Master the art of downsizing without the stress!

Foreign Hi there. I'm back again. I have more projects I'm working on this week with, with regards to, like, reducing the amount of things that I have decluttering and, you know, getting things off to people and organizations that can make use of things that I'm just not going to be able to take on my move. I haven't even started packing yet. I've just been working on going through things and trying to make decisions what I think might go and might not go today. I have 30 minutes. So I have one area that I'm going to tackle and try to get through and decide, you know, what I'm going to keep and what I'm not going to keep. So I'm going to do that today. I did want to mention that for those of you that who've been working on in the Clutter Crushers text club, and if you've been working on all of your activities throughout the month, remember, there's a giveaway. So the giveaway for April is running now until May 6th. I'll pick the winner on May 6th. And, you know, you should definitely get it. It's an Amazon gift card and it's, you know, a little something that you can use as your prize for all of your hard work decluttering throughout the month. So definitely want to make sure I mention that. So today, like I said, I have 30 minutes, so I'm gonna go through board games. We are a big board game family and we just, we love. We love all things. We love cards, we play. We've played Uno and all different forms of Uno with the kids for years, ever since they were small. But we love things as simple as Jenga. We love playing cards. We love. Clue is another one we play a lot. We love Scattergories, Triomin, you name it, we probably have played it. So I think I'm going to have a hard time going through these, but I cannot take them all with me. And the one thing I will do is I'll make a pile for my kids because I know they'll like to have some of these and then I'll probably donate some. And I do want to mention that even if something has missing pieces, you can still donate it because a lot of people will look for pieces they're missing in other sets that people donate. So just make sure that if you're donating a game or puzzle or anything that has missing pieces, you write very clearly on the BO that has missing pieces. But who knows, maybe it can help somebody find some pieces that they're missing and they can put the two together to make a complete set. Anyhow, what I plan to do is just get them all out and start going through them. So wish me luck and definitely comment below and let me know what your family. Family favorite board games are. They're just. They're just a lot of fun and they mean a lot to me. We're also a big puzzle family, but that's going to be for another day because I have a huge puzzle puzzle collection. So I'm gonna go grab all the games. Okay. So I've grabbed all my games, and as you can see, there are a ton of them. I'm telling you, we have so much fun. I hope I don't have any more in the house, and I don't think I do, but we'll deal with them if we do. But I think I have all of them. Most of them are in their original containers. There's a few like these that, like, this is a Connect 4. The box was broken at one point, so I put it in here. I don't know if I love this or not, to be honest. So it'll be interesting to see how I decide to organize these once I do pair them down. But like, here's Connect 4 and you can clearly see what it is. And here's Twister. Right. These are really easy to tell what they are, but I don't know. Tell me if you. If you like this. I would love to know how people have organized their board games. And I think the goal for me is, you know, it'd be way too hard for me to store all of this. And if I could make it maybe on a shelf and I could put these on a shelf like this, that might be good if I could dedicate a shelf because the boxes have a lot of empty air in them. But I don't know. We'll see. I'm not going to worry about how to organize them yet. I'm just going to worry about getting through them and decluttering and making sure the ones I'm keeping are the ones I truly want to. So. So what my plan is to do is just to quickly start sorting through them and making a decision. First of all, once I. I want to donate, I'm not going to even give it to the kids or anything like that. Maybe they're ones that we just don't really care for or we don't like, or maybe we even have some duplicates. So that's the first thing I'm going to do, is just Grab those. Those are easy wins for me when going through these piles. So that's where I'm going to start. So here's one I don't think we're going to keep. These will keep. This is a candidate not to keep. Keep, keep, keep, keep. Okay. Usually one. Another candidate not to keep. I'm gonna go through these uno cards because I don't think we need. I don't know how many different UNO cards we have, but we don't need those. This is another one I'm thinking we probably may not keep. I have a few puzzles. Those are keeps. This one I'm not going to keep. Yeah, some of these. Okay. I think I've gone through. Okay. So I went through all of them and just looked through them, and I have a few. I got this one I'm just not a fan of. And I probably shouldn't say bad things about some of these games, but I don't like it. So this is definitely going to get donated. This is one that's donated, and I know all the pieces are here. We have a ton of Uno cards. So maybe what my strategy should be is I'll split them between me and the. The kids. So I'll do that. So I'll do separately. This is a game that we've played a little bit, but we're not. It's not. Not something we really want. So I think I'm going to get rid of that one. I'm going to get rid of this one. I have a puzzle I still need to do. I haven't done it. It is going to be so hard. I should make my son do it with me because he got it for me, but I'm going to keep that. Here's another game that we're going to get rid of. Okay, so this. This stack right here is going straight to donation. So there's. I'm putting those in my donate pile. So now all the ones that are left are do like. And then what I'm going to try to decide is do I keep it or give it to the kids. So my sister already. Or my sister. My daughter already has exploding kittens. I'm going to keep that one because she really likes it. Taco versus Burrito is a silly game. I'm gonna give this to the kids. I think that they'll like to have that. Connect 4. And Twister I'm gonna keep because my granddaughter will probably like that, so that'll keep. Taco versus Burrito, I'm gonna give to the kids. Try aminos I'm gonna keep. I think gonna. I'm think we'll keep uno flip for us. I think these other uno cards are going to go to the kids. Mancala. I'm gonna keep Jenga. I'm going to keep for sure we play that one. You know, we play quite a bit. So it's a fun game that you can easily play as a family and sit down for just 10, 15 minutes. So that's fun. Rubic race. I really like this one, but I think the kids would get a kick out of that one. So I'll give that one to the kids. This is a puzzle for my husband. We're going to keep that. Scattergories is a game that my daughter love. I think that. I think I'll keep that with me because there's another one like it that I'll let her keep. And basically what I'm trying to show you is you just got to go through and think it through. Does it make sense, you know, for you to keep, for you to give away. To donate? This is a Harry Potter clue game. I'm going to definitely give that to my daughter because she loves that. So here's my stack for donating. This is my stack for. No, this is my stack for my kids. This is a stack for me to keep, which already my stack is big. Oh, well, that's okay. These kind of things are important to us. Okay, so there we go. Okay. And I have this puzzle that I need to do. Poetry for Neanderthals. Nope. Code names for Disney. This is something my daughter will like and I think she'll want that. I have a world puzzle. It's like a felt puzzle. I think a school or. Or some sort of organization would get better use out of that. So I'm going to give that away. And here's another one. Continents and O. Not going to use it enough. And if I can give it to somebody who can make better use of it, that would be all the better. This one is one of the states. I think I'm going to keep this one cuz I can maybe do this one with my granddaughter someday. So I'll keep that one. Here's a silly game. It is not in English, but it's one that my daughter loves. And I think I'm actually going to keep it so she'll play it with me at our house. We have a Scattergories that I kept. So I have a Scattergory. So here's a duplicate. I'm going to give that to my Kids, here is a regular Uno game. I'll keep that one. Reversi is a game that we like to play. Here's a Monopoly, silly little sized game and I think I'm going to donate this one and maybe somebody can use some of the pieces, but I'll mark missing pieces. Here's Throw throw burrito. I don't know if you have this one but it's kind of crazy and my kids like to play it so they can have that. Here's a friend's Clue game. I'm going to let my daughter keep that one because we have another Clue game that we'll keep at our house. We love to play clues Clue. So yeah, here's a game about the United States and actually my, my husband and my daughter and I play it. It's kind of fun and it's good about keeping your, your mind, you know, clued into different things that, that are happening geographically inside the US So it's kind of fun. So I like that. Here's a Ted Lasso game. I'm going to give this to the kids and Family Feud. Honestly, I'm going to donate this one. This is just not one that we got into and all the pieces are here so I know this somebody else can make better use of this one. So this one I'm going to donate and then I have this huge Monopoly and Clue game combination. It's a really nice wooden set. So I am going to keep this one. So actually I haven't done too bad. So if I was to split these two piles up, this is going to the kids and then this, this is staying with us. So that's actually not too bad. This is actually better than I thought. So as you can see, I just make quick decisions and I feel good about them. I don't feel like I made had to make, you know, feel stressed at all. I have plenty of good stuff for me, plenty of good stuff for the kids and I have plenty of stuff to donate. So I hope this inspires you to go through something like this. Whether it's puzzles, games, clothing, shoes, sports equipment, anything like that go through, just grab them, pull them all out and just make some quick decisions. And if you ever are worried and you just really want some sort of insurance policy on, you know, I might need it down the road. What you can do is let's say I had these and I was thinking about donating them, but I really thought, well, maybe we'll want them down the road. And I'm not ready to let go of them yet. I'm on the fence. Grab a box, put them in a box, close the box, and then on the box, write a date six months from today and say, so right now we're in the end of April, April 30th. So say six months from today. You write that date on there. It says keep until. If you don't open that box by that date, commit to yourself that you will donate. Donate it, whatever it is. If for some reason, you know, two months down the road, you're like, oh, I really want that Uno game. Where is it? Oh, I put it in that box and it's in the garage. And I was thinking about getting rid of it. If you really have to pull it out, pull it out. Don't pull everything out. Leave the other thing and put them back in the box. And then they can go whenever that date comes. But that gives you a little bit more comfort that you've downsized and you're gonna live without something for six months before you actually drop it off and get rid of it. But just please commit to yourself that when that date does come, anything left in that box goes. That is a great way to work on projects like this and actually make progress without feeling the stress and the emotional drain and, you know, just, you know, maybe even guilt, right? Maybe you spent money on something and you really don't want to let it go yet, or you don't know who to give it to. Try that method of delaying the actual removing it from your house. Put it in a box, tape it up tight, put the date on it six months from today, and you'll thank yourself. And you know what? Most of the time, you're going to get to find that box six months later, it hasn't been open. And please promise me that you're going to actually take it to the donation station. So I hope this helps you. This helped me greatly. I'm going to go through, pack this up for the kids, and this might be the first, first box that I actually pack for moving to the house because we're ready to go. The only thing would be if I decide to maybe organize them differently, which I'll still think about over the next couple days. And if you have any suggestions, comment below. I hope to see you soon, and I hope you're inspired to work on something in your house today. Bye.