Marie
Chronic illness and a busy life
I worked with Marie as I was transitioning from hands-on professional organizing to remote coaching. I am providing her story because I believe it would have been possible to accomplish her goals via remote work, and it illustrates how coaching was an effective component of moving the project forward.
Marie was a single mom living with a medical condition that affected her stamina. Her home was crowded with years of accumulated papers, clothing, toys and all the stuff that comes with a busy life with kids. Marie was paralyzed by the work that needed to be done and was concerned about preserving her energy for parenting.
During an initial walk-through, we identified the bottlenecks that were making routine tasks difficult to accomplish, as well as the dumping grounds where clutter was accumulating. Marie was committed to letting go of anything that was not critical and meaningful to her or the kids, although she anticipated it would be difficult.
Working together in three-hour blocks for a total of nine appointments spread out over three months, we sorted through all items in the small home, disposing of what Marie no longer needed and creating easily accessible, well-labeled storage for the things she was keeping.
About 15–30 minutes of each appointment was spent on focused coaching. We discussed the insights Marie was having during the process and what activities would be possible with cleared spaces and less chaos in the home. We also discussed Marie’s time constraints and energy cycles in relation to strategies for maintaining newly organized spaces.
Knowing she had moral and physical support, Marie was able to work on tasks between appointments. We made sure the tasks were clearly identified and that Marie had all the supplies necessary to accomplish them. With a clear plan in place, Marie felt less overwhelmed and was able to initiate actions that had paralyzed her in the past. She gained confidence not only in her ability to manage her home but also in her ability to care for herself.
With a better-organized, decluttered home, Marie is now able to hire housekeeping help, allowing her to preserve stamina for other priorities.
Names and demographic information have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
