The Power of Stickers

It looks like in October we will be moving to a nearby city. We are all very excited, as this is a move to a much larger apartment, and the girls will each get their own room! However, the chore of moving is not much fun. Sorting, packing, moving to the new apartment, unpacking, putting everything away... I am not a very energetic person, and the thought of all this work just exhausts me. I'd much rather have someone else come to our home, sort through all of our stuff, pack, move, unpack, and put everything away again. But I suppose that's not very practical. :-)

I have followed FlyLady off and on for the past 8 years, or so. Well, I should say I've entertained the thought of following FlyLady. I've never actually been very good at following her instructions. I agree with her principles, I'm just not so good at putting them in to practice. Her basic principle is that you cannot organize clutter, so slowly rid your home of things you do not use or love. If you have a nic-nac sittinig on your shelf that's been there for 15 years, you don't remember where you got it, and it doesn't bring you any joy, get rid of it. Either throw it away or take it to Good Will, if it's something in good shape that someone else can be blessed with.

I've been thinking this really makes sense to me, especially in light of our up coming move. So today I created a contest for the girls. I mentioned it to my husband, and he said he'd like to join in, as well. I printed off a calendar of the month of August for each of us, and I pulled out a package of star stickers that I bought a couple years ago, thinking I'd use them for school. Then I set up the rules. For the girls, for every 10 items they either throw away or put in the Good Will box, they will receive one sticker to put on their calendar for that day. For my husband and I, I figured we have a lot more stuff to get rid of, so we need to get rid of 15 items for each sticker. The items to get rid of could be a book we no longer enjoy reading, an old toy that is no longer being played with, or a scrap of paper crammed in the back of a drawer. As of right now my husband and I have a combination of 7 stickers, my girls each have more than my husband and I have combined. So they are really getting in to this! Who knew stickers could be so motivating? If I had just told them today we are going to get rid of over 200 items, they wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with it. Neither would I. But stickers make throwing stuff out fun! :-) The amazing thing is most of what we're getting rid of is trash... old papers, junk mail, torn papers... But then we're also slowing filling up the Good Will box. Hopefully we can keep up with this all month, and when it comes time to pack things will go much more smoothly. That's my goal, anyway. :-)