy. I, in particular, love thrift store shopping. If we see a good deal for a toy, a practical household item, some new kitchen gadget, a interesting book, outdoor gear or a board game we usually can't resist. We both don't have expensive hobbies, are price conscious and usually stay within a range of $30 for 80 % of our purchases, but still... it's a lot of stuff we gathered especially over the last 10 years.

I recently took one week to quickly sort through all drawers, closets, counters and corners to get the house ready for a deep cleaning, cleaning before the cleaner comes. All this 'extra', unwanted stuff sits in our garage now - with all the other unwanted, occasional or seasonal stuff.

Every day the stuff sitting in the garage haunts me. Most of it was brought in by me or approved to being brought in and I know where 88 % of all these items are, even if they are piled up like this: But having to live with piles like this goes totally against my sense of order and sanity, but staying on top of all this crap is very challenging.

I had it! No more! This stuff consumes my life. It takes up way too much space and way too much energy. Instead of hanging out with my family, I have to pick up stuff, tend to stuff, organize stuff, dispose stuff, clean stuff. I am done!

For a while I thought about how to deal with this.  I just recently started working with a life coach and shared how challenging this is for me. Emotional attachment, memories, guilt, desire to find time to use the stuff, it seemed like a good idea at the time of purchase, and lack of energy to get rid of the then unwanted stuff, plus possessions of my 3 house mates, one caring very much about every single item, one caring only about a few items (which I have to guess) and one not caring at all.

In my coaching session I committed to tackling this challenge. My internal motivation is mainly being freed from this stuff taking up my thoughts and energy, but also one of my big bucket list items: living in a tiny house for a while. Downsizing to just the 'essentials' would be needed for that step and getting rid of the clutter would be a step in the right direction.

The plan I came up was, first, I'll talk with my family, how depressing and draining it is for me to deal with so much clutter day by day, that I'll need their help in letting go of stuff and making more room for us and what is truly important to us. I also thought, it's easier to have a motivation and an idea what this could look like, and announced that our garage should only house some basic storage along the walls, so we would have a game room, e.g. for video gaming on a big screen together, our bunny could roam around and there would be enough room to play there when friends come over. To ease the pain a little, I also offered my kids to 'buy' old toys of their hand, so they could save money for their savings account or a new toy, that they would really care about.

Second, I got myself mentally ready to 'let go' of a substantial amount of items. I did a little research on this topic, read up on how to get rid of sentimental clutter and created a little 'Clutter Mantra' doc (see below) for myself.

Then my plan was to start to declutter Saturday morning, but my daughter got a stomach bug and required my attention all day. I was desperate to get started, but family first. I used the time to think about what I'll need to do first.

My plan for the next 30 days, tackling the clutter one by one and finding a new home for it, ideally a home that also feels good.