Moving On – Part one
Before you move or before you die you should get organized and put your affairs in order. Do this for yourself but also for your family. Whenever I speak to families or clubs, I always emphasize that “The greatest gift you can give to your family (and/or friends) is to make your own plans and leave an organized estate.” But it is also a gift to yourself, and you can enjoy your own life and know that your affairs are in order and can be found easily and enacted as you wish.
Exit Stage Right is a website with all the information and forms that you will need to organize your financial, legal, and personal information. For free, this website gives you a roadmap and all you need to do is download and fill in your information and then make certain that you share that location with your trusted child, friend or estate manager so that it can be found when needed.
This website was created by a friend and professional colleague, Jeanne Smith, who recently passed. She was an amazing woman. She originally benefited because her first husband left her an organized and well-communicated roadmap to all the information and details she would need to carry on with her life both financially and socially. Then she decided to pass this roadmap along to others. (You can read about her Personal Journey halfway down on this page…) She also taught many other compassionate professionals to do the kind of helping that she was doing. While helping and teaching she created these tools that make it easier for you to create your own roadmap. You can find these tools on her website. They are her legacy. (www.exitstageright.com)
Moves involve many discrete and complex steps but either you do it or you leave the details to strangers or (heaven forbid) your loved ones. All of us wish to remain independent, able, and capable for our entire lives. If you are then you should tackle the issues of organizing yourself, downsizing and passing on your legacies (words and things) so that you make the decisions that YOU want to have happen. You know they say that history is written by the victors. In my case that means that I want to decide who gets what and that I make sure that I don’t leave a mess of my life for someone else to clean up.
Getting organized and downsizing are huge, intimidating tasks but use these tools and it will be much simpler. If you need people to help you, you can find someone by following these links. In the San Francisco Bay Area visit napo-sfba.com to find a Professional Organizer. In other areas of the United States, check out napo.net for Professional Organizers near you. NAPO is the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals.
Jeanne will be so happy to know that someone else may benefit from her life experiences. Please check out her website and take the next step to getting organized and giving that gift to yourself and your family.
Leave an organized legacy.
Watch for our next article: Moving On – Part Two: Downsizing and Decluttering
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