170 – How Caring for Family Members Affects Your Organizational Phase of Life

170 - How Caring for Family Members Affects Your Organizational Phase of Life Lisa Woodruff 29:20

Last week, I introduced you to the 4 phases of life and how when you have your babies can impact upon your phase of life.

This week, I explore this topic even further and share with you how caring for family members can also affect your organizational phase of life.

Having a baby, the topic of last week’s podcast, is a welcome and joyous life event. When you have a baby, you’re thrust into the accumulation phase. All of those toys…food…clothes…furniture…!

This week’s focus is on when you become a caretaker for a family member.

Unfortunately, when you become a caretaker of a family member, that’s not such a joyous life event.

Sometimes we’ll see it coming and have a gradual lead in, other times it rocks our world in an instant!

Often this will be due to medical emergencies, like when a loved one falls and breaks their hip…which I’ve found in recent years is a real thing and it happens A LOT!

I can share from first-hand experience that being a caretaker is EXTREMELY time consuming.

You have an immediate prioritization shift in your life.

You’re thrust into having responsibility over two sets of everything…two households, two sets of bills, etc.

Whatever stage of life you were previously in, when you become a caretaker, you’re also now in the survival phase, too.

In this podcast episode, I share with you some really useful ideas on how to cope if this happens to you.

I also have two super useful products that are designed to help you keep track of, and ultimately share when needed, important personal information.

One focuses on medical information (i.e., insurance, current and past prescriptions, medical history, etc.).

The other focuses on financial information, mainly for spouses to keep a joint record (i.e., bank details, etc.).

They are editable so you can fill one in for yourself, another for your parents, and I even fill the medical record out for my children. It’s just so useful to keep all the information that you have in one simple record.

Next week, I look at how losing a close family member can affect your phase of life. I’m sure you can guess what phase you find yourself in when that happens!

Full blog post can be viewed at organize365.com/170

A special thank you to this week’s podcast sponsor, the National Association of Senior Move Managers!

Lisa Woodruff Founder & CEO of Organize 365®

Lisa Woodruff is the founder & CEO of Organize 365®.

Lisa, along with 87% of America, believes organization is a learnable skill. Yet less than 18% of those same Americans feel they are organized. Through The Productive Home Solution course, Lisa aims to teach Americans young and old the skill of organizing and unlocking their time for what they are uniquely created to do.

As the host of the top-rated Organize 365® Podcast (which has 17 million downloads and counting) Lisa shares strategies for reducing the overwhelm, clearing the mental clutter, and living a productive and organized life. Her sensible and doable organizing tasks appeal to multiple generations. Her candor and relatable personality make you feel as though she is right there beside you; helping you get organized as you laugh and cry together.

Under Lisa’s direction, Organize 365® has conducted academic research establishing the definitions of housework, home organization and the weight of paper in the American home. This ongoing research is making the invisible work at home visible to all. The goal is to eliminate it and free people from the monotonous tasks of daily living; and unlock their time for what they are uniquely created to bring forth in the world.

She is the author of four books including: How ADHD Affects Home Organization and The Paper Solution. Lisa’s understanding of the lived female American experience has helped her to create products & courses like the Sunday Basket®. These products and courses externalize the routine tasks that take up the executive functioning capacity of our brains; freeing us up to think and create again!