Almost every time someone contacts me to help them with moving, there is a degree of stress in their communication about the move. Understandably so. There is a lot to do. And often times, there doesn’t seem like enough time to do it all.
After all, moving involves a lot of preparation – arrangements with a moving company (or moving transportation), deciding what you will be taking with you to the new place, deciding if you will need to have a moving sale, organizing and holding a moving sale (if you decide you’re going to do that) and then of course packing up the entire house.
This doesn’t include all the preparations you need to do at your new place, but we won’t get into that just yet. And it also doesn’t include selling your existing home before the move if you’re selling, or the task of having to find a new place to live.
Each one of those projects can carry stress with it if you let it. That’s right, I said if you let it.
Stress can be taken out of anything and there are various methods of doing so. Yoga, meditation, pills (which I absolutely do NOT recommend), and other sundry stress remedies. However, as a professional organizer who has worked with people in stress for 21 years, I’m going to throw in my own method.
Focus. Yes, focus. And don’t focus on a problem either. Instead, put your focus on tackling one thing at a time. List all tasks / projects into a project list but focus your energy on just one of those tasks at any given time.
One of the reasons a professional organizer helps remove stress from a person’s life is because an organizer steps in to help take care of all the things that are stressing the person out. Even so, a person can still experience stress because they are still focused on all the problems that a move is creating for them. I get them to use my method of focusing and it sure makes a difference.
One of my friends was planning a move and was completely stressed out. First she had limited time to find a new place (before her lease was up), then after finding a place, she faced extreme downsizing. And of course packing up everything was left to a last minute rush because she didn’t have time to pack while she was working long hours.
It was during the last minute rush when she called me in for help. Seeing how stressed she was, I had her focus. I gave her instructions to carry on her demanding work and I would take care of everything else. You should have seen her face light up.
So, I see my job as more than organizing. It is helping people get stress-free. And although that typically comes after I organize for them, to make that happen during the process is just as important.
Anyway, if I’m not around, just remember, focus.
