This week your SW was to address your generalized piles and choose the ones that would be the easiest for you to make a decision about. How did you do with those piles? How did it go for you in terms of labeling and determining what to keep, trash, recycle, or give away? It is my hope that you also began to gain some insight about any fears that have deterred you in being able to let go of what has not been a blessing to you, so you can experience the healing and love that God wants to grant you.
You may have discovered that the paper piles were more challenging to you than any of the other piles. Though toys and clothes can mound up pretty high and take up a lot of space, it tends to be the paperwork that is most cumbersome. It requires more of your attention and time to fine sort and categorize paperwork, due to the reading, studying, and decision making for keeping or letting go.
So, let’s focus on the easier piles first and start with toys. I will focus on two generalized categories so that you can get an idea of where to begin. Gather your supplies: an assortment of bags – clear zip locks, white and or black trash bags, sharpie, post its, index cards, hole puncher, scissors, and ribbon. A generalized sorting would be, as an example, stuffed animals. Fine sorting the stuffed animals might be according to their size, so they would be labeled as: small stuffed animals, medium stuffed animals or large stuffed animals. Stuffed animals take up more space than any other toy outside of toy furniture. My suggestion is that you try to minimize them and keep them in a generalized category with an assortment of sizes.
The next toy category is dolls. Keeping them in a generalized doll category is suggested for young children, but as children get older there is a greater assortment of dolls. This is when you will want to fine sort them into Barbie, baby, Polly pockets, etc. Once you have decided what to keep and what to let go of, you are ready to bag up the categories you have made until you use the containers you have on hand or purchase new ones. Bagging of toys is temporary and keeps them sorted until you put them in a permanent container that becomes their home.
When it comes to toy containers, I advocate inexpensive white laundry baskets. The look is easy and clean. Label an index card, hole punch it, put ribbon through it and tie it to your basket. Enjoy the order that comes from this set up that also requires you to routinely help your children to bring their toys home by putting them in the designated container. Clear shoe box containers are advised for these fine sorted categories: markers, crayons, colored pencils, stickers. Of course, use containers that are smaller or larger than this, depending on your individualized needs. Cut index cards in half, label it and tape it to your box. Warning: Keep these kinds of items and small tiny parts and games where children need to ask for them and be supervised. Otherwise, you will end up with way more clutter than you ever wanted.
When it comes to the generalized pile of clothes, fine sort them according to pants, shorts, shirts, blouses, T’s, etc. Keep this tip in mind: Clothes that are hung are always better to see and organize than those that are folded. When storing outgrown clothes, put them in containers that differentiate them, such as boy or girl and the age range. Warning: Bagging clothes for storage can make for a lot more clutter, especially if they are not properly labeled.
I realize that there are many of you who have a variety of individualized organizing needs. And over the past five weeks, I have singled out some of the basic principles to help you implement a prioritized plan with patience. I am happy to help you in any way that I can, so if you have a question or concern, please, always know that you can ask me for help. If you have a question, then get an answer. Do not stay stuck in that fear and doubt!
Next week we will fine sort those paper piles. Your SW this week is to continue asking the Lord to direct you in fine sorting your gathered piles and to ask others for the help that you need.
No comments:
Post a Comment