Today we are sharing some big news for Bethany which means a big push for making room in her home when making space matters most.
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Summer Photo Organizing
As a challenge this summer, we are focusing on getting our photos organized based on Molly Bullard’s advice from Episode 41 Organizing your Photos.
Unfortunately, our summer project has really become a lot of talk without much action. We’ve made 2 big mistakes when it comes to this photo project.
I don’t know how we expected to make headway organizing photos without creating room in our schedules to actually work on it. Aren’t we all guilty of this!? Whether your goal is to get organized, exercise more, or eat healthier, it doesn’t matter how motivated you are, if you don’t have any time set aside to work on your goal.
So going forward, we have vowed to:
- Set aside a specific time to work on photos.
- Break the big projects down into smaller tasks (around 30 minutes).
So Bethany and I are choosing even smaller tasks to focusing on. It is really surprising how much time sorting through digital photos eat up! Yes, we have been dragging our feet but we are refocused! So set your timing and drive in with us!
You can share your progress with us below in the comments or on social media. Use the hashtags #AtoBpodcast. What are you going to conquer today?
Big News
Bethany has some big news we are so excited to share…she is engaged! While we both want to immediately start wedding planning, complete with coordinating notebooks and a fully stock Pinterest board, there is another step that can’t be overlooked.
In most podcast episodes, Bethany shares her own desire to have a less cluttered home. Now, clearing the clutter is even more important to make extra room for someone else’s stuff to be brought in!
It all starts with a bookshelf. It seems so minor. Three shelves are needed for his books. There is no room for another bookshelf, so there’s only one option. Bethany has to let go of some of her books to make room for his.
Now, if you are like me, this problem may need some more explanation. Bethany is a “book person.” If she could, I think she would fill up her home with bookshelves. She visits new libraries like she is sightseeing. Each book has a special meaning to her in someway. I can’t explain it. If I could, maybe I’d be a “book person” too.
However, whether she is a book person or not, room still needs to be made on her 3 tall bookshelves, 3 shelves to be exact. And her bookshelves were already pretty packed to begin with.
This is harder for her than she thought so we came up with a plan of attack.
Step 1: Focus on the why
We can so easily get stuck on each little object as we are clearing clutter, no matter what the clutter is, books or any item. That’s why it is so important to come back to the why, over and over again.
Why are you clearing the clutter? What is the end result? In Bethany’s case, there is a big why for her to make room! A wedding.
Step 2: Focus on one Shelf at a time
Now that we have remembered our why, go to each shelf and ask, “Which books can I let go of?” It helps to break things down into categories:
- Books you love- keep
- Books you refer to- keep
- Books that you think you’ll refer to but never actually do- let go
- Books that you have been meaning to read but have not read in the last 5 years- let go
Start with the low hanging fruit first, the books you know you are done with. After some pushing and prodding by me, Bethany was able to pull 10 books off one shelf that she could let go of! And after another couple shelves, she had filled up a whole bin full of books. What a huge win!
Step 3: Sort like with like
We mentioned in the episode that we would have a virtual organizing session over Skype to help clear out more books. I am happy to report that we did have that session! Although we will be sharing more about our Skype session on the next episode, if you are reading these show notes, you get an extra sneak peak because I’m too giddy not to share the results!
When clearing out a space, it helps to sort like with like so you can see how much of one type of item you actually have. Once we had all the poetry books together and all the books Bethany has been meaning to read together, etc., seeing those large piles of one type of book changed the perspective on what is really necessary to keep.
How many books on one topic is reasonable? That answer really depends on you, but seeing all your books together can help you make that decision more clear.
Step 4: Set a limit
As we continued our virtual organizing session, we decided to set a limit for some types of books; not all however. Books about education where kept without a limit if they were important to Bethany’s job as a teacher.
However, we did decide to keep a limit on books she has been meaning to read. We came up with 20 books would be a reasonable amount to keep. The number is arbitrary of course and it’s whatever is reasonable for you.
When all was said and done, Bethany had amassed quite a pile of books to let go of!
These books are off to be donated to the library and 3 shelves where cleared. There is room for his books! There really couldn’t be a much happier ending!
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