I often hear the phrase “just in case” when I am helping clients reduce their clutter. I will pick up an item and ask, “Do you ever use this?” The client will say, “No, but I want to keep it just in case.” I work through this with the client, exploring the various scenarios in which this item will be needed again, and how likely these scenarios are. I usually conclude, “And in the unlikely event that you need it, you can…
Read more →I’ve noticed this a lot recently when I’ve been helping clients organize their closets or dresser drawers. We are sorting the items into categories, and the client says, “Oh, I don’t wear that. I keep it because it has a special memory associated with it.” As soon as I hear that, I say, “Then this isn’t clothing. This is memorabilia.”
Read more →Today, my sister and I finished clearing out our family home of nearly 40 years. It wasn’t the home we grew up in — we moved out of that apartment three weeks before I graduated high school. But it was where we introduced our parents to the men who would become their sons-in law; where we brought our children to play with their cousins; where we mourned our mother three years ago and helped my father reestablish his new life, which ended two…
Read more →The first time I experienced credit card fraud was in 1982. I opened my bill to discover that I had charged $1,100 at Pit Number One in Atlantic City. The trouble is that I had never been to Atlantic City. This was back in the days before the Internet (yes, children, there was such a time) and way before we did on-line shopping. Maybe that’s why I’m not fearful about using my credit card number on-line. I know that these kinds…
Read more →Designer shoes and handbags are just not in my DNA. I am apparently missing that segment of the X chromosome. However, I have been in enough female clients’ closets to know that I am in the minority. I’ve worked with clients long enough to know that letting go of something you no longer use or love is especially hard if you paid a lot of money for it. That means that designer shoes and handbags often stick around past their…
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