Mandy R and her family had lived in Riverdale for over 30 years. Her son and daughter had both grown up, gone away to school, returned, one went to live in Chicago and the other went on to get his Masters degree at Western University. Each time one of the kids moved, they left behind all their previous furniture, their books, their CDs, DVDs, their notes, their clothes etc. etc. etc.
The basement was a junkman’s dream come true – and Mandy’s nightmare . She tried to sort everything out – throwing out what was appropriate, putting each kid’s personal possessions into marked boxes and trying to turn chaos into an organized calm. But in the end she had as much stuff boxed and piled up as she had started with.
Finally she called us in to see what she landed up with… We helped her sort everything out – put stuff in different piles:
- The Keep pile
- The Discard pile
- The Junk pile and
- The Charitable pile.
We organized the garage so that everything was visible and accessible. I’m not sure she’s ever going to let the kids into that basement!!!
She loves it and actually now even has space for her pottery wheel!