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Welcome, welcome to Sorting Through Life with Colleen Watterston on AM950, the progressive voice of Minnesota.
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This show is brought to you by Space by Space Organizing, a twin cities-based home organizing business.
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And on this show, Sorting Through Life, we come and we talk about what goes on behind closed drawers, behind the organizing process.
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And today, um, I'm the owner and lead organizer of Space by Space.
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And today I'm here with Alicia, who's here often and in my life often, my right hand on most jobs.
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And Natalie, who welcome back, Natalie.
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You've been here.
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You were on our first episode of Behind Closed Drawers back in February.
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And we also brought in Jen, who is your neighbor who referred you to us.
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And so, but you know, you have you deserve your own show.
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So does Jen, but uh, but you deserve your own show.
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And we were recently back in your home.
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So I think I want to go back in time and share what we've done for you and what we the circumstance we found you in originally.
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But then I also want to talk about the time in between and then being able to have us back, you know, a year later and really what that meant, you know, and for us even what it meant as organizers.
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So with this show, our whole point is to really kind of demystify what goes on behind the home organizing process.
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I feel like a lot of people know what home organizing is, and I think a lot of people don't.
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And so kind of like, what is what would I hire these people for?
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Like that sounds expensive.
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Like, what?
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Like, what is what is the service actually?
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And I think, you know, with yours, which we'll get into, it really shows like this was this was a hand hold that was needed for a specific time of life.
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And then the return on investment was that you got through something that you couldn't without having your hand held.
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Oh, hugely.
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So with that, I think there's so many people who could maybe use a little support working through their stuff to get from a place that feels, you know, unsurmountable.
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We're kind of like the Sherpas through that unsurmountable, you know, time of life to be like, I can't deal with all this stuff.
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What am I gonna do?
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I can't ask a friend to help me.
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I can't, you know, or friends are not necessarily the people to ask.
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We've talked about that before.
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But but really helping people to see, oh, there's actually people I can call out there who can come in and help me through this.
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It's not an endless process.
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There is an end date.
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They they guide me through it, they hold the space to get through that tunnel.
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Well, that and it it it you're removed, but not removed.
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Let's get into it.
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Okay, so you when did you find us?
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Uh where were you at in life?
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Oh uh man, I uh I was um buried and adrift uh uh because so much had happened.
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Um because uh my father had had passed, um which was very difficult for me.
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Um and so uh then uh i I was in the I decided uh that I was gonna move back to Minnesota uh because I had been living in Washington State.
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Uh and uh then on top of both of those things, you know, I had gotten into an accident and it I mean like life was evolving uh completely.
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Your dad died unexpectedly.
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Yes.
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And you were living out of state, you had a close relationship, but not seeing him frequently, not going to your childhood home often.
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He still lived in the childhood home.
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Yep.
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You get this call, your dad died.
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Yep.
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So you go home, you figure out what's going on here, and you see the house, and you know, okay, I'm inheriting this, and I think I'd like to live here.
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I'd like to live here to figure out what's going on here.
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You go back to Washington, you set up the movers, they pack up your stuff, they get there, you don't.
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You get into a car accident on the way that put you in the hospital for a while, like in Montana, probably a black ice, who knows, but terrible car accident.
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And then so now we've got a a TBI, now we've got a traumatic brain injury, and you find yourself at home, which would have been a home being childhood home, but now you're trying to make it home, and your dad's stuff isn't every it's it's it's everywhere.
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It's the same as the day he died.
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Yeah, you know, and he wasn't, he had not hired a professional organizer, safe to say.
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No, not at all.
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I mean not not that my dad was messy, but he had a lot of stuff and had it everywhere.
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Yeah.
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And so it's not like it was messy or cluttered even.
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He used his home.
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Uh right, you know, it it was his and he his belongings and his life.
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Yeah.
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And you know, so then I I am in there and I'm like, if I really started looking, I started trying because I would remember stuff that my dad did with XYZ, or oh, he was wearing, you know, Z over here, and I re vividly remember him wearing that shirt or whatever.
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So it it really um as I was trying to go through his stuff, it wasn't proceeding because I would, you know, just get in a jumble.
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Just trying to sort through the memories as well as his items.
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Very much so.
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Very much so.
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One thing I noticed about your relationship with your dad, or you know, coming your relationship with your dad after his death, you know, and with his stuff, was you know, you're looking through this after he passed, and you're kind of wondering, how did he live this way?
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Like it was almost I felt a frustration with him for living this way.
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Yeah.
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Because it undervalued him in certain areas.
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You know, it was it was not the tidiest, and it it was not the most kept up, you know.
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So I think there there felt like I almost sensed some guilt from you for not having intervened while he was alive.
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Yeah, because he he didn't see his own value and that uh broke my heart all over again because I didn't intervene and help show him how much I gained from him and his love and his friendship over the years and everything that he did for me, I I wasn't able to do that while he was alive because I was, you know, busy creating my own life in different areas.
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And so as I was going through the house and becoming frustrated with him because he didn't, like I said, he didn't see his own worth.
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And it and I think, you know, we all I think after someone's death, it's easier to say, oh, I should have stepped in.
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I would have been able to, but I don't think that's true.
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You know, I think that people are who they are.
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You know, we all there's people in my life who I have very close relationships with that I don't that you know, you it okay, like weight loss.
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Okay, like I know, you know, I I've gone up and down, and nobody can do it for you.
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You know, it's your own motivation.
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And we all know ourselves, you know, we know our, we we dress our bodies, you know, we know when something fits, when something doesn't.
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We know where we're at.
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We have mirrors, and and it's like to try to inspire somebody to lose that weight, you know, or people with interventions with with addictions or with anything.
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Yeah.
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We know, and often sometimes the people closest to us, that's not who we even want to hear it from.
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So it's easy after a death to say, I should have flown home, I should have taken care of this.
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But it's like the reality of it, because you said when you would get together, he wasn't saying, come on over, right?
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You were getting a meal out.
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And so, you know, at some point you have to accept that he was living his life while you were living yours, and he wanted you to live yours.
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You know, our our role with our parents and with our family, it's tricky, you know, always.
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Yeah.
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Families have dynamics.
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There are a lot of therapists in business because of it.
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And so there's just this kind of starry-eyed, maybe teary-eyed, glassy-eyed idea that amidst the tears of going through someone's stuff, I should have done better.
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I should have been a better daughter.
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And it's like, no, you were a great daughter because he was proud of you.
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You were off doing your thing.
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You had a really great career in the military, you saw the world.
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And, you know, this is a guy who did not take a single day of his vacation.
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Right.
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Like, literally not a day of vacation.
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Right.
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His whole corporate job.
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And so worked every single working day that there was, and and that's a him thing, you know, and that was who he was.
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And he he that was what he did in this life, you know.
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But it's like we're going through it and we're like, dad, oh, dad, uh, dad, and why didn't I?
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And I think that a big part of of what was getting you stuck was that reality.
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Yeah.
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Well, that just adds to just like another tricky aspect of going through the grieving process because you're grieving, but then also trying to rationalize the guilt that you feel as well.
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Yeah.
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Very much so.
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There was, you know, not to not to add to the water works that might be coming, but there was something we came across that was a misunderstanding between you and him, and a letter that I think he wrote you and never gave you.
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Yeah.
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And now all of a sudden you're going through his stuff and he's gone.
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So you're the one to go through it and you find that letter.
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And you and it was like, I don't I wish I could have known that he thought this.
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There was like something that with um a confusion, a misunderstanding about something that you know didn't impact your relationship from what you knew.
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Right.
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But now you're reading this, and I just remember it it was one of the most crushing moments I've ever been in the company of a client because it was like you can't go back and be like, Dad, that's not what that was.
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You saw that differently.
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Like, you just have to read that and be like, Wow, he thought that, and that's that.
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Right.
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Yeah, that was it.
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I mean, uh I just kind of stopped in time and tried to like remember back, okay, how did how did he even come up with this conclusion?
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And it gosh, it it really how much it really impacted him and his emotion towards me.
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And i I mean, i so like I'm processing through all this as I was reading this letter, and it like everything stopped for me.
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I I mean oh, we're organizing my house?
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Oh what uh gosh, I don't when where where was I?
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Because I wasn't there and you know, but yeah, I was there, but in my brain and in my heart, totally not there.
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Yeah.
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You know.
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I think they say, you know, grief is love with nowhere to go.
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And I think in the grieving process, and and also, you know, sometimes there can be maybe anger with nowhere to go, you know, emotions that you can't have that conversation.
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Yeah.
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And so holding space for that, you know, and we we have a a side of our business we call legacy lifting, which is really meant to be done with the person's belongings, you know, who owns them.
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So that we say leave a legacy, not a burden, you know, go through your stuff before someone else's.
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So to the best of someone, you know, to the best of our ability, we can support people through through their stuff so that their daughter doesn't find a letter that might, you know, set them back weeks.
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Right.
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You know, but I don't even I don't even know if my dad would have remembered that it was there.
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Totally, because it was decades ago that this situation happened.
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Right.
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And so that's the kind of thing, you know, that if you can go through your stuff while you're still alive, in at any age, you know, your dad was not at a dying age by average, you know, he died and and it was sudden and he was gone.
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Yeah.
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And, you know, and he's not the type, I don't think, that would hire a legacy lifter.
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No.
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But, you know, when there's people who are like, I've got all this stuff, what should I do?
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That's where it's like, you know, it's hard to go through your own stuff, but it's also hard for a child to go through your stuff.
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And so if you can hire out that burden, and it's not a burden to us, like it's not a burden to an outsider who wants to hold space for getting through something.
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Right.
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And so that's where it's like these belongings overwhelm everybody who's attached to them.
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But when people who are not attached to them come in and can help, and there were several times, and and in the next segment, we'll get into kind of some of the specific times within the process and and specific items.
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But there were several times that I know it's just like locking eyes with you was my job, was like holding you up because for a year or however long it was before you were introduced to us and we were in your home.
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Yeah.
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It was like, I see something, I crumble.
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I can't, you know, it was just you did not know.
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It just debilitated you, it paralyzed you.
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So it was like, I'm here to keep her up.
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I'm here to keep that head up.
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We might be done for the day, but I'm not leaving with her in tears.
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Like I'm leaving with her knowing that was tough.
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We can talk about it or not.
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But we'll get we got through it.
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We got through it and moved on the next day.
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Tomorrow's another day.
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Right.
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Okay.
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Tomorrow's another day, and this segment is done.
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So we'll be right back and we'll talk all this and more.
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Uh, this is Sorting Through Life on AM950.
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Welcome back to Sorting Through Life with Colleen Watters.
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Brought to you by Space Organizing, our home organizing business here in the Twin Cities.
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And today I'm here with Alicia, uh, who has come to most jobs I've ever done.
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And Natalie, one of our favorite jobs, one of our favorite clients, uh client-turned friend, very much so.
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And and to the point that yesterday I was having a bad day and I was on the phone with Natalie five times.
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So, you know, we've become, we we often it, you know, showcase how close we love our we love our clients.
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But, you know, our very intimate uh experience with our clients.
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And this one I think was Alicia, I think this remains you feel the most rewarding.
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Oh yeah, absolutely.
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And I don't even think I first originally started with the job.
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I think I came in a couple weeks afterwards.
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Yeah.
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You were we I had another gal on our team who started, and then it was all three of us.
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And and yeah, it's why was it the most rewarding for you?
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Um I think just seeing how much needed to be done, how much we were able to get done, and also to like I think Natalie, you're probably one of the most like appreciative clients that we have.
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Like every day when we were leaving, I could just see like more weight lifted off your shoulders and you would just thank us extensively before we would leave every single time.
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Well, because you were absolutely worth it.
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I mean, like I didn't I didn't want to mince words, yeah, you know, and like try and compact because you weren't doing that with my stuff.
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And so I wanted to make sure that you uh 100% knew uh wow, you such a difference uh i in uh how I'm gonna be able to move forward.
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I mean, like like you organized downstairs, you know, in in my basement, uh just off of the uh laundry room, there was there's a closet and it had all kinds of stuff in there.
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And uh but yet it was all useful stuff that I would go back and need, but wouldn't probably have known where it was, you know.
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Um and uh Alicia totally organized, I mean th unbelievably so, and like labeled, okay, these are all the you know electrical parts or you know, whatever.
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Um and these are all the uh paint brushes, you know, and these are all the so I mean it it was like walking into a store uh but yet it was a a store of my stuff.
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And it and it was I mean, there's not a day like granted I don't go in the basement every day, but but but the times that I have gone down there, I'm like uh I'm still in a complete amazement because I'm like oh yeah, here's the drawer for the wrenches.
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Sweet, all the wrenches and they're all in there, and they're all facing the same way, and they're all I mean, like just fantastic.
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And so I opened that drawer, you know, because I knew I needed a wrench, and so I opened the drawer and I was like, okay, this is this this one is the exact one I would have been searching for, and uh crap's sake, I probably would have been searching for weeks for that one wrench, and I went down and found it within probably like a minute, and most of that minute was just getting down the stairs.
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Yeah, I think that toolbox is honestly probably one of my favorite projects that I've done.
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I was very aesthetically pleasing afterwards.
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We have pictures and videos.
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There's that room that could have been a very creepy, dark room.
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Yeah, and that's the one that's the store with the labels, and it's like your own little hardware shop, and you're in an older home where you wouldn't necessarily find some of these parts at a store.
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Right.
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And you also don't want to throw them.
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Oh, so absolutely a lot of things it's like, oh, I have no idea what this is, but like it's never coming back into, you know, it's never coming back on a shelf, and I'll probably need it one day, or a a person who comes to help will need it one day.
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So it was like we made space to let what could have been very big, like clutter and junk, have a home that didn't feel excessive.
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It felt like, oh great, those are the old home parts, you know, old electrical parts alongside newer paint.
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And then this tool sh toolbox that you brought was one of those.
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really nice toolboxes.
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I have a video of you.
00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:13.920
We've I still have to get your approval to put it on social, but like you looking at it is, you know, equally meaningful as what you just shared right now, but you're like, oh my God.
00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:16.960
Like you are so excited about this.
00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:26.160
And it's like, and and I think for those moments and we had a few of them throughout, you know, you and I were really getting through your dad's stuff.
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:31.680
And when we would open your boxes, because your boxes were kind of placed within the rooms.
00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:35.359
And so we knew your stuff was to be kept.
00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:37.519
We didn't really have to go through it so much.
00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:38.079
Right.
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:41.920
And, you know, you've lived a life with you're a military gal.
00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:49.680
So you've you've lived with good order around you and you've traveled and you've, you know, you've got a curated amount of stuff.
00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:51.599
You do have a lot of turtles.
00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:56.319
I would say that collection could be downsized, but I understand they all come with emotional.
00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:03.839
So Natalie identifies with turtle today for those watching, I am wearing, I bought this on Thread Up secondhand for you.
00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:13.759
You're getting it after but this is turtle shells all over my sweater and I was like I am wearing that to talk to Natalie because you identify because they're hard on the outside and mushy on the inside.
00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:15.119
Okay.
00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:40.400
Um you told me that uh well but they they're kind of magical in a way for me because they live incredibly hardy lives and I see myself in that way.
00:23:41.440 --> 00:24:12.799
Um because you know it's not like my life has ever been easy but i i've gotten through and that's how turtles are and you know I I learned from a shaman a long time ago that you know warriors would rely on turtles and you know uh that's how they would get their strength.
00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:17.519
Like a calling in the turtle spirit?
00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:18.240
No.
00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:18.640
No.
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.200
Um they needed a turtle.
00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:41.680
Oh they ate a turtle right oh and that um helped them through the next battle and they would live the warrior would live through the next battle because they had consumed a turtle.
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:42.559
Right.
00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:45.200
Well that is the new thing I'm gonna learn today.
00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:45.759
Yep.
00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:46.960
Thank you for that.
00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:54.319
Well uh I mean a shaman had told me that I'm I'm gonna look further into it not that it's the shaman's wrong just I find that fascinating.
00:24:54.480 --> 00:25:08.480
Yeah and and then I'm thinking about you know I live in a very wooded neighborhood and there is a lot of protection of the turtles there's a lot of turtle crossings there's a lot of there's a sadness that you see you know that you feel when one did not get protected or across that road.
00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:37.759
Yeah yeah okay uh but for those of us who do uh so what felt those those moments where you're going through and this your stuff is being made sense of or you know there's there's a lot of evolving out of these boxes it's getting unpacked we kept saying we kind of referred to you as like unboxing Natalie you know and so a lot of this you were so boxed up when we got there and then so overwhelmed by what was in.
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:45.359
So you and I would be going through what was in and then you know Alicia would be off for hours and hours.
00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:52.880
Could be organizing all of my for lack of a better word crap.
00:25:53.119 --> 00:26:24.799
Okay yeah it's like I think there's like words we can't say on this we can say I think we can we say Brett says yes okay you know so she you were like better like super organizing all of like my innards and and you know while uh you know Colleen was unboxing like whole parts of me.
00:26:25.440 --> 00:27:24.400
Like and helping say goodbye to a lot of parts of your dad yeah you know like I remember um yeah you knew what I did for a living um but you initially didn't really see it in me but as you were unboxing all of my stuff I uh came to life yeah and you know we were finally able to lay my father to rest because he he was he had still been living for lack of a better way to explain this he his spirit was still 100% in the house and living there.
00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:36.000
And yet I was there and all my stuff was there but it was in all of these boxes so you couldn't really see me.
00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:49.359
You just walked in and felt my father and you guys were able to completely un 100% unbox me.
00:27:50.160 --> 00:28:20.960
So then as we continued more of me came to life basically and then you know we would get in conversations about oh my gosh I saw that you had you know a million books on this and you know and so then we would start talking about that and you'd be like holy buckets.
00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:34.319
Well so I do a consultation with any client and you know I go into the house and you know there we're we're doing someone out of town and there's videos and and photos or we'll FaceTime you know and there's other ways for that.
00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:54.079
But for the most part I really do um like going into someone's house, making sure this is a good fit uh off the clock establishing the the rapport um so that we're not like expected to be working at the time it's really about like there is a lot of value in that consultation but it's not working hours.
00:28:54.240 --> 00:29:03.359
You know where we and and you know we probably will add a fee in the future just to make sure that if something doesn't turn into a job, it's because it's quite extensive.
00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:06.960
Oh, for sure and it's a lot of effort that goes into that consultation.
00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:23.279
Like we've already chatted with you before we kind of know what we're going into but then I'm there for at least an hour and I'm already talking out loud all of my ideas and showing you products and so that when I leave that consultation there's a plan and now you're getting the scope of work.
00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:28.079
But I've only had like two people ever not turn into a job.
00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:37.519
And I think it's because why would you not want that support if you've reached out for it, you know, and then we're there it's like I'm articulating how we're gonna do it.
00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:57.920
But with your consultation, you know, and we talked about this extensively I you'd been referred to me multiple times by your next door neighbor Jen who Alicia and I helped pack through a divorce you know and through the transition of leaving a home she was in for 15 years where her husband and children were still staying or at least one child was still staying.
00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:09.039
So it was like a very uncomfortable scenario to be like there's a lot of emotion here and everybody gets along great but there's just this discomfort there and they needed to get through it.
00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:28.000
And so we came in to hold her shoulder through it and say, okay, you know give her like like Alicia's still packing I'm holding the shoulder for you know 30 seconds two minutes if we need to can we keep going you know all right let's keep going because you know I want I'm there to get you through it.
00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:30.640
And I'm also hired to get it done.
00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:35.519
And so I'm not just there to to take an easy moment of not working.
00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:57.920
It's like but I will take those hard moments to you know they're they're not easy because it's like those are the hardest moments and I do have you know the ability to realize we need to take this because this is what we need to get through so that so that we're through it and and we honor it and we honor what's coming up so that we can we can speak to it and then move forward.
00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:20.240
But when I came finally to your consultation, you know, where you had said give her my number have her come and so I got in touch with you and I was there like the next day and and that was you know it was a very messy cluttered home that didn't look like someone was inclined to have a professional organizer in.
00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:24.720
And you were not wearing your nicest clothes.
00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:35.279
You know you were wearing you know kind of the clothes that somebody who's in a little bit of a depression wears you know where it's just you're not presenting yourself in a way that felt valued.
00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:39.839
And so I'm like okay you know let me figure out what's happening here.
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:45.039
And then we walk through your house and we realized like you are willing to release these things.
00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:46.240
Like these aren't yours.
00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:54.640
This is your dad's stuff like you had said this is this is stuff you need to go but you aren't giving yourself the permission to get rid of it.
00:31:54.880 --> 00:32:34.079
You had the relationship with your dad so you know I'm sure you're kind of talking to him while you're there thinking like Dad what do I do with all this dad like oh what like how did you live like this like what what am I supposed to do you know and so I can see that but then when I asked you a few specific things it was spatulas that really got to me because I said I do we agree these spatulas are trash you said yes I said okay I'll work for you I'll be here Monday you know yeah um because I knew you you just needed the help getting through and but then so it was like there was this first job of getting your dad's stuff tended to and removed but none of your stuff was really out when we got there.
00:32:34.240 --> 00:32:39.440
It was in these boxes and I met you in a frumpyer version to call it out.
00:32:39.759 --> 00:33:23.119
Oh absolutely I'm like opening up this stuff and there's this level of sophistication that didn't present at that consultation like an extremely you know well researched mental health practitioner for the military you've helped people save their lives you've helped people through PTSD at a level that most of us thankfully will never understand or know and and you had such a depth to what you knew and the books on the shelves spoke to that your your clothes were so much nicer you know nice embroidered high quality clothes the items that you'd collected over the years of your different travels were such a higher quality than what you had presented.
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:58.079
And so while it wasn't a a judgment on where you were it was this Natalie look at you like look at what you like like wear this you know and almost giving you permission to put yourself back on you know to step back into who you had worked so hard to be and and that was where well let's start there in our next segment because I think that there's so much to speak to on that where we really have said that unboxing you but unboxing you is a mental health practitioner and we are home organizers.
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:02.559
So we go into people's houses and do what people think I should be able to do this for myself.
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:06.319
Oh absolutely or a husband looks at a wife and thinks why can't you do this?
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:37.599
And it's like why don't we write a list of everything that that woman does in a day you know and maybe it's the wife putting it on the partner you know the husband but a lot of times we see a lot of burden fall on a woman and it's like and a working woman no less you know and it's like uh I I have been saying lately like I'm not a CEO I'm a C DO I'm a chief delegation officer like I am learning every single day how to be better at asking people to do things for me so that I can stay in my zone of genius and do what I'm good at.
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:45.280
But it's like we have all these demands on us and all of these things and it's like I should be able to tidy my own kitchen.
00:34:45.519 --> 00:34:53.199
I should be able to put my own stuff away I should be able to clean up my kids' room well how many hours are there in a day?
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:54.960
How else are you being pulled?
00:34:55.119 --> 00:34:56.800
How many other directions are you pulled?
00:34:56.960 --> 00:35:03.519
How many available hours or minutes some days do you actually have I think you should hire that out.
00:35:03.679 --> 00:35:06.960
You know like I think that's actually the best decision for you.
00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:28.159
So we are providing a service for people that they think they should do and you are this mental health practitioner who some might say you're a mental health practitioner you should be able to get yourself through the emotions of this and it's like sometimes many many many times we can't do for ourselves what we can do for others.
00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:51.119
Absolutely but also coming back to yourself allowed you to come back to that career and now you are crushing it with new clients and you know return clients of your own on the other side of this big drop and then we were back in your house and got to see you're doing really you're rocking it you know but but we were able to kind of come and tidy up uh some of what was there.
00:35:51.199 --> 00:35:55.360
So we'll just take a brief break and come back and and kind of lean into that conversation.
00:35:55.679 --> 00:35:56.239
Sounds great.
00:35:56.480 --> 00:36:26.639
Sorting through life be right back to Sorting through life with Colleen Waterson here on AM950 and brought to you by Space by Space Organizing our home organizing business here in the Twin Cities with our lovely client Natalie client and friend it feels it feels inappropriate to just say client when we talk about you now.
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:33.119
And I think that that's become obvious through this show we've you've been so open and sharing you know about your grief.
00:36:33.360 --> 00:36:56.000
So we we came into your childhood home well after your dad had passed well after you'd moved in and your dad was still in every corner like literally every corner of that home for decades and decades had been his and had been lived in and he had never hired a professional organizer.
00:36:56.320 --> 00:37:14.960
And so you come into this and you're already overwhelmed with grief and you had a traumatic brain injury on the way via a nice little car accident in Montana to say it completely inappropriately because that was a a whammy of an experience that really set you back.
00:37:15.039 --> 00:37:34.400
And so you find yourself at home and this would have been with the clearest head this would have been hard to accomplish but you find yourself with a a cloudy head and you know the the lingering effects of this brain injury you had some vision issues when we first, you know, you've gotten your eyes surgery on your eyes since we've been in your life.
00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:41.679
And so you know there's just a lot of different things going on that we were able to come and kind of help you through.
00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:50.320
And as we unboxed you, we found that there was this really sophisticated mental health practitioner of her own.
00:37:50.480 --> 00:38:02.159
And you know we would take these breaks throughout and you would start as we started to unbox you, you'd start to ask us questions as if you were like our therapist, whether we wanted or needed them or not.
00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:46.559
And we're like and I I remember the gal that was working for us is like do I charge for that time that we were outside and I'm like you know I know it doesn't feel like work but this is actually unboxing Natalie like we this is this feels you know just as much as important it is to pull the books out of the boxes is to pull the woman who's read the books out of the boxes and to lift her back into this home and back into this life and into this body that you are kind of maybe maybe not in every day you know and and so I was like you know these breaks are actually you know not like we take breaks with every client but with this situation it was part of the process.
00:38:46.719 --> 00:38:48.000
And you would call them out.
00:38:48.079 --> 00:38:55.440
We weren't like hey should we go outside it was like okay go outside and there were certain moments there were certain overwhelm where it's like I got to go outside.
00:38:55.599 --> 00:39:21.760
I got to take a break and in those breaks different things would come up but then this mental health practitioner who's like asking about our own relationships and asking about our own self-worth and you know I think when we're in the company of hey we've all got stuff you know everybody's got stuff going on you know I always say if someone tells you their family gets along perfectly and everything's lovely, they're not trustworthy.
00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:58.800
You know, like you're there's something here you know like and it's like I I'm all about not airing that dirty laundry in a way that you know there's there's something you know kind of golden ruly there's something about just like you know I don't want my goodness to infringe on yours you know but but we can acknowledge that not everybody always you know gets along or we have certain things that we you know we all come from childhoods and not all childhoods maybe your family was lovely but maybe you were bullied at school you know so we all have things that we hang on to that we bring to the moments that we're in.
00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:23.119
And you Natalie had worked in the in the military so you saw you know people that go into the military also have childhoods and family and then they go into the military and have these careers that put them you know front and center to things that can totally change a life or their bodies even are are changed and then that changes the you know there's so much.
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:59.920
So you've served all these people from this mental health role and then you come back into your house and you're like I never was able to reach my dad as a mental health practitioner and then you're seeing this you're facing your own depression and your own, you know and those those feelings I I call depression like it's like a black ink that if it seeps in and you don't get a handle on it, it just seeps more but that's where it's like you've got to find the light in life and you have to find those things that zap it it's like if there is something that's that's wet and you put it out in the sun it dries up.
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:13.920
You know so it's like if you go into the basement with something dark like that, it's gonna get moldy it's gonna, you know, more is gonna grow but if you go and you bring it out and put it in the light, we're gonna have a better chance of of getting that out.
00:41:14.079 --> 00:41:30.800
So it's like that heaviness though like to me that black ink analogy that I've come up with for myself in a you know in harder times in years past it's like it weighs you you know where it's like best of luck getting out of bed.
00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:45.840
You know I've never had a an a situation for myself where I haven't been able to get out of bed but I know that there's many people who feel like they can't you know and that like m moving from the bed to the couch is is a big deal.
00:41:46.159 --> 00:42:07.840
So talk to me about that from a mental health practitioner and this whole perspective of where you were at and where you are now um well as a mental health practitioner you use the analogy of black ink I I kind of don't really see it that way.
00:42:08.239 --> 00:42:29.360
I um it people are just in a in a pool or a lake or you know I've also thought of like the weeds that pull you in and it's like you know people jump into a lake and if there's weeds in there the best swimmers can die because you're just pulled in yeah you can't get through.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:43.440
And and you know the when you're depressed man that that water is is it's like adding like tiles of clothes that you're wearing while you're trying to keep tread.
00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:57.199
Yeah and and pretty soon you can you're under rightfully yeah rightfully be underwater and you know just kind of drown.
00:42:57.920 --> 00:43:30.159
Right drowning in your in your own emotion and your own thoughts and i it's excruciating and I was in that same kind of water um at you know when you and I first started um you know you you talked about how I wasn't wearing the clothes that I uh uh normally present in.
00:43:30.639 --> 00:43:36.800
Um okay maybe not today but you look great like a sunshine.
00:43:37.280 --> 00:44:05.039
But um you know and and that was true you know because I was underwater when you and I first met and I remember uh that first day letting you in my house was a big deal for me because that's not something that I uh regularly did.
00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:11.519
And I was very much underwater.
00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:27.280
And you coming in and even going through, you know, the five spatulas that were in the one drawer, you know, it was like you were throwing me a rope.
00:44:27.920 --> 00:44:37.360
And you know, and it it or you know, maybe a a ring of, you know, life preserver.
00:44:37.840 --> 00:44:57.280
And it wasn't huge, but I could take a little bit of a rest from trying to tread water and keep myself afloat.
00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:43.519
And it was um I mean I'm you know like after the first day of actually working on on stuff I I didn't feel I mean obviously my emotions hadn't just gone away but I was able to feel a little bit lighter and and I actually finally I think took a deep breath and didn't worry that water was gonna get in my mouth as I was doing so.
00:45:44.480 --> 00:45:58.480
And it's it's not that I don't know how to handle depression because I I help all kind you know I've helped all kinds of different people.
00:45:58.800 --> 00:46:00.239
You've handed the life draft to others.
00:46:00.719 --> 00:46:00.880
Right.
00:46:01.039 --> 00:46:02.639
Yeah yeah for others.
00:46:03.039 --> 00:46:42.800
Definitely and but yet at that time and at that moment I I couldn't I I mean I was looking everywhere for a raft or anything that would help me you know and and I couldn't find it and you know maybe that's just because I had all kinds of stuff around me you know that was my dad's and mine in boxes and you know stuff that I who knows what it is.
00:46:43.119 --> 00:46:48.800
But I was able to you guys helped me for sure.
00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:55.360
Thank you for letting me in that day and thank you for letting us in so many days after as we did work through this.
00:46:55.519 --> 00:47:19.679
I think if this resonates with you at all if you find yourself you know in Natalie's position where you are you know surrounded by your parents' stuff surrounded by your own stuff and feeling overwhelmed by it please give us a call 612 747 1331 space by spaceorganizing.com We love helping people we love becoming friends with our clients or not if you don't want to you know we don't impose ourselves on friendship.
00:47:20.320 --> 00:47:28.239
But you know to be what an honor to be in your life and to have been in your home and to still come and be in your home.
00:47:28.719 --> 00:47:32.800
We've been back in your home we didn't even talk about that but uh help put the closet back together.
00:47:33.039 --> 00:47:45.519
Um but I this has just been an honor and I I love you dearly and so thank you Alicia I love you too uh you're the best all right sorting through life thanks Brett for being here everybody thank you for listening
00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:09.919
Welcome, welcome to Sorting Through Life with Colleen Watterston on AM950, the progressive voice of Minnesota.
00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:16.480
This show is brought to you by Space by Space Organizing, a twin cities-based home organizing business.
00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:25.519
And on this show, Sorting Through Life, we come and we talk about what goes on behind closed drawers, behind the organizing process.
00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:29.679
And today, um, I'm the owner and lead organizer of Space by Space.
00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:35.520
And today I'm here with Alicia, who's here often and in my life often, my right hand on most jobs.
00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:37.840
And Natalie, who welcome back, Natalie.
00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:38.640
You've been here.
00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:43.359
You were on our first episode of Behind Closed Drawers back in February.
00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:48.159
And we also brought in Jen, who is your neighbor who referred you to us.
00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:52.399
And so, but you know, you have you deserve your own show.
00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:55.200
So does Jen, but uh, but you deserve your own show.
00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.039
And we were recently back in your home.
00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:05.200
So I think I want to go back in time and share what we've done for you and what we the circumstance we found you in originally.
00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:16.159
But then I also want to talk about the time in between and then being able to have us back, you know, a year later and really what that meant, you know, and for us even what it meant as organizers.
00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:22.719
So with this show, our whole point is to really kind of demystify what goes on behind the home organizing process.
00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:28.000
I feel like a lot of people know what home organizing is, and I think a lot of people don't.
00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:32.239
And so kind of like, what is what would I hire these people for?
00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:34.799
Like that sounds expensive.
00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:36.079
Like, what?
00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:39.040
Like, what is what is the service actually?
00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:49.040
And I think, you know, with yours, which we'll get into, it really shows like this was this was a hand hold that was needed for a specific time of life.
00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:55.200
And then the return on investment was that you got through something that you couldn't without having your hand held.
00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:56.400
Oh, hugely.
00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:06.319
So with that, I think there's so many people who could maybe use a little support working through their stuff to get from a place that feels, you know, unsurmountable.
00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:13.840
We're kind of like the Sherpas through that unsurmountable, you know, time of life to be like, I can't deal with all this stuff.
00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:15.199
What am I gonna do?
00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:16.800
I can't ask a friend to help me.
00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:19.520
I can't, you know, or friends are not necessarily the people to ask.
00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:21.120
We've talked about that before.
00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:29.680
But but really helping people to see, oh, there's actually people I can call out there who can come in and help me through this.
00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:31.439
It's not an endless process.
00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:32.639
There is an end date.
00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:36.960
They they guide me through it, they hold the space to get through that tunnel.
00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:42.560
Well, that and it it it you're removed, but not removed.
00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:43.759
Let's get into it.
00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:47.039
Okay, so you when did you find us?
00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:50.960
Uh where were you at in life?
00:02:51.199 --> 00:03:05.199
Oh uh man, I uh I was um buried and adrift uh uh because so much had happened.
00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:15.199
Um because uh my father had had passed, um which was very difficult for me.
00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:32.719
Um and so uh then uh i I was in the I decided uh that I was gonna move back to Minnesota uh because I had been living in Washington State.
00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:49.360
Uh and uh then on top of both of those things, you know, I had gotten into an accident and it I mean like life was evolving uh completely.
00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:51.439
Your dad died unexpectedly.
00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:52.240
Yes.
00:03:52.560 --> 00:04:02.080
And you were living out of state, you had a close relationship, but not seeing him frequently, not going to your childhood home often.
00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:03.840
He still lived in the childhood home.
00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:04.479
Yep.
00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:06.319
You get this call, your dad died.
00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:06.560
Yep.
00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:15.199
So you go home, you figure out what's going on here, and you see the house, and you know, okay, I'm inheriting this, and I think I'd like to live here.
00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:18.079
I'd like to live here to figure out what's going on here.
00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:26.319
You go back to Washington, you set up the movers, they pack up your stuff, they get there, you don't.
00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:37.519
You get into a car accident on the way that put you in the hospital for a while, like in Montana, probably a black ice, who knows, but terrible car accident.
00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:53.759
And then so now we've got a a TBI, now we've got a traumatic brain injury, and you find yourself at home, which would have been a home being childhood home, but now you're trying to make it home, and your dad's stuff isn't every it's it's it's everywhere.
00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:55.040
It's the same as the day he died.
00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:00.720
Yeah, you know, and he wasn't, he had not hired a professional organizer, safe to say.
00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:02.480
No, not at all.
00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:14.480
I mean not not that my dad was messy, but he had a lot of stuff and had it everywhere.
00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:15.120
Yeah.
00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:20.240
And so it's not like it was messy or cluttered even.
00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:21.680
He used his home.
00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:30.079
Uh right, you know, it it was his and he his belongings and his life.
00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:30.560
Yeah.
00:05:31.120 --> 00:06:08.560
And you know, so then I I am in there and I'm like, if I really started looking, I started trying because I would remember stuff that my dad did with XYZ, or oh, he was wearing, you know, Z over here, and I re vividly remember him wearing that shirt or whatever.
00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:30.639
So it it really um as I was trying to go through his stuff, it wasn't proceeding because I would, you know, just get in a jumble.
00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:34.480
Just trying to sort through the memories as well as his items.
00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:35.839
Very much so.
00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:37.279
Very much so.
00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:56.399
One thing I noticed about your relationship with your dad, or you know, coming your relationship with your dad after his death, you know, and with his stuff, was you know, you're looking through this after he passed, and you're kind of wondering, how did he live this way?
00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:02.160
Like it was almost I felt a frustration with him for living this way.
00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:02.639
Yeah.
00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:06.000
Because it undervalued him in certain areas.
00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:12.160
You know, it was it was not the tidiest, and it it was not the most kept up, you know.
00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:21.600
So I think there there felt like I almost sensed some guilt from you for not having intervened while he was alive.
00:07:21.839 --> 00:08:06.720
Yeah, because he he didn't see his own value and that uh broke my heart all over again because I didn't intervene and help show him how much I gained from him and his love and his friendship over the years and everything that he did for me, I I wasn't able to do that while he was alive because I was, you know, busy creating my own life in different areas.
00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:24.319
And so as I was going through the house and becoming frustrated with him because he didn't, like I said, he didn't see his own worth.
00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:37.919
And it and I think, you know, we all I think after someone's death, it's easier to say, oh, I should have stepped in.
00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:41.840
I would have been able to, but I don't think that's true.
00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:44.639
You know, I think that people are who they are.
00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:54.799
You know, we all there's people in my life who I have very close relationships with that I don't that you know, you it okay, like weight loss.
00:08:54.960 --> 00:09:03.200
Okay, like I know, you know, I I've gone up and down, and nobody can do it for you.
00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:05.360
You know, it's your own motivation.
00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:12.559
And we all know ourselves, you know, we know our, we we dress our bodies, you know, we know when something fits, when something doesn't.
00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:13.600
We know where we're at.
00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:26.159
We have mirrors, and and it's like to try to inspire somebody to lose that weight, you know, or people with interventions with with addictions or with anything.
00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:26.639
Yeah.
00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:32.480
We know, and often sometimes the people closest to us, that's not who we even want to hear it from.
00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:40.240
So it's easy after a death to say, I should have flown home, I should have taken care of this.
00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:45.840
But it's like the reality of it, because you said when you would get together, he wasn't saying, come on over, right?
00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:47.600
You were getting a meal out.
00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:58.080
And so, you know, at some point you have to accept that he was living his life while you were living yours, and he wanted you to live yours.
00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:06.159
You know, our our role with our parents and with our family, it's tricky, you know, always.
00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:06.799
Yeah.
00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:08.879
Families have dynamics.
00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:12.720
There are a lot of therapists in business because of it.
00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:24.879
And so there's just this kind of starry-eyed, maybe teary-eyed, glassy-eyed idea that amidst the tears of going through someone's stuff, I should have done better.
00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:26.320
I should have been a better daughter.
00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:29.039
And it's like, no, you were a great daughter because he was proud of you.
00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:30.399
You were off doing your thing.
00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:34.799
You had a really great career in the military, you saw the world.
00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:39.840
And, you know, this is a guy who did not take a single day of his vacation.
00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:40.320
Right.
00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:45.440
Like, literally not a day of vacation.
00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:45.840
Right.
00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:47.679
His whole corporate job.
00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:56.159
And so worked every single working day that there was, and and that's a him thing, you know, and that was who he was.
00:10:56.320 --> 00:11:00.240
And he he that was what he did in this life, you know.
00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:06.080
But it's like we're going through it and we're like, dad, oh, dad, uh, dad, and why didn't I?
00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:12.639
And I think that a big part of of what was getting you stuck was that reality.
00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:13.120
Yeah.
00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:24.480
Well, that just adds to just like another tricky aspect of going through the grieving process because you're grieving, but then also trying to rationalize the guilt that you feel as well.
00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:25.600
Yeah.
00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:26.879
Very much so.
00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:40.399
There was, you know, not to not to add to the water works that might be coming, but there was something we came across that was a misunderstanding between you and him, and a letter that I think he wrote you and never gave you.
00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:40.799
Yeah.
00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:44.559
And now all of a sudden you're going through his stuff and he's gone.
00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:47.919
So you're the one to go through it and you find that letter.
00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:52.559
And you and it was like, I don't I wish I could have known that he thought this.
00:11:52.720 --> 00:12:00.559
There was like something that with um a confusion, a misunderstanding about something that you know didn't impact your relationship from what you knew.
00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:01.200
Right.
00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:14.480
But now you're reading this, and I just remember it it was one of the most crushing moments I've ever been in the company of a client because it was like you can't go back and be like, Dad, that's not what that was.
00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:15.679
You saw that differently.
00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:22.320
Like, you just have to read that and be like, Wow, he thought that, and that's that.
00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:24.159
Right.
00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:27.039
Yeah, that was it.
00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:40.480
I mean, uh I just kind of stopped in time and tried to like remember back, okay, how did how did he even come up with this conclusion?
00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:53.679
And it gosh, it it really how much it really impacted him and his emotion towards me.
00:12:54.399 --> 00:13:09.759
And i I mean, i so like I'm processing through all this as I was reading this letter, and it like everything stopped for me.
00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:14.159
I I mean oh, we're organizing my house?
00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:20.480
Oh what uh gosh, I don't when where where was I?
00:13:20.639 --> 00:13:31.519
Because I wasn't there and you know, but yeah, I was there, but in my brain and in my heart, totally not there.
00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:32.320
Yeah.
00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:33.759
You know.
00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:37.600
I think they say, you know, grief is love with nowhere to go.
00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:48.080
And I think in the grieving process, and and also, you know, sometimes there can be maybe anger with nowhere to go, you know, emotions that you can't have that conversation.
00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:48.559
Yeah.
00:13:48.799 --> 00:14:01.039
And so holding space for that, you know, and we we have a a side of our business we call legacy lifting, which is really meant to be done with the person's belongings, you know, who owns them.
00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:06.799
So that we say leave a legacy, not a burden, you know, go through your stuff before someone else's.
00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:18.799
So to the best of someone, you know, to the best of our ability, we can support people through through their stuff so that their daughter doesn't find a letter that might, you know, set them back weeks.
00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:19.679
Right.
00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:26.799
You know, but I don't even I don't even know if my dad would have remembered that it was there.
00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:30.080
Totally, because it was decades ago that this situation happened.
00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:30.639
Right.
00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:46.480
And so that's the kind of thing, you know, that if you can go through your stuff while you're still alive, in at any age, you know, your dad was not at a dying age by average, you know, he died and and it was sudden and he was gone.
00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:46.960
Yeah.
00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:50.960
And, you know, and he's not the type, I don't think, that would hire a legacy lifter.
00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:51.440
No.
00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:55.519
But, you know, when there's people who are like, I've got all this stuff, what should I do?
00:14:55.679 --> 00:15:03.519
That's where it's like, you know, it's hard to go through your own stuff, but it's also hard for a child to go through your stuff.
00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:14.720
And so if you can hire out that burden, and it's not a burden to us, like it's not a burden to an outsider who wants to hold space for getting through something.
00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:15.279
Right.
00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:22.960
And so that's where it's like these belongings overwhelm everybody who's attached to them.
00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:36.960
But when people who are not attached to them come in and can help, and there were several times, and and in the next segment, we'll get into kind of some of the specific times within the process and and specific items.
00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:50.480
But there were several times that I know it's just like locking eyes with you was my job, was like holding you up because for a year or however long it was before you were introduced to us and we were in your home.
00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:51.120
Yeah.
00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:54.240
It was like, I see something, I crumble.
00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:56.559
I can't, you know, it was just you did not know.
00:15:56.639 --> 00:15:58.879
It just debilitated you, it paralyzed you.
00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:01.840
So it was like, I'm here to keep her up.
00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:03.679
I'm here to keep that head up.
00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:07.759
We might be done for the day, but I'm not leaving with her in tears.
00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:11.519
Like I'm leaving with her knowing that was tough.
00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:14.159
We can talk about it or not.
00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:16.480
But we'll get we got through it.
00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:19.679
We got through it and moved on the next day.
00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:20.799
Tomorrow's another day.
00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:21.600
Right.
00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:22.320
Okay.
00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:27.200
Tomorrow's another day, and this segment is done.
00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:31.200
So we'll be right back and we'll talk all this and more.
00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:34.159
Uh, this is Sorting Through Life on AM950.
00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:49.039
Welcome back to Sorting Through Life with Colleen Watters.
00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:54.559
Brought to you by Space Organizing, our home organizing business here in the Twin Cities.
00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:59.759
And today I'm here with Alicia, uh, who has come to most jobs I've ever done.
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:06.720
And Natalie, one of our favorite jobs, one of our favorite clients, uh client-turned friend, very much so.
00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:13.279
And and to the point that yesterday I was having a bad day and I was on the phone with Natalie five times.
00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:20.640
So, you know, we've become, we we often it, you know, showcase how close we love our we love our clients.
00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:24.480
But, you know, our very intimate uh experience with our clients.
00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:28.880
And this one I think was Alicia, I think this remains you feel the most rewarding.
00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:30.160
Oh yeah, absolutely.
00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:34.400
And I don't even think I first originally started with the job.
00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:37.279
I think I came in a couple weeks afterwards.
00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:37.920
Yeah.
00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:42.799
You were we I had another gal on our team who started, and then it was all three of us.
00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:47.359
And and yeah, it's why was it the most rewarding for you?
00:17:47.680 --> 00:18:00.480
Um I think just seeing how much needed to be done, how much we were able to get done, and also to like I think Natalie, you're probably one of the most like appreciative clients that we have.
00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:09.440
Like every day when we were leaving, I could just see like more weight lifted off your shoulders and you would just thank us extensively before we would leave every single time.
00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:12.640
Well, because you were absolutely worth it.
00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:26.000
I mean, like I didn't I didn't want to mince words, yeah, you know, and like try and compact because you weren't doing that with my stuff.
00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:42.960
And so I wanted to make sure that you uh 100% knew uh wow, you such a difference uh i in uh how I'm gonna be able to move forward.
00:18:43.519 --> 00:19:02.640
I mean, like like you organized downstairs, you know, in in my basement, uh just off of the uh laundry room, there was there's a closet and it had all kinds of stuff in there.
00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:16.160
And uh but yet it was all useful stuff that I would go back and need, but wouldn't probably have known where it was, you know.
00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:34.880
Um and uh Alicia totally organized, I mean th unbelievably so, and like labeled, okay, these are all the you know electrical parts or you know, whatever.
00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:52.400
Um and these are all the uh paint brushes, you know, and these are all the so I mean it it was like walking into a store uh but yet it was a a store of my stuff.
00:19:52.960 --> 00:20:17.519
And it and it was I mean, there's not a day like granted I don't go in the basement every day, but but but the times that I have gone down there, I'm like uh I'm still in a complete amazement because I'm like oh yeah, here's the drawer for the wrenches.
00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:28.160
Sweet, all the wrenches and they're all in there, and they're all facing the same way, and they're all I mean, like just fantastic.
00:20:28.319 --> 00:21:03.359
And so I opened that drawer, you know, because I knew I needed a wrench, and so I opened the drawer and I was like, okay, this is this this one is the exact one I would have been searching for, and uh crap's sake, I probably would have been searching for weeks for that one wrench, and I went down and found it within probably like a minute, and most of that minute was just getting down the stairs.
00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:07.839
Yeah, I think that toolbox is honestly probably one of my favorite projects that I've done.
00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:10.480
I was very aesthetically pleasing afterwards.
00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:12.160
We have pictures and videos.
00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:16.720
There's that room that could have been a very creepy, dark room.
00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:25.759
Yeah, and that's the one that's the store with the labels, and it's like your own little hardware shop, and you're in an older home where you wouldn't necessarily find some of these parts at a store.
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:26.319
Right.
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:27.839
And you also don't want to throw them.
00:21:28.079 --> 00:21:40.799
Oh, so absolutely a lot of things it's like, oh, I have no idea what this is, but like it's never coming back into, you know, it's never coming back on a shelf, and I'll probably need it one day, or a a person who comes to help will need it one day.
00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:50.000
So it was like we made space to let what could have been very big, like clutter and junk, have a home that didn't feel excessive.
00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:56.079
It felt like, oh great, those are the old home parts, you know, old electrical parts alongside newer paint.
00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.759
And then this tool sh toolbox that you brought was one of those.
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.920
really nice toolboxes.
00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:03.200
I have a video of you.
00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:13.920
We've I still have to get your approval to put it on social, but like you looking at it is, you know, equally meaningful as what you just shared right now, but you're like, oh my God.
00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:16.960
Like you are so excited about this.
00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:26.160
And it's like, and and I think for those moments and we had a few of them throughout, you know, you and I were really getting through your dad's stuff.
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:31.680
And when we would open your boxes, because your boxes were kind of placed within the rooms.
00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:35.359
And so we knew your stuff was to be kept.
00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:37.519
We didn't really have to go through it so much.
00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:38.079
Right.
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:41.920
And, you know, you've lived a life with you're a military gal.
00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:49.680
So you've you've lived with good order around you and you've traveled and you've, you know, you've got a curated amount of stuff.
00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:51.599
You do have a lot of turtles.
00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:56.319
I would say that collection could be downsized, but I understand they all come with emotional.
00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:03.839
So Natalie identifies with turtle today for those watching, I am wearing, I bought this on Thread Up secondhand for you.
00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:13.759
You're getting it after but this is turtle shells all over my sweater and I was like I am wearing that to talk to Natalie because you identify because they're hard on the outside and mushy on the inside.
00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:15.119
Okay.
00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:40.400
Um you told me that uh well but they they're kind of magical in a way for me because they live incredibly hardy lives and I see myself in that way.
00:23:41.440 --> 00:24:12.799
Um because you know it's not like my life has ever been easy but i i've gotten through and that's how turtles are and you know I I learned from a shaman a long time ago that you know warriors would rely on turtles and you know uh that's how they would get their strength.
00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:17.519
Like a calling in the turtle spirit?
00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:18.240
No.
00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:18.640
No.
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.200
Um they needed a turtle.
00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:41.680
Oh they ate a turtle right oh and that um helped them through the next battle and they would live the warrior would live through the next battle because they had consumed a turtle.
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:42.559
Right.
00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:45.200
Well that is the new thing I'm gonna learn today.
00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:45.759
Yep.
00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:46.960
Thank you for that.
00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:54.319
Well uh I mean a shaman had told me that I'm I'm gonna look further into it not that it's the shaman's wrong just I find that fascinating.
00:24:54.480 --> 00:25:08.480
Yeah and and then I'm thinking about you know I live in a very wooded neighborhood and there is a lot of protection of the turtles there's a lot of turtle crossings there's a lot of there's a sadness that you see you know that you feel when one did not get protected or across that road.
00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:37.759
Yeah yeah okay uh but for those of us who do uh so what felt those those moments where you're going through and this your stuff is being made sense of or you know there's there's a lot of evolving out of these boxes it's getting unpacked we kept saying we kind of referred to you as like unboxing Natalie you know and so a lot of this you were so boxed up when we got there and then so overwhelmed by what was in.
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:45.359
So you and I would be going through what was in and then you know Alicia would be off for hours and hours.
00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:52.880
Could be organizing all of my for lack of a better word crap.
00:25:53.119 --> 00:26:24.799
Okay yeah it's like I think there's like words we can't say on this we can say I think we can we say Brett says yes okay you know so she you were like better like super organizing all of like my innards and and you know while uh you know Colleen was unboxing like whole parts of me.
00:26:25.440 --> 00:27:24.400
Like and helping say goodbye to a lot of parts of your dad yeah you know like I remember um yeah you knew what I did for a living um but you initially didn't really see it in me but as you were unboxing all of my stuff I uh came to life yeah and you know we were finally able to lay my father to rest because he he was he had still been living for lack of a better way to explain this he his spirit was still 100% in the house and living there.
00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:36.000
And yet I was there and all my stuff was there but it was in all of these boxes so you couldn't really see me.
00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:49.359
You just walked in and felt my father and you guys were able to completely un 100% unbox me.
00:27:50.160 --> 00:28:20.960
So then as we continued more of me came to life basically and then you know we would get in conversations about oh my gosh I saw that you had you know a million books on this and you know and so then we would start talking about that and you'd be like holy buckets.
00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:34.319
Well so I do a consultation with any client and you know I go into the house and you know there we're we're doing someone out of town and there's videos and and photos or we'll FaceTime you know and there's other ways for that.
00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:54.079
But for the most part I really do um like going into someone's house, making sure this is a good fit uh off the clock establishing the the rapport um so that we're not like expected to be working at the time it's really about like there is a lot of value in that consultation but it's not working hours.
00:28:54.240 --> 00:29:03.359
You know where we and and you know we probably will add a fee in the future just to make sure that if something doesn't turn into a job, it's because it's quite extensive.
00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:06.960
Oh, for sure and it's a lot of effort that goes into that consultation.
00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:23.279
Like we've already chatted with you before we kind of know what we're going into but then I'm there for at least an hour and I'm already talking out loud all of my ideas and showing you products and so that when I leave that consultation there's a plan and now you're getting the scope of work.
00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:28.079
But I've only had like two people ever not turn into a job.
00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:37.519
And I think it's because why would you not want that support if you've reached out for it, you know, and then we're there it's like I'm articulating how we're gonna do it.
00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:57.920
But with your consultation, you know, and we talked about this extensively I you'd been referred to me multiple times by your next door neighbor Jen who Alicia and I helped pack through a divorce you know and through the transition of leaving a home she was in for 15 years where her husband and children were still staying or at least one child was still staying.
00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:09.039
So it was like a very uncomfortable scenario to be like there's a lot of emotion here and everybody gets along great but there's just this discomfort there and they needed to get through it.
00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:28.000
And so we came in to hold her shoulder through it and say, okay, you know give her like like Alicia's still packing I'm holding the shoulder for you know 30 seconds two minutes if we need to can we keep going you know all right let's keep going because you know I want I'm there to get you through it.
00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:30.640
And I'm also hired to get it done.
00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:35.519
And so I'm not just there to to take an easy moment of not working.
00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:57.920
It's like but I will take those hard moments to you know they're they're not easy because it's like those are the hardest moments and I do have you know the ability to realize we need to take this because this is what we need to get through so that so that we're through it and and we honor it and we honor what's coming up so that we can we can speak to it and then move forward.
00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:20.240
But when I came finally to your consultation, you know, where you had said give her my number have her come and so I got in touch with you and I was there like the next day and and that was you know it was a very messy cluttered home that didn't look like someone was inclined to have a professional organizer in.
00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:24.720
And you were not wearing your nicest clothes.
00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:35.279
You know you were wearing you know kind of the clothes that somebody who's in a little bit of a depression wears you know where it's just you're not presenting yourself in a way that felt valued.
00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:39.839
And so I'm like okay you know let me figure out what's happening here.
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:45.039
And then we walk through your house and we realized like you are willing to release these things.
00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:46.240
Like these aren't yours.
00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:54.640
This is your dad's stuff like you had said this is this is stuff you need to go but you aren't giving yourself the permission to get rid of it.
00:31:54.880 --> 00:32:34.079
You had the relationship with your dad so you know I'm sure you're kind of talking to him while you're there thinking like Dad what do I do with all this dad like oh what like how did you live like this like what what am I supposed to do you know and so I can see that but then when I asked you a few specific things it was spatulas that really got to me because I said I do we agree these spatulas are trash you said yes I said okay I'll work for you I'll be here Monday you know yeah um because I knew you you just needed the help getting through and but then so it was like there was this first job of getting your dad's stuff tended to and removed but none of your stuff was really out when we got there.
00:32:34.240 --> 00:32:39.440
It was in these boxes and I met you in a frumpyer version to call it out.
00:32:39.759 --> 00:33:23.119
Oh absolutely I'm like opening up this stuff and there's this level of sophistication that didn't present at that consultation like an extremely you know well researched mental health practitioner for the military you've helped people save their lives you've helped people through PTSD at a level that most of us thankfully will never understand or know and and you had such a depth to what you knew and the books on the shelves spoke to that your your clothes were so much nicer you know nice embroidered high quality clothes the items that you'd collected over the years of your different travels were such a higher quality than what you had presented.
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:58.079
And so while it wasn't a a judgment on where you were it was this Natalie look at you like look at what you like like wear this you know and almost giving you permission to put yourself back on you know to step back into who you had worked so hard to be and and that was where well let's start there in our next segment because I think that there's so much to speak to on that where we really have said that unboxing you but unboxing you is a mental health practitioner and we are home organizers.
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:02.559
So we go into people's houses and do what people think I should be able to do this for myself.
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:06.319
Oh absolutely or a husband looks at a wife and thinks why can't you do this?
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:37.599
And it's like why don't we write a list of everything that that woman does in a day you know and maybe it's the wife putting it on the partner you know the husband but a lot of times we see a lot of burden fall on a woman and it's like and a working woman no less you know and it's like uh I I have been saying lately like I'm not a CEO I'm a C DO I'm a chief delegation officer like I am learning every single day how to be better at asking people to do things for me so that I can stay in my zone of genius and do what I'm good at.
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:45.280
But it's like we have all these demands on us and all of these things and it's like I should be able to tidy my own kitchen.
00:34:45.519 --> 00:34:53.199
I should be able to put my own stuff away I should be able to clean up my kids' room well how many hours are there in a day?
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:54.960
How else are you being pulled?
00:34:55.119 --> 00:34:56.800
How many other directions are you pulled?
00:34:56.960 --> 00:35:03.519
How many available hours or minutes some days do you actually have I think you should hire that out.
00:35:03.679 --> 00:35:06.960
You know like I think that's actually the best decision for you.
00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:28.159
So we are providing a service for people that they think they should do and you are this mental health practitioner who some might say you're a mental health practitioner you should be able to get yourself through the emotions of this and it's like sometimes many many many times we can't do for ourselves what we can do for others.
00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:51.119
Absolutely but also coming back to yourself allowed you to come back to that career and now you are crushing it with new clients and you know return clients of your own on the other side of this big drop and then we were back in your house and got to see you're doing really you're rocking it you know but but we were able to kind of come and tidy up uh some of what was there.
00:35:51.199 --> 00:35:55.360
So we'll just take a brief break and come back and and kind of lean into that conversation.
00:35:55.679 --> 00:35:56.239
Sounds great.
00:35:56.480 --> 00:36:26.639
Sorting through life be right back to Sorting through life with Colleen Waterson here on AM950 and brought to you by Space by Space Organizing our home organizing business here in the Twin Cities with our lovely client Natalie client and friend it feels it feels inappropriate to just say client when we talk about you now.
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:33.119
And I think that that's become obvious through this show we've you've been so open and sharing you know about your grief.
00:36:33.360 --> 00:36:56.000
So we we came into your childhood home well after your dad had passed well after you'd moved in and your dad was still in every corner like literally every corner of that home for decades and decades had been his and had been lived in and he had never hired a professional organizer.
00:36:56.320 --> 00:37:14.960
And so you come into this and you're already overwhelmed with grief and you had a traumatic brain injury on the way via a nice little car accident in Montana to say it completely inappropriately because that was a a whammy of an experience that really set you back.
00:37:15.039 --> 00:37:34.400
And so you find yourself at home and this would have been with the clearest head this would have been hard to accomplish but you find yourself with a a cloudy head and you know the the lingering effects of this brain injury you had some vision issues when we first, you know, you've gotten your eyes surgery on your eyes since we've been in your life.
00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:41.679
And so you know there's just a lot of different things going on that we were able to come and kind of help you through.
00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:50.320
And as we unboxed you, we found that there was this really sophisticated mental health practitioner of her own.
00:37:50.480 --> 00:38:02.159
And you know we would take these breaks throughout and you would start as we started to unbox you, you'd start to ask us questions as if you were like our therapist, whether we wanted or needed them or not.
00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:46.559
And we're like and I I remember the gal that was working for us is like do I charge for that time that we were outside and I'm like you know I know it doesn't feel like work but this is actually unboxing Natalie like we this is this feels you know just as much as important it is to pull the books out of the boxes is to pull the woman who's read the books out of the boxes and to lift her back into this home and back into this life and into this body that you are kind of maybe maybe not in every day you know and and so I was like you know these breaks are actually you know not like we take breaks with every client but with this situation it was part of the process.
00:38:46.719 --> 00:38:48.000
And you would call them out.
00:38:48.079 --> 00:38:55.440
We weren't like hey should we go outside it was like okay go outside and there were certain moments there were certain overwhelm where it's like I got to go outside.
00:38:55.599 --> 00:39:21.760
I got to take a break and in those breaks different things would come up but then this mental health practitioner who's like asking about our own relationships and asking about our own self-worth and you know I think when we're in the company of hey we've all got stuff you know everybody's got stuff going on you know I always say if someone tells you their family gets along perfectly and everything's lovely, they're not trustworthy.
00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:58.800
You know, like you're there's something here you know like and it's like I I'm all about not airing that dirty laundry in a way that you know there's there's something you know kind of golden ruly there's something about just like you know I don't want my goodness to infringe on yours you know but but we can acknowledge that not everybody always you know gets along or we have certain things that we you know we all come from childhoods and not all childhoods maybe your family was lovely but maybe you were bullied at school you know so we all have things that we hang on to that we bring to the moments that we're in.
00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:23.119
And you Natalie had worked in the in the military so you saw you know people that go into the military also have childhoods and family and then they go into the military and have these careers that put them you know front and center to things that can totally change a life or their bodies even are are changed and then that changes the you know there's so much.
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:59.920
So you've served all these people from this mental health role and then you come back into your house and you're like I never was able to reach my dad as a mental health practitioner and then you're seeing this you're facing your own depression and your own, you know and those those feelings I I call depression like it's like a black ink that if it seeps in and you don't get a handle on it, it just seeps more but that's where it's like you've got to find the light in life and you have to find those things that zap it it's like if there is something that's that's wet and you put it out in the sun it dries up.
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:13.920
You know so it's like if you go into the basement with something dark like that, it's gonna get moldy it's gonna, you know, more is gonna grow but if you go and you bring it out and put it in the light, we're gonna have a better chance of of getting that out.
00:41:14.079 --> 00:41:30.800
So it's like that heaviness though like to me that black ink analogy that I've come up with for myself in a you know in harder times in years past it's like it weighs you you know where it's like best of luck getting out of bed.
00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:45.840
You know I've never had a an a situation for myself where I haven't been able to get out of bed but I know that there's many people who feel like they can't you know and that like m moving from the bed to the couch is is a big deal.
00:41:46.159 --> 00:42:07.840
So talk to me about that from a mental health practitioner and this whole perspective of where you were at and where you are now um well as a mental health practitioner you use the analogy of black ink I I kind of don't really see it that way.
00:42:08.239 --> 00:42:29.360
I um it people are just in a in a pool or a lake or you know I've also thought of like the weeds that pull you in and it's like you know people jump into a lake and if there's weeds in there the best swimmers can die because you're just pulled in yeah you can't get through.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:43.440
And and you know the when you're depressed man that that water is is it's like adding like tiles of clothes that you're wearing while you're trying to keep tread.
00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:57.199
Yeah and and pretty soon you can you're under rightfully yeah rightfully be underwater and you know just kind of drown.
00:42:57.920 --> 00:43:30.159
Right drowning in your in your own emotion and your own thoughts and i it's excruciating and I was in that same kind of water um at you know when you and I first started um you know you you talked about how I wasn't wearing the clothes that I uh uh normally present in.
00:43:30.639 --> 00:43:36.800
Um okay maybe not today but you look great like a sunshine.
00:43:37.280 --> 00:44:05.039
But um you know and and that was true you know because I was underwater when you and I first met and I remember uh that first day letting you in my house was a big deal for me because that's not something that I uh regularly did.
00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:11.519
And I was very much underwater.
00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:27.280
And you coming in and even going through, you know, the five spatulas that were in the one drawer, you know, it was like you were throwing me a rope.
00:44:27.920 --> 00:44:37.360
And you know, and it it or you know, maybe a a ring of, you know, life preserver.
00:44:37.840 --> 00:44:57.280
And it wasn't huge, but I could take a little bit of a rest from trying to tread water and keep myself afloat.
00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:43.519
And it was um I mean I'm you know like after the first day of actually working on on stuff I I didn't feel I mean obviously my emotions hadn't just gone away but I was able to feel a little bit lighter and and I actually finally I think took a deep breath and didn't worry that water was gonna get in my mouth as I was doing so.
00:45:44.480 --> 00:45:58.480
And it's it's not that I don't know how to handle depression because I I help all kind you know I've helped all kinds of different people.
00:45:58.800 --> 00:46:00.239
You've handed the life draft to others.
00:46:00.719 --> 00:46:00.880
Right.
00:46:01.039 --> 00:46:02.639
Yeah yeah for others.
00:46:03.039 --> 00:46:42.800
Definitely and but yet at that time and at that moment I I couldn't I I mean I was looking everywhere for a raft or anything that would help me you know and and I couldn't find it and you know maybe that's just because I had all kinds of stuff around me you know that was my dad's and mine in boxes and you know stuff that I who knows what it is.
00:46:43.119 --> 00:46:48.800
But I was able to you guys helped me for sure.
00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:55.360
Thank you for letting me in that day and thank you for letting us in so many days after as we did work through this.
00:46:55.519 --> 00:47:19.679
I think if this resonates with you at all if you find yourself you know in Natalie's position where you are you know surrounded by your parents' stuff surrounded by your own stuff and feeling overwhelmed by it please give us a call 612 747 1331 space by spaceorganizing.com We love helping people we love becoming friends with our clients or not if you don't want to you know we don't impose ourselves on friendship.
00:47:20.320 --> 00:47:28.239
But you know to be what an honor to be in your life and to have been in your home and to still come and be in your home.
00:47:28.719 --> 00:47:32.800
We've been back in your home we didn't even talk about that but uh help put the closet back together.
00:47:33.039 --> 00:47:45.519
Um but I this has just been an honor and I I love you dearly and so thank you Alicia I love you too uh you're the best all right sorting through life thanks Brett for being here everybody thank you for listening
