Declutter 101 for Caregivers

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Spring is coming. Many are moving. Elderly parents are needing assistance. There is one constant in all of this. Decluttering is a necessity. It’s a ritual for spring cleaning. It makes moving much easier. And many elderly relatives are renown for their frugality, translated into “I can’t throw anything away!” It’s not easy. It’s not fun. It is cleansing and refreshing. So join me and let’s peruse some excellent recommendations on HOW and WHAT to declutter. Then, when we’re totally tired of reading about it, let’s go DO IT 🙂

Hi. My name is Kaye and I’m a bookaholic! As I weed, weed, and weed some more, my book pile gets smaller and yet is still huge. Reading is one of my favorite hobbies, but it’s also my hardest item to declutter. I give books away, I share books, I love books. As much as I would love to have a huge house and turn half of it into a library, that isn’t a practical or wise option for me. WikiHow has some help for me and any of you who have similar issues – http://budurl.com/DeclutterBks . They have an excellent article on how to wisely sort, weed, store, and even buy books so that you can enjoy them without letting them take over your life!

Now that the books are more under control, it’s time to move on to the rest of the house. Flylady is one of my favorite sites for that. She has so many resources on her site, you’ll be busy for days just absorbing them all. But she is good at not letting you just sit there. She has organization charts, schedules, and emails to help you get going and keep going. For those who like Twitter, she even has reminders she can tweet you! For her specific guidelines on decluttering, you can start at http://budurl.com/FlyladyDeclutter and then move on from there.

Both of these sites are excellent resources to help you get more organized and then help your beloved seniors get more organized. But what do you do with an elderly parent whose home seems to be more cluttered than ever before? It is important to stop and analyze the situation and the person. It could be they are going through a period of extreme busyness. This is probably more prevalent with caregivers though. I know my piles are growing as I try to combine writing, moving, babysitting, and caregiving. Mentally I am fine, but timewise, oy! But an older person with plenty of time, who is starting to stack papers on every available surface, who is not getting bills paid, etc., may have other issues that need to be cared for as well as the symptoms. It would be wise to have them get a medical checkup to rule out such things as depression or Alzheimer’s Disease. If you are already dealing with a parent with Alzheimer’s, I found a very useful article at http://budurl.com/AlzheimersHoarding . Rosemary Bakker wrote a detailed account of how her mother’s hoarding issues progressed and ways she dealt with the situation. I think that article is worth saving, even if you don’t need it now.

Well, our time for reading and research is up. Now it’s time to put some of this into action. I don’t know about you, but I know it’s time for me to hit those boxes and start putting away, with an eye to giving away some of it as well 🙂