A Place for Everything

This week we are pleased to introduce you to Sally Allen. She started her company of experts in home organization, space design, and relocation to optimize her own skills and to address the very real needs she was seeing in the communities around her. She found that many people resist “planning ahead.” She saw this particularly when it came to friends whose parents were showing signs of difficulties living independently. They would urge their parents to start thinking about alternatives, but the parents would resist. While we all want to stay at home, Sally suggests beginning the process of rethinking home. It’s about treasures and important memories most of all. Sometimes we need coaches to get through to the next level of performance. Sally Allen and her team provide that coaching and the muscle, too, including downsizing empty nesters and seniors. They motivate and assist you to start the process now, one small step at a time. Sally and her team at A Place for Everything help you enjoy the trip before/during/after the move. Sally Allen offers a four-class series starting later this month to help you think about answering these key questions: What will I do with my valued treasures? Do I have systems in place so people know what my wishes are? Where and how do I begin the sorting process? These questions and more will be answered in this important workshop series. Many folks indicate that they wish they’d have participated in a series like this prior to transitioning from their home into something more carefree. You can bring someone with you to this series for the price of one registration. You also get a workbook and a bit of homework to help you begin the planning process now. Please see more detail and information about signing up for this important seminar in our Events section. Due to the nature of this type of seminar, enrollment is limited, so please be sure to sign up early.

Planning Ahead – “What To Do?”
Right-sizing Right Now….It’s never too early to start the process.

Are you:

• Struggling with dismantling your family home?
• Unable to take those first steps?
• Need a helping hand?
  

It is never too early to start the process. (You don’t have to be moving to start right-sizing right now.)

The phone rang. The caller identified himself as a senior in crisis. Could we, would we, help them move as quickly as possible into their new home and get their existing home ready to sell? His wife’s health was fading; although she insisted that it was only temporary. They had lived in their home for over 23 years, and needed to find their treasures to take with them and leave the rest behind. They are now settled into their new home, but not without diversions along the way.

Many trips to the doctor, the inability to stay with the editing process due to pain and fatigue, and his undying consideration and insistence that we not “edit” until his wife was well enough to assist, extended this right-sizing process well beyond the norm. It was agonizing for us to watch as he became more overwhelmed with the state of the situation and his wife became more disabled. Fortunately, we were able to continue to move behind the scenes and provide hands-on assistance removing items to be shredded, donated, sold, and purchased. We coordinated the packing, loading, unloading and settling-in. Did they wait too long to start the process? Probably.

We spend hours/days/weeks planning a vacation, finding insurance for covering catastrophes, finding the “perfect” job, planning for our children’s future, and a host of other events in our lives. We rarely spend the appropriate amount of time preparing for the inevitable, downsizing at the appropriate time and into the appropriate place OR caring for our aging parents.

As individuals live longer and families disperse geographically, more adults in their 70s, 80s, and 90s are faced with the trauma of relocating, often from a home of decades. Every nook and cranny holds moments of memories. The thought of leaving them behind is overwhelming. You don’t have to leave them behind. You have to make choices of what physically goes with you and what mentally stays with you. Planning ahead is crucial.

It is much easier to start the downsizing process while you are still able to do so, and while you are still able to make your very own decisions. Downsizing does not get better with age. Consider beginning NOW before the crisis when others have to make the choices for you.

To learn more about A Place for Everything, visit sallyorganizer.com.