I recently spent some time clearing the house after an elderly lady moved into an Aged Care facility.  She had spent approximately fifteen years in this particular home.   There was stuff everywhere.  She clearly hadn’t even opened drawers or some cupboards for years.  I suspect for the last couple of weeks she was in her unit, she spent most of the time in the lounge room in her favourite chair, watching the telly at a volume way above the norm because she couldn’t be bothered putting on her hearing aids.

Sound familiar?  I can count very quickly a number of people that do this now.  They are becoming less mobile and less able to tackle the heavy workload of clearing, sorting and cleaning.

In my former career with Australia’s foreign service, I used to travel every two years or thereabouts to a new country.  It was therefore necessary to pack up my home and all my belongings every two years.  Whilst this can get a little old after some years, it nonetheless gave me the opportunity to clear out some things that I had gathered.  I find that after a while, we don’t actually ‘see’ what is lying around in our cupboards as it becomes wall paper.  There is an amazing amount of ‘stuff’ in the bottom drawer here, the back of a cupboard there that hasn’t seen the light of day for many, many years.

Why do we keep this stuff?  I had to clear the retirement village unit after my mother died and whilst I understood some of the treasures she had kept, there were a couple of things that I thought “what was she thinking when she kept this?”

Maybe the gift you can give this Christmas/New Year is to someone in your family Time.  Time to help them rifle through that cupboard and sort things, throw things out or re-gift to the Op Shop.  Check the use-by dates in the pantry – that will surprise you.  It is an overwhelming task on their own and they will appreciate your company and time you share with them.

For more information about how Blue Hope Consulting helps families with the Transition to Aged Care or request a copy of our Newsletter, email wendy@bluehopeconsulting.com.au