Can you imagine moving clear across the country to the town where you most want to live, buying a perfect home, moving in, and then finding that you just can’t seem to get unpacked and settled?
BIG PROBLEM!
I have always found moving to be a very difficult task, and not on the usual scale. This stems from the first time I moved, when I was 2 years old, and our house burned to the ground. That experience caused something deep inside my brain to be wired in a way that causes moving to feel like a very traumatic experience. After moving into our new home I found unpacking to be almost impossible. I would plan to work on it, schedule the time to work on it, but when that time came I found it was almost impossible to move. As the days went by I would try to discipline myself only to find myself feeling anxious, depressed, and embarrassed.
One day I decided to make curtains, but could not find all the parts to my sewing machine. It was clear that I needed help! So I got on the internet and started looking for home organizers. I came across some information on Kristin. I loved her story about organizing bins of toys as a child. It seems that organizing is what she has been placed on this Earth to do. I sent her an e-mail.
Having just retired it was difficult for my husband and I to decide to pay someone to help us unpack. We both felt we should be able to do it ourselves. Even though my husband was willing to help, he didn’t seem to get motivated to work on it unless I was directing the effort, so it seemed like it all fell onto my shoulders, and I clearly was not making progress on the task. Kristin was perfectly persistent. She let me know that she was there to help, but she wasn’t pushy about it. After exchanging several emails and phone calls we decided to try working together for two afternoons, which would help get some of the unpacking done and give us a chance to determine if we should be spending our money this way.
When Kristin arrived I was feeling apprehensive and grouchy. She looked through the house, immediately came up with a plan and started executing it. By the end of the second day, I felt strongly that it was worth spending money on this. We decided to work on it only two afternoons a week. This was enough to consistently make progress on the task, but at a pace that I was comfortable with. Kristin is wonderful. She did a lot of work herself, but also kept me focused, and assigned me tasks, keeping me busy without causing me to get overwhelmed. She got my husband involved and asked questions to help us evaluate whether all items were worth keeping. If they were she found an appropriate place to keep them, if not she determined if they would be recycled or donated. At the end of each day she whisked away all items to be recycled or donated and she even removed part of the trash. She also removed the unpacked boxes and packing paper which helped more than you can imagine. At the end of each work session it was really clear the we had made significant progress.
We started out with boxes stacked 5 feet high in our guest bedroom and even higher than that in the garage. On our final day of working together, the guest room was empty and we parked my car in the garage. All the boxes were unpacked. There was a place for everything and everything was in its place!
WONDERFUL SOLUTION!
Thank you Kristin, we are very happy in our clean and organized home.
WE COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!
Michelle & Richard Wright-Watson
Corvallis, Oregon
2/7/2011
