KSRO Hoarding Show

Being live on the air with Kira Reginato (Call Kira About Aging) is always a blast, and I had a wonderful time once again on Saturday, January 28, 2012. I shared the spotlight (or rather, the microphone) with hoarding expert Dr. Michael Tompkins, whose book "Digging Out: Helping your loved ones manage clutter, hoarding and compulsive acquiring" is a great handbook for organizers and family in learning "harm reduction" techniques that help create a safer environment.

Of course, I could have used the whole afternoon, much less an hour talking about this stuff all myself! I bowed to the esteemed Dr. Tompkins for many of the questions, so I didn't get in as much as would have liked to!

You can listen to this recorded hour on the archive page for Call Kira About Aging here. Be sure to click on the January 28th show. Of course, if you have the time, be sure to listen to all the month's shows about organizing! My friend and colleague from North Carolina (and a "Hoarders" show organizer) Geralin Thomas (January 7th) was featured at the beginning of the month about "Getting Rid of Clutter," and our own local estate specialist, Diane Judd was interviewed on January 21, about "Vital Documents and Systems to Get Organized."

Here area few points I had hoped to "get in" during the interview for thoughts about how to begin the New Year if you are struggling with clutter:

1.     Think about your past successes and make a list of them. Pick one or two and examine them more closely and ask yourself these questions:

• How did you achieve them? 
• Did you have others helping you? 
• What was different then than now? 
• What can you do now to use those strategies that worked?

2.     Find a powerful image or phrase for yourself. For example, when my husband and I were at the end of our "conception journey" and thinking about adoption, one of the adoption books told me that if I just stuck with the process, I would have a “a baby in my arms” at the end (a promise that medically-assisted conception could not offer.) That was such a powerful image and phrase. (And the answer is yes, we had a baby in our arms in just a few months. She's 10 now!) And yes, the process was a roller coaster, but we stuck with it.

3.     Give yourself permission to experiment, to make mistakes. Practice making decisions, and learn from them—both the successful ones and the challenging ones. Getting over that nasty bug of perfectionism will serve you well. Good enough is good enough. And often a thoughtful study of a  "mistake" will teach us more than if we had done something "right" but not examined why it worked.

4.     Find a good fit with your organizer just like you would with a therapist. Personality as well as training are important. For example—I’m pretty laid back. Other people might need someone more assertive than me, but my clients often don't respond well to that.

And don't forget that you can listen to the archive
of the show if you missed it live!

http://www.callkira.com/2011-show-archives/