SPEAKER_01 0:00

Coming to this home has been like coming home to myself. And even though it's scary to look under the tarp, I'm actually looking forward to it because I finally get to deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to What Are You Making Space For? I'm Star Hansen, certified professional organizer, trauma-informed coach, and clutter whisperer. For more than 20 years, I've seen firsthand that getting organized is almost never about the stuff. Clutter's just the start. Every space tells a story. And behind every pile of clutter, you'll find life transitions, grief, trauma, perfectionism, relationships, dreams we've got grown, and sometimes the dreams we're just beginning to imagine. On this podcast, we'll step inside real organizing sessions to explore what our belongings are trying to tell us, why we get stuck, and what we're ready to make space for next. These episodes come directly from virtual organizing sessions with people who have generously invited us into their organizing journey by agreeing to share their stories on this podcast. Whether you're hoping to clear a closet, understand yourself a little bit better, or simply feel less alone, I'm glad you're here. Let's find out what we're making space for today. On today's episode, we're going to meet Cece. Cece and I have known each other for a long time. She's been part of my Chaos to Comm community since the very beginning. And we've also worked together privately at different points along the way. Recently, she made a pretty big life change. She bought a home of her own. As part of that move, Cece decided it was finally time to close down the storage units that she'd been paying for and bring everything home, which felt great at first. She had her stuff back, she wasn't paying for storage anymore, and she could finally deal with things on her own terms. Except she wasn't dealing with it. Eight months later, a big portion of it was still sitting under a tarp in her backyard. She knew she wanted to go through it, but every time she thought about starting, she found herself stuck. So when I was looking for people willing to open up their homes and their organizing process for this podcast, Cece volunteered. And today we're going to find out exactly what's under that tarp and what's been making it so hard to look.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

So hi, my name is Cece. I have been working with you for more than a decade, which feels crazy, but it has been life-changing. And even though we began working one-on-one, I've made the most progress during the time that I've been in the community. And in different seasons, I still need the one-on-one. And I really need this deep dive. So today I'll be looking forward to working on a big storage dump in my backyard. So it's a newly purchased home which has a yard. And so instead of putting storage now, I'm just using my yard, which for better I don't have storage meat. For worse, if I'll buy a cupboard in the elephant. And it's covered. I'm in a tropical climate. And we already actually in her with me season. So I'm trading on dangerous terribly. I gotta deal with this. So I don't know how far we will be able to get today, but I need to look under the tarp. You know the monster in my closet? This is the monster under my tarp.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Oh, I'm excited. I've never dealt with a monster under a tarp before. This is gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Coming to this home has been like coming home to myself. Never been inspired by your cheerleading. And so even though it's scary to look under the tarp, I'm actually looking forward to it because I finally get to deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

What I loved about the idea of you processing your storage units is that I think this is something people fantasize about. They want to clear out their storage units, they want their money back, they don't want to have this stuff like sitting somewhere else. How long did you have your storage units? The first one was 2018.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Of course, it was like first one three.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

That's how they get you. They're like, you know, it's super cheap. It's free right now because we're gonna take your money forever.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

What made you want to empty your storage units? I was just tired of paying storage and tired of not dealing with the stuff. I was in the process of moving and I had not yet closed on the house. So once I did get the house, I was committed to releasing the storage that paying for storage, which was very painful, especially as it became extortionist to kept raising the rent. And also I didn't realize that I had an AC unit above some of the most precious things. I can't believe that I didn't realize that. So I've got some moldy boxes to contend with and some stuff I've already dealt with, but this is kind of like the last of that. And so I wanted to bring my stuff home, and so I have this mound in in my yard that people ask me, is that a is that a grill? Not quite. So it's been eight months that it's been here, and I'm not sure what's underneath, but I've dealt with part of it. I have a little bit of an inventory. It's also part of bringing the stuff home, is that it's more accessible, right? It's right here. It could be anytime I can go in there. But I haven't, so that's why I'm looking forward to working on this Ippie today.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Well, should we go out and look at the monster under the tarp?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Okay. I try to be very good about elevating everything. So there's a slab where a storage unit probably was here before. Any of the things that are in here are either in plastic or they're elevated. So that's how I try to protect what was under the tarp, but I imagine things can crawl under the tarp.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Well, that's what I'm scared of, right? And that's what happened with the other time I tried to do this.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Before we pull back the tarp, I should probably introduce you to a few other characters in today's story. Cece lives in a tropical climate, which means that we're working with humidity, rain, hurricane season, and a thriving local population of critters who have apparently also been enjoying her backyard storage. And there's one more complication. Cece had help moving everything out here, so she doesn't actually know if it was stacked and protected the way that she would have done it herself. And because she's been nervous about what she might find, she hasn't exactly been popping under the tarp to check. So at this point, we really don't know what we're about to uncover.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

There's just a big pile of water that has accumulated on one end. I don't know what's under there, but it was not even, so water accumulated on top. It rained heavy yesterday. So you see, what I was worried about is true. Oh, okay. So I might see a bug. Okay, this is dirt. Oh, good. Here's what I am very small. There were boxes that were not elevated, they were just put on plastic. So we'll see how helpful that was. You know what I'm saying? Right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

If it's eroded them or something.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

It looks like it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Good.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Uh there are definitely a lot of bugs on here.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Do you have gloves or anything you can put on?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

I will, but I just want to kind of get it.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Okay. Rip the band-aid off.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah, exactly. Rip the band-aid off. Um trouble. Oh no. So I don't even know what this is. This looks like it's wet. This looks like I think see, it's been so long I don't even know anymore. Like, is this stuff that got wet because it was part of that storage damage wet? It might be. Or I think it'll or is it like new damage?

unknown 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

I think it's old damage because everything else, thank god. Looks in hot condition. Most of the stuff on the bottom is in these different plastic tilt boxes. But like I said, a lot of bugs on here.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

So that's not fun.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Is the tarp completely off?

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Uh it's about clear it off.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

But maybe I mean, should I just take actually just riff the whole band-aid off, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Yeah, do it. Do it. Get it done. You'll feel better. There'll be no hidden surprises.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Okay. Okay. Oh my gosh. It's not as much. It's so sorry. I reacted. I need your reaction, but I got so excited. Sorry. It's actually not as much. It's not. It's like much. It's a folding table. It's a table.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Okay, so what I'm looking at is like a handful of boxes on one side, a folding table. It looks like there's like a matter carpet on it. And then what's funny is there's like no boxes on the folding table. Yep. Yep. Oh, this is great. Oh, let's dive in.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Just try to get a lay of the land, all the other boxes, what they are. You can help me do an inventory of what's here. So I know what's what's what. And then I can make a plan beef on. Okay, I have sword and fans to do. I have quick track. Okay, so I'm just gonna sort what kind of boxes. One, two, three, four.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

About 14 boxes. And many of them are not full. We only have two hours together today, and we're obviously not gonna get through every single box in that time. So my goal isn't to finish this project for Cece, it's to help her break the barrier that's been keeping her from starting, to figure out exactly what she's dealing with and leave her a plan that makes it easier to keep going on her own. So we're going to spend most of our time taking a high-level look at what's here. We're gonna count every box. Cece's gonna give me a quick look inside the boxes, and then I'll create a written inventory of what each box generally contains and how easy or challenging we think it will be to go through. This way it isn't just one big unknown pile under a tarp anymore. It's 14 boxes. She knows what's in them, she knows where to start, and she has a plan for moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

What is the bowl? Is the bowl to bring as many things in the house as possible?

SPEAKER_00 10:01

No, the goal is to just resolve what's out here as much as possible. Like some of it's gonna go into the house, but I don't want you to touch stuff and be like, okay, now we're gonna store it out here for another nine months.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah. Okay, so I think this box was damaged from the storage unit. It has all kinds of stuff. It has note cards, it has old bottle printing paper, it has decor. So, you know, what can I do? This is just all gonna be garbage because it's already, it's all stuck together.

unknown 10:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

This is some memorabilia stuff.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Can any of it be salvaged or has it all been weathered?

SPEAKER_01 10:34

You know, it's like it's newspaper clips and it's okay. Like it would have been nice to have some of this stuff, but it's not gonna be the end of the world that I don't have it. And some of it that it will be the end of the world is so stuck to the other stuff that I don't even know what it is. Um I mean I know yeah, this is stuff that got damaged when the storage unit leaked. And this might be okay. It's um it's a newspaper actually. Oh, it might be okay. Yeah, because it was inflappable, so it didn't get damaged because it was inflappable. Okay, so this is memorabilia. Oh my bug coming. I think it's all memorabilia stuff. Okay, okay. Yep, including my pre-K portfolio. Aww. It was in deep storage. Deep storage was in deep storage, so yeah. So this is stuff I'd you know gotten from my mom's house when I first moved back to the state, I can make a category called Elia. I think this box is gonna become a novel target box.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Okay. Yeah. So one box down, good job. 13 more. So the big thing to keep in mind as you're working on this stuff is that there's nothing like time to make us make decisions, right? Like 10 years ago and this stuff was in pristine condition, you would have wanted to keep it all, and now it doesn't feel as necessary. So don't go so fast trying to get results that you don't give yourself a little time to process and grieve if you need to.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Okay, I had another empty box.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

This looks like work. I have all kinds of stuff. Is there a timestamp in there? Is there anything that has a date in there? Well, at least it's in the 2000s, 2005 forward. Okay, yeah, and then what about the moving box?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Just oh more bugs. Oh no, that silverfish thingy. Oh, I hate yeah, those are rough. I have 2017 on something here. Okay, there's at a certain point I'm gonna have to go through this stuff here. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Oh the bug, they're like, You're coming, you're disturbing my slumber. They're like, We are sleeping here, ma'am. We don't wake up for our shift for another two hours.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Oh, god, it's all in plastic, which tell me tells me this is another moldy contender that I don't want to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

So wait, so magazine, so it's a whole box of magazines? It's a whole box of magazines, and you will appreciate this.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

At the top of the magazine box is one little booklet, and it's called Living from the Overflow.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Oh, I love it. I don't think this is the overflow he was talking about, but do you feel comfortable just getting rid of all the rest of the magazines? Do you need to process it at all or tell me about that journey with magazines?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yes, I think that I think I will eventually, and uh when I say eventually, meaning this month, release them. If not this week, I think I want to go through them. But it's not too bad, it's one box, right? I mean, I've been carrying these things, I've been paying stores for them. And I had vision of doing things with them, but I want to go through it. I think I've already gone through so many of them, and these were the ones are like, yep. Like you said, the creme de la creme of my magazine.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Yes. It's but it's what makes it hard because by the time you get to this place where you've already gone through stuff five times, ten times, what's so painful.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

So you have any suggestions on how to get rid of things?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, it's tricky, right? Because like you've already pared down so much that you're like, it's the best of the categories. So it's like getting rid of the good 10%. What the question that I think I'll ask you is so in the next month, for example, of all the priorities you have and the things you're working on, would you need or want to touch these magazines? Nope. And within the next year, would you rather, you know, go through and use these magazines or I don't know, work on your business, work on, you know, going on a trip with your daughter? If they stay back here in the backyard, how good are they going to be in a year?

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Yeah. Um, yeah, I I like how you asked her question. I think what I can do that would make me feel more at peace is I can commit to paring down some more, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

I think it's very reasonable to do another quick pair, like how you're looking at things right now. I think there's some clarity. Don't feel like you have to get rid of 100%. What feelings come up when you're looking at them?

SPEAKER_01 14:57

I actually feel relatively clear because I've done this so many other times. Yeah. You know, like I do I every time I go through another set. And I mean, I think it's probably gonna encourage me to pick up even fewer magazines than I already have. So I think there's a category of magazines that I'm getting more quickly. Good. That helps a lot. Some of it's like these yoga magazines.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

They still have the same helpful information. But how often when you're looking for information, do you go to a magazine versus the internet or I mean, I think it's what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Like, is it accessible? If it's in the box, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah, does it belong on a bookshelf? Does it belong in a resource section? Does it belong in like a to read area next to the couch? What does the system look like for it getting consumed?

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yeah, I do have an area building. I think this pile right here is still too big for that area. So I think that's maybe that's what I can do tonight, tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

I can look at where would the I actually have like a little bit of a so I'm gonna pause you for a second because it because you're naming such a great tendency that gets people into trouble, which is okay, I'll do this later. Okay, I'll do this later. Most people, when they finish our sessions, they're like, I don't want to do anything, like I'm all done, which is fair. But I would say, what would it look like to you spending just a couple minutes now and reducing that to a size that could be in a two-read area right now, not later, but right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah, I could do that. I'm willing to do that.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm just making an executive decision. Do it. I don't know if it's real or not.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Let's try.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

At least to start. Like this is an empty box. I'm gonna try to fill this box with magical.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

That's perfect. That's a totally reasonable amount to bring in the house. Cece's found a great plastic box here in this pile of stuff that is empty. It's a plastic bin that would hold a magazine perfectly laying down, and it's about eight inches high, so it'll hold the right amount of magazines for her upcoming to read category. It would be my favorite if you kept what would fit in that box and got rid of everything else.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Okay. Fine.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Having a box like that is great because it gives us a limit, like a very clear visual limit. Probably out of style.

unknown 17:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

So, how was that? That was great. Oh, that's amazing. Okay, that's so good. You'll have more. Okay, keep going. Keep going, my friend. I think that creates room in my heart to get rid of the other stuff. Yeah. I agree. Well, and a lot of times the anxiety about a space like this is worse than the actual space itself. And a lot of the barriers to entry are like the bugs in the water and the, you know, the varying degrees of erosion of the boxes. A lot of times the anxiety of the potential is way worse than doing it itself. And then I think one of the biggest barriers to entry that I'm seeing is the bugs, the water, the erosion, like the moldiness of the boxes that had been exposed to water either now or before. It's actually not the items that are so difficult as much as this the state of the items are more challenging.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Which is really common for a lot of people. You know, you've got garages, storage units, attics. I can't tell you how many people I've worked with who have mice and rats in their spaces, and having to work around that, the natural elements really become another participant in this journey.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah, my little friend.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Yeah, I think the biggest win, not saying was I had less stuff than I thought.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yeah, that's a huge win.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

At least out here.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Yeah, totally. Hey, you have been reducing everywhere, so you should be very proud. It's a journey. And I think a lot of people assume that they'll start organizing and be done right away. It takes multiple organizers to find the right organizer. It takes multiple systems to find the right system. It's a journey. And for some people, it's a lifelong journey. So it's starting to get dark. The critters are starting to come out and give CC a little bit of a scare. So it's time for us to start wrapping up and closing shop. Because I know that she is going to have to continue to work on this project in the days and weeks ahead. I want that to be as easy for her as possible. And what that looks like for this particular project is first and foremost, we have to put everything back where it can be covered because it's hurricane season for her and things are going to get wet if we leave them out. So we can't leave them out waiting for her to take action the next day. So we have to put everything back. But when we put everything back, she's going to set it up in a way that is super supportive to her. We need to make sure that we put it in a way that it's easily accessible for her to find the things that she's working on next. The most important thing that I want her to work on next is the easy stuff. When people go and they start organizing their homes, they tend to pick the hardest thing. I don't want you to do that. I want you to do the easiest thing. So what we're going to do for CC is we're going to take the easiest things and we're going to make them most accessible. So we have a few easy boxes, things that she'll actually enjoy going through, and those are going to go right up towards the top and easy to access. The other easy category are the boxes that have gotten moldy. And it seems strange because those might be very emotionally challenging boxes, but they're also quite easy because almost no matter what is in those boxes, she's going to have to get rid of them because they've had so much exposure and damage that it's really not safe to keep things that are that covered in mold. We are going to do one of the moldy boxes together here, now, today, so that she can have some support in doing it. I know that this box is going to be pretty easy for her to process. She doesn't know that though. So we need to do one of these boxes together so that she can see what it's going to be like to be doing these on her own.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

So we're going to set up, we're going to arrange the other ones so that they're welcoming me to return to them.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yes. And they feel safe and we're limiting exposure and pests in there. And then we're just going to start doing some of the moldy boxes because the hard stuff gets in the way of doing the easier stuff. So we're just going to try to knock out as much of that as we can. The things that we can't get to today, we're going to have them placed so that you feel really good about them.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

I was going to say I also appreciate you because I know that what I had intended to do coming out here, I would not have gone through it this way. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

I think I need a timer to push me along.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

So I'm going to set it up. I'll do the time timer. Do you think five minutes is enough? We can get that stuff retacked. All right, let's try. Cece takes about five minutes to put everything back where it was. But this time she's putting it back a little bit more intentionally, with the things she wants to tackle next easier to access. And once everything is safely in place, we have time for one last box.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

I kind of got stuck with categories and placement. And it's like it's imperfect, but I think it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Okay, good. Okay, so we're only gonna spend about seven minutes going through the moldy box, which is probably the first one that you found, is my guess. So I'd say let's stack back the other two that are kind of like teed up, the big plastic one. So if we go through some of the moldy stuff, and then we'll have a couple minutes to put everything away. So then you think I should pick the grossest box? Yeah, I think start with the grossest box. Because my hope is that you can just throw a lot of it away. And our main goal is how much of that can we empty out? Which one? The box? Yeah. The worst one.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

On the bottom?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

I feel like it's gonna take a lot to go through this box.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Well, that's okay. We're just gonna give it seven minutes. So you might notice that there is a little confusion coming up for Cece right now. And this is very common because she's looking at what is a very challenging project. Me asking her to do the grossest box is a lot. And in her mind, she is probably thinking that it's her job to finish this. And because we're short on time, I am telling her that no, we only have to do this for seven minutes because that's the extent of the time we have left. There are times that we focus on being task-oriented, meaning that we complete the task ahead of us. And then there are going to be times that we are time-oriented where we focus on the time available. This is an example of being more time forward, meaning that we are focused on the time available, not on getting the job done. Because sometimes making progress with the time you have or the capacity or the energy you have is better than doing nothing.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

I think this was stuff that was on a shelf and it was dumped in this big box.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

And is it moldy and kind of gross?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

It's all the above. I don't even want to look at this too long. It's like professional journals, stuff that I either looked at or wanted to look at.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Some decor, I could take that. I'm gonna have to just dump a lot of these.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Yep, totally. That's why I wanted you to do it with me because I feel like it never feels good to dump stuff that's just gotten exposure, but it's there's not really many other options for it.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Okay, I don't even know when I lost. Let me kick this box a few times.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Yeah, let's let's wake up the friends that are being evicted. Are there a lot of them in there? Oh, oh I mean, you don't have to finish it. You only got a minute left.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

This is probably mostly garbage anyway. I'm gonna throw this away.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Yeah. Toss out whatever you can, whatever you can just throw away without even thinking about.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

It might even be easier to just take what I want and send it.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

That's a good idea, and then transition that rest of that box to trash.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

That's a good idea. This ends up in here.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

I feel it. I'm like, I'm clutching my pearls across the country from you right now.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Well, definitely did there's a reason this box is in the yard, not in the house.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

And it will continue to be that way.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

This is stuff I think I have to throw away. Yeah. It's it's so sad. This is like, I don't know if any of this stuff will be good inside. It's probably not good anymore, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Yeah, probably not. I mean, especially if there's pests living in there, we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah, the eggs situation.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Yeah, we don't want to have them, you know, expand their herd to the house.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Oh, I remember this poster. Okay, this poster I will not beat, but I'll take a picture.

unknown 24:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

This is so gross, though. I know you're doing great, friend. I just want you to get the worst one out of the way. So you have one less horrible thing and you've had experience of doing that horrible thing with support. Cece got through this box really quickly. At the end of our seven-minute timer, she was so close. So I just asked her if she could go a few minutes over on our session, and she said she could. It only took her 12 minutes to finish going through and clearing out the box that was the most destroyed of everything that was underneath the tarp. You did a great job getting that cleared out super fast. That box took you about 12 minutes to do.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Okay, that's good. That's encouraging news.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah. I mean, because again, if we think about so one of the hardest boxes took you 12 minutes. And I know some of the paper boxes will take longer because they're paper, but just knowing that when you think about having boxes left, that it's like, okay, if each one took me 20 minutes or 30 minutes, how soon would I be through this? And the truth is, if you came out here and you spent eight hours, you probably go through most of those boxes. If you do a couple weekends of this, you'll have it gone really quickly. But we need it to be easy because the barrier to entry is beyond it being old. But now you have to contend with weather, weathering, and pests, which is a tricky thing to deal with.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

So now the moment we have not really been looking forward to, but I'll do it covering back up.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

I'm gonna try to come back out here tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Yeah, that's a good idea. The sooner you can come out and just power through this, the better.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

It'll make me feel better too, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Yeah, yeah, it will. Just if I mean, I feel like I can feel the relief just thinking about that stuff being gone for you. Yeah, I think I got most of the stuff covered. So, how was today for you?

SPEAKER_01 26:36

It was hard, but it was good.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

What was the hardest part?

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Dealing with a critter.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

So the bugs.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

So nasty. Oh my gosh. Um, dealing with the bugs. Realizing that I had some really precious personal papers, you know, like my pre-K portfolio in here. I thought that was in the house. And granted, it was in a nice tote bag, which might be why I was okay with having it out here. Because I think it might have been in one of the moldy boxes, so I needed to wipe it down. But I didn't know what was out here. So that's the best part of today was facing the pile, facing this monster under my tarp. And a lot of the stuff is things that I could get rid of relatively easy, like old mail, old magazines, old newspapers, which is part of why I was like, why am I paying for storage for this stuff? You know, I didn't know exactly what it was, but I had a sense that I had gotten to a point where the things that were in here, I would not be happy if I go through them and realize I'm paying storage for it. And that is absolutely the case.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Do you feel after today's session that you have a clearer path forward?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Yeah, I have a clearer path forward for sure. I have a strategy, right? I have we have the inventory that we made, so I can guesstimate how long it will take me to go through certain boxes, which is usually the hardest part for me. And we did hard stuff together, so I think even if you're not here with me when I go for it again, you'll be with me in spirit, which is what happens every other day of the week. I carry you and I carry our community with me in spirit. And so this was really hard. I still have other mounds of stuff in different parts of the house at my mom's house. But I think this one is feels like the hardest. I really have been feeling a lot lately, remembering that if I hold on to it, it means I have to manage it. And I have other things I want to be doing with my energy and time.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

So and space. So yeah. It's true. We have a finite 24 hours a day. And what do you want to give your time to and your energy to and your space to? If you were talking to somebody who was considering emptying their storage units and bringing them home, would you suggest for someone to do it? Like, did you do do you feel like it was the right choice?

SPEAKER_01 28:48

I think it was the right choice for me now at this point. Right. And I have had various ways of that, and I think that that's a really big peace spot I've been able to come to with the work that we've done one-on-one and in the community, is that there's a season for everything, and I have to just really dial in and tune into what is this season calling for. I had all those boxes at my house, and then it was like, this is not gonna work. I'm not going through this fast enough. They need to go to storage. And then there was bringing some home, right, in different ways. So I brought a few at a time at home and I worked with what I needed. And this last round where I brought everything, I consolidated two storage units from two different towns, one hour apart, and then brought some stuff in the house. And then I had this mound out in the yard. And it felt really, really good when I did it because I had a clear strategy. And then it started to feel not good when I disconnected from it or just didn't have time to attend to it. So I guess there has to be a strategy, right? And you've said this week stay in relationship with it so that I don't lose sight of what it is, and then I don't lose things that might be really precious and important to me. And then I don't have to meet with critters.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

You don't have to meet your neighbors. I feel like you are in a state of coming home to yourself in a really powerful way where I think you are resolving things that have been in transition for a long time. Watching your journey over such a long period of time, I do feel like you're entering a really powerful phase of like collecting more of the pieces of yourself and releasing the things that don't fit. It's interesting as we talk about it because the biggest thing that I hear that's the challenge in this project is the wear and tear that happened due to it being in the yard, right? The critters, the exposure, all that.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

And so it's the wetness of that storage unit.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Yeah. Oh, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I would never not recommend for people to get storage units sometimes because there are times where you don't have the physical space and it costs you so much mentally. It's worth the price tag. And it's a weird, like anti-organizer belief that I have. I mean, I've had storage units in my life when I live in really small spaces and I have no storage and I don't want to get rid of my memorabilia or my holiday decorations or whatever it is. But it's it's really important, like you said, to know the seasons and to take care of ourselves and to not shame ourselves because it would be very easy to beat ourselves up for things. And yeah, I think it's really brave what you did, not just because you faced the critters, which was very, very brave, but like facing that stuff that you didn't know what state it was gonna be in. It's really scary to not know what is gonna be salvageable and then also what's in there. So I'm just I'm really proud of you. See, do whatever it takes to stay connected with this until it's resolved because I think it's gonna be really a game changer for you.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

I agree. I agree. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

Yeah, you did so great today. I want to let you go so that you can clear out before the possums come. Oh god. It's okay. They're friendly. They just look, they just look like Satan's spawn.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

It'll be like this episode sponsored by Naked and Afraid.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

It totally. This episode of Naked and Afraid organizing style has been brought to you by Raid.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Loves the gardening gloves. You got sponsors, Star.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

I know it's time. A few days after our session, Cece sent me an update. Now remember, my goal wasn't for us to finish this whole project together. It was to help her get past that initial barrier, understand what she was dealing with, and make it easier for her to keep going on her own. And that is exactly what she did.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Good news, Star. I went through what I thought was gonna be the second worst box, and it actually wasn't that bad. But that's super exciting because that took me like five minutes or less. And now I get to go to the other box. So we're gonna see what that brings.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

There's something I really love about what happened with Cece today. That pile had been sitting under the tarp for eight months, and in that time it had become this big unknown thing. What's under there, what got ruined, what am I gonna have to deal with, and of course, what moved in? But once we actually pulled back the tarp, the thing that she had been dreading was so much more manageable than she had imagined. Not easy, not particularly pleasant, definitely a little buggy, but manageable. And I think there's something really important in what Cece says about seasons. There was a season when putting these things into storage was exactly what she needed. And now she's in a different season. She bought her own home, she closed down two storage units, she stopped paying every month to keep those things somewhere else, and she brought them home so she could finally decide what she wants to carry forward. And no, bringing everything home didn't magically finish the project. Right now, some of that homecoming looks like a tarp in the backyard with a few unexpected visitors under it, but it's here. She's facing it, and she does not have to resolve all of it today. She just has to stay in relationship with it. Keep coming back, keep making decisions, keep making a little more space. So, what is Cece making space for? I think she's making space for a life without a storage unit. A life where her things aren't waiting for her somewhere else, a life where she gets to decide what belongs in this next chapter. And I think there's something beautifully fitting about the fact that at a time when Cece says she feels like she's coming home to herself, she's bringing all of these pieces of her life back home too. Because sometimes the hardest part isn't dealing with what's under the tarp. It's finally being willing to look. Thank you so much for spending time with us today. Every organizing session tells a different story, but they all leave us with one question. What are you making space for? As you move through your day, I hope you'll carry that question with you. Because getting organized isn't about creating a perfect home. It's about creating more room for the life you want to live. And if you're ready to start making space in your own life, I'd love to help. You can download a free copy of my book, Why the Am I Still Not Organized, at starhanson.com forward slash podcast, where you'll also find resources, classes, and ways we can work together. Until next time, keep making space for what matters most.