One thing that drives me bananas is when I can’t find my digital “stuff”! Have you ever searched for a file on your computer and no matter what, it seemed to have disappeared? Me too! It drove me crazy, especially when some of my favourite things – pictures, books, emails, were there but out of my reach. Now, I have a system of tools, folders, and backups set up that keep me on track. 
A few years ago, I had files on a laptop and they were different to the files on my desktop. I also had a backup drive, but honestly, have you ever tried to get files off a backup drive? It’s not for the weak kneed! Because I didn’t know how to get particular files off a backup, I’d email important files to myself so I could access them from anywhere. Of course this meant I had the same file in multiple places, and was not efficient at all.
Do You Have Backup?
There are plenty of options, from storing your emails and pictures on the cloud with OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and many more. Some of these platforms offer a little free storage and you can buy extra space if you need it, although I haven’t found one that meets all my needs. I find that when I want to access something off the cloud and then edit the document, I have to download it to a computer. Then when I am finished making the changes, I have to load it back up. This feels like too much fiddling around, especially if I am working on multiple parts of one project at a time.
My solution was to use an external drive where I can copy files regularly, and they are easy to find and work with. However, my IT friends tell me that I shouldn’t store my external hard drive at home. It’s too easy for files to get lost or damaged. Instead, I store some things in the cloud until I copy them onto an external hard drive.
You have to identify the best method of storage and backup for you. What’s handy? What’s easy to manage? What’s affordable?
My Kind of Gadgets
I have a large external hard drive, and its 4TB is plenty of space. You can see it here (and order from my affiliate link if you like): http://amzn.to/2AfHLAi and to be adequately covered, I also have a backup drive, where with the help of an IT person I could get myself up and going on a new computer if I needed to. http://amzn.to/2AqCrKT
One of the things I love about putting my photos on an external drive is that I have them handy to look at, anytime I want. I don’t have to pull out big albums (although a lovingly created photo album or scrapbook is marvellous, I admit), and I don’t need a set of bookshelves to store my album. The pictures, on an external drive, take up very little space at all. I can also keep important papers, from bank statements to tax returns, and don’t have stacks of paper around the house or tucked into closets.
What To Do About Your Favourite Digital Things?
Have you ever lost important files from your computers or gadgets? If so, think about getting yourself a gift of storage and backup! Perhaps consider it for the techy person in your family. Don’t lose your documents and photos that you’ve so carefully saved; make sure you save them, carefully.
Do you have collections of pictures? Photo albums in shelves and framed snaps up on the wall? Hundreds or perhaps thousands of digital files? If you’re looking for a gift for someone or you’ve got family who wants to know what you’d like for a gift, going digital is a great way to go.
With the right tools, you (or you can hire a professional photo organizer to do this) can have all your photos scanned and then, instead of having photos tucked under the stairs or in an attic you can actually look at them! After all, a photo that’s sitting at the bottom of a box somewhere is just a piece of paper instead of a treasured memory to be enjoyed.
My sister recently took on a massive project for my parents which involved not just scanning their photos – a quick exercise but not helpful for anyone outside our folks who might be looking at the pictures. She is annotating them so that the notes on the back or beneath a photo in an album are also preserved. No doubt, you know the stories connected to your own pictures, but over time those stories get lost. This is no longer a problem when a complete job is done on your photos.
There are some fabulous gadgets available to help you scan, preserve, and then share your digital photos with family members. Digital scanners can be used for photos, slides, have recorded messages attached, and more. My sister was able to take a dozen photo albums and put all the files on one USB stick to share among the family. Our mom and dad love watching the photos on their digital frame, or to see them on the larger television screen.
Programs like Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox allow you to easily share photos among family members, as will a USB Flash Drive. Another great way to share is to store the photos on digital frames that you can give as gifts. This is even better than in the “olden days” when we would sit together in the living room and view the family slides, because there is a lot less work required and less space in the room needed for the old projector.
If you’d like to learn more about organizing and downsizing, check out the other blog posts on this page. If you’re in Alberta and you’d like some help, we’d love to chat with you. Just fill out the contact form here on our site.
At Elder Move Inc., we help people to downsize, move, and get settled into new spaces. Often, the new space is smaller than the previous one, and that can take some getting used to. Here are some of our clients’ favourite ways to settle into their new space, quickly creating something cozy.
- Stools and coffee tables with storage space are perfect for tucking away throw blankets, cushions, and all those remotes you use for the television, pvr, stereo, cable box, and more.
- Ikea sells a lightweight, small drill/screwdriver combination tool that makes putting cabinets together – so much easier than being on your knees sweating through it with an allen key! The bits that come with the drill can be used on practically all your home organizing projects, including the ones from Jysk, Wayfair, and Canadian Tire.
- Using glass or crystal and hanging mirrors helps to project light and makes your space seem bigger and brighter. They are easy to keep clean and shiny with inexpensive microfibre cloths.
- Cables from your television, computer, and charges can look untidy and make your space cluttered. Cutting space out of the back of cabinets and using cable covers to contain the mess keeps your space looking cheerful and organized. Make sure that your cables are safely tucked away so things cannot overheat.
- Pare down your clothing so everything you need fits in your closet and dresser, and within your laundry cycle. If you do laundry once a week, there’s no need for 21 pairs of socks, or 10 pairs of trousers, or seven spring jackets. If you are tight on space, store seasonal clothes in totes to keep them out of the way.
To make getting organized easy, limit yourself to make one change or one room at a time. If you’re in Alberta and you’d like some help downsizing and getting organized, or you are getting ready for a move, we’d love to hear from you. Please fill out the contact form here on our site.
I was doing some research on how collectors become hoarders recently, and watching an episode of Hoarders on TV. The episode featured a woman who had so much clutter there was no room for her to sleep in her bed. It was disturbing to see her try to regain control over her house.
How Does Hoarding Happen?
Hoarding can start easily enough. My grandmother brought canned food into the house and filled her kitchen cupboards, then a pantry, and a cupboard under the stairs. She filled two deep freezers so that she wouldn’t run out of food.
At some point, hoarders stop sending as much out as they bring in. Things can easily deteriorate so they don’t have room to sleep in their bed, but they can’t bear to part with their possessions.
Collectors and hoarders both assign value to things. For a collector, the display is something they can enjoy. For a hoarder, they lose the ability to keep their items organized. Piles topple over, dust and grime gather. It’s not unusual for chairs, beds, and tables to be lost under piles of stuff.
People who survive through difficult times, including war, economic depression, or personal neglect, often try to compensate by making sure they never run out of things they feel are important.
The TV Approach
Sometimes hoarding is obscured by looking organized, and it’s hard to tell how out of control things really are. The hoarder may be living among stacks that are tidy, but gradually take over the house.
TV programs about hoarding often send a team to get the job done. A team is a great approach since hoarding isn’t just about a full house. Often, there are a lot of emotions involved in a hoarding situation. Having a team also helps spread the workload, since cleaning even a small space can take a lot of time, and it can be heavy work. Teamwork can also help give the family some much needed help, especially if the family members are arguing about what has to be done.
Just like it is on TV, hoarders are often pushed to make changes because they receive an eviction notice or their house gets condemned. We often work with people who want to live in a smaller home, or move into an assisted living space, but they cannot take all the things they have accumulated.
Do you have a collection? Is it something you enjoy, or something you tolerate? Are you able to manage it, or are your possessions taking over your home? If you need help deciding and you are in Alberta, Canada we’d love to chat with you. Just fill out the contact form here on our site.
I like to meander through the aisles of second hand stores to see what the deals are. Sometimes I go looking for something specific, like this particular day when I wanted to make some mittens out of old sweaters, until I came upon the housecoats.
The store I visited was very popular, and I had to wait a few moments to get to the stand of sweaters I wanted, so I let myself get distracted by the housecoats instead. There was something about several of the housecoats there that reminded me of being little and at home with my mom, because she always wore these cotton housecoats, usually floral, some with zippers and others with ties. There were about six of them hanging on the rack, and I looked closer.
These housecoats were soft and faded, and had obviously been washed may times. Some were floral, some were printed abstract, all were looking a little old and worn and tired as they clung onto the wire hangers. I looked up at the first one, and saw a name tape ironed in the facing just below the collar. Agnes, it said. I looked at the next one, and it said Ruth. The third one had a name tape ironed on top of another name tape; Carol. These were housecoats that had been donated to the second hand store, seemingly from a senior’s home of some sort. They made me feel just a little sad as I looked at them, because each housecoat had someone’s name written on iron on fabric tape, and pressed into the collar. Obviously, they had come from seniors who had them labelled so they didn’t get lost in the laundry of the facility where these ladies had lived, and I wondered how they felt as adults wearing labelled clothing, similar to how a young child would have their coats and boots labelled for school. I felt the fabric, thought of the women and the lives they had lived, and tried to honour them for a few moments.
It’s that time of year again! The holidays decorations and festive swag is all being put away. When you visit the stores, they’ve replaced the lines of Christmas wrap with storage totes, and I have to admit that their multi-coloured lids and unbreakable wheels are calling me. It’s not that I need to be downsizing or organizing every year, but I find that after the holidays I can always pack things up a little better than I did last year. Besides, having everything tidy helps free up space in my head for other things, including working with clients on downsizing and organizing in their homes.
Recently I’ve been looking up storage solutions online, and although some of the containers are large they typically don’t weigh a whole lot so I can get them delivered for a good price. Small totes, big totes, and colourful boxes with flowers or the Eiffel tower all over them beckon me and since it’s January as I write this, they are all on sale!
Here are my top 7 tips in case you are planning to do some downsizing and organizing. These tips will help if you are planning a move, or simply want to make things more comfortable right where you are, at home.
- Decide what storage containers suit you best according to what you can pick up and move safely. I love bins with wheels on the bottom, but I find that some of them are too big to get my arms around (I’m 5 foot two and it’s like there are designed for someone seven feet tall)!
2. Select totes that will stack safely up to three high (any higher than that and things can tip over), but any lower than that and they are sprawled in the storage room instead of being tucked away against a wall. 
3. Work in chunks of time to avoid overwhelm and boredom. If that hall closet is really packed, you won’t look forward to spending three hours organizing and downsizing it. Set a timer so you work for just 15 to 30 minutes at a time, take a short break, and then set your timer and get back to work again.
4. Maintain control of your stuff. Be clear with family members about your decisions, and remember that if there are items you no longer want or that bring joy to you, it’s time for those things to go. There are plenty of charities who can use what you no longer need.
5. I’ve accepted the fact that our kids and family members typically don’t want our stuff…except when they want our stuff. It’s a good idea to discuss what you are getting rid of, and offer it to them if you think they might want it. Try not to be offended if they say no – our tastes change over time, and we tend to accumulate a lot of stuff nowadays and it’s not that our kids are trying to hurt our feelings; they are just working on creating their own homes and comfy spaces. And they need to think about how they are organizing and downsizing within their own homes.
6. Be kind to yourself. Getting organized and getting rid of things can be hard to do. There are decisions to make, memories and feelings that are tied to our things, and then there’s the actual physical work it takes to move furniture and boxes to get them out of your way. Take breaks. Give yourself a pat on the back and remember these things didn’t accumulate overnight. It might take a while to get them sorted out.
7. Ask for help. This can be hard to do, but there are people who specialize in just this kind of work, like we do here at Elder Move Inc. You might be surprised that you own kids may want to help with downsizing (or you might also be surprised at how much they don’t want to help). Either way, if you’d like some help, give us a call and we’ll arrange to come see you at home and talk about your project. We do more than packing and moving people; we help lots of people just like you get things organized and tidied up to make your home more comfortable.
If you’re in the Edmonton, Alberta area and would like to discuss downsizing, organizing, or relocating and moving, just give us a call.
