Discover Organizing To Declutter Your Space And Clear Your Mind Featuring Jill Yesko
Whether you are dealing with a hoarder, moving, downsizing, or wanting to take more control of your life. Getting organized is probably at the top of the list. At home or at work. The old saying a cluttered space is a cluttered mind is so correct. There is no time like the present to get your cutter under control. You won't regret it!
About Jill
Jill Yesko is a Certified Professional Organizer and founder of Discover Organizing, a full service organizing and downsizing firm based in Pittsburgh PA! Her first book, "I'm Right Here: 10 Ways to Get Help with Hoarding and Chronic Disorganization" debuted in June 2021, and her next book, "Chronological Order: The Fine Print for a Large Life" is due out later this month.
She is an avid surfer, snowboarder, skier, and dog-mom, is engaged to a sweet guy and has two adult kids - Nathan is her company CIO, and Mary is a geologist. Jill's prior careers were in social work and human resources, but she has been a professional organizer since 2003.
www.discoverorganizing.com
www.imrightherebook.com
www.AGEUcational.com
Full Transcript Below
Discover Organizing To Declutter Your Space And Clear Your Mind Featuring Jill Yesko
Tue, 9/21 6:05PM • 59:14
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
downsizing, book, lived, people, picture, great, talking, jill, move, thought, house, check, kids, find, mom, notes, create, decision, documents, pick
SPEAKERS
Jill, Terry, Roy Barker
Roy Barker 00:02
Hello, and welcome to another episode of educational This is Roy. So we're a podcast that talks about aging issues not only you know, US journey, our journey through aging, but also about the things that we see with our parents. They're in pretty good shape right now. So it's not like we have to do a lot of heavy lifting. But you know, mine had just gone through a move, Cyma reduction in square footage, not a lot, a lot that some and so we thought we would have Jill on this show and Terry, I'm gonna let you introduce our guest, Jill.
Terry 00:38
Jill Yesko is a search Certified Professional Organizer and founder of Discover Organizing, a full service organizing and downsizing firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her first book, "I'm Right Here: 10 Ways To Get Help Hoarding and Chronic disorganization debuted in June of 2021. And her next book, Chronological Order The Fine Print For A Large Life is due out later this month. She's an avid surfer, snowboarder, skid steer and dog mom is engaged to a sweet guy and has two adult kids. Nathan is her company CIO and Mary geologists, Jill's prior careers were in social work and human resources. But she has been a professional organizer since 2003. Jill, thank you so much for joining us today. We're happy to have you on the show.
Jill 01:33
Thank you, Terry, I really appreciate that introduction.
Roy Barker 01:37
So tell us a little bit about how did you get into from the journey from social work to organizing? And I don't know, I'll say that I know, kind of the backstory on some social workers that, you know, that's part of their life is organizing other people's stuff, too. So I'll let you tell your stories.
Jill 01:57
Yeah, you know, it's so true. I want to talk more about that, because social workers are excellent research. Researchers, and they're excellent resource finders, they're like hunters, and whenever they see someone in trouble, or they need a resource, or they need some type of help, what I love about social workers and case managers, and even, you know, nurse, you know, psychiatric nurses, and anyone that works in that mental health or even, you know, mental health hospitals, to be honest with you, which is why I spent some time working as a as a liaison to the community from a from a mental health, state hospital to the community.
One of the things that I really learned about our kind of our ilk, if you will, is that we just do not quit until that person gets the help that they need. And we follow up and vote because we can't sleep. If someone's like, in crisis, it's like a thing. It's like, it just keeps gnawing at us. And I remember, you know, back in the days of the beeper, where, where I would be excited if it was my turn, and they're like, Oh, my God, why? Because you get extra money. And I said, No, because someone might need me, and I will, I'll be, I'll be able to hopefully help them and they're like, wow, you're young, okay.
Um, now I would, you know, take that paper and, you know, be like throwing it out the window. Probably. Being an entrepreneur, I feel like I'm always wearing a beeper. Um, but I would say that, you know, finding those resources is the most gratifying thing, especially working with seniors, because honestly, even though there's, there's websites galore. You know, putting the ads on the top three or four, and that might not be the right solution for them. So one of the things we like doing is taking, you know, kind of pulling that information and saying, you know, there's really good information on page two, let me help you find that resource.
Because it's, you know, you kind of do have to dig for the right fit for your need. And so going from social work to this job wasn't really all that much of a, I didn't really feel that bombed. I did have a slight stint as an HR director for a psychiatric hospital because I, I did, frankly, you know, need to get into administrative psychiatric work because I wanted to see what that was like. Because when I was little, I did not want to be a police woman or a ballerina, I wanted to be the administrator of a hospital. And I did actually get to do that.
And that was pretty cool being the head of the administration of services, which was my HR hat that I wore that my boss gave me so it was kind of cool to actually have the opportunity to learn the clerical side, which is I think the other Part of Social Work is the clerical side, there's so much paperwork that goes into it. So the cool thing about doing that for the county was that I learned about government. And when you learn about government, you learn about things like Medicare, and Medicaid, and you learn about red tape, and you learn about how to check boxes the proper way and to be patient and to schedule time to fill out paperwork.
And so when I work with my older population, guess what I have the patience for I have all day, let's, let's roll up our sleeves. And, you know, put that red tape away because I'm going to help you and, and that is that's kind of that beautiful gift that social work gave me is that ability to sift through all that stuff.
Roy Barker 05:47
Now, a lot of people don't know what social work my exposure was in a nursing home environment. And it we used to kind of laugh, we'd walk in the social, the social workers office, and there'd be a hearing aid in 3000 pieces that while they're on the phone, trying to get a replacement and see how we're going to pay for it, how long, you know, they're like trying to put it back together like a jigsaw puzzle to see if we can just make this thing work, just until the new one comes in.
Jill 06:14
Right, right. I mean, most of the clients I was on the phone with today, even they're like, please don't email me, I don't own a computer, I hate a computer. So a lot of our population are saying, I don't have these resources handy. Um, and I don't know where to turn. And so they call the Area Agency on Aging, they call, you know, their, their charities for their faith, whatever faith group that they're in, to get ideas or they talk to neighbors or friends.
And a lot of times, we just wish they would just kind of call us because after all these years and being in business, we could be like you know what you need, you need a certified placement advisor that can help you find a new place to live with the budget that you have in place. And that's not our job, but we can at least direct you. And then we can come back and work with you once you know where you're going. And we can start downsizing, which is I know, the The purpose of this podcast tonight is to talk about, you know, downsizing, which is such a big deal.
Terry 07:41
So hard to know,
Roy Barker 07:43
I'm sorry, no, no, yeah,
Terry 07:44
it's so hard to know, what resources are out there, if you're not online, like my mom, she doesn't check her email, she knows how to shop and order things. And she knows how to play games. And that's about it. She, you know, Google friends and you know, try to tie them, things like that. But there are so many different resources out there available now that
Jill 08:10
weren't right, and rabbit become mazes, you know, it's very confusing. And it it kind of gets into this paralysis situation, where they're like I gave up, I was on the internet for two hours looking for help. And I would made a couple of calls. And no one really knows what I'm talking about. And I think that's frustrating for me to hear, because there has to be some easier way to find resources, you know, for all the different needs and, and some of the government pages are really antiquated and they're so hard to navigate.
And, and I was trying to help a senior would find a personal care home recently. I'm just to look up one, just the one that she thought she might want to go to. And it was like, when was this website made? When the internet was born, like is this like, What's it? What was that? Oh, start with a W i can't remember. But it was that type of code that old websites had. I mean, I remember having that kind of website when I started my business in 2003. And like a software engineer came over and helped me like set it up. And it was so rudimentary, but I think there's got to be a better way for that.
Terry 09:31
It's not
Roy Barker 09:33
well, and I think while the Internet has made it easier to find things, I think that it's increased the amount of persistence and staying with it because we still you could pick up the phone. If you could find their number, pick them up, call the phone call them. They give you some information. And it's frustrating now because I can find people on the internet but getting a hold of them to get specific question answered or find something out? It's, it's very difficult in most cases, and I think that's where a lot of them get frustrated, you know, they're used to picking up the phone and talking to people around days. Nobody wants to talk on the phone. I mean, it's a
Jill 10:13
lot of automated stuff. And also, I've noticed too, a lot of chat, like, we aren't available by phone, so please send us an email, well, that that's gonna make anybody frustrated to have to send an email to put a ticket in to find out if you're going to get services or not. And I'm like, okay, that that's hard. You know, I think that's, I think that's really hard for people to have to, to not have immediate satisfaction, because they're used to calling and getting a human being on the phone to help them and not have to wait for a callback for three weeks or something.
But I mean, we are dealing with work shortages and labor shortages, you know, for sure. But, um, anyway, so what I do like about our company is that we, when we go out to do our initial assessment, for downsizing, it's at no charge, because we want people to feel like they're can ask us anything, and not worry about the clock ticking. And if we aren't the right fit, and we can find them, if they just really needed an estate sale, because their kids have handled everything else, then we give them our local resource guide. And then they, we circle a few that we've worked with and say, you know, choose you'd like. So we like that.
But I think when we go and sit down with them, it's like a two hour visit. We tell them how the downsizing process works from the very beginning until the very end, and we go through that entire checklist. And we give them moving checklists we give them here's things that you can't forget to do. These are important things from the turning off of utilities to where do you send your Verizon or, you know, cable box, or whatever. And we can help with that, too. But we have the scope of services form.
And they basically see when they see the scope of services form, they're like, wow, there's a lot to do. And I'm like, right, but we have every step in chronological order for that reason, so that you don't get lost. And this is yours to keep. But you have to tell us how much or how little of our services that you need. And that really helps them put everything into perspective, like, wow, this is a long process, you can be my tour guide, and we can get through this together.
Roy Barker 12:28
And sometimes the the actual steps, that's the easy part, it's a lot of times it's that emotional part that you know, you're dealing with, because there's a lot coming at them at once, probably leaving the house that they may have been in for a long time, number one going to do in strange place. Also the thought of I've collected this stuff all my life. And I don't it's one realization I think people get to is they way overestimate what they're going to be able to fit into this new downsize unit. And so then that is another stressor that at some point when the reality sets in.
And you know what he said is that that happened with my mom, exactly. She thought she had under control. And then it was like on a Friday, she was telling me what we're going to do this and this. And I'm like, you know, this is going to be a lengthy, time consuming hiring process. And oh, no, no, I've got it. My dad is going to do this. Anyway. So Monday, she calls me and she's just worn out. She's like, yeah, you're right. This is long, tiring for deal. Isn't I'm not through yet. I'm like, Yeah, I think just to go to that point is, these are things that we need to think about sooner rather than later until there's maybe crisis mode.
Jill 13:52
Yeah, we try to tell a good rule of thumb is six months before you think you might want to sell your house. So that might even give you a year might give you two years. But if you know that the process itself before you list your home and get ready to move, you know that that's going to take six months. And I mean, I can do it in two weeks. Right. But why would I put someone through that? Right and have gotten those SLS calls? Like, you know, I thought I could do this myself. My closing is in two weeks. And oh my gosh, can you guys just come over and we Blitz the house and we pack it up and we donate and we sell and we take things to auction sites and we take things to done in it.
And it's not the way you want to go because now you're making decisions under duress, instead of making those decisions, really thinking things through and we always do second and third passes anyway. So even if we've been through your whole house and we've picked up everything and we've made decisions, keep to sell, toss, donate, we've done all that. I'm like about a month before the move So can we do that one more time? And they're like, Oh my gosh, yes, I was hoping we could. And we go through the whole thing again. And they're like, now that I've seen my new place, I don't know what I was thinking, boy, you know, and we go through it again, and then a week before the move, but we do it one more time.
And that is that I will, I will have watched people get rid of 50% of their stuff a week before the move, because then they're like, I, I don't know what I was thinking. I said, Well, you were just starting out in the process, right, we're thinking I might need it someday. And it's something that's been in my life a long time. And we have to remember that these things have been witnesses to these people's lives, our lives, you know, for 5060 years, in the same house, sometimes, I had a client who basically was raised in a house and got married, and her parents gave her the house and they moved on, and let her and her new husband have this house.
And they were so she never left that house. And then I had to move her into a high rise apartment. And it was like, shocking, you know, so we, we, she was an attorney, she was very, very clear about her wishes about how she wanted everything. And she I helped her set up organizing systems within the home, I paid attention to how she liked things in the old house. And I tried to mirror that. And that's, that's a big factor. And the other big factor too, and you mentioned this ROI is that they're moving to a whole new sometimes community. Um, and I always try to say if you can get your, your, your loved one your older adult into a community that's really close in the neighborhood of that they're used to, they're familiar grocery stores, and pharmacies and post office and, and things that they're used to going to first, even if it's for three to five years for the transition period.
That really reduces any location stress syndrome, which is a real thing. RSS is a real thing. And so we try to get people to say love that first step we make, may not be to Virginia Beach, to where you know, the daughter and son are may not be to Florida where you want them to go. It may be within their own neighborhood. And you have to be okay with that. Because they're alive. It's their comfort level. Right?
Terry 17:13
Yeah, all those changes all at once
Jill 17:15
or too much. It's really handled, let
Terry 17:19
alone, you know, an older adult who's been somewhere, you know, in the same place. Right? Hi, yeah, well, I
Roy Barker 17:26
think we have to remember, too, that the, from what I've learned through my years is that change is the very worst thing for the senior adult, it's just, they've gotten used to doing everything, the way they do it, and change of any kind, just can be devastating. So we have to be very careful and make sure that we're handling and providing the resources that we need. And I think it's interesting, and maybe this may be more psychology that we may not can really answer.
But it's, you know, like myself, I downsized about seven years ago, on my own, and it was the best decision I ever made. And my kids only money because they're not going to have a lot of stuff to deal with when the time comes to dispose of me. You know, but I don't know. I'll tell you what happened. Friend of mine moved into an apartment. And I thought it was really cool, because they started building these apartments around here where they had the parking garage is not like, you know, the old days where you park in a parking lot and had to walk upstairs. This was like, if you lived on five, he parked on five and it was cool.
And I thought, let me try that. And then. So anyway, I ended up selling the house and got rid of probably 90% of everything. But I will say that was the best decision I made, at least for me, because it was stuff. I mean, I had to barns for, you know, tools and ladders and stuff, I'd collected yours. And definitely at this age, I don't want to be hanging off a ladder do any work? Well, you know, we'll hire somebody to come in and do that. But I just think it's funny that, you know, it was easy and so liberating for me, but then there's some times it's really difficult for people that are still hanging on.
Jill 19:14
Yeah. And there's so much sentimentality to objects and there's so much there's so much connection and holding one object can really bring it all back. And it's it's really hard I see it every day. I mean I see someone struggle and say that's the thing that my aunt made for me or I remember sitting in that chair and talking to my dad every night and or I remember watching wheel of fortune and that was our TV tray when we watched Wheel of Fortune with my grandparents our you know that's what I ate my spaghetti out of on Sunday nights with my grandma and and so you have these very powerful memories.
So, one of the things I like to do is I like to listen to the stories, first of all, because they deserve that I don't rush anybody through this process. Unnecessarily, it's not, it's not that important, you know, um, but, um, what I try to do is asked them if I can take photos of the objects and make them a memory book, and if they could tell me a story about each thing, then we can call the book, like my favorite things, or my memories, or, you know, my, you know, the things I wanted to keep, but couldn't, they could call it whatever they want.
And we do try to photograph the house that they lived in for a long period of time, the way it was decorated, and then, even if we can't make and recreate that in the new home in some way, what it does is it gives them a very clear memory about what what role those objects played in their family history and in all the fabric of their memories.
And so they can show their new friends wherever they're living with on page five, the dining room table where they had all of their holiday meals and the couch where they watched TV or listen to the radio at night, or did crossword puzzles in the morning room and what that look like. And I think that's extremely powerful for people.
Generation wise to to share that not only with new friends, but also with grandchildren, and to tell to tell the story of how they came to be there. And so the this this book that we do is, you know, you can go on Shutterfly and make this book, you know, for like, 35 $40, right, but, you know, we stop sending flowers to say thank you, and we just send these books because like, That's way better than no, no,
Roy Barker 21:51
that's such a great idea.
Jill 21:52
Listen, you know, we listen, like they say, Oh my god, you heard me say that. Or, you know, this one woman had yearbooks and yearbooks of her dad's, but she's like, I'm 80. Why do I still have these yearbooks? And I was like, Well, tell me about your dad. And he was like this big athlete at this big university. And she felt like she was dishonouring him by throwing these books away, because someone should know that.
So. Okay, show me these pictures. So she opened the pages. And she pointed and I put post and essentially, what are you gonna do? I said, you'll see. So I took pictures of all of the pages. There was like, eight. I have like eight year bucks. It was like it was where he was. And we I said, Do you see these pictures on my phone?
She said, Yes. I said, may I dispose of these yearbooks now? She said, Yes. And when we made her memory book, we told the story of her dad. And what those books those pages in that so she had a mini yearbook. And she still talks about that book, and still refers our business because she's like, these people get it, you know, they understand that this is important to not just move somebody to but to make sure we take our memories with us, right?
Terry 23:02
Oh, my, I mean, my mother has all of that stuff. And she downsize. downsize. About six or seven years ago, my dad was in the service. And we lived. I went to six elementary schools, we moved in the middle of the year. So I went and mean all all of it. And of course, while we were over, and we were in Europe, while we were there, bought all kinds of things, paintings and, and crystal and just all of these serving babies like that.
My kids are like, what are you gonna do with that? And my sisters and I are like, Oh, those are beautiful. We got to keep those. We got to keep that water for excellent. Which one do you look at? She's had I mean 812 sets of China she did at the time when we when we moved her but it just seems like kids these days. Don't want that snow
Jill 23:59
now. Yeah, they're their own stuff. And they don't really see that the emotional value to that some of those hard earned and hard won possessions were because a lot of you know our parents got those things from their parents who lived through the depression. And my mother's a baby boomer like a Casper you know, baby boomer and that generation is I find them to be extremely independent. They don't want you to do anything for them for the most part, they want you to be next to them as they do it.
And so we've learned to say okay, we have a bunch of we still have traditionalist that we're working with in their 90s because a lot of them say to me, Jill, I didn't think I was gonna live this long. I got a I got to downsize. And I'm like, you're 95 now's a good time to begin. And even my own grandmother, you know, I moved her out of where she was. She was living in a nice, you know, senior community. And then she needed to go to independent living and, and then assisted living. And she was in her mid 90s. When we did that, and she had 16 kids.
And I created buckets, my mom said, just give everybody a bucket, and Teller, every time she comes up with something to who goes to that it has to fit in the bucket. I'm like, that's a really good idea. So I did that. But it was a lot of work. And her husband had all these papers and paper is the monster, I thought photos were a monster, you know, to deal with and to go through, but papers upon papers, because that generation again, you got to save it because you may have to argue about the water bill, you may because that wasn't an online generation.
And that's what I say about the internet, like there is no trust, sometimes I see that there's no trust that the internet will produce the information that we need, because the Internet has let them down. Honestly, you know, it has been frustrating for them. It has been basically the IKEA basement, right? When you go into IKEA and you're like up and you're looking in the beautiful floors. And that's what you think the internet is. And then you go to the basement of IKEA to go check out and you're on the labyrinth of choices and colors and bright things.
And it's very distracting to me, even I dread going to IKEA. So when I go to Google, and I'm looking for solutions, even myself, it's like one rabbit hole after the other and it is frustrating. So I think for papers, you know, I actually have to demonstrate, let's go into your account, why don't have an account, let's create an account together. And I'll keep it in this notebook this this real tangible thing. And we'll create a notebook of all these ideas and the instructions.
And I literally will do screenshots and make a binder and say this is how you get to this. And if we do this correctly, and I you demonstrate to me that we can do this correctly, you can read a five filing cabinets over here today. And they're like, really I'm like, Yeah, really, because this is all backup to that one thing. And if I show you, so really, honestly, everyone, I've taught how to do these things. They pick it up like that they're all bright, they all look at their binder, they all look at the cheat sheet.
And they're like this was oh my gosh, I was holding on to all this stuff forever and ever because I was afraid. And I'm like, well, you're free. Just like your ROI, you're free of all your burdens of your stuff. They're free of having to be an archivist. And living in their archives. They don't have to live amongst their archives anymore. Well,
Terry 27:41
unfortunately, it's not free from all my stuff, because he's trying to help me take you know, photos and store my paperwork out of that pile that it's in my black hole table over there. And it just gets stuffed in. And it's just, it's just crazy. It's hard for me
Jill 28:03
to do well, Sunday, maybe we'll do a show on paper. How to get rid of those paper piles. Oh,
Roy Barker 28:11
great. Yes, yeah. Because, you know, I was that guy. And I'll tell you, even though you know, I embraced technology, I would print my water bill off. I would pay it online. And then I would print that off and stapled together and I had proof. Yeah, I had all these filing cabinets full of stuff. And then somehow I came to the realization of what you're saying it's like, you know what, I just have to go online and look. And if I, if they don't get my check, or it falls through that they'll call me. I mean, they they're not shy about calling and saying, Oh, well is money.
Jill 28:44
Fine, you don't worry.
Roy Barker 28:46
But one thing, you know, kind of maybe getting a little too deep. But what I'll use is one note and then I had used Evernote in the past, but you know, it's what I encouraged Harry to do is just take a picture of the receipt and file it because you can find it much easier. We know and I'm not gonna pick on her I'll say me that, you know, I had receipts laying around or filed somewhere good. But when I needed them, could I find them easily? No. Now I can go to one note, look up, you know what year it was and find that perceived that I'm looking for so much easier. It's just but it's it's a you have to train yourself to do that. It's not easy for some to let go of.
Jill 29:31
Well, what you're talking about is a habit. A routine. And one of the best books I've read on like, getting someone to try something new to benefit them is atomic habits. I don't know if you've heard of that book. James clear. Um, I love that book. I refer to it all the time. And what I love about that is like you know, just getting us to do just that. 1% change.
And for you, Terry, it might be like just getting used to the app for a couple of weeks or a month just looking at it not even using at it just making a habit to just open it, look at it. Don't Don't take pictures of receipts yet. Don't, don't do anything. And then when you're ready, then you take, you start doing receipts with it. And then maybe three months later, you start doing other documents with it. And so that you're then building that habit of saying, You're holding something in your hand.
And you know what, this is a fill in the blank of receipt, a piece of paper document that I need to keep, but now that I've learned how to be really proficient in this new digital filing system, I think I will go ahead and take a picture of this warranty, and then throw the warranty away without that. Oh, what am I gonna do? Yeah.
Roy Barker 30:52
Wow, you're not encouraged. Even if you have sentimental stuff for the kids. This is a conversation that we that we have is, you know, how many tricks do you make from the house to the storage unit to dig through there to find this, you know, whatever that you know, you got to save. But you think about if you just took a picture of it, you can recall it anytime, anywhere that you want it to
Terry 31:19
last again. I mean, I get all of this, I couldn't just throw it away. So I've got boxes of the kidstuff storage and storage unit. And I have I still have.
Jill 31:31
Wow, well, I'll tell you what, I just you guys, I just did this. So my kids were 26 and 28. And I emptied one of these pods I when I moved two years ago out of my home into an apartment and now we just got this house. I said I'll put all the memorabilia in a pod. It was a little eight by five. And the guy came in took it away. It was like a lot of stuff like the baby blankets and the the first outfits and the first Barney and whatever, okay. And I said it's fine. The kids will go through it later, blah, blah, blah, well, then I was like, You know what, I'm an organizer. I am a photo organizer. And I like to think of myself as an archivist of some kind for these families. I'm like, I got to practice what I preach. So I had the pod delivered to my office because I have a lot of hands on deck there.
They emptied out the thing. And I thought I only had six bins of stuff get so much stuff I had how much 15 bins and bins. I don't mean like little boxes. I had the like, Oh yeah. Oh yeah, big tubs of stuff. So I said put this on tape. Let's record it. And I, you know, I've basically laid it all out like I'm, I'm just as guilty as y'all I'm 52 years old. I have two grown children. And I'm basically making a documentary right now. And I'm taking those bins and a lot of stuff around here in my house that I'm not even looking at photo albums. Like those yearbooks, things like that, I'm taking a cover picture of the cover of the yearbook.
And then the two pages I was in, you know, and I'm putting I'm making a chronological book of my life, I'm putting five coffee table books. That's it, that's going to be all of those 15 bins. Right. And we're making like a film, we're actually doing this, we were like halfway through photographing all of my three dimensional objects, all the kids art has been scanned. And the kids get to keep it all they get their own digital copy that they're like, throw it away once you've gotten it photographed. And that feels so good to me to know that my footprint is going away.
And all my stuff, by the way is not only going to be in these printed books, but it's going to be on a next play digital frame on playlist, I can do my, my childhood, my teenage life, my 20s 30s and 40s. So I've got five playlists, and I can mix and match them and shuffle them in my digital frame. And I love I've already downloaded a few things on are uploaded, and it's in its motion activated. So when I go in my living room, I walk past it and a picture comes up with me when I was six years old. It's just Oh, really? Yeah, it's a really neat way to still get to see everything, which is why we took those pictures in the first place. Right?
Roy Barker 34:33
You know, like me when I moved there were things like my desk set, you know, I had a big office and some other I guess I must have been I wasn't granted a lot of the sudden mental illness or something because I didn't have a lot of, you know, the little knickknacks and stuff but what really got me was so when I moved all this stuff into the storage, it was like 60 bucks a month. Yeah, over like three years, and all of a sudden, I was paying like $180 a month.
And I said, for what I never go over there to visit my stuff. I mean, it's just there. And so that was just made a decision at that point. I was like, okay, getting rid of it. And I got rid of just, I think I had four or five tubs of books I held on to, but for the rest of it, I just got rid of it. And I mean, at some point, you just realize that if it's been in the storage for two or three years that probably you're, you've already said
Jill 35:31
goodbye to
Terry 35:33
- And I think, yeah, it's been in the storage unit for a couple of years. But it's not right here in front of me. So I'm not going to use it. I don't even know what I have. It's like going shopping every time I go back to the storage unit, which is not very often. I feel like I'm shopping. It's all new stuff. So I'll bring a little bit. I got an excuse for everything.
Jill 35:56
Yeah, I hear that. I hear that a lot, too. Yeah, it's very common. You're not you're not not special? I
Terry 36:03
No, no, I'm
Jill 36:04
just saying you're not out of line. I mean, a lot of people feel that way. And it is comforting to have your things around you. So I understand that too.
Roy Barker 36:14
Well, so tell us a little bit about I know that we you know, optimally, we would be like six months out before we move. But are there some documents? Are there some things that we would need to think about before we actually engaged you?
Jill 36:29
Um, well, in terms of documents, um, you know, I guess one of the things I do if you're talking about like, you mean, like my agreements? Or do you mean, like vital records?
Roy Barker 36:43
Well, no, just before we called you out, if I was saying, Hey, we're going to move, we want you to come out, are there some things that we, you know, should be thinking about and checking off this before you come home to kind of help get us off to a faster start?
Jill 36:57
Um, well, it mostly comes down to, you know, the hours that you're willing to spend with me, or the hours that you're not willing to spend with me. Because I, when I come out, and I do an assessment, I can do a written plan, and you guys can execute that on your own, or you can pull me into that. So we do that scope of services, like I said, and we do go think through things like your paperwork, you know, what I always say, what are your goals, because your goals may be, oh, we're gonna keep all those filing cabinets, we're bringing them with us, but we're not bringing all this furniture that would take in the place of that.
So the paper then becomes more important or the documents become more important. And if you have a business like a, you know, your own business, then we have to talk about those records. And then I always recommend you talk to a CPA and that kind of thing. And we have like a whole checklist of you know, we need to put in together and emergency back. So let's put you know, your power of attorney, your will your you know, any type of living well, that you might have any stock certificates, your insurance documents, and then your cheat sheet of who are all your people, your lawyer, your banker, your your, you know, your main doctor, you know, your accountant, all those all those key players in your life, that, you know, people may need to reach if something happens to you.
So, you know, it really depends. Like, this is a we're in September, and it's Disaster Preparedness Month, right? It's also save your photos month, so I've been having a field day on the internet, you know, and Instagram, but giving out tips galore. But, um, you know, for me, I try to say if you just have a go box, you know, go folder, go box, certainly digitize this, these things, please, please, please. But if you have a go box, that's handy.
You can already be in your car. It could be I don't care where it is, you know, as long as you have a copy some people keep a go folder in their, in their freezer, because it's a fireproof box, you know, not not forever. It's like up to three hours or something like that. If you look up the numbers on that, please don't quote me, but it does. It does have like a fire rating, right? It's um,
Roy Barker 39:14
yeah. Oh, my gosh, it's funny you say that because my mic, we used to save change through the year to go on vacation with my grandparents every year. And my grandmother kept change at the back of the refrigerator that she thought, well, nobody's gonna look into the fridge for any money.
Jill 39:31
And she's absolutely right. No one really does and has to be a pretty desperate criminal who might be hungry, but, um, I really feel like establishing those goals is really important because somebody might feel very strongly about books and clothing, but not feel very strongly about all those guitars that you're like, Oh, you don't want those men? Oh, no, I don't play anymore. Oh, okay. But the books are important.
So it's really about square footage, your goals. Your hopes, your dreams, and your activities. And we align all of the tasks that have to do with downsizing with that person's lifestyle today, not who they used to be. They used to quilt if they used to, so if they used to paint, but now they like to go ballroom dancing. And now they like to ride horses, well, let's get your tech ready for your horse stuff. Let's get your, your your colored pencils and your art stuff together because you'd like to do watercolor, let's do that. Let's create that space together. And let's shed the former self. Because the good news is, if you want to pick all that stuff up again, you just got to go to Amazon or to the store.
And you can create that new hobby again, you can always begin again, somehow. Right, right. So we call those like those documents, those life essentials and things that should be in place. Like your insurance policies and your house and all that stuff. We go over and just ask, we have like these checklists like, do you have all this in place? Should we help you get this in place. And we're not the only ones that can do that you can get a geriatric care manager involved. You can get, you know, really, anyone that is like a senior placement advisor knows how to do all this stuff.
They know how to prepare documents, and help you put these kits together, just like us and what sometimes we work with them. And they'll say, Hey, can you find Can you help us fine. You know, they had they did a home inventory years ago. And they say it's over here, and we'll go digging for it. You know, what we're, we're working together. So, Terry, you were talking about like, your stuff, you know, like, inventory, it made me think about how many mentors and there is this really cool program that's free called fair split.
And for those people that are looking to downsize, and move, we always start a fair split free account for the client, we get nothing, we're not like an affiliate, we don't get cash, or, you know, I'm not getting sponsored by these companies. I love this company. Because what it does is like later that inventory, first of all can be shared with an insurance agent to we use it for the move to check off like, like a, you know, like, cube sheet like, hey, everything came, you know, off the track, we have it checked off, so we use that.
And then the third reason it can be used for is if you want to pay them, you can go into a paid account, just like Asana is free, and all these other free accounts you can use until you need it for a different purpose, or you need to use it more, it can then become an estate planning tool. And what I love about it becomes like you and your that's what made me think about it, you and your sister, we're talking about like China, and you get this and I get that and I really want the Waterford that was very special to me.
That's great. So you can do this thing called emotional bidding. And you no one sees that you want it, they just see that someone wants it. So they might not even see that you can choose your settings, you can have your blind and you vote
Terry 43:08
you have created a monster now I'm go free.
Jill 43:12
And here's the cool part, this is even better, is that you can then to that line item. Like let's say you're making that list of inventory of Waterford Crystal, you could take a picture, upload the picture and take any notes mom got this in Dublin, or I'm sorry, Waterford is in Cork or wherever. And you know, mom got this in Cork with dad on their honeymoon or whatever.
And you tell the story. And now you've got stories, you've got a picture, you can add videos of her talking about the honeymoon into that account. Oh yeah, it's all free. Oh my gosh, and then get into the emotional bidding part. When you start using it with your lawyer. Then it becomes I think it's like 250 and it's a one time. I don't know, don't quote me on that price.
Because I think it changed. Definitely, like, I mean, we're like it's like indispensable for us because we're like you guys look, you now have account of everything you own. And it's in boxes now. And when we unpack it, it'll be out of the boxes. But now you have photos of it. You've got a complete list of everything and it's all part of our service and it's interesting it's right there
Roy Barker 44:18
and then mate I don't even think that would be good you know for people like Terry that are still storing some of her more precious items in a storage unit and Terry because sometimes we think about you know we saw this thing but did we get rid of it is at the store Janet so I mean to me this would be great inventory for those things because that way you can always say Yeah, we got it or no we got rid of it because we're always you know going by what I wanted
Jill 44:48
you guys you can take a video of your storage unit and just at least get get a video of like this, like the physical things you can't video it's inside the boxes. I understand that but you took the video It's a storage unit one storage Oh, no. And that's your little cheat. And then you can take individual pictures of stuff. And then
Roy Barker 45:09
when it was going in, that would have been the, that's what I was saying about is when you're putting stuff in, if you actually kind of catalogued it going in, that would be one thing I was going to talk about, that you said, about getting the legal papers together and stuff, please, please, please tell somebody where that box is. Because I know, I know people that it's like, well, you know, it's either at home, or it's at the lawyer or it's at the CPA. But if something were to happen to somebody, in between all this moving around, you know, the family may not know where it was for a few weeks. So always good, just lets me know where it's at.
Jill 45:48
The location of that is very important in that I hate to just keep talking about fair split. But one thing that you can't do on that inventory is right, document box number one on the list. And there's a drop down thing that says the location so you can say it's in storage, it's in the at the address, because you call the the name of the file is always the property address.
And then you can say it's at this address, it's in stores, or it's an aunt Susie's house, because you can create and customize the destinations. And that helps us track huge photo collections. Because the clients like Wait, is that at your studio? Or is that at my house? Let's check. Because in fair split, it'll say it's a discover organizing photo office, or it's at this address of the lady that gave us the stuff and she's like, Oh, my God, okay, I wasn't sure. And then a lot of people will say, Did it go to donation?
Did it go to a state sale? Did it go to my sister's house? Or do I still have it? And I'm like, let's look. And sure enough, you can look and see what was donated. You can do reports, like, give me a donation report, it gives you a donation report just using that category. So it's such a great tool. I wish I found it. I wish I thought of it. But yeah,
Roy Barker 47:01
well, I was gonna say if people I grew up with, they had a huge family. And they kind of had the manual version of this one, I guess mom must have been feeling ill or not too great. So one Thanksgiving, she passed out a different color, post it note to every kid and said go around mark. And so and it's funny because the kids kind of took a joke that they left them. And so you know, when you go over there and see them, they're still post it notes for everything around the house about which kid had Dibs off.
Terry 47:35
That's a great tool. Mom's label. I mean, mom's like, Okay, well, once this who wants this painting? I mean, it's almost like he wants this. And we're like, now you can restart arguing about that. And, and we have our names on the back of certain things, you know, not everything, but
Jill 47:56
that's very smart. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we have to have a show about sister soon.
Terry 48:04
Oh, man. Yeah.
Jill 48:06
I have one tip. So I guess I guess what I would say to with the post it notes, I love that idea. You guys, I'm glad you brought it up. Because when we do our initial assessments, we actually use posting those four things that are just one category only. And that's just basically the things that you want. And then we, you know, go from there. Or they'll say, Can we do one for my condo in Florida and a one for here because I'm going to stay here I'm just moving around locked to a small. And so we'll say okay, Pink is Florida. Yellow was Pittsburgh. Great. And then we go from there. And so that's fun. That's fun for them. They like doing that. Because then they don't have to move things around because they're heavy. But they get to just stick things on.
Terry 48:48
Well, I'm gonna ask you is do you do you travel? Do you guys travel? We do.
Jill 48:54
We do travel with our clients depending on their budget, otherwise, we'll we will refer to a partner, which is basically someone that is like our company, and we call it job sharing. So if I am moving someone to Florida, and they don't, they don't want to bring us with them because of financial reasons. We will coordinate with a senior move manager down in whatever county or city in Florida, there's usually one there that can receive the goods, help them unpack, and they receive our inventory through fair split.
And they know how to use that because a lot of us do. And they just check it off and help them settle and they just give us a report at the end of the job. And we call that job sharing and there we don't have to like pass off referral fees or anything because that's just what we all do with each other. We're very community based. So
Roy Barker 49:45
I know we're running way long on time. But another question I wanted to ask was about kind of the the starting of decisions and I know you talked about making too, you know, hopefully maybe two or three rounds goes through the house to look at stuff but Back in the old days, it was they told you to make the definitely I'm keeping power. Definitely, we're getting rid of power. And then the power we don't know about is that still kind of the steps that you go through?
Jill 50:15
Yeah, sometimes if it's really hard, we have a maybe. And I'm not sure pile, which is okay, because we're going to hit that again on a second pass because everything has to be touched and decided upon it for selling your house eventually. So the sometimes will isolate those items in like a guest room that are really struggle they're really struggling with so they're out of sight for a little while, give them a little mental break from that decision. And then we'll we'll pick that low hanging fruit first and get that you know, situated.
But again, everything is about math. And everything's about numbers for the most part when we're moving. So we have to think about square footage. And we measure and we do a very articulate space plan. And if they can't fit it, they go well, I guess, I guess I can't keep it then. And that usually helps that decision get made. Right. But for the I don't know, area, we do revisit that. And then we have techniques for helping them make decisions, which is exhausting. So we do try to do those low hanging fruit easy decisions.
First, we get their muscles built their decision making muscles built really strong. So that when we come back again and again, they're like, I know how to do this now. And I had a talk with my sister, like you said, or my brother, my aunt, she said to let it go. She said she didn't want it. And I'm so glad you made it color.
Roy Barker 51:37
I think that's good to build that up. Because it's like, even me personally, it's like that second go around. Okay, now what seems to get easier. And then it's like almost some of these definite keep things you kind of decide, no, not really, I'm going to go ahead and get rid of that.
Jill 51:55
I guess the best tip I can give you before we all say goodbye here is to make sure you start in a storage area or a basement or an attic or something that you haven't lived in for a while because you might hit a log jam, like an old photo album or a baby's christening outfit or something that's okay, you can put that aside.
But I will tell you that 90 to 100% of the time when we start in an area that's not common space anymore, not lived in space. Like an old kid's bedroom, or a guest bedroom or something that seems to really help build that confidence. And if we only start out with two hour sessions when we start, and we work up to four, and sometimes six, if you know we're getting closer to a deadline. So try to pick a sweet spot and set a timer for about, you know.
We set the alarm for like two hours, then we check in and say can you do another hour? And if they say no, we're, we're pretty much toast now you know, our stick a fork in us, we're done. We stop. We tidy up and we make schedule for the next time. Because it is exhausting. And I think that's one thing to remember is just to do a lot of self care during your decision making process,
Roy Barker 53:14
right? And another great reason to start earlier rather than later. So you can give you know give you today. Yeah, give yourself a break. I mean, this is going to be a difficult. It's not only physically demanding mentally, emotionally, it's going to wear you out. So give yourself some time to be able to go through it at a good pace and not just wear yourself out.
Jill 53:37
That's right. That's right.
Roy Barker 53:39
All right. Well, again, we are way over. But we appreciate all the great information. It's always fun talking to you always learned something. So again, tell us about what is a habit that you use a habit tool, something you use in your daily life, that you feel like adds value personal professionally.
Jill 54:00
Um, I know that I absolutely could not live without the calendar feature in my phone. Because task lists are fabulous. But appointments with myself for that task are vital. And as I age, my memory isn't so great. So I can trust that when I do think of something and I put it in as an appointment. I'll never as a professional organizer, I will never be late for my own appointments. So that's very important. And
Roy Barker 54:39
I learned this from an early age I got to go through back in the day was Franklin I think was the system that we use, but it's so refreshing. Yeah, this summer refreshing like to dues or calendar stuff if he just to me if I get it marked down. I don't have to keep worrying about am I forgetting something or thinking about it. It just really takes took that away. And it's like, it almost makes you feel feel kind of free. Once you get that off your mind, you know, it's taken care of, and someone's gonna remind you,
Jill 55:08
I went to a class. I'm sorry, I just
Terry 55:13
said, then you're not thinking about it.
Jill 55:16
I was about to tie in with that. I went to a class out quick. This neuropsychiatrist was teaching my professional organizer group, I belong to an association, and he came to visit. And I raised my hand and I said, I used to not take notes. And now I find that I need to take notes all the time. Why is that? Is my brain can the brain get full? And it goes, absolutely, it can get full. And I was like, really, because your sponge is full.
Like, you have to get rid of it. You have to download your brain. And he said, Jill, you're writing to forget not to remember your you don't want your brain to remember everything. Let your brain have a break, and give it room to learn new things, but don't have a try to remember everything. What do you do it? Yeah. And I was like, Oh, my God, that's brilliant. So I just keep downloading and downloading and downloading.
And I feel like, I am free to think and feel. And it's like I'm making space. I'm decluttering my brain. It's amazing. So do not take this. So you do I do now because I want to I do. I don't want to have to remember because the paper is taking care of that. For me. The phone notes feature is taking care of that for me. Yeah.
Roy Barker 56:35
Yeah, always, always kind of joke that I have a 20 minute hard drive brain and again, a one terabyte rule on the stuff that's coming at us on a daily basis. Now, again, this gets kind of off topic, but it gets back to we need to give ourselves a break. If we could just understand the sheer volume of information that comes at us daily, you know, we wouldn't expect that we would understand it. And I'm like you I think taking notes and use a automatic note taker for some of our calls. And the nice thing is it not only takes notes, but it organizes it for you can fund it because there's nothing worse than having something that you know is value and not being able to put your hands on it when
Jill 57:24
they complete. You just summed up why we organize.
Terry 57:29
retrieval. Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for all the great,
Roy Barker 57:34
awesome. So tell everybody about discover organizing, Jill, how you can help them how they can reach out get a hold of me.
Jill 57:41
Okay, well, they can always visit our website at discoverorganizing.com. You can always call us for 412.344.3450. And we're here for you. Whenever you're ready. We do virtual we do virtual work from anywhere in the world.
Terry 57:59
And how about your books.
Jill 58:01
The book is called the one that's published is called I'm Right Here. And you can get that at I'mrightherebook.com or on anywhere where books are sold like Amazon. And it is also available on Kindle. And then Chronological Order The Fine Print For A large Life that is due out in a few weeks. And that will also be available on Amazon.
Roy Barker 58:25
great deal. Thanks so much. We will get back together sounds like we got four or five more shows up. All right, well, that's gonna do it for another episode of AGEUcational course I'm Roy. You can find us at www.AGEUcational.com. We're on all the podcast platforms iTunes, Stitcher, Google Spotify, we're not a one that you listen to please reach up.
Be glad to edit make listening easier. We're also on all the major social media networks probably hang out on Instagram more than it others. So reach out we'd love to interact with you there. You can also see a video of this interview when the episode goes live over on our YouTube channel. So check it out as well as some of our other past guests. Until next time, take care of yourself and take care of your health.
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