Which way to the farmer's market?

What I love about living in the Bay Area. You can step out on your balcony with a latte and a croissant and watch the wild turkeys passing by.

A son's struggle

He called me last week, "I need help, my father's landlord wants to get into my father's apartment and we've got to pack up his stuff". Okay, I can do that, I said. "Well, it's not that easy, you see, my father has a problem. He's a real packrat. He collects everything he can get his hands on. I've cleaned out his place a dozen times and everytime I go back, it's the same story. And we fight and argue over throwing away paper bags and empty containers and string and rubber bands and newspapers - he collects garbage. He also has more food than your average grocery store. There's so much stuff you can't use the kitchen or even close the bathroom door. I don't know what to do anymore. But I can't face going in there alone."

Hoarding is a serious disorder and much more common than we ever imagined. After years of working as an organizer I now know that I can walk ANY block in ANY neighborhood in ANY city and find at least one, if not more, hoarders living there. In my own condo complex I know of 6 units that are suffering because of hoarding issues. I also know several people who have homes with over 100 cats - they are hoarding animals.

Fortunately, hoarding is being seriously studied by researchers in several hospitals and universities. Just recently several new books have come out on the subject. (Buried in Treasures and Overcoming Complusive Hoarding) You can find out more about hoarding by going to the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization. NSGCD.org and take the hoarding scale test to see if your friend or family member has a serious problem.

The sad fact is that yes, we cleaned out his father's apartment, but by this time next week the collecting will have begun again.

September events

I love the fall season. Fall colors are my colors, as you have probably noticed on my website. I'm from Wisconsin and fall in the midwest is the best by far. Fall means burrowing in, spending more time at home, making soups and doing All Things Home!

What's up with me for fall - workshops and presentations. I will be presenting my workshop on "Organizing Small Spaces" at Aegis in Cardinal Point. On Sept. 13th I will be presenting to the Oakland Association of Realtors "Preparing for the Baby Boomer Retirement Surge" along with my friend, author Ciji Ware. But don't worry, I still have time on my schedule for YOU!

Resisting the urge for more

It even happens to me - there I am standing at the register in the pet food store buying my 2 bags of cat food when the clerk says " you know, if you buy 3 bags you get a 4th bag FREE". What am I suppose to do now? I buy 2 bags at a time because that's exactly what I have space for. Two bags, that sit neatly on the shelf, side by side. Three bags, yes, I could probably find room somewhere for a 3rd bag, but the 4th bag - I'd have to buy a bigger condo and that isn't going to happen. So I buy my two bags, but I can't stop thinking about the FREE bag of cat food I left behind.

Senior moves

As downsizing and moving seniors is my speciality, I am going to start posting a lot about this topic. Thanks to Toni Berry of The Argus in Fremont for this wonderful article on Senior Move Managers.

Help for seniors moving to smaller homes

MANY clients have called me in desperation needing my counsel on how to make their furnishings work in their new downsized homes.

Many of them are seniors who have for one reason or another made the move to live smaller and simpler lives. I find them in beautiful condos or town homes cramped with all their big and numerous pieces of furniture that do not fit or allow them to move freely and safely through out their home.
They are emotionally drained and utterly exhausted from the move. It is often up to me as a designer/psychologist to help them understand their emotions behind keeping or letting go of their furnishings, listen to their concerns and help them feel in control or their homes and their lives.
Had they done the downsizing effectively before the move they would have saved a lot of wear and tear on themselves and on family members.

I have discovered help for that challenge, a professional organization that specializes in these downsizing moves just for seniors, Senior Move Managers. These professional organizers, packers and unpackers specialize in assisting older adults and their families prepare for a move, particularly in sorting out their emotional and physical concerns.

Most older adults making a transition have not moved in 30, 40 or 50 years and need to downsize considerably. The organizational and physical tasks associated with planning and implementing such a move can be overwhelming.

Family and friends often want to help, but there may be obstacles. Adult children may be sandwiched between their parents, their careers and their own family obligations. For family members living far away, the problem may be geographic. Some seniors have no surviving children, or their children are seniors themselves. If illness or death precipitates the move, the family may already be drained both emotionally and physically.

People age 60 and older are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. At the same time, social changes such as more women working full-time have made it increasingly difficult for family caregivers to provide all of the support needed for these transitions. Senior Move Management has emerged to fill the gaps and to make transitions easier for everyone involved.

If you have a move in your future or you have a loved one whom you will be helping move to a smaller home or an assisted living home check out their Web site at http://www.nasmm.com and see all the services they can offer to make your move a blessing.

Toni Berry IFDA at Marie Antoinette Custom Home Interiors is a local interior designer. E-mail home design questions or dilemmas to her at berrys@gloryworks.com, or call or fax her at (925) 862-9064.

Seven things

I just read through the whole year of this blog, Seven Things. It's interesting to me that I did not get the "keep it" gene. However, I did get the "buy it" gene, so I am not a totally alien creature. But when I buy something, I generally let go of something else, so I don't have an overflow...well, I do have one area that could be considered over the top - silk flowers. In my defense, I have a cat (Pumpkin Pie) who has broken both of my favorite vases at 4 am by tugging on fresh flowers and knocking the whole thing over. I don't know if it's the actual flowers she is after or the amusement of watching the glass shatter and seeing the water dripping all over and me struggling out of bed to find her walking among the broken glass that really brings out the beast in her. So I gave up fresh flowers and substituted with silk. And I like to change them up, just as I would real ones, so I have quite a variety. About 8 large plastic containers to be exact. But I have them organized by color and season and in containers that fit on the closet shelf and labelled so I know what's what.

An Elfa closet installed

This is an Elfa closet I designed from The Container Store. My client had a "handyman" install it, but you really can install these closets yourself. The trick to getting it right is in the design process.


The client chose to put her clothes back in herself and she did a great job.