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Brooke Craig's avatar

I’ve been downsizing over the last 4 years, including 3 separate moves, as my two children leave Colorado for university/life in New Zealand. The decision to downsize has been multifaceted for me - a small part financial as a solo parent, a larger part to reduce my footprint in the earth and an even larger part as a design/home organization challenge. This last move to a one-bed apartment has forced me to face the neglected cluttered spaces. One space that finally got addressed were the shelves containing (fantasy self) art supplies. I had to have the hard conversation with myself about whether I’m really going to invest the time in learning how to paint with acrylics. In a moment of clarity, I quickly texted an art teacher friend and offered her my supplies - before I could change my mind! I was the committed to going through with that decluttering.

But now, having settled into the smaller apartment, I’m finding I still have too much storage space available in high kitchen cabinets so I’ve allowed myself to neglect some other areas. I got away with not decluttering the paint and furniture refinishing supplies - and when and how will I ever refinish furniture pieces in my one-bedroom with no garage space, you ask? Yes, that’s exactly my point. Those things need to go. As do the nicer car floor mats and extra car supplies from when my teen daughter totaled not one, but three cars. We kept them for future cars or to sell. But now they’re in an upper cabinet of mine 🙄. Why? Because I hate throwing things away and I haven’t bothered to find them a new home.

While everything in my home has a home now, sometimes we have extra storage that allows to keep stuff we really don’t need. So perhaps, I should stop spending so much time reading Substack posts (not yours, of course! I’ll always read those) and get started in those last few decluttering projects!

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Elle Penner's avatar

We don’t have a basement in our current house and I secretly LOVE it! No hidden place for stuff to collect. Having to store our lesser used things in the garage definitely helps us keep it to a minimum. Nice job on the clean out!

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