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Blog: Organizing for Boomers
 Don't Downsize – Rightsize, Instead
Since it's still February I'm in love with something new, Ciji Ware's book Rightsizing Your Life. This is the perfect gift to give yourself as Date Month starts to wind down.
This great book has a 7-Step Plan on how to get started. I'll talk about these steps a little later. But first, let's figure out what exactly is Rightsizing.
Our country has approximately seventy-seven million baby boomers born between the end of World War II and the beginning of the Vietnam War plus fourteen million war babies. People close to the age of 50 (or those who have passed that milestone) often think about downsizing. Time to move to a smaller home or a one story house or a retirement community (or all three).
Ciji Ware and I believe downsizing is the wrong descriptor. Personally, I think it has a somewhat negative connotation, kind of like we're all going downhill, like we've reached the peaks of life and we are falling down to the finish line. I like the word "downhill" only when it refers to skiing, which is one of my passions.
Ms. Ware defines rightsizing as a process, not an event. It's not about square footage of where you live. It's more about a conscious, practical evolution in the WAYwe live. Through simplifying, decluttering, maybe redesigning one's environment, people can be liberated from many real-life burdens and experience a lightness-a rightness.
Rightsizing is about stepping back around age fifty plus, taking stock of your financial future, analyzing your family situation and evaluating people, places and possessions according to how they make you feel.
The Seven Steps that I will discuss in future blogs include:
1. Decide on Your Space
2. Identify Your Favorite Things
3. Edit Your Possessions Room by Room
4. Fine-Tune
5. Pare Down
6. Call in the Professionals
7. Stay Sane During Your Rightsizing Move
In the meantime if you can't even give any thought to rightsizing YOUR life right now because you are feeling squeezed like the inside of an Oreo cookie, consider looking at these websites for your elderly parents. Putting together a plan that encompasses both generations is reasonable, doable, and will add sanity and years to your life.
www.caregiver.org
www.careguide.com
www.nfcacares.org
www.parents-care.com
www.strengthforcaring.com
Please email me at and let me know if you've already started on your journey to Rightsize Your Life. There will be bumps along the road, no doubt, but life itself really is a journey and I am wishing you God-speed along the way.
Until next time...
Making Your Space a Special Place.
Sue
the R.E.D. team – Reinventing Everyday Designs
posted on: 2/22/2008 12:30:00 PM by Sue Crum
category: Special Populations
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Organizing for Boomers
by Sue Crum
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About Sue:
Sue Crum knows and understands the life of a Baby Boomer all too well. Having served as the filling of an Oreo cookie for many years, she has reinvented herself in San Diego as the owner of The R.E.D. Team, Reinventing Everyday Designs, doing professional organizing, real estate staging, and interior redesign.
Sue's Website:
www.theredteam.com
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