Bee Organized, part 3

*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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You know, if you’re listening to this radio show, you’re thinking, wow, there’s a lot of important information, and that’s what we are glad that you’re with us this hour and certainly glad to have Susanna and Kristen here from be organized and that’s Bee organizedcom I worker be and I think of the buzzing bee and you know, you guys have a great mascot because be’s are like super in right now. I’m seeing them everywhere. So they are and not only are they in, but they’re so efficient and organized. I’m yes, they are gonna be high right now. And if I’m like a huge outlander fam I don’t know if you guys watch the show or read any of the books that die. Diana gabbled on books, but her big nay latest. I mean there’s been eight books, so this is the ninth book of the succession, a story and, believe it or not, this book is go tell the bees that I am gone, and there’s bees everywhere. And I will tell you she’s got millions and millions and millions of fans. So when I see that, that’s just such a trigger. So I love it. Really cool yet. Yeah. So anyway, I want to talk to you guys now about once you decide. Okay, I know that I need to, you know, get get rid of my stuff. So how do you do? What’s called, I think you mentioned it earlier, a power perge heure. I think the key to the power purge is knowing that you need to take what you love, what you need and what you will use to your next chapter of life. That’s the key is that identified those. But I want to just kind of acknowledge a great book in a little quote here. There was a book written a while back by Margarita and Magnuson called the gentle art of Swedish to cleaning. Sound, so I’m serious. I like that right away. Kind of sound scary, but here’s a quote in here. Do not ever imagine that anyone will wish or be able to schedule time off and take care of what you didn’t bother to take care of yourself, no matter how much they love you. Don’t leave this burden to them. Very good. I think that message speaks volumes into what our seniors are dealing with now and what they’re the legacy that they’re trying to leave behind, and that is not leaving a burden to their family. Sure. So how do we do that? We start, you know, by creating a wonderful relationship and an approach of compassion, being judgment free and confidentiality that will take us through this relationship with everyone we work with. But you know, it’s about a little bit about like how do you handle our stuff? You know, we want to celebrate and honor those things that are really special. Right. For example, we’re both the lady while back who had twelve sets of dishes, Susan, you’re talking about dishes a little bit earlier. With us, twelve sets she had inherited from grandparents and aunts and uncle’s. She loved those twelve sets, but of course none of her kids wanted those dishes. So how do we deal with those twelve sets additions? Well, well, we ended up doing was taking one saucer out of each of those sets and putting those on the wall of her new kitchen. Lovely they yes, it was a great way to have that memory stay alive without having all of the China, you know, sure, in a storage facility. Sure. So that’s what we’re looking to do similar situations like that. There’s something special that you want to honor. You may not need to honor fifty of them. Maybe there’s one or two you can honor put on a bookshelf. Somehow you can see it and have that memory while still being able to purge. I think also what’s important and helpful for a lot of seniors to understand is that or feel is that when they feel like they’re having a meaningful donation, when they’re giving their things to someone that will use or value them, then it’s a little bit easier to give things away. So it’s a couple examples of that. As you know, we’ve people that have home offices or maybe had a large business at one time. They have all these office supplies. Those are really schools. You know, schools love getting those things as absolutely like those. Those teachers need those items for their classrooms are perhaps maybe they had a lot of pets, so they have pet supplies and you know those kinds of things. Animal shelters love receiving those. And then I think there’s also we’ve been working a lot in the Seattle area with an organization called Plymouth Housing, who is focused on providing a home to the homeless in the Seattle area, getting them that first step, providing those social services and letting them, you know, take charge of their lives by first making sure that they have somewhere safe to live. I love that. My housing loves to get donations for any kind of household goods. These people are coming in off the streets and having their first department in a long time. They need those things. Sometimes. Those are just examples of ways that when you know more things are going or if you have purpose and intent on where things will end up, it’s a little bit easier to just say goodbye to those right. So we work a lot on identifying, you know, those things that seniors are passionate about that you know it’s a meaningful impact. It’s interesting that you mentioned the meaning side because for me I had my mother had an original Shirley temple doll. She paid thousands of dollars for her, but it was important for my mom that she had that doll. I never cared about dolls and for how many years, ten years, since she died, it was in a box, wrapped up and till finally I had a friend who and a little little girl that lived next door and they were talking about the fact that they love Shirley temple movies and I said, well, I happen to have an original. All she went what and so all of a sudden I realize, you know, the little girls a little too young, because I don’t want it to be damaged. So I talked to my friend WHO’s the grandmother and I said, what would you do if I could give you that doll? She said and it meant the world to her and she hasn’t in her sewing room up on a shelf in a case and it displays it and it makes me so happy that I was able to gift that to somebody that would appreciate that. But I think it’s also paying attention to signs, you know, of what things matter and and I think a lot of us we get so busy in our lives that we don’t think about, you know, who would maybe like to have this. Maybe they’re not a family member, but it’s a friend, it’s could be somebody that you know, might be, you know, just someone in the world somewhere that you know would mean a lot and I think that’s really important, what you’re saying. And it’s what a wonderful way to continue your loved ones legacy, because it was might something that meant a lot to my mother and I know my mom would be thrilled with the fact that her, you know, prize possession is honored in that way. So, Oh, absolutely, I think the key is thinking beyond your you know, your children. Yeah, yeah, family, because there is so much value and many of the things that people own. It feels good to gift, right. Everyone likes to give, to give with purpose and intent to a cause that means something to you. That’s the best way to get rid of things. Absolutely, it really, really is. Yeah, it’s. So I go ahead. I was just going to say. I just want to kind of underscore the organized approach, because I think it is different than some people that are just in there to get rid of your things. You know, it’s not just point and it goes away. I think these corner stones of how the organized was was formed and founded, our paramount and way what we do. So I’m going to talk about this just a little bit. First one is compassion. You know, I think this is key. This we listen to these stories, we will sit with them as we go through things, and that’s huge because, you know, I didn’t want to hear this story from my mother of why she you know, what she did with the shirtly temple doll when she was young and how she wished you would have. I’ve heard the story a million times, but it’s important for them to relive that memory and the fact that you sit there with them is huge. Absolutely, and they want to share the memory and we want to listen, but the same time, we often work in teams of two. Study you place so that one person can be sitting and listening to that story. Why the other person in the background? You know, it is getting some stuff done and keeping us on task. It’s important to become a hassionate and listen to their stories while also making some progress, and that’s kind of a Ye, that’s a skill. It really really is. Right like this. Second one I think is super important as well. It’s confidentiality. You know, some people are embarrassed by their things, some people don’t want it someone to know. Many times, these relationships that were building with especially seniors, we build a level of trust. It’s a very intimate relationship. You’re going through their things, you know, sometimes we uncover things that even their closest family members don’t realize that they own. So we’re going to keep their secrets safe, we’re going to listen to their stories and we’re going to move through this progress in a very confidential, compassionate way. And thirdly, we touched on this a little bit earlier, but being judgment free. You know, everyone has a story, everyone has lived a life. You know, some ups and downs that everyone experiences. We’ve all been on this roller coaster. Right, absolutely, and everyone’s journey affects them in a different way out. No judgment here. We’ve all been there, done that, had something that we can relate to that perhaps we’re not proud of. We’re not going to judge, we’re just going to come in, listen to the story, celebrate what’s important and do that in a respectful, judment free manner. Right, right, and and certainly you know when you’re saying these things, it’s like for you to spend an hour with whoever calls you and talk about those things. You can cover those information and you can have that confidential conversation with Susanne. You know, you can talk to those of us in western Washington that kind of need a boost because I think a lot of tip cases we want to purge, but we don’t even know where to start, we don’t know what to do and we certainly don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, those types of things. So understanding a little bit more about how to start and get US started is huge, right. I mean I can’t even imagine. So please, to our listeners, if you are looking to, you know, do a downsizing, especially looking forward to you know, I don’t need all this stuff anymore. There’s absolutely no risk to contact be organizedcom. That’s https://beeorganized.com/ and Suzanne. How else can they reach you? Sure they can send me a quick email at Susanne, at the organizedcom again, https://beeorganized.com/, or check us out on our website, https://beeorganized.com/seattle/. It can also pick up the phone. I love to hear, you know, a person’s voice sometimes, and so welcoming too. 206-627-0957. Fabulous. And in our next segment we are going to talk about downsizing and Christen and Susanne will be right back right. -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/