The Clutter Fairy Weekly #146
Landmarks and Losses: Organizing Around Life’s Memorable Moments
Life-changing events can disrupt our efforts to get—or remain—organized. We may face unexpected trauma, such as a natural disaster, a job loss, or the death of a loved one, or find ourselves having to adjust to a new family member, a divorce, or a cross-country move. Each major life event presents a unique set of organizing challenges. In episode #146 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, discusses how to face the special clutter issues that arise around life’s major milestones.
Link mentioned in this episode:
Life Change Index Scale (The Stress Test) from Dartmouth College
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The Weekly Tittle is an exercise designed to focus your attention on a specific space, aspect, or challenge of decluttering and organizing your home. We assign a new tittle in each webcast/podcast, then check on your progress the following week.
Big Events, Big Changes
This week’s assignment is to think about major events in your life that can change your clutter landscape:
- Spend a few moments thinking or writing about life milestones that you’ve lived through, that you’re going through now, or that you might reasonably expect to experience in the coming years.
- Reflect on the effects of these big events on the environment of your home. Which have made an impact—or would be likely to make an impact—on your volume of stuff or your ability or willingness to deal with your clutter?
- For an experience that has made or will make a large impact, research resources that might help you manage the situation in question. For example, if you anticipate having to care for an elderly parent in your home, you might take some time to learn about assistive devices and equipment.
Note: We recognize that we’ve been talking about big, life-changing experiences, and we’re not expecting you to make comprehensive, long-term plans in response to this tittle. We only want to get you to think about the effects these events have on your life and dip your toe in the water of ways to manage or mitigate the changes they bring.
For the full discussion of this week’s tittle, watch the Weekly Tittle segment on YouTube.
I am having to rethink my entire future along with moving to a smaller forever home, I have been slowly practicing the (few podcasts back) outline of how to do this. With this weeks Tittle I realized I am able to “move” myself into my current home as I decide what to keep, what’s going along with then “staging” my keepable ‘s to pack as I feel out my upcoming “new” space. This is powerful and so positive to mitigate my upcoming move.Thank you for these new skills and steps to get there.