A hoarding story….with a not happy ending

  OK, so I was in the home of a hoarder the other day.  Oh, my.  So much stuff – in every room.  It was a young family with young children.  As soon as I walked in the home, I could see why the parents were stressed.  Stuff everywhere.  There was no place on the kitchen counters to put one more thing. The family couldn't eat at the kitchen table – it was full of stuff....

Get rid of stress. Get rid of your extra STUFF!

We can, and must, find ways to live that honour our spirit.  We can only take so much stress.  It's killing us!  To optimize health, we need to make sure our body is in relaxation response as much as possible.  Write a prescriptions for yourself – What do you need to do so your body can heal itself?  What are the beliefs that you operate under?  Remember – if a belief restricts...

Just get started!

I know it's hard to start – it can seem overwhelming.  On the website, I advise getting some containers (boxes, bags) and paper & markers for signs.   START the organizing process by being prepared.  Then take those containers (usually marked KEEP, DONATE, TOSS) and start with one area (a small self-contained area) like a closet, drawer, cardboard box full of stuff.   Then devote some...

“Life Cleaning” – living with gr...

What will make your life easy – "easeful"?  What is living less compicated?  Certainly it's living with less stuff and we can downsize and declutter, of course.  But living more simply also means looking at relationships that drain us, commitments that overwhelm us, habits that don't serve us.  Our life may not fit us anymore.  First comes clarity, then...

The Overflowing Storage Room

I recently helped a woman clear out a basement storage room.  It was brimming over with stuff – with hardly room to move around in the crowded space.  So, everytying on the floor came out into an adjacent area, shelves in the room were reorganized with "like things together".  Bins were found to gather and collect all the stuff that needed to find a home together – the camping stuff,...

Moving Day – not quite the same hassle

I recently helped a woman on move-in day.  When I arrived, it was mid-day and she was tired. The movers had been there in the morning and the kitchen was stacked with plastic bins and the rest of the house wasn't much better.  We spent four hours the first day and almost the same amount the next day opening boxes and bins, carefully taking out the contents, finding new homes for stuff, and gathering up all the...

Another Way to Think About Stuff

Wayne Dyer, in his book Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life, talks about the challenge of thinking about "surpluses" in our lives that can be put back into circulation to decrease "deficiences" that exist elsewhere in the world.  What a neat idea – to consider that our extra stuff can actually be helpful to someone else.  And that we might have a moral or ethical...

Help is on the Way

A lot of moving and downsizing is psychological.  Absolutely, yes.  It can be tough – not only the physical labour but the mental and emotional strain. Recognize when things are out of control.  And just like binge eating, not doing regular exercise, procrastinating, etc. compulsively buying to fill a void – at some point – is ENOUGH.  We need to find the strength and the courage to...