What happens when you finally empty your storage units…and then have to deal with everything you brought home?

Cece has been part of my Chaos to Calm Community for years, and we’ve also worked together privately at different points along the way. Recently, she bought a home of her own and decided it was time to close down the two storage units she’d been paying for and bring everything home.

There was just one problem.

Eight months later, a big pile of that stuff was still sitting under a tarp in her backyard.

Cece knew she needed to deal with it. She also knew there were boxes that had been exposed to water, humidity, and possibly a few critters she would rather not meet. So she volunteered to bring the project to the podcast and finally find out what was under the tarp.

In this episode, we talk about why something can feel so much harder before we actually begin, what happens when the things we’ve already sorted and reduced still feel difficult to let go of, and why storage can be exactly what we need in one season of life…and something we’re ready to leave behind in another.

We also get very up close and personal with some bugs.

In this episode:

• Why Cece decided it was finally time to close her storage units
• What happened when she brought everything home
• How an eight-month-old pile became “the monster under the tarp”
• Why the anticipation of an organizing project can be worse than actually doing it
• What to do when you’ve already pared down a category and letting go gets harder
• Using physical space to create limits for what you keep
• Why sometimes it helps to work with the time you have instead of trying to finish the entire task
• How Cece got through one of the worst boxes in just 12 minutes
• Why storage units aren’t inherently good or bad
• Recognizing when you’ve entered a new season with your stuff

By the end of our session, Cece hasn’t finished the entire project. But the tarp has been pulled back, she knows what she’s dealing with, and she has a plan for moving forward.

After years of storing these belongings somewhere else, she’s bringing the pieces of her life home and deciding what belongs in this next chapter.

So, what is Cece making space for?

A life without a storage unit.

And maybe, as she puts it, a chance to come home to herself.

Resources mentioned:

• Star’s Chaos to Calm Organizing Community
• Star’s Book, Why the F#@ Am I Still Not Organized? (free download): https://starhansen.com/podcast/