Your Parent’s Stuff is Priceless ... Until You Have To Sell It

When the time has come to clear out the contents of our parent’s home, because we are not experts, we have a tendency to attach an emotional value on the items. How do we put a price on the Grandfather’s clock that chimed so loud, it woke us out of a teen-age sleep? The chipped cookie jar has immense sentimental value, but who would buy a chipped cookie jar?

When we moved my parents out of their home of twenty-six years, we had no idea what direction to turn, but we were sure we needed to do it all ourselves. My siblings and I felt we “owed” it to our parents to comb through every item and determine its worth. And there was the “stuff” that was collected and saved by us through the years, but never really important enough to take with us as we moved out.

Barry Golden founder of MaxSold, a four-year old Canadian Company, now in the United States, sends in a team that organizes and photographs items to sell via social media. Barry worked with a family selling their parent’s dining room set and the family would not take less than $2,000. They held on to too many memories and turned down an offer of $800. Because no one had room for an extra dining room table with six chairs and a sideboard in their home, they put it in storage. Three years later at $100 per month, the family paid $3,600 to hang on to it and sold it for $500. In Gordon’s words, “Better to yank the Band-Aid off now, even if it hurts. And it will.”

Of course, the family still needs to sort and save the family treasures (not in a storage locker, please!). But his advice is to control what you can control, including the amount of time you spend in the entire process.

When you are cleaning out your parent’s home, it is better to have the outside experts handle most of the process. And remember, you are looking to get rid, not get rich. 

Keep it Moving and Let it Go

“I think in terms of day’s resolutions, not years”. Henry Moore

As I think about making my 2014 resolutions, I start small in terms of what I will accomplish every day, instead of trying to make action plans for the whole year.

With the holidays behind us, January is a great time to get organized. You may notice Target, Home Depot and every other retailer advertising large plastic containers on sale to help us in our quest. In the article below from Medical News for You, Barbara Morris offers many suggestions on how to “keep it moving”. She says if you tackle a little at a time, you will witness progress without sacrificing a lot of time to get it done.

So now, you are ready to de-clutter, downsize, and get organized! If all this sounds overwhelming, Smooth Transitions of St. Louis will be glad to assist you in your process. Another great source of motivation is the De-cluttering Calendar for 2014. It offers action steps and checklists to help you get your home in order (a little at a time) without becoming overwhelmed. The challenge is on-going so you did not have to start January 1st! Week one starts with organizing the kitchen counter tops and sink. Throughout the 52-week challenge you will organize every room in your home.

The calendar may be found at www.home-storage-solutions-101.com.

January is Get Organized Month- the perfect time to get serious about organizing your home, your office and your life!

Beth

The holiday decorations are back in the box and the only reminders of the season are the extra pounds on the scale. Can you even remember what your favorite gifts were?

While these gifts are fresh in your mind, this is a good time to eliminate the “extras”. If you got a new sweater, donate at least one older one. A new shirt? Give away several older ones. Put a plastic bag in the bottom of your closet and keep adding to it. If you have something that doesn’t quite fit anymore and you kept it with the idea of losing five pounds, forget it! Put it in the donation bag.

We are blessed with so much and of course we have our favorite things. We have a lot of things that we bought on sale. But they don’t fit just right. They should be the first to go and not simply sit in your closet taking up space. Someone else may be able to use them without pain. Are you keeping a favorite outfit with the idea that it may come back in style? Even if it does, will it still fit? Keep it moving. Donate it!

If this doesn’t sound like an exciting way to spend an afternoon, then commit an hour to the project. You could do a shelf, a drawer, a rack in the closet. . . not all at once, but in small bites; the way you would eat a foot-long sandwich. By tackling it a little at a time, you will be able to see progress without sacrificing a lot of time to get it done.

It will be tax time before you know it and if your papers are in a state of chaos, don’t wait until the last minute before getting things in order. Use the time while you are watching reruns of your favorite TV programs and start sorting those papers…a stack for taxes, a stack to shred, others to file and some to pitch.  Remember anything with Social Security or account numbers needs to be shredded before putting in the trash.

Are those gift catalogues still hanging around after the holidays? Those are easy to pitch. Are you up to your ears in magazines? If you have any magazines older than November, now is the time to keep them moving. That is November 2013! If there are any special articles you want to keep, tear them out. Give current magazines to friends and family or take to a retirement community, hospital, or any place people wait—the hair salon, car repair shop, doctors’ office. Just get them out of your home.

When you are really brave, go to the attic or basement and evaluate what you have accumulated. Is it trash or treasure? If you can’t remember when, why or how you got something, it is time to let it go. Do you have appliances that once you couldn’t live without but now seldom use? Do they need minor repairs?

Those are ideal donation items as some of the organizations use them for job training exercises. Did you put an old television in the basement thinking you might need a replacement ‘tube’ some day? Well, televisions don’t have tubes anymore, so keep it moving. Have you accumulated old radios, telephones, or other electronics? Time to let them go.

Do you have enough food on hand to survive a nuclear attack? Have you looked at your canned goods lately? Do they have an expiration date? If it doesn’t say 2014, then it is time to pitch it. Another clue to outdated items is that if they don’t have a ‘bar code’ they probably aren’t safe to use either.

By purging your home of those extra items, your life will be better for it.  You’ll feel lighter! Do a little at a time and it shouldn’t be a difficult task. Remember, your new mantra is, “Keep it Moving.” If you haven’t used it recently, then let it go and let someone else make good use of use it.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Holiday time often means putting up decorations and family returning home. Take advantage of the following tips to declutter and make your home holiday-ready.

*Make room for décor and guests

Don’t just add holiday décor, exchange non-seasonal items for holiday ones. Start with small areas at a time, focus on what items you use regularly and make them accessible.  The other belongings may not need to be around at all. Don't put them back out in January if you can live without them. If you need to clear out the guest room, you may find you don’t really need all that stuff the rest of the year either. Give yourself permission to let go. Closet space could make guests feel welcome instead of holding clothes you haven’t worn in years.

*Start new traditions of giving excess items not just cash to charities

Items you don’t need anymore can still help others instead of taking up your space or being thrown away. Clothing, tools, books and housewares in usable condition can be donated to charities and routed to those in need. You still get the tax deduction and also open up space in your home. The extra coats you don’t need could really help someone else this winter.

*Distribute stored family items

All those items you have been keeping for the kids can finally be picked up or cleared. Family may not make a special trip to collect their childhood memorabilia, but if they really want it, they can take it home after their holiday visit. With this deadline, you will discover how much they really wanted those items and release yourself from the obligation.

*Pass on the old traditions

If you are not doing the decorating or cooking that you used to do but don’t want the traditions lost, give the meaningful decorations or cookware to the next generation now. This way you can make sure the stories behind the traditions are remembered for years to come. Know that the grand children will see the important heirlooms that have been in storage if you pass them on now.

*Gift the Inheritance 

Rather than fight the crowds to purchase items family may or may not like, give the items you are planning on leaving as inheritance. This way, recipients can express their appreciation while you are here to receive it, and you can be assured the right people get what you want them to have. Sentimental memories and traditions are highlighted at this time of year so you add new meanings to old memorabilia.

My goal is to help clients and their families deal with a lifetime of accumulation when making changes in living arrangements.

Happy Holidays,

Beth

We Needed to Downsize our Home

My husband Charlie and I were like most 40 something couples with busy lives, corporate careers, kids and aging parents.  We were being pulled in different directions.  But, like all our friends, we were just dealing with the challenges of life.  Then, something occurred that we had not anticipated.  Both my parents had life-altering medical disabilities that forced us into helping them transition to a new lifestyle very quickly.  We needed to downsize their home, find medical assistance, help them organize their affairs and get things in order as hastily and efficiently as possible.  I kept thinking if only we had someone to help my siblings and us with this challenging situation.

Unfortunately, we had to hurry through each phase of the process.  I took the lead to find them a new place to live (which in itself is mind-boggling to anyone).  I also worked with my siblings to organize and conduct an estate sale, donate unwanted treasures to organizations near and dear to our parent’s hearts, and dispose of the remaining items so we could select an agent to sell their home of 30+ years.

In hindsight, the event was stressful, confusing and most importantly, we missed the opportunity to enjoy time with our parents to hear the stories as we unraveled the veil of their lives.  As my family and I replayed the scenario several more times with other relatives, I passionately felt the desire to help seniors mediate this very difficult time in their lives.  The initial experience with my family members allowed me to observe the challenges of downsizing and also gave me the confidence to understand the need to treat them with empathy and respect.

At Smooth Transitions of St. Louis, our clients have many common denominators: the need to downsize, the need to simplify their lives and the paralyzing fear of getting started.  But most importantly, each senior is unique and must receive a customized transitional plan.  More often than not, the realization of this unique project intimidates the seniors, children and other family members.  This is where Smooth Transitions of St. Louis provides an affordable solution.

At Smooth Transitions, we strive to listen to their memories as we guide them through the downsizing process. We implement the family’s instructions to disburse the material possessions to create a new, more manageable living environment that feels “just like home”.  We treat each client as if we are their “surrogate” daughter, without the emotional and traumatic ramifications that accompany family relations.