Spring Cleaning: 11 Expert Tips to Shrink and Deploy for Travel - JourneyWoman.com

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Finding freedom: downsizing for travel

By Carolyn Ray, Editor of JourneyWoman

One of the good things about the pandemic is that we've learned to live with less. The arrival of spring is the perfect time to reassess our way of life and minimize our possessions. We want to gain experience, not things, right?

To help women prepare for travel, I hosted a downsizing webinar with downsizing expert Karen Shinn at Downsizing Divato to help women take the first step in preparing for the future by reducing their possessions . Based on my own experience of downsizing a three bedroom home in four weeks, my advice is "don't wait!" This article summarizes our tips from this webinar, which you can check out below.

Our TravelReady series is broadcast monthly and is designed to help women prepare for future trips. Sessions cover essential and safe travel, solo traveler safety , lifestyle travel, and more. (Check out our calendar of events to see the next sessions!)

11 downsizing tips to get you ready

1. When to Do: The best time to start downsizing is TODAY. Even if you make a shelf, a drawer. Something small and low key that you can step back and say is going to make a difference. Start with a drawer, shelf, or closet. Once you've made one you'll start to think, well, this closet is good enough I could make another one. Leaving it at the last minute is always a challenge because it's such a big project. It's emotional so start reducing it little by little.

2. Don't wait for someone to help you. This is often not possible. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do it yourself. When you've made up your mind to empty a closet of clothes, donate with clear plastic bags and know what's in them instead of garbage bags you can't see through. We don't put donations in garbage bags because we don't get confused and want to deliver the garbage to a donation point.

3. Paper is the hardest to cut. The acronym for paper is: Paper always triggers an emotional response: photographs, paperwork, books, files, academic notes and illustrations, as well as children's articles, financial articles. And all of your gas and electricity bills will go up forever. Most can be thrown away, the rest can be scanned and digitized.

When you get rid of the paper, shred it. Identities are easy to find and the criminals are looking not for Jane Fonda but for someone they don't know. Your identity is on your paperwork so make sure it is destroyed. You don't have to keep all of your bills. You don't have to keep all of your credit card statements. There are many things that you can get online.

4. Appraisal: Things have two values. One thing is the value of the heart, it is sentimental or it comes from the family. It may not be worth much, but it has sentimental value. It could be the tablecloth that was still on the table for Thanksgiving. What you think may not be worth it. Dining room, suites, all of that. A stamp collection, that sort of thing. What you don't think is worth something, however, could be.

Get creative to make things difficult for you to get rid of.

• Grades: I have grades from my great grandparents. I imagine my great-grandparents play the piano with them. Possible options: After googling, I found that the National Archives accept notes. Or the Royal Ontario Conservatory or a training school.
• Musical instruments : I am fortunate to have two of my own pianos. One comes from my great-grandfather, who made pianos at the beginning of the 20th century. One night I got inspired and discovered a piano museum. The other piano was my grandmother's, a Steinway being rescued. They advised me to sell this in Kijiji. For school instruments like your 8th grade daughter's saxophone, try a local music store, which has frequent buyback programs.
• Historical Photographs: Try a local historian or local historical society. Or if you have memories of a club, lodge, brotherhood or sisterhood, you want to go back to the place of origin first, and maybe the members are interested in something.
• Old books or children's books: try ABE Books , second-hand bookshops or public libraries. Include your book title and author and even the year it was published and it can get really close to the value of something that helps. Put used books in condo laundries in places like these where you can check out and share books.
• Graphics - If done by a famous painter, you may want to rate it. Contact an auction house. There will be a cost, but they will come and do an assessment. It depends on whether you want a rough estimate that is fair and has a value between $ 2,500 and $ 3,000. Or if you want someone to do the research and tell you who the artist was, where he lived, when he painted them and do more research for you. The cost of the course increases as more information is needed for research.
• Expensive artwork can be donated to public art galleries such as the Art Gallery of Ontario. When you are in a small community and have items that might be of historical interest, and you have a local historical society or museum, they are often very lucky to have things that represent life in that community. Do some homework. And again it feels good to pass it on. It's not always the big museums that need things.
• Historic Objects of National Importance - The Ottawa National War Museum can accept medals. I donated Evelyn Hannon's red boots to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.

5. Donate items to charities - We often think of Habitat for Humanity or Goodwill first. The big ones get donations and everyone knows them. But when you hear about a small church or synagogue supporting someone, look for something or something smaller. Try a women's shelter. Every church has agencies that investigate things. The furniture bench takes the furniture and issues a tax certificate. If you can give people your things (like clothes), they'll feel a little less guilty.

If you put your clothes in a bag and you have a full bag, take it and bring it to this donation center ASAP. It's more of a challenge with Covid, but you want to get it out of it. A see-through bag is very tempting and if you leave it near the door and it holds the sweater that you really weren't sure you wanted to drop, it will likely come home. Before you knew it, three quarters of the things were out in your closet and you said, "Oh, I had my doubts." Even driving it in his car, the moment he picks it up to give it to Value Village or the Salvation Army, he thinks "maybe I didn't mean to donate it." If you can't get to a donation center, put your items in the car and wait.

Finding Freedom: The Women Who Made It

The ethics of life has just become my way of life as I prepare to travel into the future. When I scaled down two years ago, my vision was to travel. Be free. When I moved into an even smaller room, I found soul mates in Kate and Christine who didn't want to be restricted by their material possessions either!

Continue reading

6. Online auctions work for large properties - online auction companies like MaxSold have logs for creating collections. Microphones are different, they can't go around your house picking things up. Everything is done like a truck on the street, a truck on the sidewalk. It takes more to coordinate, it costs a little more to do. But you give your things a safe move and a lot of them go away. You don't have much to do anymore.

The beauty of an online auction is number one. It attracts more people than your home at a normal auction. In addition, we can no longer sell content internally. The other nice thing about it is that all items are paid for at the end of the auction. All are done with a credit card. There is no currency exchange, there is no doubt that you will not get paid for the items. In the case of your sofa, which could have sold for $ 20, you got $ 20, or the percentage, even if you didn't increase it. Because they charge a clear percentage for it. (But I hope some people don't show up and plan ahead!)

7. Minimize Storage Drive Usage - When you store things in storage, forget about them. You receive a small invoice every month and you hardly notice this line on your Visa card because you get used to it. Yet if you look and even if you think it's only $ 100. Well, $ 100 a month is $ 1200 a year. The storage costs can exceed the value of your disposal.

8. Flea markets are a social activity, not a junkyard. They are a lot of work and may not be satisfactory for all the work you put into them. They are a great way to get to know your neighbors. Because that's what worries them. You don't sell a lot and the hardest part for me at a flea market is watching people fuck and hide your own business. We are the worst people selling our products. If you have to have an objective person, he or she will deserve more than you. Flea markets are fun meeting your neighbors and fun doing them all in one - if you have a neighborhood street sale, it's fun and has a community spirit. And planning her is a bitch.

9. Traditional wooden furniture is less valuable than you think: if you have traditional furniture there isn't that big a market for it, now they call it brown furniture. If you have teak all mid-century modern is the catchphrase, enough to collect. We can probably queue for this, but their traditional furniture is British or pine or even Canadian to those who live here, but they are worthless.

Antiques don't have the value we expect, Doultons, and these collections don't really have the value people expected and they are often quite surprised that the insurance value of a Royal Doulton is so much higher than what it is when it is sold would.

10. Get rid of impermanence : Snapshots are really just items that were made for a very brief purpose. The short-lived category includes postcards, calendars, cereal boxes. It had a purpose, and it wasn't a long-term use. But people who have collected 30's cereal boxes or calendars form up at any time or greeting cards each year. Some of them have now become quite collectable. So if you look and think, oh, those old greeting cards, they just might be old greeting cards.

However, if you have a paper display or can search for ephemeral paper items or collectibles online, everything you look at may be worth more than you think.

11. Develop healthy habits: When we buy an item of clothing in my house, we give two items of clothing or shoes or coats to anyone who needs it. An entrance, an exit is always good. Every second is better. But at least one entrance, one exit. But sometimes we do if that's one thing. If it is a month, people often take February because it is the shortest month. And you make one element in the first, two elements in the second, three in the third. In the end, it gets a little harder. Or do it all over again, 28 first, and back off. Even if you calm down, you take on a challenge with your friends.

Hold each other accountable. But a group of friends can also say, "What can we do? Come on, let's do a book swap. "I mean everyone reads books, so maybe it is time to switch books and everyone pass one on to the next person and with the agreement at the end that you hand it over to someone. Another when you're done.

Turn the reduction wheel

To get started, try Downsizing Divas Downsizing Wheel at www.downsizingdivawheel.com .

You can watch the full webinar below.

Carolyn Ray

Carolyn is the editor and executive editor of JourneyWoman and a member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and the Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC). The Canadian Carolyn, who grew up in South Florida, loves everything Spanish, historical destinations and always has her backpack ready.

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