The Benefits of Decluttering

People often assume that decluttering means our goal is to throw a lot of things into the trash. However I believe that the emphasis should be on the sorting…sorting the valuable and useful from the unnecessary. When a decluttering project is complete some things will have been discarded. But more importantly we will have found some valuable and useful things that we can put into an identified and secure location for when we need them.

Recently I was speaking to an expert in Geriatric Emergency Management and she highlighted something we should be looking for and isolating when we are doing decluttering projects with seniors. That is a medical history file. I was quite surprised when we spoke to learn how many seniors visit hospital emergency rooms every day. If they have had a fall, or are in pain, it can be very difficult to learn their history verbally. If they came in with a file that had lists of their doctors and last dates seen, lists of surgeries, lists of medications, emergency contacts and so on it could expedite the process and would help to ensure that they get the most appropriate treatment as quickly as possible.

So if you are working with a senior to declutter make sure that you take the opportunity to construct a medical history file and put it in an accessible location for easy retrieval in an emergency.