Survey #282—Full Response from Terry
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| Describe a situation in which someone successfully assisted you with a decluttering or organizing project. What factors contributed to the success of the collaboration? | Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but being in touch with friends around decluttering/organizing really helps me. I have a friend that volunteers at a church consignment shop. Although it's over an hour drive from me, if I bring things there, I get to visit briefly with my friend and it encourages me to come up with items to consign. At other times, we brainstorm ways to declutter various items and share relevant article/posts. We text each other our decluttering achievements or progress. Things that make it work: we're at similar places around "stuff", communication is brief but often, doing this alongside a friend really helps me make progress. I just shared a table with a friend to sell at an antique show/flea market. Financially the day wasn't successful. But it caused me to gather a bunch of stuff that I was willing to part with. And it helped me decide to donate a large portion of the items and I'm exploring options on that. I would never have done this on my own (and it was a huge amount of work) but I had a fun day with a friend and it helped me make progress towards donating. I wouldn't have done this on my own, doing it with a friend made me research and schedule it. |
| Describe a situation in which you successfully assisted someone else with a decluttering or organizing project. What factors contributed to the success of your efforts? | I've never assisted someone hands on with decluttering. But I do share ideas and books that I've found helpful (along with recommending the Clutter Fairy all the time!). And frequently brainstorm approaches for decluttering various types of items. I think the reason these are successful is that we are all in a similar place regarding our stuff, almost Swedish Death Cleaning mode. And it's mutual: today I have an idea you can use, last week you had an idea that helped me. And it's fun to cheer your friend on when they make progress (and when they do the same for me). And, to be honest, given that we are older, there's a sense of urgency. Knowing that capabilities or living space or whatever may change in an instant, so better to make progress now while we can. |
| Describe a situation in which you offered help with decluttering or organizing, but you didn’t achieve the desired results. What factors contributed to coming up short of success? | When my mother was in an assisted living type situation with not a lot of space, I wish I had the knowledge that I have now. She was a person of many interests and things were always cluttered. At times, I did help her declutter. But looking back (as I'm now the age she was at the time), I wish I had more creative thoughts about organizing her reduced space so that it could have better supported the things she liked to do. And at that time, it wouldn't have occurred to me that there might be professionals that could help make that happen. |
Be the first to comment!
Comment on this survey response
Please use the form below to share a comment on this survey response. We ask that you keep your comments courteous and respectful. Polite disagreement is fine, but abusive language won’t be tolerated. Your comment will be held briefly for moderation after submission.
"*" indicates required fields
