Introduction Episode

Michelle: Welcome. This is Decluttering 55 Plus with Michelle Passoff, and I’m Michelle Passoff. For those of you who don’t know me, allow me to take a quick minute to introduce myself. I’m the author of Lighten Up, Free Yourself from Clutter, published by Harbor Perennial. I’ve traveled around the world and back talking and speaking and consulting with folks about the merit of letting go of too much stuff.

Papers, clothes, and paraphernalia in the physical environment. I was the first author in the organizing genre to speak about cleaning clutter as a life management tool that you can use to navigate your path in cleaning physical clutter. But moreover, I assert that without anything in the way, reaching your goals is easier and faster to achieve and far less stressful than having to dodge obstacles in your path.

Being clutter free makes going with the flow a way of life. That explains why the subtitle of my book is called Create the Space for Miracles While You Free Yourself from Too Much Stuff. Without clutter in the way, life is not only less messy, but the energy shift is magical. What will present itself in the space you create It’s just the right thing at just the moment you need to move ahead in the direction you’re headed.

Serendipity becomes commonplace. My invitation has always been and remains to be to suspend disbelief that what I’m saying is true and try it. The experience of ease afforded by being clutter free will compel you to make clutter cleaning a habit. Now as always, I’m stretching the definition of clutter beyond the boundaries of the physical environment.

That’s what makes decluttering 55 plus with Michelle Passoff different and ripe for baby boomers. For sure, I want you to understand that if you came to get inspiration, wisdom, and practical information about how to let go of papers, clothes, and other paraphernalia you’ve accumulated in your home and office, you’ve come to the right place.

We’re going to discuss these things, but by far, that is not all because declaring 55 plus with Michelle pass off again, goes beyond the boundaries of what you may come to expect from a so called organizing expert, we’re going to look where. ever baby boomers are at 55, 65, 75, or even older into a future where there are areas of life that are confronting, confounding, and bewildering you.

You may all be all too happy to sweep these areas of life under the carpet to be dealt with another day or better yet, never. Call

these areas of life cluttered when they go unaddressed. Wherever you lack clarity and a clear path forward, call that clutter. On this podcast, we will invite experts, gurus, geeks, and other authors to put topics that may bewilder us out on the table to be discussed and examined so that looking something square in the face empowers, inspires, educates, and enables us to.

Straighten things out and provides an opening for you to take action and get things done.

Heck, let me be the first one to admit that this can be exhausting, not to mention time consuming. And who needs that? You wouldn’t be the only one to think, Hmm, I have better things to do. Why not put it off another day? I’ll do it after the holidays, or you know what, why don’t I leave it to somebody else to do after I’m gone.

But on the other side of resistance is a stronger, healthier you, and so it’s worth it. After all, you’re now over 55, not 5. Like it or not, you’re the adults in the room. So this is the place to come, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and make informed choices. I promise that it’s going to be better for you and those around you if you just don’t look the other way.

You know, in an earlier day and age, I would tell people that if you’re not ready to clean your clutter, you know what? Go to the beach. It’s not good to be free from clutter and bad to have clutter. It’s a choice. And if you’re not up to choosing to be clutter free, don’t. Now, for the over

55 crowd, I’m singing another tune. Now I say, ready or not. The time is now to let go of physical clutter and more. There is merit to identifying areas in addition to conventional clutter that are worth your attention, which will when addressed, expand your experience of living as you age rather than diminish it.

Let’s take a look at some of those areas of life that we can delve into in this podcast and why it makes a difference to tune in week after week. Health and fitness, for example, you know, you have to get up, get out, get that body moving, but you don’t have the time. You’ll do it tomorrow. You’re just too tired to get to the gym to take a class today.

All that chatter will get you nowhere. So let’s dump it. That’s resistance. And that’s the first thing that needs to go. The

time is now to listen to what the experts say about right for you exercises, which will not only maintain your youthful good looks and support you to feel great and remain active as you age. You will want to be able to get up and down off the floor to play with your grandkids or swing that golf club, and certainly to trek around the world checking off that bucket list.

Being in shape is fundamental to realizing the future you envision. You can’t do much if you’re confined to a recliner. So we’ll get up and get moving. Tired of diets? Have you tried everything? Now is not the time to give up eating in a way that truly nourishes you, so you live longer and better. We’ll talk with some folks who will educate us in a way that helps us make culinary choices a habit.

Since you want all the right outfits for working out or going out on the town, that is, we’ll take a tour of your closets to see what fits and what you wear now at this moment, not when you were 10 pounds less or 10 years ago. If going shopping is an incentive, a trip to the mall will be to buy what’s truly missing to complete a wardrobe appropriate for the activities you’re engaged in, for the size you really are.

Now, we will not only comb Your closet’s for clutter, but item by item, we will take a tour of your kitchen cabinets and even your refrigerator to make sure you’re organized for health and wellness, after all. You can teach an old dog new tricks. That’s a good motto and it will serve you well when it comes to digital decluttering.

Who can’t use that? That’s another topic we’re going to be talking about with Geeks and Gurus. Keeping your cell phone, laptop, other devices working smoothly so they can enhance your life instead of stopping you in your tracks is a decluttering exercise. Digital decluttering is something everyone can stand to do, but we baby boomers may be especially challenged when it comes to fluency with our digital devices.

After all, we weren’t born with mom’s cell phone in our hands. So let’s get smarter on this podcast about moving ahead from wherever we are. Because digital technology is not going away and our inability to use it can be crippling. Young and old, we need to learn how to use devices, store information and stay safe when it comes to our digital lives.

So we’ll not turn our backs on learning because that would be clutter. One step at a time, let’s start using. Digital technology to make our lives better. Mark my words. You’ll have to take initiative being proactive to clear things up is a mantra to use throughout all the areas of 55 plus clutter telling your side of the story.

Through a book, an audio tape, or a video tape, or any creative way you can imagine, may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of decluttering. But here, at Decluttering 55 elevate telling your side of the story to a priority. We believe your memoir is one essential way to straighten out the stories that may get told about what happened to you in your lifetime.

Instead of passing down fiction from one generation to another, or another person’s opinion of you, a memoir in some form coming from you imports history and wisdom that can be meaningful in many ways to the next of kin and even mankind. Part of storytelling comes in the form of photos. Piles of print photos and cardboard boxes here, there, and everywhere that belong to you and your parents and even your grandparents are frustrating to many people, to say bewildering to younger family members.

Folks don’t want to throw away photos because they think photos are valuable, but they’re clueless about who are in the photos and what was going on when they were taken.

This is clutter. We will talk about what to do with print photos and how to declutter and organize the many thousands you probably have on your digital devices. What is the importance of this historic record? That is fodder for yet another decluttering 55 plus conversation. Moving from the house or apartment you live in now to a new place may set off a clutter frenzy.

Relocating is something that many 55 plusers do. But it’s often dreaded. The first thing to toss when you decide to relocate is the angst that comes with making the myriad of decisions that come hands in hand with change. That in and of itself is a decluttering nightmare for a lot of folks. But what if instead of a horror, we make moving an adventure?

There are so many conversations we can have that make moving an opportunity for clutter mastery. We’re not going to get into this here and now, but when you stop in at Decluttering 55 Chances are, the sooner or later you will hear one expert or the other talk about some aspect of moving that will excite you about the prospect of a new location in your future.

There are many exciting options for where you can live, from aging in place to exchanging a home in the United States for one in a foreign country, to everything in between. Knowing your options and choosing one is a clutter cleaning process. How to pack, what to take, what to sell, and what you never use, all will be a part of an exciting conversation and where you can live in the next chapter of life.

 What do you do next in life? You may continue working, or at some point you may decide to make a change. Will you start a new business? Work an entirely different profession? Will you go back to school to earn a degree or audit college classes? Is some scholastic activity of interest? Are you going to get out that bucket list of things to see and do and places to go or kick back, relax, and take in a round of golf

or play a hand of bridge? Is this the time to give back? All these questions can be baffling and therefore can be cluttering your life. If you don’t know your options, or which options to choose, it can be unsettling. And therefore, the decision on how to spend your time is cluttered. We at Decluttering 55 Plus with Michelle Passoff will talk about all kinds of possibilities that we hope will get your creative juices flowing so that retiring doesn’t mean these are your do nothing years.

The whole complexion of retirement is changing, and the conversations we intend to have here aim to lift a weight off your shoulders. So that instead of being stuck, you’re liberated from burdens and you can have more fun. How exciting is that? These are conversations you don’t want to miss.

Relationships matter as we age. That’s what everybody tells me. So we’re going to poke into where we stand in terms of intimate relationships, friendships, and family connections. We will call in experts to guide us on how to resolve troubled relationships, let go of those with no hope, and be able to tell the difference between the two.

If you’ve given up on love, maybe you’ll hear something here that will ignite new passions. If I’ve learned anything in the process of preparing this podcast, it’s that well being in our social life is as important as eating well and exercising regularly. So let’s take a deep dive into relationships of all kinds.

Usually, when somebody tells you that it’s time to get your financial house in order, they mean the days on this planet are numbered and it’s time to say your goodbyes. We don’t think that you want to spend your final days doing paperwork. So the time is now when you’re healthy to tend to administrative matters, review your budget, do a home inventory, designate health and financial surrogates.

Write a will, create a trust, and designate an executor and beneficiaries. We will speak with experts who will guide us on exactly what it means to get your financial house in order, cross your T’s and dot your I’s on legal papers, and how to do it.

Let’s not bury our heads in the sand, but instead see the light of day in these confronting areas of life. The conversations will tend to have aim at lifting a weight off your shoulders so that instead of being stuck, you’re liberated from burdens and you can have more fun.

Not all files will be on your computer, but many of them are. A digital executor might be someone your granddaddy’s daddy didn’t use, but it may be a good idea for you. Someone who will eliminate your footprint in cyberspace when you’re no longer around could be a key player on your support team. Scams can still happen when you’re no longer here, and we may want to talk about that so it doesn’t happen from the grave.

Physical files are not completely passé. I’m going to talk about the most important physical files to keep, the supplies you need to file documents, and where to store papers so you can retrieve and replace them with ease. You’re not the only one who should know where they are and how to find them. Some decluttering 55 plus with Michelle Passoff subjects are taboo, and talking about final arrangements fits into this category.

You mean you want me to make decisions about how and where to be buried, who to contact when I kick and decide how much I need to pay in advance for my Burial services. Really? All this talk may seem gruesome and impossible to face, but dealing with these decisions will free you, so you don’t worry and everybody else isn’t burdened.

Drag anything and everything you’re not saying out from under the carpet, out into the open, and put it on the table into the light of day, so that it can be discussed. Acted on and completed in summary, trust me when I say that cleaning your clutter in the physical area of life, including papers, clothes and things in your garage and under your sink will make the place you live in easier to maneuver and more pleasant for you and your guests.

But that’s not all. Taking care of your health, sharing your life story, cleaning your digital devices for ease of operation and security will all make you stand up straight, motivate you to dream dreams you’ve never imagined for your life. If you plan a move for your next best steps, in addition to getting financial and legal papers in order, everything will come alive instead of being buried with dread.

Decluttering

55PLUS with Michelle Passoff will be a place to come to learn, to be inspired. To be compelled to live a life that makes dreams you didn’t know you had come true. We keep each episode to 20 minutes. We don’t take up a lot of your time. We want to get out there, make informed choices, stay in action, and get things done.

It will invigorate your life and mostly empower you to create a legacy, not a mess. And here’s one more thing. We want you to participate. Follow us, rate us, and review us wherever you get this podcast so we can build this community. Don’t stop there. Get fully on board. Like and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

And by all means, visit our website, www. decluttering55plus. com. Again, decluttering55plus. com. Click on the podcast tab in the upper right hand corner, fill in the LexisConnect form. And that way you can communicate with us about topics that come up in the podcast and other activities on our agenda and your agenda.

Don’t forget to invite your friends to do the same. They may be suffering in silence. So let’s get them in on the conversation. And who knows, I may be coming to your city soon and we can meet. Tell us what you think, what you want to hear. Ask us to address things that you care about. Moreover, let us know what’s happening in your life that’s fun, unique, and energizing.

How have you solved problems? You too can inspire others with your story. So let’s talk, let’s listen, let’s learn, and let’s take action on whatever it is that will make you stronger, happier, and healthier. I’ve always thought that doing so is a good chance to add years to your life and to make those years better than ever.

Once again, I’m so delighted to meet you and I look forward to going down this road of decluttering 55 plus together. Have a clutter free day. See you soon.