Meet R.

At 69, and having severe arthritis, her 1200 square foot house fell into complete disrepair after her husband passed on after a long illness. She has trouble getting around and was pretty depressed after losing him. She moved from her mother’s house at 18 into her home with her new husband. Never lived alone until he died.

Then, she basically just stopped doing anything around her house. She would shop (mostly QVC), and many times, she didn’t even open the boxes when they arrived. When she couldn’t find something in the chaos, she’d just buy another one.

R. had 2 rooms in her home that she couldn’t even get into…and one was her husband’s music room. He was a collector of albums and music memorabilia and she didn’t know what to do with it…and even if she did, she wasn’t in any physical shape to take it on. So she just kept adding to the mess by throwing other stuff on top of it.

The second room, her sewing room, had fabric and material piled to the ceiling (no exaggeration). It became completely unmanageable. She would try to sort and would pack bags and boxes that she was planning to donate but they would never leave the house.

R. sought therapy to handle her depression. Through that process she decided it was time to deal with the “stuff” and “let it go”.

She called several cleaning companies who said they “didn’t do that” and was finally told about LifeSpace.

We went to her home and explained that we would take the project task by task and not try to tackle the entire thing in one sitting. That eased her mind. We explained that we would start by creating one peaceful place for her in the area where she spends the most time, her living room. She started crying when I said that. She said “ That’s what we need.”

After the first two months, we’ve have tackled almost her entire house and she’s in the process of having her kitchen remodeled. When that’s done, we’re going to help her move back in and set up organizational systems and ways to stay on track with the shopping, etc.

They key with R. and others like her is to categorize everything she has. This often results in the realization that they really don’t need 4 waffle irons.

R. shared with us, “We took things step by step but got so much done quickly. You allowed me to tell you how I felt but also questioned me about why I was hanging on to some things. You never pushed me into getting rid of anything but asked great questions about why I was keeping it. I love when you suggest that we’ll ‘revisit this one later’. Initially, I dreaded starting this process but now, I really look forward to your visits. It’s therapeutic. You knew that this was hard for me and I so appreciated when you called me the evening after our first couple of visits to see how I was feeling. That was above and beyond. I know you have a family and it meant so much to me that you took the time to check in on me. I have told my friends about you and would recommend you to anyone. You’ve changed my life.”

Meet A Couple

In their early 60s, in a beautiful upscale neighborhood of Bellevue, living in a 5000 sq. foot house. She’s a nurse and he’s a businessman who at one time traveled the world extensively for business.

Empty nesters, they still work long hours and commute. They shared with us that they thought they’d be able to retire in their early 60’s, but were hit by the financial down turn. They were in the process of building a vacation home with a plan to sell their primary residence when it was done. Instead, the economy forced them into selling before completing the vacation home. They desperately needed someone to pack up their expensive, and very loved collections. When we filled them in on what we do, she replied, “You're the answer to my prayers. I didn’t know people like you existed. I’ve been looking around at this house and all of this stuff and trying to figure out how and when I could possibly deal with it.”

We worked for them for 3 months. We packed up 12 sets of formal china and about 300 Faberge music boxes and much, much more. They were not at home during the work so she would leave sticky notes on china hutches, kitchen cabinets, etc. explaining what to pack and what to donate. Along with knowing that we would be careful with their treasures…they had one less major stress to deal with in difficult times.