Bee Organized, part 2

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

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Christian would get into this world right right. Well, thank you, Susan, so much for having us. We love nothing more than to talk about organization, and not necessarily be organized the company, but the benefits of being organized has to offer people of any age, but specifically with seniors. So good just you in the work that you do for people, working with and caring for seniors, because there’s a lot, there’s a lot to got to deal with there and unpack. So, yes, my best friend from junior high, she and I started at Leasta fully be organized back in two thousand and fifteen and it really was just our our goal was to help people feel and experience the benefits, the simplicity in the piece, that peace that be organized, being organized has to offer. And really, Susanne Life is so crazy. We’re going eighty two miles an hour and I am all too often people don’t have a home, they don’t come home to a home that welcomes them and supports them and warms them. And now more than ever, I think we need this haven to be simple and to help us be a better version of ourselves, you know. So that really is the motivation of be organized, and we’ve been just we’ve experienced amazing success. We started franchising back in two thousand and seventeen and we are in mark eleven markets nationwide and always growing through that franchise model and I’d love to say it’s because we’re we know how to grow and build an amazing company. I think we’re doing pretty good. But really, Suzanne, it is because, and I think you and Suzanne all be touched on it. The previous one is Americans are consumers. We all have too much. We’re going eighty million directions and a pretty quickly we get inundated with our stuff and then it starts to hinder our piece of mind, our productivity, our efficiency and really, you know, the kind of life we need. So we are just so passionate of helping people see a better way and really coming to people with compassion, confidentiality and completely judgment fry. Yeah, well, you know, that’s a big thing and I and when you say judgment free, that’s that’s a huge piece right there is I know it’s funny. I had surgery on my right hand the beginning of this year of two thousand and twenty one. I was immobilized pretty much with my hand, you know, in a major cast, and then I had a cast, regular cast, hand casts, for probably about three months because it was a major they removed a bone and Reh had the restructure my thumb, but I was incapacitated right, and I will tell you for somebody. You know, it gave me a big perspective about stuff because I couldn’t clean my refrigerator right, I couldn’t. I couldn’t clean the cat box, I couldn’t do so many things I normally took for granted. That and really every date, right. And the thing is it’s those things. It’s like, when I think about all the things that I couldn’t do, I think about what it’s like for our seniors that have these challenges every day of their lives, right, and you know, again it’s too much to even deal with. But the pride is huge with our seniors and so you know, they tend not to let people in their homes, they tend to coucoon and and that’s happening right now with the pandemic, you know, after the tamp pandemics, all these different types of situations that are going on. And I know, Susanne, you are working with a lot of families right now in our greater Seattle area, puget sound. So tell us a little bit about Susanne, if you would talk to to us a little bit about just puget sound. What’s going on in Seattle and well, I think what’s going on in Seattle is very similar to what’s going on across the United States. We have been in the living in this pandemic where we couldn’t necessarily see our seniors for a while. One of those seniors that are living in some kind of community have been isolated for a long time. But I think that’s made as almost value our time with the seniors in our family even more and I do believe that the seniors in the puget sound area know what’s going on. They they know and feel this desire to leave a wonderful legacy without earning their families with all of their stuff, right, and stuff you mentioned in our earlier segment. It’s like you you’re going to lose your memory if tell so, tell us a little bit about you know, how you’re belonging in your stuff, how you identify with that? How does it tell your story of Your Life? Sure, I think the key here is, as you’re going through your stuff, is to honor those significant memories, celebrate those memories, but everyone has a different relationship with their stuff. Kristen and Lisa, the founders, would be organized, have done a wonderful job of identifying those specific relationships. I think I’m going to have Christen kind of explain those relationships. That would be awesome. Christen her. Yes, after, you know, thousands of hours of working with clients, we realize we started seeing the same relationships and we really started kind of almost seeing a profile, right, we saw very similar trends and relationships and struggles happening. So what we decided to do is to identify them to help with the idea that once we all understand our relationship with our stuff, then we can make some tweaks and changes. That helps us. Good Point, primarily when we’re talking seniors who are downsizing. They’re going to have to purge right. It’s just it is a mare madical equation, like if you’re going from a three thousand square foot um to a nine hundred square foot apartment, you are just not going to be able to have everything that you had in that home. So before we go through and we’re going to talk about it, I think in the next segment, the power purge, before we can help people power purge, because that’s scary. They’re scared that we’re going to force them to get rid of things and lose memories. We’ve got to get real on who they are in relationship to their stuff and really did dig deeper on that. Why did they buy what they buy, why they’re keeping what they’re keeping and why it’s so sticking hard to get and stay organized or power purge and get into a smaller home or a setting. So we have created seven profiles that really help people determine who they are in relationship with their stuff. Now important to point out that sometimes it depends on where you are in the house, what profile you are, what you resonate with. Sometimes it’s what chapter of your life you’re in. And so we can step through those profiles and kind of talk about those, because I think it’s really important and none of them are wrong. It just really helps people identify. So the first profile is the space giver. That’s somebody who may or may not have any space, but they give it up. A lot of times we see this with the empty Nester who’s still living in the family home. They’ve got the basement downstairs. So what’s it full of? You know, they’re grown children’s items and people who are already past you know, Uncle Edwards, gun collection and whatnot. And so what this is doing is this is preventing them from being able to do what they want with that space right. So we come in and help them give permission to talk to those people, because really the relationship was with the people who are taking the space right, not with the stuff. So kind of trying to help identify that. The next one is the memory keeper. This is a big one because, as Suzanne said, our items of our live right, the inanimate belongings, really tell a story right there there the history. They show what where we’ve been and what we’ve done. So the memory keeper has a really hard time letting go of things because they associate a memory with it and they really truly do feel guilt for letting it go and they’re scared the memory is going to dissolve. So we talk about ways that we can honor those memories and whatnot. Third one is the money minded. This is the one where they may not spend money very freely, but when they do, you better believe they remember what they spent and where they spent it. Now much it was order purge. It’s so stink and hard when they’re like but back in one thousand nine hundred and seventy two, when I cost me x dollars back there, you know, with the memory. Are the money minded. We Talk About Sunken cost, that that money is already gone. We talked about equating peace and, you know, less chaos and trying to put a dollar sign on that, to kind of speak their language, if you will, and really then helping them determine. Okay, I’m being money minded about this. What are some actions? The next one is the Justin case or the Justin case or likes to be prepared, likes to be the person somebody can can lean on, and that’s hard when somebody’s had a home, they’ve been managing and maintaining a home. But you do need more things just in case. But if you’re moving to a senior living community where so fabulous, I wouldn’t mind a living there. They could go play for you, right, so you don’t need all these items. So we take in terms of hey, I think we’re keeping this just, you know, for Justin casing and kind of you know, it’s this ongoing dialog, I guess, is what it is that we have with people, and so when we use these profiles, this dialog really helps us dial in with how they’re feeling so that we can be compassionate but then find solutions. The next one is the acquirer. That’s kind of the person who loves the thrill of the hunt and and and collects and buys, and a lot of that is wrapped around the thrill of the hunt. And so helping them determine, okay, you know what we’re acquiring, but it’s not matching. So setting up some boundaries on that. Yeah, the third one or that the six fun and I am this grammer Jammer Stacker, or I’m a recovering grammar jammer stacker. This is people who organized by cramming and Jaiming and stacking behind closed doors, because we really do care about what our environment looks like. That’s not what we’re helping. A lot of people like that. Wait, emmer’s back or right. So when we’re talking with a grammer jammer stacker one, you know, when we’re helping them downsize, we’ve got a lot of things to work through. So we just kind of roll up our sleeves and, you know, take one one bye to that elephant, you know, one at a time, HMM, and really working with them. And then the last profile that we have seen so often is the aspire and this is somebody who has collected items around a dream of wishing of how they lived their lifestyle, but it doesn’t really match their lifestyle. Sure, that’s a big one, one we’re working with you. Wow, I think to really be realistic of are you bringing items with you to this next chapter of life that really match you and honor you and welcome and support you? Now, right, being realistic. So, yeah, yeah, those profiles really help us emotionally connect with our clients and then help people give themselves grace. Right, and then once you’re able to figure out that relationship, then it’s easier. Yeah, that power person take the next step with them. Yeah, well, and and in the meantime, we’re going to keep continuing on this conversation. But, Susanne, in the meantime, how do people reach out to you? Absolutely, they can reach out through our website, which is https://beeorganized.com/. They can send me an email Susanne at the organizedcom or pick up a phone. 206-627-0957. They’d love to check. And guess what, everyone, Suzanne will will give you a one hour free consultation. There’s no, absolutely no. You know, risk at all in this. Just have a conversation and remember it’s not a bad judgment. But they can help and certainly she will be able to give you, at the very least, some great tips on how you can get better organized and and they will be. Both Christen and Suzanne will be right back right after this. We at answers for elders. Thank you for listening. Did you know that you could discover hundreds of podcasts in our library on senior care? So visit our website and discover our decision guys. That will help you also navigate decision making. Find us at https://answersforelders.com/