Monday, October 17, 2011

Clutter and Debt 4: Debt Snowball

In Dave Ramsey's plan, he uses a debt snowball plan to get out of debt. The plan suggests to pay off the smallest debt first. The reason is to build momentum without feeling overwhelmed. Simply put, getting $1000 off a $10000 debt would not make one feel as good as checking a piece of $800 debt completely off the list. Once you see results, it is easier to move on.

For those of us who participated in Project Simplify, didn't we feel the same way? Once the first project is down, it is easier to get started with the next.

Clutter Snowball

With clutter, we may not be able to quantify our clutter as easily as debt but we can certainly go for the momentum factor. For me, visibility is certainly rated high in the momentum factor. To me, visibility means two things:

  1. a cleared area, the more prominent the area, the higher the visibility
  2. something leaving the house, the bigger in size, the higher the visibility

Like the debt snowball, we also do not want to overwhelmed ourselves. We obviously do not want to start something that we do not think we could finish. We also do not want to finish a project and feel so drained that we do not want to work on the next one. We need to start with smaller project. Something we feel easier to work on and yet, give us that sense of satisfaction.

Since I have already been working on weekly report, we will begin with projects that could finish in a week and report at the end of the week.

First Project

I have a very good project to work on this week: my little girl's clothes. We have received a few bags of clothing for her recently that has been left on the floor and clutter her room for quite a few weeks. So, working in this area will fit the bill for visibility factor 1.

She has also outgrown a lot of her clothes since Project Simplify. A friend of mine is ready to take away some of these clothing from me. And this fit visibility factor 2.

So, I could kill two birds with one stone. I think this should not be too big a project to work on in a week. Right?

Before We Begin

... we need to take care of our survival tasks. If you have read my report, you know how things could go wrong without a plan. It would be especially important if we want to throw in every extra minute to our targeted clutter this week.

To me, having a plan for meals could make the biggest difference.

For this project, I will plan for at least a day with an easy meal, like something that I can just heat up. I probably should stock up a little on breakfast cereal too, so that I don't have to think about breakfast the night before. I need to make sure my grocery shopping is done early so I can have my meals prepared ahead of time.

And of course, I cannot continue to use credit. In the past two weeks, going to bed early enough has been my biggest challenge. I guess I procrastinate too much that I had to spend those time to finish what was necessary. This week, I will continue to work on this area.

Want Some Other Projects?

I really hope that some of you could join me. It is more fun that way. You can always think of some other area to work on yourselves. You could also list 3 to 5 hotspot that come to your mind and let us choose for you :)

Could you share with us what you may work on?

[ Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Dave Ramsey, his website, his show or his company. I am not getting any profit if you click one of those links to his website. I am just inspired by his debt free plan to become clutter free. From listening to his show and the many debt-free calls, I am however happy to be linking to their website. ]

2 comments:

  1. This sounds like a great plan! Getting to bed on time is something I struggle with as well. My little girl's clothes could use some work, too!

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  2. I am still struggling with going to bed in a reasonable time! And I am not doing so well in this weeks tasks :(

    I checked out your desk report. Your posts really inspired me to work harder.

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