Peace of Mind Organizing

When good things happen to great clients

29 April 2008

I mentioned last week that I was leaving for Hawaii to help a client get settled in there. We’re working hard, having some fun, and accomplishing a lot.

I’ve been working with this client since September 2006 and she serves as a fabulous example of the benefits of getting organized.

She called me in originally when she decided to focus her attention on getting her life in order. She wasn’t a hoarder, or even very cluttered, but as a working mother of three active kids (and active wife to an active husband) her attention had been focused squarely on family. As a result, some parts of her life had gotten a little out of control—things I see all the time with my clients (and sometimes myself). There were stacks of papers and other stuff here and there, aging bags of paper that had been stashed when company was coming, an unruly basement that hadn’t been cleaned out in quite some time. You get the picture. Nowhere near horrifying, but not exactly tranquil.

This dream of a client decided to retire from her job and focus on getting her life in order. She sought my help. And she made the time and financial commitment to have me in twice a week. Over the next twelve or fifteen months we cleared the piles, set up systems, plowed through hundreds and hundreds of photos of her kids, and got her life humming along. She became a pro at making really sensible decisions about what to keep and what to part with.

It looked like we were finished—and in fact we’d checked off everything on the list we’d created at our very first meeting (an Eyes of a Stranger needs assessment). I was getting sad thinking that our time together was coming to a close.

Once she started lightening up her life and letting go of possessions (stuff that had been accumulating through the years just because she hadn’t made a decision about it), great things started to happen.

High up on the list of great news was that her husband was being transferred to Hawaii. He was offered a nice promotion and they were moving to a tropical paradise. Two years before, that news might have sent her into a tailspin. Moving down the street—let alone part way across an ocean—would have felt like an impossible challenge.

But she’d decluttered. Her life was in order. She knew how to manage her time. She had support. This big move was definitely doable. A bit of a pain, yes. (Another round of decluttering was in order!) But doable—and worth it.

It was fairly easy for her to whip her house into marketable shape. She and her husband followed the real-estate agent’s instructions to stage the home (which required minimal effort, since she was so organized). They priced it fairly. And the house sold within 36 hours, at full asking price. In 2008.

They easily found a home of comparable size (if not price) near her husband’s work on the island of Oahu. Financing was a piece of cake. The move couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

When it came time to think about unpacking all the boxes once they arrived in a big container on a giant boat, she had the good sense to know she didn’t need to tackle it alone. Her husband was travelling at the time the container arrived. So she called in the one person outside her family who really knew how she lived. And I was happy to come here and help. (A real hardship, I realize.)

What I love about this client is that she really lives the principles I try to instill in all my clients. She takes care of herself. She understands the value of the stuff she wants to keep and doesn’t keep the stuff she doesn’t value. She stays on top of her paper and her life and if it veers a little out of control (like it did in the last month, quite understandably), she knows she can whip things right back into shape.

She also understands how getting organized helped lead her to where she is now. “If you get your act together,” she’s told me, “being organized doesn’t have to be a pipe dream anymore and you set the stage for other choices and decisions to happen.”

In other words if you actually take steps toward getting organized—rather than just dreaming about it—you open yourself up to all sorts of possibilities. I’m so glad it worked out this way for this wonderful client. She’s a shining example.

Tagged with: balance, decluttering, empowerment, order, organized, priorities

Comments