Creating a Forever Home: Senior Home Organization Advice

What Professional Organizers Want You to Know

If you feel overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious about growing piles of clutter in your home, you are not alone. Clutter is easy to accumulate and difficult to let go of. For seniors, it can be even more difficult, simply because of having more time for items to collect.

However, if we’re looking to create a “forever home,” that means a home that changes and grows with us, rather than a home that controls us by overwhelming us with clutter. 

Some of the most common reasons for hanging onto things that don’t benefit us are fear and stress. Even though you may now be retired, you still have a full life that doesn’t suddenly revolve around cleaning your house. You may feel exhausted by constantly trying to stay busy or simply by getting through the day.

Maybe fear of loss or failure has crept into your subconscious and keeps you paralyzed when it comes to organizing your home. It may be a task that you’ve put off for years, which has only made it more difficult to get started. Have you ever felt a jolt of fear arise simply when you thought about getting rid of an item that you’ve kept for a long time? Or perhaps you’ve made some purchases that you regret, or cling to gifts from family that you feel guilty about discarding. 

These feelings are understandable. However, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients for over a decade now, and I can tell you that these feelings don’t have to be your everyday reality.  We are worth having a life with less anxiety and stress. We are worth a life of peace and happiness that isn’t dependent on what we own. 

My passion as a professional organizer is to give people, especially seniors, the permission to envision the lifestyle they actually want so they are inspired and motivated to reclaim their space in order for it to serve them.

Here are my best tips for creating a space that adapts to your life and inspires a fresh start, regardless of the age of your home.

Give Yourself Permission to Dream

One of my biggest pieces of advice for seniors looking to make a change is to give yourself permission to dream. Fear or worry may keep you in your comfort zone (understandably), leaving little room to visualize a more hopeful future for yourself. But give yourself permission to vocalize how you actually WANT to feel in your home. Dream a little (or a lot). 

Do you picture a home that’s more like a sanctuary than a factory? Do you picture a place where you and your family feel comfortable, peaceful, and safe? What does that look like to you on a practical level? 

It may help to think about what’s important to you in this chapter of your life. Perhaps in the past, you found value in your career, but now you want to focus more on family time or a hobby. What kind of space would facilitate that? 

We all value different things at different times, so taking a moment to reevaluate what’s important to us and why will help us recalibrate and start focusing our energy on what truly brings us to life (not to mention, shed the things bringing us down). Why not romanticize this season and plan some things to look forward to?

Establishing a vision for your space is what will inspire you to get and stay organized so you can actually thrive where you live. For a fun visualization exercise, click here to get my free “Envision Your Space” worksheet sent to your inbox. Print it out and hang it on your fridge as a reminder for where you want to be!

Embrace Your Fears: How to Actually Start Decluttering Your Home

With your vision in place, pick one room or category to start with and block all the other cluttered areas from your mind. I suggest choosing the room or category (clothes, books, papers, etc.) that trigger the most anxiety for you. Start with a bang. Go on the offensive!

Tackling the most stressful area first will show you that you can do hard things and you are much more likely to continue the process if it only gets easier down the road. It’s okay if it doesn’t go perfectly or if you feel intimidated. You can always ask a friend for help or hire a professional organizer near you. Decluttering is a skill that takes practice. 

Once you’ve cleared the clutter, categorize what you have left so you can see how much you have in each group. This may help you get rid of even more, but it will also help you see how much space you need for each category to be put away nicely. 

When everything is consolidated, place each category in the most logical space. Things that you use often should be stored or displayed neatly within arms reach and should be easy to see. Items used less frequently can be stored up and towards the back of the space. The goal is to create a space that makes it as easy as possible for you to embrace the vision and values you thought of in the previous step. 

Arrange things for your unique routine. You’ll be able to save more money because you know what you already own. You’ll spend less time cleaning because there are fewer things to collect dust and move around to vacuum. That means more time for doing the things that support enjoying your life. 

Room-by-Room Senior Home Organization Advice

In the 90’s, “the art of feng shui” became this elite but trendy thing to apply to your recently self-assembled IKEA home furniture. Do you remember that time?

Although some feng shui advice still seems to tend towards “trendy,” now that I’m a professional organizer, I can see that the basic principles of feng shui are actually timeless and could be applied to many situations. Feng shui involves a simple shift in the way you make organizing decisions. If we make better organizing decisions, we can transform our daily routines, and therefore transform our life as a whole.

#1 Design Your Bedroom to Support You and Your Relationships

Your bedroom is said to represent you and your relationships. Many of us want to feel as comfortable as possible in our bedrooms to practice good sleep hygiene. 

Take a minute to consider the following:

• Where is your bed positioned in your bedroom?

• When you lie down in bed, are you facing the door? Do you have your back to the windows?

• How does this room arrangement make you feel?

If you are facing the door when trying to fall asleep, you may feel a sense of anxiety about someone opening the door, making you feel vulnerable instead of comfortable. 

You may feel more at ease if you are to the side of the windows instead of directly in front of them. Try putting the head of your bed against the longest wall of your bedroom and try it on for size. 

Retirement is the perfect time to try out big moves of furniture, which can make your space feel entirely new. There are many times I have helped clients create more space simply by moving a chair or table, or adding light with a lamp or mirror.  Did you know that covering up even a portion of your windows with furniture can make your room look and feel smaller?

#2 How to Design Your Office to Support Your Goals

The role of your home office has likely undergone a large shift in recent years. It may have become a go-to space for clutter to accumulate because the purpose of the space is no longer clear. 

However, it’s possible to take back your power in this space, instead of letting it control you. One simple decision that can totally transform an office space is the position of your desk. 

When you sit at your desk, are you facing the wall, with your back to the rest of the room? How does this make you feel? How would it feel to have your back to the wall, facing the door and the rest of the room while you work. Does it make you feel more confident and in-charge? 

Perhaps it will remind you of the purpose of this space or give you new inspiration for what it could do for you next.

Reorganizing is a way for you to reclaim a space that’s been taken over by clutter. If your bedroom, office, or even your kitchen are cluttered, check in. How are your relationships, resources, and goals affected? A cluttered space can reflect a cluttered life and a scattered mindset (no judgment!). Does this ring true for you?

Your Next Steps

The benefits of decluttering and organizing your home are endless, but the ones I’ve enjoyed the most are the peace of mind and positive energy that a tidy home creates. I love being a professional organizer because I get to help my clients in Lancaster, PA and beyond cultivate homes that create more space in all areas of their life. 

It’s never too late to learn how to stay organized, and you are just as worthy of it now as you were before the clutter started.

As a professional organizer, I want you to know that you are worth having peace in your home. You are worth the joy that comes from reclaiming your space. You are valuable and deserve an environment that serves you so you can serve others just as well. 

I know it can feel intimidating to get started, so click here, give me a call at 717-925-0930, or send me an email at mara@morespaceorganizing.com, to ask about how I may be able to help you with your unique situation. 

You can also start by looking at my free printable decluttering and organizing worksheets, customized to different situations to fit your needs. Here are just a few of the options:

• Downsizing & “Swedish Death Cleaning” Guide

• Envision Your Dream Space

• Organized Moving Guide

• A Client Resource Guide with my favorite thrift stores, donation places, and remodeling companies in central PA

Enter your email at this link to get the full collection sent to an email of your choice. 

Contact me with questions or to book for your next chapter! Dream big!