Ending 2020 on a “Lighter” Note

I confess I am a hot mess! My boy is doing remote schooling which means I am his homeschool teacher. I never wanted to be a teacher for a reason: I am not good at it! Well, I am one now! I am standing up this company, coaching founders to pay the bills whilst worrying about dinner, my dog (did I mention she cut her paw and left us with a nice $956 emergency vet bill?), laundry, my overgrown roots, the list goes on and on…So you can imagine that my house is messy. Yes, I’ve got boxes piled up from Amazon, a very very messy office, my Handmaid’s Tale Halloween costume hanging from the back of the dining room chair. Paper everywhere, toys everywhere, clothes that don’t fit anymore cause I eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when I am stressed… And clutter is making me even more stressed…

I did a quick google search on the dangers of clutter. Look what came up! I can go down the list and check all that apply!

Seeing this infographic made me realize:

I NEED TO DECLUTTER AND ORGANIZE BEFORE 2021 SHOWS UP

I mean, 2020 has been quite a year! A global pandemic, turning into a homeschool teacher, racial division, election anxiety, record unemployment, VC funding for women drying out. Do I really want this nice “twelve more ways for your life to become more stressful” to follow me into the new year? No! Nope! Hell no!!!
Okay but let’s be real! Do I really have the time? The answer, again, is no! But I can make a dent! I am going to try this strategy and see how I do.

1. Designate half a day on a weekday to decluttering and organizing
   
2. Focus on the place that I spend a lot of time in. It happens to be my office
   
3. Get some giant boxes and throw away or recycle the obvious stuff; loose paper, retail catalogs, Amazon packages, last month’s O magazine…Get them out of here!
   
4. Get some giant boxes and throw away or recycle the non-obvious stuff: business notebooks from 1997, broken Potterybarn frame that I have intended to fix for the past 3 years, little cute purple baggie, and all the broken iPhone charger cables that JUST DON’T WORK…
   
5. Attack the “cute” figurines that some people find creepy. Time to find a new owner for these guys.
   
6. Attack the corner coat hanger. Get rid of at least half of these coats and jackets. Donate or put them in the closet.
   
7. Hang the beautiful art piece that has been leaning against the wall for, um, a lot of years!
   
8. Find a home for the ottoman that occupies a third of my office and all the stuff on it.

Is that all? Nope! I have so much to go through and purge! Two full bins of frames with and without pictures in them, decorative pieces, a rug that I can’t put on the floor because it is too slippery and my Goodness, my desk drawers…And no, I am not going to do those. I need to bring a professional to help me with that part.
When we launched DispatchMom back in September, we intended to offer home organization as a service. Remember the blog about Beth Blacker? It is time to turn this service on so we can all lighten our loads even for a little bit before we ring the bell on new year’s eve.

We are offering these packages:

Sort and Store – For those of us who need quick organizing and putting away things that are out of place. Best for putting away the items after a special event, organizing the pantry, or a cluttered office.

Sort, Store, and Style – For the parents who need a more lengthy Sort and Store. We will be doing an all-day sorting, organizing, and putting away things that are out of place plus. We will add our magical touch of style to help with traffic flow, aesthetics, and proving an environment that generates calm and harmony. Best for repurposing a room in the house, creating a dedicated space such as an office, hobby room or just making your living space calm, harmonious, and inviting.

Dispose, Declutter, and Design – This is an excellent package for someone who is entering a new phase of life in their existing space. Purging, organizing, and styling your space to make it yours.

The 4-hour Cleanse – Purging and taking away the stuff to the donation center and/or recycling facility. Excellent for clearing a room for a new or returning member of the family or decluttering your office.

The 8-hour Cleanse – Heavy purging and taking away the stuff to the donation center and/or recycling facility. Excellent for getting ready to move out of a house and in anticipation of moving into a new space.

All of these functions are in our app and ready for you to try out before 2021. I say, let’s take some weight off our shoulders as we enter the new year. 2020 has given us enough $hit to worry about, let’s shed the stuff we can. After all, a decluttered space means a decluttered mind.