I have three disaster areas in my house.

1. The unfinished upstairs bedroom that I use for attic space
2. The garage
3. The unfinished side of the basement which is used for my sewing room and has a bunch of construction debris stored in it

These are rooms that are so bad that I put off doing anything in them because it is overwhelming to even start.

Here’s room 1 – the upstairs bedroom space

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This is a depository of luggage and things that you don’t want to throw out but you don’t know what to do with it. I had a plan to attack it. I was going to work in bursts. I gave myself 15 minutes or until I filled a bag with trash, whatever came first. Then I could be done.

I surprised myself. Once I got started I just kept going. Right now I have everything sorted into piles.

1. Luggage – I have lots of luggage that TSA and airport baggage handlers have beat into varying degrees of submission. I also have backpacks that I get at every vet convention I go to. These are piled together to see what I will keep and what I will give away.

2. House stuff – This is things like screens and wires and extra house fixtures. These will stay with the house.

3. Give away

4. Trash

5. Keep – a very small pile considering all the stuff that is up there

It took me about 30 minutes of concentrated effort to get everything sorted. That amazed me because there were boxes full of stuff up there. Now I need to go back and start packing up the stuff to give away and to keep.