Graduations, from elementary school to graduate school are the culmination of a period of education and a celebration of the beginning of a new chapter in life. As a new phase beings, it’s time to say goodbye to the old. Before embarking on the next journey, find some time to go through the stuff and the memories of the last chapter. Among all the other celebrations and parties during this time, throw yourself a “pitch party” and get rid of the old to make room for the new and exciting. The same can be applied if you’re changing jobs, packing up one office to get ready for your next opportunity. This is “job graduation”.
Do you know someone who is graduating or changing jobs this time of year? Please share this with them as you say “congratulations!”
By the end of the school year (or time on a particular job), our homesand offices can become inundated with projects, papers, books and partially or wholly used supplies. Here are a few ideas for your “pitch party.” Before you dive in, make sure to put on some tunes and line up some treats – a party isn’t complete without music and food. If it helps, invite a guest or two to party with you – more hands make lighter work! Enjoy ….
1. Old textbooks. Are you really ever going to need that introduction to forestry book ever again? Probably not, and the same goes for many of the text books you purchased throughout the year. Collect them and consider selling them back to the bookstore during the textbook-buy-back time. You can also sell your text books online; check out our previous post Toss Old Books for more ideas on where you can sell or donate. These ideas can be applied to books specific to your former work or job as well.
2. Notebooks. Those scrawled, abbreviated, messy notes probably only made since at the time anyway. Recycle or shred the contents of your notebooks, if you have a few important pages in the middle, scan them for safe keeping instead of keeping the entire notebook. Toss class notes, meeting notes, study notes, hand-written drafts, lists, etc.
3. Artwork or other large projects. You may be really proud after getting an A on that huge end of the semester science project, but that doesn’t mean you have to find storage for it. Instead, capture the memory and all the hard work in a photo to display proudly.
4. Supplies specific to a particular class, project or job that you just can’t see using again, are tattered or too “used” to be useful any longer. Toss pencils that now only resemble stubs, spiral notebooks with only 2 unwritten pages left, dried up glue sticks, or things you purchased specifically for a class or project that you are now done with. Let them go to make room for supplies for your next chapter.
5. Find homes for the things you think you really may want to use in the next chapter of your life, or that you want to keep for memory’s sake. Graduate with a degree in psychology and plan to go into practice? Perhaps there are some books you will reference again during your career. Put those on your bookshelf. Can’t seem to let go of the project work that brought you and a beau together, resulting in a marraige proposal as you finished grad school? Put it into a keepsake box to pull out again on your Golden wedding anniversary.
How do you get organized as you finish one chapter of life and prepare for the next? We want to hear about it!
