Spring Organizing Challenge - Final Week

Welcome to week 4 of the Spring Organizing Challenge!! How did last week’s challenge go?? I would love to hear from you. This is the last week. I hope you have been keeping up.

This week you are challenged to focus on your hobbies. Whether active hobbies or well intentioned starts, hobby supplies can take over any space.

1. The very first thing I want you to do is sit down with your spouse, partner or roommate and talk about what goals you have for the space that your hobby materials and supplies currently occupy. Do your best to come up with an agreed upon goal. Keep your goal in mind as you proceed.
2. Now answer this honestly – is this a hobby you are actively pursuing? By actively, I mean, you work on it on a regular basis. If so, great – follow my basic organizing steps to weed out what you really need to keep (can be found on my blog). If not, you need to be very honest with yourself about whether you will ever get around to it. Honestly, if you haven’t worked on it in 6 months or more, it probably will never happen.
3. Having a hard time giving up the $500 in scrapbooking materials or model airplane pieces? Consider the price of your peace of mind. Is the initial cost for a hobby never pursued worth the loss of living space and moving forward in life?
4. Here is another option – sell it. Put a post on Craigs List or Ebay and try to recover some of that cost. Many hobby materials fetch top dollar on sites like that.
5. Don’t want to sell it? How about donating it to a retirement home or a place for kids like the Boys and Girls Club. How great would it be for someone else to benefit from all this?

Here are the benefits:

• You will reduce clutter in your home or garage and open up more living space.
• You could save money if you are actively doing your hobby because you will have it all organized, thus knowing what you have and don’t have. Your hobby will also be more enjoyable in an organized environment.
• You will be environmentally-friendly because you are using what you already have rather than consuming more. Or if you are passing on your hobby materials, you are recycling, which is great!
• Should you decide to donate your excess, you will be helping out someone in need which is good for your soul.

Remember – share your thoughts!!! We all want to hear what you did, how it went, challenges you faced, etc. Good luck and have fun!!

Meagan Farrell, professional organizer, is the owner of Clear the Clutter organizing services. She can be reached at (360) 631-7268 or at clear_theclutter@yahoo.com. Check out her blog at http://cleartheclutterprofessionalorganizing.blogspot.com/