Need Help? Barter For It!

Posted by Caitlin

March 24, 2008

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I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not! Here, have an absolutely adorable baby bunny to look at:

Cute Bunny
Photo by greefus groinks

I finally managed to plan a big step in my fight to get my house (and stuff!) move-ready! Unfortunately it can’t happen until the end of May, but the time has just been flying by so far this year so I’m sure it’ll come up in no time.

I’m swapping some work with my relatives! My Mother in Law and my Aunt are coming up to help me sort through my stuff and help me be ruthless in getting rid of it! Yay!
In exchange, I’ll be helping my Aunt sort through her basement, though I’m not sure what we’re doing for my Mother in Law. Ahhh, bartering! What fun!

I’m swapping decluttering for decluttering, but at least the job will get done. If that’s not your thing, trade something else you are good at. If you enjoy baking, make a friend a few pies, or some nice homemade breads in exchange for them helping you with your decluttering. If you’re handy, offer to fix their broken lawnmower or repaint their peeling fence. Not only is this cheaper than paying someone to help you, it gives you a working buddy you already like, so the task should go quicker!

Trading labour for labour is a great way to get some decluttering help if you need it! After all, it’s much easier to toss something out if it doesn’t mean anything to you, so a helper’s point of view may be just what you need to show yourself that you really don’t need to keep all those egg cartons “just in case” you need them for a craft. I do this sort of thing much better on a team rather than by myself. It’s too easy to let myself keep something in case I need it later.

Jennifer at Declutter it! hit the nail on the head the other day. She points out how difficult it can be to get rid of those things we’re keeping “to do later”. We all have some things that we bought with the best intentions, but we find ourselves just too busy to do them, so the supplies sit there, unused. Often, we find it extremely difficult to get rid of this sort of thing. It is especially painful if you bought them at full price and they are completely untouched (you feel as though you didn’t get your money’s worth - because you didn’t!).

Why is this step so hard? Because it forces you to look at what really matters. It means you have to be sickeningly honest with yourself and admit who you are.

It might feel a little sad to get rid of that gardening stuff, because that really does prove that you aren’t going to be a gardener, no matter how cool it sounded. It’s depressing to get rid of the jeans that you wish you still fit into, but maybe once you clear out the clutter of your life, you’ll have time to workout, and then, guess what, you can buy new skinny jeans.

Her challenge for this week is to get rid of 5 “maybe” items, as she calls them.
Try it out. Trust me, you’ll find at least 5 to get rid of. It won’t be easy, but I know you can do it. I’ll do it too, and post what I’m getting rid of!