From A Woman's Perspective: May 18th, 2024 "Dealing with multi-generational clutter"

Dealing with multi-generational clutter
 

Good morning, Marilyn! I love your topic today: visit a relative day. And I was thinking that while you’re visiting them you could take back to them all the things you borrowed, or the stuff they left behind at your house. Or as the joke goes, you can declutter by taking your junk to their house and hide it in their closets. 

Obviously I’m not serious, but I can tell you that when it comes to clutter, it can be a multi-generational challenge. I’ll use my own recent experience as an example. I decided to sell my home last summer and, like everyone, I needed to do some deep purging. As I went through room by room, I realized that when my kids moved out not all of their junk moved, too. Closets with squirreled away childhood toys, highschool yearbooks, and old clothes were discovered. Calling myself an “empty nester” wasn’t really accurate, now was it. The chicks were gone but their remnant clutter remained. 

On the other end of the generational spectrum, I also found things that I had inherited from my grandparents and gifted by my parents that I no longer used or necessarily wanted. If you’re keeping track, that’s four generations of clutter!

So what’s to be done to conquer multi-generational clutter? Like so much in life, it begins with a shift in your mindset. In dealing with clutter from your kids, you need to give them notice that the days of using your home as a warehouse are done; their lease is up! “Come collect your stuff by ______, or give me permission to dispose of it as I see fit.” That’s the conversation I had, and I was pleasantly surprised that they responded to my level of resolve.

For the unwanted items from the previous generations, a change in mindset will go a long way in helping you declutter here, too. Just as your home is not a warehouse, neither is it a museum. These ancestral artifacts shouldn’t be kept out of guilt or obligation, but because they’ve earned a place in your home by being useful. 

Lest I sound like a heartless wretch, let me tell you that I understand full well how hard decluttering can be. That’s why I’ve developed a number of resources designed to help. 

Multi-generational clutter is just one of the many topics we cover in our workshop, “The Decluttering Battle Plan,” which is being held in Markham Village and Richmond Hill next week. I’ll help you identify the high cost of clutter, to understand the obstacles to decluttering, and sharing my straightforward five-step strategy for conquering clutter once and for all. This workshop comes with its own workbook, as well as supplemental resources to help you keep motivated. 

You can register for our workshops at smartrealtysolution.com or by calling me at 416-460-5636 and I can share the details.

If Markham and Richmond Hill aren’t driveable for you, you can also visit our website and request the workbook on its own. Or, better yet, why not join the 30-Day Decluttering Challenge. This is an email campaign that was designed to overcome the overwhelm and get you started decluttering with manageable tasks every day over the course of a month. You’ll receive tips and tricks, and motivation to go along with your perspiration. 

Like everything at SMART Realty Solutions, these offers are alway free of cost or obligation. So call or visit our website today to request yours. The number to reach me is 416-460-5636 and the website is smartrealtysolution.com.

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