If I just did 10 things every day....

[GeorgeParker]

At least once every year I have a very disturbing thought:
10 x 365 = 3650 and 3650 x 3 = 10,950!!!

If I consistently looked at 10 pieces of paper in my file system each day, including stuff in my "stuff to read" stack, and decided which papers should be tossed, which should be kept where they are, and which should be re-filed in a more appropriate folder, then all the paper in my house would be properly culled and sorted in the best possible way in less than 3 years.

If I looked at 10 files/webpages/documents I've saved on my computer every day, all of them would be properly culled and organized in the best possible way in less than 3 years.

If I looked at 10 physical objects I own every day, and decided which should be tossed, which should be kept where they are , and which should be moved to a more appropriate location, then everything I own would be completely culled and perfectly organized in less than 3 years.

I keep having that same thought, and I keep trying to do it, but I keep getting distracted or lazy after a couple of weeks, and 20 years later, everything is still cluttered and disorganized. :(

David Allen says "in the entire world there are only two real problems: You don't know what you want, or you don't know how to get it."

I agree. But there's a third problem: What do you do if you know what you want, and you know how to get it, but you can't get your assingear or can't keep your assingear? His answer to that problem is to use the GTD system as an organizing and motivational tool, but unfortunately that requires a certain amount of will power.

I know from my occasional episodes of doing GTD that it really does work, but after I've made a bit of progress and things are a little bit better, I fall off the wagon and everything goes to heck again. --> Very frustrating <--

Of course David Allen also says that most people never accomplish any kind of long-lasting change until whatever is suboptimal in their life becomes painful enough that they're willing to do whatever is required to fix it. And he's right about that too.

One David Allen concept that I have whole-heartedly and faithfully embraced is the "I Don't Know" box. Whenever I come across something that I can't remember what it is or why I have it or whether I still own the thingamajig it's part of, I put it in my "I Don't Know" box. That way whenever I need something and it isn't where I think it should be, it's probably in the "I Don't Know" box. And every now and then I look at the stuff in the "I Don't Know" box to see if I recognize anything. The box is fairly small, and most of it's contents end up being recognized and retrieved or recognized and thrown away within a few months. :)

I've also like his "cheat" of temporarily avoiding dealing with a box, drawer, closet or whatever by putting a BIG sign on it that says "I Don't Want To Deal With This Right Now!" It works!!! That sign keeps you aware of the fact you need to deal with that thing, but gives you permission to not get uptight about it right now. A prime example is boxes of memorabilia that you know you'll get bogged down in if you try to go through them during emotional times like the holiday season or a deceased parent's birthday. Another example is boxes of old documents that have no current relevance. Some of them you may want/need to keep, but weeding out the wheat from the chaff in that particular filepile is probably a very low priority.

Does anyone else keep falling off the wagon or have quick useful hacks they've discovered?

[Yppej]

I do have daily goals. For some if I fall behind I let myself catch up on the weekend. I also let myself work ahead if I have a productive day, so that another day when I am tired or unmotivated I don't have to do the task.

With other things if I miss them I just let them go. If keeping track is more effort than doing the task itself it generally is not worth it.

[razz]

Very clear approach to dealing with issues, GP.

[SteveinMN]

I've mentioned before the concept of "Seinfeld chains". Jerry Seinfeld wanted better material, so he committed himself to writing at least a little every day. Each day he did write, he put an X on the calendar on the wall. After a while, he had a string of Xs and, on the day when writing was not of any interest, he realized he'd break the chain of Xs if he didn't write, so he wrote and got another X on the calendar. The visible success urges you on.

You define the task (write for 15 minutes, look at 10 items a day, whatever). Doesn't matter when in the day you did it. Doesn't matter if you exceeded the goal by a factor of three or six; it's the same X on the calendar. The thing is to keep chipping away at whatever the task until it becomes a habit. I've found it to be effective in my life (though I don't have paper calendars on which I can place an X, so I adapt that part).

[Teacher Terry]

Fortunately I have never suffered from a lack of getting stuff done. David Allen is correct that most people don’t change until the pain of staying the same is more than the pain of changing.

[iris lilies]

I just like to say that “just” doing 10 things is actually doing a crap ton of things!

[ApatheticNoMore]

I just like to say that “just” doing 10 things is actually doing a crap ton of things!

+1 :laff:

[JaneV2.0]

I'm happy if I get one thing done in a day. That's why I'm going to live to be 135. :D

[catherine]

Does anyone else keep falling off the wagon or have quick useful hacks they've discovered?

The only cure for my own patterns of starting and stopping with the culling of documents and memorabilia and inboxes and outboxes was moving into a much smaller house, unfortunately. I did what you are doing--I tried to put Allen's rules in place, but I would put "I Don't Know" boxes in the basement or garage and they never got touched again. And I had a LOT of "I Don't Know" boxes going back to the 80s.

It was only when the gun was put to my temple that decisions came fast and furiously. So, I'm sorry I can't help you!

I have to say, the 10 things a day to throw out doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's staying consistent on doing that that's a problem, IMHO. Life seems too important to spend it sorting. At this point, having downsized into a small house, it's much easier to stay on top of clutter because if I don't, I can't get into closets or drawers. I simply run out of space.

[razz]

I have to say, the 10 things a day to throw out doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's staying consistent on doing that that's a problem, IMHO. Life seems too important to spend it sorting. At this point, having downsized into a small house, it's much easier to stay on top of clutter because if I don't, I can't get into closets or drawers. I simply run out of space.

I cannot bring anything in until I clear something out. I spent a few days cleaning up the paper records and shredding recently.

The hardest thing for me to clear out is very old comfy used clothing that I might need for doing a very messy job. They are so used, they not worth donating.

[early morning]

I really struggle with motivation too, and more so now that I'm retired. And of course we've pretty much been always at home for the past year. I know that sounds strange, but I think it's because before, my time at home was limited so I needed to cram a lot of stuff into it. Now it isn't limited in the same way, and there's always tomorrow. Procrastination is my close companion. . .

I make goals. I make lists. Like the OP, I stay with it for a while, then - boom. Habit gone. I have James Clear's book Atomic Habits. I like it. I just don't DO it. So far the only habit that's stuck is weighing myself daily. We have greatly increased our fruit and veggy intake, and watch our carb intake. My daily weigh-in keeps my food intake more conscious, and I've lost 20 pounds without dieting or feeling deprived, since March. So why can't I use those same thought processes to make progress on my house??

[GeorgeParker]

I have to say, the 10 things a day to throw out doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's staying consistent on doing that that's a problem, IMHO. Life seems too important to spend it sorting.
Just to clarify: I said "If I looked at 10 physical objects I own every day, and decided which should be tossed, which should be kept where they are , and which should be moved to a more appropriate location." A keep/don't-keep decision would have to be made for each item, but no minimum number would have to be thrown out. You might look at the pictures on your wall and decide to keep all of them exactly where they are. IOW the emphasis is on consciously looking at 10 things and making a decision about each of them, not how many you get rid of or reorganize. Think of it a mindfulness approach: "Am I conscious that this thing is in my house and why it exists?"


Life seems too important to spend it sorting.
That's one of the big reasons it's so easy to fall off the wagon. But really, how long does it take to look at 10 pieces of paper or ten physical objects and decide if each should be kept where it is, disposed of, or moved to a more logical spot in your house? Even if it took an average of two minutes each, that's only 20 minutes. But developing and keeping the habit of doing it is the hard part, because you never really feel like you're making significant visible progress -- your house just gradually gets neater and neater -- there's no big Ah-Ha moment to celebrate.

[GeorgeParker]

I'm happy if I get one thing done in a day. That's why I'm going to live to be 135. :D
This is somewhat off topic, but you saying that instantly made me think of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udk1S93KGc4
Sixty years later I can still sing the "I'm No Fool" song and recite the "There's a right way and a wrong way" lines at full Jiminy Cricket speed. :)

[GeorgeParker]

I really struggle with motivation too, and more so now that I'm retired.
So very true. As long as I was working 50-60 hours a week it was easy to feel like I was too busy or too tired to get any organizing or decluttering done, but now that I've been retired for two years there are always so many other things I want to do that are more interesting or more fun.


Procrastination is my close companion. . .
Mine too. I was going to join Procrastinators Anonymous, but I kept putting it off...

[Gardnr]

If you haven't done it yet, you don't want it enough to do the work. Do it, or don't do it.

Yes, I'm serious. (And I'm seriously organized because it is important to me).

[Gardnr]

So very true. As long as I was working 50-60 hours a week it was easy to feel like I was too busy or too tired to get any organizing or decluttering done, but now that I've been retired for two years there are always so many other things I want to do that are more interesting or more fun.



I worked 50-70 hours a week for decades. It was the reason to be organized. I didn't have the time to waste hunting for what I needed.

[GeorgeParker]

I worked 50-70 hours a week for decades. It was the reason to be organized. I didn't have the time to waste hunting for what I needed.
The funny thing is that I was a paragon of organizing, efficiency, and productivity at work (a warehouse job fetching and distributing items on an asap as-needed basis) but in my non-work life I could never quite get it together. My theory is that I had to create an organized efficient way of doing my job or I would have been running myself ragged just to meet my quota, whereas in my non-work life there was no real external pressure and it was always easy to be sloppy or let things slip.

The Bottom Line Is: I'm retired and all my relatives live 1400 miles away, so I want to move from here to there 4-6 months from now. I have a 1200 sq foot house and all the various kinds of accumulated stuff a 71 yo bachelor collects over the years. So I'm going to start a new set of GTD lists, set a minimum amount of stuff I want to get organized, sorted, or packed each day, and start treating this project like a job instead of treating it like a someday/maybe on my to-do list.

Actually I've got it easy. My cousin and her DH had 5 children. As they became more prosperous and had more children they kept buying bigger houses. Now the last child is 18 and getting a place of his own, so cousin and DH are living by themselves in a 3-floor, 8000 sq ft house! They're looking to sell it and downsize to something like 1000 sq ft, and I don't even want to think about what they're going through. They should probably remove their personal belongings, sell the house fully furnished, and buy new furniture for their new house. But that still leaves all the personal stuff to deal with. I have a feeling there will be a lot of phone calls to their kids that start "If you want anything that's in this house, come get it before we start packing." >8)

[GeorgeParker]

Do it, or don't do it.
Ok, Yoda.
Do it myself will I.

[razz]

GP, you are going through the usual downsizing that hits all of us at some point. After DH's passing, I had a farm, all the farming machinery, three workshops of stuff and the household to downsize. I did the 'ask the family what they want" routine, I chose what was important to me and then, ....made the most important decision, IMHO anyway.

I recognized that all the remaining stuff had served DH and myself well. We bought what we needed or wanted, used/enjoyed these and now, they had no great value to me.

I chose not to have an auction but invited a contractor for consignment sales to take what would sell in an upcoming farm auction accepting payment less commission, the balance was cleared out by a lump sum payment from a young neighbour starting out; I donated anything that could be used by local organizations and moved into my brand new home at peace.

A friend had an auction for his late mother's home and contents. He and his wife spent literally weeks clearing, sorting and displaying everything. By the time all the expenses of the actual auction were paid, he had earned a total of just $2000. He now advises people going through similar situations to consider simply take what is personally wanted by self and family and open the door to let those in the community help themselves, sending the remaining to the dump.

So many people nickel and dime every possession thinking what they had paid originally and trying to recover that value without acknowledging all the value and use they had enjoyed already.

[Tybee]

I like Razz's post a lot. OP, if you are thinking of downsizing and moving away, and you have an open time frame, I think the 10 items a day idea is a great one. You can ease into the whole process. Lots of good books out there about downsizing, too. Really good, make you think about what you want your life to look like now, which is different than what you wanted it to look like years ago.

[Teacher Terry]

When I was downsizing I would do it in at least 4 hour chunks and when retired all day. George, treat it like a job and you will be done in no time. I have given tons of stuff away to people that need it.

[GeorgeParker]

I recognized that all the remaining stuff had served DH and myself well. We bought what we needed or wanted, used/enjoyed these and now, they had no great value to me.

I chose not to have an auction but invited a contractor for consignment sales to take what would sell in an upcoming farm auction accepting payment less commission, the balance was cleared out by a lump sum payment from a young neighbour starting out; I donated anything that could be used by local organizations and moved into my brand new home at peace.

I came to the same conclusion and made the same decision when I first started choosing things to dispose of in late 2019. I knew from a previous garage sale that trying to sell stuff wasn't worth the time and effort, so my main intention was just to keep stuff out of the land fill and hopefully put it in the hands of someone who could use it.

I put a list of what I had in the Free Stuff section of our local Next Door group and quickly received requests for most items, but then virtually everyone canceled when they realized it would take them 10-15 minutes each way to drive to my house and I wasn't near anywhere else that they need to go. After that I just put everything on my driveway with a big "Free, Gratis" sign for a sunny Friday and Saturday. Only about 1/3 of it was taken in spite of the fact that several hundred cars come down my street everyday en route to a nearby school. All of that was in 2019, pre-pandemic.

So at that point I decided to just donate what I could as I went along and stack the rest up in a back room so I can sell it to a consignment dealer, as you did, when I'm totally finished culling and packing.

[early morning]

A friend had an auction for his late mother's home and contents. He and his wife spent literally weeks clearing, sorting and displaying everything. By the time all the expenses of the actual auction were paid, he had earned a total of just $2000. He now advises people going through similar situations to consider simply take what is personally wanted by self and family and open the door to let those in the community help themselves, sending the remaining to the dump.

Yeah, auction attendance is way down here. But dumping stuff - this is what I can't bring myself to do. I try very hard to have less footprint, and I HATE sending things to the dump. We have trash pickup now, but we seldom generate more than a kitchen-sized trash bag per week for three adults (and two cats lol). We do have quite a bit of recycling, mostly boxes. We compost a lot, and much paper gets shredded and used as mulch, or composted directly into our field. So for ME, sending usable stuff to the dump would be sacrilige, almost. We're still selling stuff of my parents, and the three of us kids are also paring down somewhat. We have decided to go the antique mall route, and we're selling enough to fund yearly vacations, so it's worth it to me - but it takes up space and is very hard to keep organized! We aren't close to any large cities, so there's no local Craig's list or any similar. I don't do facebook, and won't join just to give away things (and I don't even know if there IS a local facebook page), partly because we don't want people coming to our home. I've evaluated my mental stress from stuff, and have accepted that it's more in line with my values than throwing it away. So I will continue looking for ways to keep the stuff flowing out in a more organized fashion, and keeping the "inventory" better organized as well. I do see a reduction in stuff, and hope that in a year or so we can get down to just a showcase or small booth.

[Teacher Terry]

I wouldn’t throw good stuff away either which is why I donate to thrift stores or put outside for free.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Oof has anyone noticed how hard it is to donate stuff to the thrift shop lately? I had to go 3 times to find a time they were actually accepting stuff, most of the time they already had too much stuff. They say it's covid and having to let stuff sit or 24 hours. And yes there is more than the usual stuff outside for free (not me, I donated), noone is all that interested in it, it seems.

[Teacher Terry]

Salvation Army here operates the same as usual.

[razz]

As an aside to this discussion, I have a policy of severely policing my purchases to prevent landfill items, as I call them. I refuse to buy solar powered lights for my yard, decorations for the different seasons that won't last for years, etc. Dollarama junk is landfill items. There is so much stuff bought today that ends up in landfill in short order because it is poorly made, a trend for that year, bulky and difficult to store...
I like things that are long lasting and easy to store year to year.
Prevention is the best choice if possible.

[iris lilies]

Oof has anyone noticed how hard it is to donate stuff to the thrift shop lately? I had to go 3 times to find a time they were actually accepting stuff, most of the time they already had too much stuff. They say it's covid and having to let stuff sit or 24 hours. And yes there is more than the usual stuff outside for free (not me, I donated), noone is all that interested in it, it seems.

exactly, donating is not always easy. It’s better to just not bring it into your house to begin with.


Well I do not like dumping things into the landfill, I have to be realistic about what is actually useful in donating AND in placing out in our alley. Fortunately, anything metal is picked up by the metal scrappers, of which DH is one. But he doesn’t pick up appliances. They do.

[ApatheticNoMore]

This was goodwill, I guess I'm glad they are trying to be safe, even though "fomites" are not much of a source of transmission. But sigh, just another thing made difficult by covid, as if everything wasn't.

I refuse to buy decorations new period,they are all thrifted, ha one from the apt dumpster. I think some stuff is just our needs change or we don't fully know our needs or are trying something out. I had storage containers for flour and the like but then just ended up storing grains in the freezer, so well don't need those (but my freezer is too crowded >8) but I have to be realistic about what I am using or not, I don't know). I've gone though several trash cans trying to find one I like, one was too big, then I started putting all my trash in paper bags, I finally found one with a lid that is near the perfect size for the paper bags I get at the grocery. If 2 years from now I've gone back to plastic trash bags LOL. Paper has got to be greener. I had glass food containers with plastic lids, I moved off plastic, not out of any health paranoia really, but I got sick and tired of washing stuff like that - being plastic it sometimes never really comes clean etc., so it's pretty much all glass or stainless steel now. And so on.

[Gardnr]

Ok, Yoda.
Do it myself will I.

LOL. Go forth and do:D

[SteveinMN]

exactly, donating is not always easy. It’s better to just not bring it into your house to begin with.
Ahh, we all know that now, but I'll guess almost all of us found that out the hard way. ;)


Well I do not like dumping things into the landfill, I have to be realistic about what is actually useful in donating AND in placing out in our alley. Fortunately, anything metal is picked up by the metal scrappers, of which DH is one. But he doesn’t pick up appliances. They do.
I've found that trying to donate and recycle appropriately adds a tremendous amount of time to the cleanup process. There's a store not far down the street from us that accepts donations of items people can use for arts and crafts -- egg cartons, old calendars/magazines, broken costume jewelry, etc. -- covering their costs by selling the donations. Great idea! There's a place for the 2020 calendars and the egg cartons we go through each week and that weird plastic film stuff that would make a fun collage or miniature stained-glass window. Alas, they only accept things in their season. If they're not accepting calendars and old magazines, I have the choice of waiting until they do take them again -- or get them off my list and recycle them.

Similarly, the local Goodwills will not accept things like Christmas ornaments any time between January and October or old skis except before winter. Other thrift stores here are more -- umm -- accepting. But that means figuring out who will take what: Arc won't touch the tools or skis. But they'll take craft stuff that the place down our road and the other thrifts don't always take. We had saved some items to recycle at our city's recycling roundup; none of them were held last year because of the pandemic. The place that used to recycle carpet (for $) doesn’t recycle it at all any more. There used to be a collection point at our local post office station for old ink cartridges to be recycled; that's long gone so now we have to make the trip to Best Buy a couple of towns over.

Or do what a lot of people do and just put it in the trash. I don't like it but if I were staring down the barrel of a deadline, I certainly can understand the appeal of "just this once" and taking a vow to police future acquisitions more closely.

[Yppej]

If it's not something a family member or friend would want I just throw it in the trash. I leave home at 6:20 and don't get home until 5 and I'm beat. And I'm not going to spend my weekends hauling stuff to donation sites or seeking out donees.

My contributions to the environment come in generally not making unnecessary purchases to begin with and not traveling outside New England. I also vote green and am a vegetarian and I only had one child.

I do utilize curbside pickup for recycling.

[GeorgeParker]

You define the task (write for 15 minutes, look at 10 items a day, whatever). Doesn't matter when in the day you did it. Doesn't matter if you exceeded the goal by a factor of three or six; it's the same X on the calendar. The thing is to keep chipping away at whatever the task until it becomes a habit. I've found it to be effective in my life (though I don't have paper calendars on which I can place an X, so I adapt that part).I use a variation of this method. I have four pages in my GTD notebook labeled "Repetitive Tasks Yearly", ...Monthly, ...Weekly, and ...Daily. The yearly sheet has a list of things I need to do every year like taxes, insurance, and certain household maintenance tasks. Monthly is mostly bills/statements and a few other things. Weekly is for things that only get done once or twice a week. Daily is for things I want to do every day but tend to forget, which mostly means new habits I'm trying to establish and things I tend to avoid doing if I don't have a reminder.

Each sheet is plain lined notebook paper (like in highschool) with the tasks in a single column down the left side, and I draw vertical lines to make as many columns as I can easily fit on the page. I label the columns with months on the yearly and monthly sheet and dates on the daily and weekly sheets.

Here's the difference: When I start a task I put a diagonal line in the square for that task, and when I finish it I turn the line into an X. Example: When I receive a statement or bill, that task gets a diagonal line. And when I actually examine/reconcile/pay it so it's ready to file away and forget, it gets an X.

This variation is especially good for repetitive tasks that have more than one part or take long enough to get interrupted, but also works for short tasks where you just put an X when you finish without using a diagonal line. I like using the diagonal line because it flags things you started but haven't finished yet, and having four sheets lets you add new repetitive tasks by just writing them on the next line of the appropriate sheet.

[GeorgeParker]

Fortunately I have never suffered from a lack of getting stuff done. David Allen is correct that most people don’t change until the pain of staying the same is more than the pain of changing.Or to put it another way:
You have to want your goal more than you're afraid of the journey.

[GeorgeParker]

I just like to say that “just” doing 10 things is actually doing a crap ton of things!I think you're misunderstanding "things" as meaning something bigger than what I'm talking about.

The intention is to just look at ten physical objects or ten pieces of paper or ten computer files, and if they aren't where they ought to be, move them to the right place; or if they are obviously something you may want to get rid of, move them to a "Maybe It Goes Out" box. The point of my ramble is that a few minutes a day looking at a few things would result in everything in you house eventually getting looked at and organized, but whenever I try to do that I fall off the wagon.

[Yppej]

I do 10 a day with things like emails, but if you have more than 10 a day coming in you will never get caught up.

[Teacher Terry]

George, you are so right about taking care of things daily. Since retiring it’s been easy to do most days even when working part time. With Mr Messy gone it will be a piece of cake to keep up.

[GeorgeParker]

"I Don't Know" boxes in the basement or garage and they never got touched again. And I had a LOT of "I Don't Know" boxes going back to the 80s.Just to clarify: The "I Don't Know" boxes I'm talking about are for things that "I Don't Know What This Is Or Why I Have It" not "I Don't Know If I Want To Keep This".

IOW The "I Don't Know" box is a short-term holding area for things you don't recognize or you're not sure where to put them. By it's very nature it stays in an easily accessible place so you can add or remove things. Once you label a box as "I Don't Know If I Want To Keep This" without a definite "Open Me On..." date, all hope is lost.

This is what David Allen said about it:
"If someone had to call Organization Paramedics for you because you’re so out of control, they could simply bring in a big box labeled “All the Stuff I Don’t Know What It Is or What to Do with It.” They’d scour your whole environment and throw everything in that box that fits in that category. In an hour you’d be totally organized—if you didn’t know where something was, you’d now know where it was! The best part would be that the totality of the rest of your world would not have any of that “stuff” in it, and a fresh breeze would be blowing through your psyche."

[GeorgeParker]

I do 10 a day with things like emails, but if you have more than 10 a day coming in you will never get caught up.That's why you have to GTD your email and inbox everyday; doing what can be done quickly right then, moving things that are for reference only to your reference files, deleting thing that are of no interest, and moving things that require action to the appropriate Next Actions list.

The process I'm talking about in this thread pre-supposes you've found a way to keep up with your daily tasks but you aren't making any progress on your organizing/decluttering backlog.

[SteveinMN]

I like using the diagonal line because it flags things you started but haven't finished yet, and having four sheets lets you add new repetitive tasks by just writing them on the next line of the appropriate sheet.
I like this variation. I think I'll adopt it!

[GeorgeParker]

I want to be able to put my house on the market June 1st (basically 100 days from now) so I've decided to:


Continue using GTD for appointments, inbox stuff, and tasks because it has always worked well for me when situations get complex.
Add all the physical organizing/decluttering stuff to my GTD Projects list.
Use the Marla Dee S.T.A.C.K.S. system for the actual sorting and decluttering because of all the systems I've looked at it makes the most sense.
Use the "look at 10 things every day" method to maintain my organized and decluttered house once I finish the S.T.A.C.K.S. process. (K & S stand for "Keep it up" and Simplify)

Since I didn't find anything about the S.T.A.C.K.S. system in this forum, I'll start a new thread about it sometime today.

[Teacher Terry]

When I was decluttering I wouldn’t want to stop once I started. I can easily go at it for 8 hours. If I had a moving goal it would be very motivating. I have considered starting a business helping people do this but I might want to strangle people:)).

[GeorgeParker]

When I was decluttering I wouldn’t want to stop once I started. I can easily go at it for 8 hours. If I had a moving goal it would be very motivating. I have considered starting a business helping people do this but I might want to strangle people:)).Marla Dee says she can sort in three hours what it would take a typical client over a week to sort because she has no attachment to the objects. A shirt is a shirt, a spoon is a spoon, everything goes in the appropriate category box/pile, and all the decisions about keep/toss and "does it spark joy" get made later, on the client's time, not while they're paying her by the hour. What takes so long for most people is all the time required to make sentimental decisions and "I might need it someday" decisions.

Yeah, I would probably strangle people too, if I was in the consulting business. It was bad enough when I was still working and had to train new employees how to do my job. They always wanted to do it an easier way or cut corners instead of realizing that my years of experience meant the way I was telling them to do it really was the easiest way to meet the quota and not make mistakes.

[rosarugosa]

My sister & I have often helped each other with decluttering because we could each be a little more objective about the other one's stuff.