Speed Dating:

This works very well for a retail business model and certain services such as plumbers, electricians, painters, etc. You don’t need to target a certain small market as just about everybody at one time or another will need your product or service. You mail out 10,000+ postcards to a geographic location, aka anybody with a pulse. You can purchase ready made lists. Your offer is all about the best price and the best deal. It’s a sales campaign with no expectation of customer loyalty until the next direct mail campaign. Your profit is based on volume. Postcards and coupons are effective and inexpensive.

Marriage Proposal:

This is for high end products and services. Rather than postcards or coupons which studies show don’t work well in this market, you mail out a Sales Letter instead. You do not mail to a geographic or zip code destination. Instead you mail to a small but targeted market of pre qualified potential clients. You offer high end services and products to those who are looking for value and a continuing mutually beneficial business relationship: a marriage rather than just a date.

Why the difference between Postcards or Sales Letters?

Postcard and coupon direct mails typically get a .5% return. That’s OK because the mailing list is huge. The mailing list is typically by geographic location or zip codes so postcards work well for low end products and services. The list is RESIDENTIAL. The postcard or coupon can be posted on the refrigerator- It’s all about price or, how soon they can get there!

Sales letters may bring in a lower response, but the cost of your products and services are higher and your target is BUSINESS OWNERS. Your customers are specialized, pre targeted for their likelihood of need and are looking for more than convenience. They want value and are willing to pay for it. They want trust and a continuing mutually beneficial relationship. A Sales Letter, written correctly, can give you as much as a 25% return. But remember, even a 5% compared to a .5% return on your high end service will be worth the time and effort. Now that you know what to do, how do you do it?

What’s in the envelope?

First of all, what’s ON the envelope? The hardest part of Direct Mail is getting the customer to open the envelope in the first place! Always hand write the envelopes. That alone will make it unique and irresistible. Secondly, a short “See what’s inside” note on the outside is what advertising guru Bill Glazer (Outrageous Advertising) recommends for a successful mailing campaign.

Inside your envelope is your Sales Letter- Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about THEM!. The classic sales pitch is: 1. Identify their need, 2.Describe their pain, 3.Offer a solution, 4.Call to action. Now that’s irresistible! Include your brochure and flier too.

Now what?

Follow up! While personal calls or emails to a 10,000 mailing list is not only impractical but impossible, you can follow up to a small targeted list. Statistics show that 90% of small business do not follow up on their marketing and advertising. So doing so will put you in the top 10%! Yes, it’s hard work. Yes, it takes time. That’s what it takes to create a successful marriage and that’s what it takes to create a successful business. Go kiss the bride!

Customers are holding off on selling their homes, buying goods and services, starting home improvements. We’re cutting back, canceling subscriptions and memberships and forgoing travel. We seem to have pulled in our nets, waiting for better weather. Seems like the right thing to do.

Just remember that business is all about cycles. The wheel, albeit turning slowly, will turn upward once more. It simply has to and it will.

So what are small businesses supposed to do while at the wrong end of the cycle? Sitting around complaining and waiting for things to change is not the answer. My suggestion! Be like a farmer!

In many ways, growing a business is like growing a crop. You plant, water, weed, fertilize and wait. Crops don’t grow overnight. They need time. What does a farmer do while waiting? Lots!

During the growing season , a farmer keeps very busy. The growing season is the time to sharpen tools, plan for new crops, read farming catalogs and magazines, repair equipment and refurbish the barn. Here’s how you can do the same with your business:

Sharpen Tools: This is the time to teach yourself that new computer application that you know you need, but just haven’t had the time to do. Maybe it’s time to upgrade your system altogether. While you’re at it, update your client data base!

Plan For New Crops: What future trends in your industry can you translate into new goods and services? This is a great time to gain market research, conduct surveys and do a cost benefit analysis of previous marketing campaigns.

Read Farming Catalogs and Magazines: Are you up on the latest trends techniques and forecasts in your industry? When was your last attempt at continuing education? What are some new marketing and advertising techniques you could read about and apply? There are lots of free tele-seminars available. You only need one new idea.

Repair Equipment: This is a great opportunity to revamp your business systems, file paperwork, create that new bookkeeping system, archive old files, review policies and procedures.

Refurbish the Barn: While a farmer might fix a broken rafter, repair the roof or build a new holding pen, what can you do to improve the flow of your workspace? Professional Organizers will tell you that your productivity is often closely connected to furniture layout. Get your barn in order. And, if you’ve got something broken (computer, copier) fix it or get rid of it. Broken stuff is very bad business feng shui.

These strategies may not immediately appear to be business building activities. But they are – because they are pro active, not reactive. During this process you will be inspired and gain new insight into what makes your business work and what does not. Don’t be surprised if your creative juices start to flow in ways you never would have imagined.

The important concept here is called “Fake It Until You Make It”. Studies have shown that taking action in any circumstance improves the positive outcome exponentially. In other words: It works! Therapists use it to help patients overcoming depression. Alcoholic Anonymous encourages new members to use it. It’s all about stepping out and ACTING out in faith.

Believe that this downtime is a bonus to refocus on what you want for your business. Get moving and be a good farmer.

In this current economy, Generation X and Y children are moving back home in record numbers often with spouses and children in tow. Thus, Boomers are now often supporting three other generations not just two. What a fine development that has got us into!

One of my favorite organizing clients is the classic Sandwich Generation. One aging mom needs financial support. Then her son came home with wife and two children. Because of the predatory real estate lending practices, he had been deluded into buying a house far beyond his means. Don’t just get a loan for the house, said his lender, get some extra money for some fun stuff too. Like a fool, that’s just what he did. He came home to Mom and Dad, having lost his house, but also with two flat screen TV’s and a boat in tow. Now his parents, who have worked and saved carefully all of their lives and looking forward to a peaceful retirement, have been invaded by two extra adults and two babies ,losing all privacy and guest rooms, with chaos and toys scattered everywhere.

Dreams of cozy retirements have been replaced by supporting multi-generational households. Money is very tight, tensions are high and there’s not a lot of solutions out there.

Here’s what I suggest: The new Mantra has to be: All able bodied parties must be pro-active, not simply re active and feeling sorry for themselves while they mooch off mom and dad. That includes adult kids who screwed up and need some help. Give them your very best advice, a shoulder to cry on,a temporary roof, maybe, but send them out to find another place to live as soon as possible.

Relieving them of the consequences of their bad behavior is co dependency and isn’t going to help your kids become responsible for their own lives. It actually further cripples their ability to learn from their mistakes and further diminishes their confidence. This is an easy pitfall for loving parents to fall into. Send them out to solve their own problems. They will be the better for it and so will you. It may be the best parenting you have ever done.

For those who have fallen on hard times,through no fault of their own, that is entirely another matter. This is what families are for. However, even under these circumstances, sympathy and loving help is no substitute for pro active planning and strategies – not just sleeping on the sofa and waiting for the economy to improve. Loving help should never morph into co dependence.

For aging parents, it’s a different story. They don’t fall into the able bodied category. They do need your help and you have an obligation to do so. However, even in this case, you must be realistic about what you can afford and what you can physically accomplish. You may not have the time, patience or physical strength to care for them. Don’t be reluctant to ask for help. You will be amazed at how many services are available to you. You aging parents may have unrealistic expectations of what you can do for them. Dementia may also be involved and you might be in over your head.

There are plenty of senior service organizations out there who can help you. Contact your nearest Senior Community Services department in your town or city. They are a wealth of information and help.

Gone are the days when families lived nearby and aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbors were there to help. Nowadays, we are mostly on our own and often feeling overwhelmed, if not downright invaded.

Becoming the Club Sandwich Generation may be a 21st century phenom, but that doesn’t mean that you have to lose the quality of your own lives. Do you what you can, do what you must, but take care of yourselves too. If you don’t, you won’t be able to take care of anyone else anyway. Leave the club sandwich concept for the deli. It’s not a very good model for living.

A niche by definition, is a focused and targeted group that your products or services caters to. The mistake that many businesses make is mistaking a broad category for a niche. For example, “Women” is not a niche. “Children” is not a niche. “Women who need….” is a niche. “Children who need…” is a niche. With that in mind, can you see how much more effective it is to have a specific niche? You can speak directly to the market’s exact wants and needs. You can describe their pain. You know them. You get them. You go directly to what’s keeping them up at night. How irresistible is that?

Here’s another example. Let’s say you think your niche is athletes. That’s really not a niche, it’s a category! What kind of sports are you offering solutions for? You can’t use the same product to solve a bad golf swing and a poor batting average or a weak tennis backhand. So your niche is going to be, in this case, golfers, or baseball players or tennis enthusiasts – but not all of them! They have different pain points, needing different solutions. Speak to their specific pain,offer them specific solutions and you have their business.

Finding that niche is challenging. But once found, it is the gift that keeps on giving. Here’s why.

Business is all about providing solutions. In other words, all businesses are in the “business” of pain relief for their clients. We solve their problems – the things that keep them up at night – the issues, that without us, seem insoluble. We take away their pain, their worry and get them unstuck so they can move forward, perhaps even live happily ever after.

Sometimes your niche finds you and you aren’t paying attention. Go back over your list of clients and see what they have most in common. You might be surprised to find that you already have a niche. A client of mine who has an answering service business went back over his list and realized that a large percentage of his clients were dentists. When he began targeting dentists, specifically identifying their pain points (because he already knew what they were), he increased his business by 30%! Remember that marketing is all about the following:

1. Identify their need

2. Describe their pain

3. Offer a solution

4. Present a Call to Action

Don’t be afraid to narrow your niche. Remember, although it may seem counterintuitive, the truth is, the narrower your niche, the more money you will make. That’s “niche craft”, wicked niche craft, at its best.

Later, when I finally met Amelia, I understood what had happened. At 80+ and in very poor health, widowed, alone and suffering from mild memory loss, she was distrustful of talking to a stranger on the phone. After some coaxing from the Director of her new senior community, Amelia agreed to meet with me.

Arriving at her home, I noted the overgrown front yard and peeling paint. This lady needed help. Although wobbly in her walker, at 85, Amelia was still a stunner: tall and stately, with beautiful skin, lovely hair and a very young voice. I would never have taken her for a senior on the phone.

As we visited, she shared her amazing story of how, just out of high school, she had moved all alone from Manhattan to the West Coast during WWII. She got a room at the San Francisco YWCA and within days, got a good job at a local company as a bookkeeper. A few weeks later, she met her husband-to-be at a USO dance, and although they were happily married for 60+ years, they never had children.

Her beloved “Mike” had passed away a few years before. Now she was alone, no family, most friends gone, no nieces or nephews, disabled and living in a cluttered and dusty multi-level home which was also in great disrepair. Too many stairs, too much furniture, dust bunnies running amok and kitchen counters filled with stuff she just didn’t have the strength or energy to put away. She wasn’t a hoarder, she was just overwhelmed. Although she did get visits from a local volunteer group, she also admitted that she was very lonely and bored and really loved to be around other people.

I see this all too often. Seniors who have always been proud of their resourcefulness and independence who are suddenly hit with loss and find it hard to admit they need help and even harder to ask for it. It made me sad to think that this courageous and adventurous lady had now come to this. I was so glad that I would be a part of moving her to not only a safe but also happier situation in her new assisted living apartment.

As I looked through her dusty and cluttered home to determine the scope of a possible move, Amelia casually mentioned that her TV had just gone “on the blitz” that very afternoon. Looking at it, I was surprised it had lasted as long as it did! It was a Zenith and at least 30yrs old! “Do you have another TV?” I asked. “No,” she said.

Seniors, particularly those with mobility issues, rely on TV as human contact as well as entertainment. I couldn’t bear the thought of Amelia being without her TV.

I made a quick decision. “Would you like me to buy you a new TV today?” I asked. “No charge for my time,” I said. “Just reimburse me for the actual purchase price of the TV.”

A few hours later, I arrived with her new TV, having got, in my opinion the best deal in town, at a cost she had agreed upon in advance. As I installed it, I noted there was no safety GFI in her home. This is always a concern with seniors – unsafe electrical and out-of-date wiring. In a stroke of luck, I actually found a surge protector in the house and made sure that her TV, at least, was safe to run.

As I left, I turned to assure Amelia that I would make her move to her new apartment as easy as possible. She replied that she wasn’t sure she was really ready, but she’d let me know.

I get very worried about Amelia and others like her. I fear that if she waits too long, she will fall or have some other medical setback that will change her options altogether – and not for the better. Unfortunately, I see this happening all the time.

I was glad that I had been able to get her a TV. I hope she decides to move to her new apartment where I know she will be safe, happy and with new friends to look out for her. That is the least I could wish for such a brave lady who came all the way West by herself so many years ago, to find a new life.

So if you have an elderly neighbor whom you rarely see, gets few visitors and whose front yard is overgrown, chances are they need some help, just like Amelia. Ring the bell and see what you can do to help. You might just meet one of our Greatest Generation who has an inspiring story to tell.

I always have to sigh when I get these phone calls. It reminds me of a cartoon I saw once of a giant toy being stuffed in to a small cardboard box. I can stack it, shrink it, squish it, pile it and box it but I can’t make 2,000 square feet of stuff fit in to a 900 square foot space! Nobody can – but I see people trying to do it all the time. That’s why I like to teach my downsized senior clients the fine art of Feng Shui.

Feng Shui is an ancient philosophy that considers all objects to contain energy, called Chi. When Chi is in balance (Harmony: Ying/Yang) it contribute to health and happiness. The opposite can be true when the Chi is too cluttered either being agitated and flowing too quickly or is so packed and stifled that it is dead altogether. This could be compared to either living in the middle of a hurricane or in a buried in a dung heap. Clients living in bad Chi feel stressed, agitated, unhappy and often physically unwell and they don’t realize why. Out of balance Chi is a very harmful thing.

The practice of Feng Shui has finally made its way into the mainstream and I am so glad! Large corporations and business superstars have employed Feng Shui principles to increase their profits. Architects are learning Feng Shui principles. Even prisons are finding that Feng Shui decreases violent behavior. How amazing is that?

Feng Shui means “wind” and water”. Thus, energy should flow gently and easily as if it were water and air. Gentle breezes and soft flowing streams, not through rocky canyons causing rapids or dust storms and stagnant swamps. Look at the space and decide where air and water would get stuck and stifled. If you can’t walk there, the air and water can’t flow there either!

So how can Feng Shui help Seniors? First and foremost, too much stuff is a traffic hazard. Seniors can easily trip and fall. Too much stuff means too many things to dust – causing respiratory issues. My senior service colleagues have told me many sad stories about seniors being injured in their cluttered homes- the end result being permanent skilled nursing!

Feng Shui is all about flow. Take a look at your beloved senior’s traffic patterns in their home. Do they have to squeeze by a coffee table with their walkers? Get rid of the coffee table. Is it time to pack up some collections that are gathering a lot of dust? Seniors often keep heaters blasting and their windows closed, causing stifled air.

Are there dark corners in their home? Add light to those spaces, not only for beauty but for safety.

Broken things are very bad Feng Shui. What needs fixing in the home? Are all the appliances working? Get rid of what cannot be fixed. This will most definitely improve the energy flow as well as correct fire hazards.

There are many easy and inexpensive solutions to improve the Feng Shui in a home. Do it now and then take time to enjoy the new positive flowing energy and safety in your beloved senior’s space.

Don’t get me wrong. I dabbled in Network Marketing some years ago and loved it. I was proud of the product, I received some great training, met a lot of really great people, and recouped my initial investment plus a great deal more. But what I also learned in the process was that I was working way too hard building someone else’s business and in particular, someone else’s list! In addition, I quickly learned that network marketing, however great their product is, it is really about building a downline – meaning getting people on board after you have joined. You get a commission from them and their sales and also their respective downline as they recruit others. Sounds great, doesn’t it? And it is – for the people who joined the company at the very beginning. They are earning big bucks from an ever growing downline. The newbies, however, continue to come and go, being replaced by new associates who in turn often leave and are replaced- and the beat goes on. What is left goes to the existing upline – all the way to the top. All the while, anyone purchasing the company’s products are being added to the corporate data base. When the associates leave – they leave their client list behind too! All that work, all those contacts, now gone forever. While the associates believed that the company had actually provided them with their own website, it was really just a page on the corporate website. No client looking for that associate will ever find them on a Google search of their name.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s the solution.

1.  Every network marketing associate has to start thinking like an entrepreneur, not a corporate employee.
2.  Get your own website with your name on it. e.g. www.johnsmith.com.
3.  Brand yourself first and then the products you sell
4. Have an opt-in page (landing page) in front of your first web page and offer a “free report on how to…” when they “opt in” with their name and email address. Your auto responder send them the report – which you have written. Now YOU have them on YOUR list.
5.  Then you can send them by auto responder to your affiliate site to purchase the product so you can receive the commission. That way, everybody wins.

The reasoning behind this is twofold.

1.  First product is YOU!
2. You are creating a list so you can contact them when you have a special offer
3.  Because you captured them on your own site, the list is yours and you can market and create other products and services.
4.  If and when, you decide to leave the NM business and create your own business (like I did) you already have an established client data base!
5.  Because you branded yourself first, they already know you and trust you!

Network marketing aka multi level marketing is a great business and you will learn a lot of sales, marketing and advertising from the experience. Just make sure that you are thinking like an entrepreneur and not a corporate employee. Have fun, make money and work smart, not hard. Here’s to your success!

2. Broke People give up when things don’t go their way; a few disappointments and they are onto something else, saying things like “it wasn’t for me”. Successful People work harder and become more determined when things go bad, and understand that you have to take the bad with the good to make it.

3. Broke People always have an excuse. Successful People say “it’s my fault” and refuse to make excuses.

4. Broke People think that not getting what they want is OK. Successful People are disgusted at the thought of not getting what they want and will do whatever it takes.

5. Broke People always have to talk it over with their broke friends to make sure no one will make fun of them if they make a decision. Successful People think for themselves and couldn’t care less what their broke friends think.

6. Broke people are never coachable and teachable. Successful People are always learning, even when the money starts coming in. They never stop learning from those who were there first.

7. Broke People are scared of others. Successful People trust in others and know that other people are crucial for their success.

8. Broke People are always procrastinating; they would rather talk about it, read about it, think about it, but never seem to do anything. Successful People hate doing anything but getting it done.

9. Broke People are glad when the day is over.Successful People love when the day begins.

10. Broke People think the Rich are lucky. Successful People put themselves into a position to be “lucky,” and then work hard to make the “luck” show up.

11. Broke People work by the hour. Successful People work by the month.

12. Broke People want to know that after 1 hour of work they have something to show for it. Successful People find broke people who think this way and make them their employees.

13. Broke People get excited they just got hired. Successful People think it’s interesting that someone could be fooled that easily. They’re amazed that Broke People never consider that they are selling themselves at wholesale while the Successful Person is reaping the retail rewards.

14. Broke People complain a lot. Successful People are thankful that no one shot at them today, they didn’t have to fight in a war, and that they don’t have a job.

15. Broke People are too concerned about what other people are doing.Successful People are only concerned about what they can be doing to get more done.

16. Broke People think that if no one is doing something, it must suck. Successful People think that if no one is doing something, it means more money for them.

17. Broke People think that if everyone (all 200 people at a meeting or on a conference call) are all doing the same thing, it must be saturated. Successful People think that Broke People who think that way aren’t too bright.

18. Broke People think it is OK for other people to live where they want to live, drive what they want to drive, and do what they want to do. Broke People are OK with the fact that they can’t do these things. Successful people get sick just thinking about being average.

19. Broke People think that other people’s opinions are worth more than their dreams. Successful People know that their dreams are worth more than other people’s opinions.

Moral of the story: To be successful, find out what unsuccessful people do, read, watch and think…and don’t read what they read, watch what they watch, do what they do, or think how they think! (Author unknown)

A year ago I awoke in the middle of the night with an idea for a new product. Then, by morning I was thinking about all the work involved, the obstacles I would face and put the idea in the back of my mind; but every once in awhile the idea would pop out and harass me.

Then one day, an amazing thing happened! I received a phone call from a very successful business woman in my field who was well known for product development. She was inviting me to an “Invitation Only One Day Mastermind Group” of select professionals, for a handsome price mind you, but I agreed to attend. I convinced myself that it would be worth my time and money as this was a sign from heaven that my idea was finally going to take flight. This was my first mistake.

Right away, I started getting daily emails from her assistant – but the problem was the daily emails were contradictory and the name of the assistant kept changing. Instead of interpreting this as a bad sign, I told myself we all experience employee troubles from time to time – poor thing. Then, just days before the planned mastermind, assistant #4 asked me to change my reservation from the well known 4 star hotel I had booked, to an “Inn” near my host’s home.

It was 2am when I finally arrived at the “Inn” The hotel air conditioning was minimal. I can only describe the hallway as a swamp. My room was old, tired, dirty and dank. The TV remote did not work nor did the Wifi for my laptop. The next morning, in the hotel dining room, I asked the waitress for espresso and she replied, “What’s that?” It was all downhill from there.

The meeting began at 9am. I turned off the alarms in my head, and settled down, determined to get the most from my time with this “successful business woman”

While certainly articulate, she failed to impart any new ideas. Scribbling a few notes, I was sinking into the realization that this whole adventure had been a very costly mistake. She matched the hotel experience. Later at lunch, which was an inedible as breakfast, she began a diatribe against some of her business colleagues, including one of mine. She commented that my own personal business coach, whom I admire tremendously, was “a fraud”. I sat there thinking that my “fraud” coach would never have put me up in a rat hole hotel. In fact, we always met at a resort and he picked me up at the airport in his silver Mercedes!

Later that afternoon, she criticized my business model – one that was very successful and suggested that I start over from scratch – with her, of course as my guide.

That evening, alone and after a very greasy and inedible dinner, washed down mercifully with two glasses of wine, I returned to my room, packed and went to bed.

On the shuttle ride back to the airport, I saw the “Inn” in the daylight for the first time. It was flanked by a gas station on one side and a massage parlor on the other. I relayed my unpleasant experience to the shuttle driver who replied, “Why didn’t she put you up at the Hilton, which is 2 minutes away?” Why indeed?

On the flight home, which thankfully left on time and arrived on time, I had a chance to reflect on the whole experience, including other atrocities committed by the rat hole hotel and more unprofessional comments from my host that I had blocked during my 2 days of misery. Was this experience entirely her fault?

Well, yes and no. In terms of providing for my comfort, she failed miserably. If you want to do business with someone you don’t put them up in a rat hole. If this was her idea of business courtship, Lord only knows what would happen after the honeymoon was over! In any case, her unprofessional comments would have unsealed the deal even if she HAD put me up at the Hilton.

The entire event proved that despite her reputation, she was extremely unprofessional and unethical – certainly someone I would never choose to do business with. An expensive lesson to learn in so many ways!

But what about my part in this? Here are the lessons I learned.

1. DON’T IGNORE DANGER SIGNS. Ever changing assistants and a change of venue should have told me that trouble lay ahead.

2. NEVER ASSUME. Even if someone is famous, well known and successful, never let your guard down. Before embarking on such an expensive adventure, I should have done my DUE DILIGENCE, talked to others. I had rushed to judgment and assumed that just because we kept running into each other at other business events, she was as professional as me.

3. NEVER GIVE AWAY YOUR POWER: Why did I think that I needed her in the first place? What made me think that she was the one who could take my idea and launch it?” Every business owner should have a defined business development investment budget. If you choose to go over that budget, you’d better be certain you will get a good ROI.

I teach all of my clients this important business principle: Your first client is you and your first product is you. Lesson re learned, the hard and expensive way. Take note and don’t let this happen to you. The good news is that I did go ahead and create a working business model and marketing strategy for my new product – no thanks to my “hostess”, however.

Sarah was a cheerful, senior lady, walker bound but eagerly awaiting her scheduled hip surgery and looking forward to “doing things for herself” once again. The Director of her Senior Apartment complex was requiring her to “clean up her act” or be evicted for creating a fire hazard.

My initial interview with Sarah gave me the insights I needed to coax her out of some of her precious junk. This is a tender business – hoarding clients are usually emotionally fragile and obsessed with their stuff. No so, Sarah- a decidedly atypical hoarder.

Sarah confessed that she had always been a ‘clutterer’ and a saver and she came by it honestly – the child of a teacher and a scientist. My experience with hoarders is that academics are always the worst – they see possibilities and uses for everything!

In this case, however, there was a lot more to Sarah’s “hoarding”. Sarah had become the keeper of the family history and all the records required therein. Contained in her myriad of boxes were the birth, death and marriage certificates of every person in her family, also the forgotten artifacts of lost loves and failed marriages. Why, I asked, did she have to keep her daughter in law’s birth certificate? Sarah’s reply, was that her daughter in law didn’t want it. In addition, Sarah had done extensive research on the military career of a family member. She had become the keeper of neglected memories. She also confessed that she was keeping the “might want it someday” belongings of three of her adult children. They claimed they wanted it but didn’t have room for it. So it was OK for Sarah to store it and navigate around it in her walker in a tiny apartment? It reminded me of a client of mine who was keeping the wedding dresses of all five of her married daughters because “they just didn’t have the room”.

So the purpose of Sarah’s story is that hoarding, while a complicated issue, cannot always be placed sorely on the shoulders of the sufferer. How much of that stuff really belongs to other family members? If you are a relative of a senior who has a tendency to “keep everything”, you might want to consider offering to take your stuff back – you don’t have to tell them what you are going to do with it. Please just take it. You can be sure that Sarah’s family is going to be given back their birth certificates and other items that really belong to them. If they don’t want them, so be it. It won’t be part of Sarah’s “problem” any longer.