OK – so we have been at these projects for a while now and you may be wondering if it’s really doing anything. Your life is still a mess, you still don’t have clean socks and it doesn’t matter if you do these stupid little projects because it’s hardly making a diffrence.

Bitter much?

So if you need a little encouragement today, let me share a letter that I received from Cathy who has been doing the Project. I love how she asked for help to get it done – we all need a partner in crime when it comes to bringing life into order.

Hi, Kathi,

I love getting your blog’s. I’m not that familiar with how to post, so I thought I’d just reply to this email.

My sister Mary came to visit last weekend, and I asked for her help in the bathroom, because it was a two-person job. I had soap, shampoo, tooth brushes, etc. from Costco in big packages, and no place to put them, so they’d been on my bathroom counter for two months.

We set up a bunch of laundry baskets, and she sat on the toilet seat (lid closed, of course) while I pulled from each cupboard. Items went into baskets as “Cathy’s cosmetics”, “Jim’s stuff”, “Medicines”, “Travel sizes of stuff we actually use”, or “Shared stuff” (like toothpaste and toilet paper). Everything else went into the last basket — “Throw out”.

In the process, I had discovered I had bought the same product more than once, because I had no idea I already had the first one.

When we were done, I had tossed travel sizes of items I never use, old cosmetics, samples I would never open, old toothbrushes, hair brushes, etc. and I had room for everything to go under the sink with space to spare. Now there’s a drawer for Cathy’s stuff, a drawer for Jim’s stuff, a center container for shared stuff, and separate shelves for medicines, first aid, and travel. And it’s easy for me to see how many I have of anything.

Having my sister help was important, because there was so much stuff, and not enough room for me to walk to each deposit site. (I don’t get up as easily from sitting on the floor reaching into the back of cupboards as I used to). She says she didn’t do much, but she was the extra extension to my reach to help distribute into each pile, and then hand back to me.

Regards,

– Cathy