The Clutter Fairy Weekly #107
Spread Too Thin, Piled Too High: Clutter in the Sandwich Generation
“Sandwich Generation” refers to middle-aged people who shoulder the responsibility for both their own children and aging parents, while still trying to enjoy a life of their own. In episode #107 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, explores the unique clutter challenges facing the Sandwich Generation and suggests strategies for balancing these competing priorities.
Links mentioned in today’s live webcast:
Watch on YouTube
Listen to the Podcast
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The Weekly Tittle is an exercise designed to focus your attention on a specific space, aspect, or challenge of decluttering and organizing your home. We assign a new tittle in each webcast/podcast, then check on your progress the following week.
Deconstructing the Sandwich
This week’s assignment is to begin—or advance—the process for managing your family’s “generational clutter”:
- If you have elderly parents whose stuff will eventually become your responsibility, start a dialog about plans and wishes for their stuff.
- If your parents already have plans in place, talk with them about the history and significance of items that will be coming to you. Now is a good time to learn their stories so that you can decide what these things mean to you.
- If you have adult children (or nieces and nephews), start a conversation about your own plans for disposing of belongings. Find out which things they care about—or might care about later.
- If you don’t have children, spend time reflecting and making notes this week on how you’d like to distribute the things that hold the most meaning for you.
For the full discussion of this week’s tittle, watch the Weekly Tittle segment on YouTube.
Chat Transcript
Download a transcript of the chat that took place during the live event.
Note: For best results, we suggest you right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac OS) the link above to download the chat transcript text file, then read it in your text-reader or word-processing app of choice. If you click the link directly, you may get quirky results viewing the text file in your browser.
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