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Clutter Clearing Back to Health

Posted by on Nov 24, 2008 in Clutter, Feng Shui Real Estate, Your Home, Your Life | 2 comments

I have a story for you. This is one of the “you never know how feng shui changes will work out for you.” When my mother got sick (stage 4 lung cancer) in March 2006, she was given 1 year to live. At that time, her house was very cluttered and as she continued with her chemo treatments, her house got dustier and messier because she couldn’t keep up with things.

So, I hired a heavy duty cleaning service to come in and clean the house. She also had a garage sale to get rid of lots of “stuff.” That managed to stir things up for awhile and she did beautifully on the chemo.

In April 2008, she was rushed to the hospital with a severe case of pneumonia, sepsis, and dementia/delusion. While she was in ICU, I started to clear out her house (I needed something to do since I was only allowed in her room for one hour a day). The doctors said she wouldn’t survive the pneumonia so I got her house ready for sale. I cleared the house out entirely, got new carpet and painted the walls…

Do I have to tell you the end of this story? She managed to get out of ICU and a few weeks later the dementia/delusional state suddenly cleared and she was back to normal (except for the lung cancer). Oh! and I was left with the job of telling my mother she had no house to go back to!

It all worked out in the end – I moved her to a nearby assisted living home that I’ve been volunteering at for the past 7 years and she is happy there.

So the moral of the story here – people just don’t realize how much clutter can affect them!

WSFS Alumni Graduate Practitioner, Jill K.

 

Related posts:

  1. Q & A – Health Challenges & Clutter
  2. Feng Shui Radio – Clearing Clutter
  3. Essential Stories: From Clutter to Cherry Blossoms

2 Comments

  1. Ijeva Bambridge / November 25, 2008

    I HAVE BEEN ORGANIZED SINCE I WAS VERY YOUNG. MY MOM WOULD CLEAN P FOR ME AND NEVER TAUGHT ME HOW TO ORGANIZE MY THINGS. I HATE IT AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO GET STARTED ORGANIZING MY PAPERWORK AND MY LIFE. I FEEL FRUSTRATED AND HELPLESS BECAUSE I CAN’T FIND ANYTHING WHEN I WANT TO. WHAT CAN I DO?
    i APPRECIATE ANY HELP YOU CAN OFFER ME.
    ALOHA,
    IJEVA BAMBRIDGE

  2. kris / August 4, 2009

    Hi Ijeva,

    I am the opposite to you. I have always been very disorganised, but I have shared a flat with two very tidy people and I have learned from them. So here are my suggestions:
    1. File all your papers in large files and label them.

    2. Get in to the discipline of putting things in the correct file daily/ or once a week ( perhaps a sunday morning). e.g. the french homework goes in the french file, or the gas bill goes in the gas file.

    3. Put them in a cupboard or drawer which you can close. IKEA is reasonable in terms of price. The idea is that none of your books and papers are on view; only the things which you are working on at the time.

    4. Finally try and only have things in view which make you feel happy or proud.

    Good luck

    Kris