Sifting through the past

Over the years we have had many clients who hired us to help when their parents passed away. Some are ruthless when it comes to getting rid of things. Others want to go through everything one last time before sending it to the land fill. The latter group is often not able to do the review right away, either because of the emotions they are experiencing or they simply don’t have the time. So they put the boxes aside to go through ‘later’. And when they get to it, we sometimes get notes like this…

“Spent a rainy day watching the Olympics and going through the first box (40 trays!) of slides that have been in boxes in my basement since Dad died. Discoveries so far, to those of you who have shared my first 62 years… My brothers used to be cute. When I had a good body, I had no fashion sense… so unfair! I have awesome kids. xxx Lake has always been fantastic. God has blessed me with 2 wonderful church families. We are all older. My parents deserve an award (and sympathy) for traveling all over North America with 3 kids and trailer. Stay tuned for revelations from the next 3 boxes.”

Storing treasures for later review can be a good thing… if you are sure to get to them!

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Seniors as Role Models

When someone asks me why I do this kind of work my answer always includes the statement that ‘I meet so many nice people’. Last weekend I had to attend the funeral of a recent client. Irene was a lovely lady who moved to a Retirement Residence in 2011. As I listened to family and friends talk about her life I realized that it was about much more than ‘nice people’. What I can now verbalize is that it is about meeting wonderful role models. And that is what Irene was. At almost 92 years of age Irene had a joie de vivre that is rare even in young people. It was that, as well as her love of people and engaging with them, her adventurousness, and her pragmatism about life that made me view her as a very special person. I wouldn’t have guessed that I would still be looking for role models when I was almost 60 but I realize now how important it is to have role models as long as we are moving forward into new phases of our life.

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New Year’s Resolutions

It’s a thorny subject. In the past I’ve made resolutions, but they’ve fallen by the wayside. All those goals and targets not achieved weigh heavily on me, and make me reluctant to start the process again. But it is a new year and I can’t help but want to start with a fresh perspective.

So this year I decided to keep it simple. The idea came to me in one of those Christmas crackers you have at the dinner table. You know, the ones with the paper hat, silly toy and fortune cookie kind of saying. Mine said “Just when you’ve learned to make the most of your life, most of your life is gone.”

Before Christmas I had lunch with a past client, a senior who moved into a Retirement Residence almost 2 years ago. Since then she has put her heart and soul into exploring and enjoying all the amenities that exist there. And it has worked. She couldn’t be happier. As we chatted I decided that she is my role model for ‘making the most of your life’. Making the most of my life will be my resolution for 2011. And in my role as a Seniors Move Manager I will also do everything I can to help my clients to make the most of their lives.

I think that this year I can and will make it happen!

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Taming the Paper Tiger: Part 2

The clutter is gone. The rooms looks tidy. You know where to go to find a document or piece of paper. Now the trick is making it stay that way.

Here are 10 steps to maintaining your home as a clutter free zone.

1. Commit to making decisions. Don’t fall into the trap of procrastinating.
2. Use your FAT system when you open the mail or bring paper into the house:  File it, Act on it, or Toss it.
3. Be aware of what paper is coming in and ask if you really need it. For example, if you have 6 bank accounts and therefore 6 statements coming in every month you should re-evaluate whether or not you really need them all.
4. Buy a shredder.
5. Make a date each week to manage the paper. For example, Monday mornings at 9 you will work on and clear out the Action file, and remove all items that are in the toss area.
6. Establish the safe spot for filed items – a cabinet, or perhaps boxes in a closet.
7. Make your filing system easy to use. Color code them and make the labels easy to see.
8. Re-evaluate subscriptions. Do you really read them?
9. Donate magazines to local hospitals, retirement residences and the like on a regular basis
10. Review the filing system annually and purge older documents. For example keep tax returns for only 6 years.

Follow these easy steps and the paper tiger will stay in it’s cage!

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Taming the Paper Tiger: Part 1

For many the clutter problem begins with paper. Piles of it start appearing in every room of the house. It starts on table tops and expands to include the floor. Junk mail; old newspaper sections or clippings; statements from the gas company, phone company etc;  previous year’s birthday and Christmas cards; store flyers; and much more. There is no system. It is all mixed together.

So what is the problem. Usually the problem comes when you have to find a specific piece of paper or document. You can go crazy looking for it. Which pile did you put it in? It gets worse when during the search you come across your car insurance renewal form….that was due 2 months ago. Oops. Now you have to stop driving your car and reapply for insurance. It all just gives you a headache that won’t go away.

Here are 5 steps to follow to get your paper back in order:

1. Get help. Invite a friend to work with you. If you have let it get this out of control, you will need someone who will ‘tell it like it is’ while you are making decisions on various papers .
2. Set up two filing areas. The first is for items that need immediate or imminent action. The second is for things you want to keep so you can refer to them later.
3. Set up two areas for tossing. The first is for shredding. The second is for immediate trash.
4. Start by just sorting the piles in one room. Don’t work on anything. Just place each piece of paper  into one of the four new areas you have set up.
5. Set up categories in your filing area for the various types of paper items you are keeping. For example:  tax papers, household bills, investment information, recipes.

This is the first step to Taming the Paper Tiger. Once you have made it through the whole house you will feel a lightness of spirit that will have make it all worthwhile.

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