Evacuation Files

Evacuation Files or Safety Deposit or

Fire Proof Safe Paperwork

(Need information in more than one spot)

Some Information in the file needs to be done with the help of a lawyer.

Our financial adviser helped us to find one who could draw up the necessary paperwork. Our daughter and each of us know where the location of the file is.

□ Lawyers Contact Information

□ I.C.E. Information Copy

□ His □ Her Will

□ His □ Her Living Will

□ His □ Her Health Care Power of Attorney

□ His □ Her Health Do-Not-Resuscitate Directive

□ His □ Her Organ Donation

□ His □ Her Life Insurance Policy

□ His □ Her Health Insurance Policy

□ His Hospital, □ Dental, □ Vision, □ Long Term Care

□ Her Hospital, □ Dental, □ Vision, □ Long Term Care

□ Vehicle Title(s)

□ Vehicle Insurance(s)

□ Home Owner Title(s)

□ Home Owner Insurance(s)

□ Umbrella Insurance

□ Renter’s Insurance

□ Outstanding Loan Agreements

□ Closed Paid In Full Agreement Paperwork

□ His □ Her Birth Certificate

□ His □ Her Marriage Certificate

□ His □ Her Divorce Papers

□ His □ Her Veteran Paperwork

□ His □ Her Funeral Paperwork

□ His □ Her Burial/Cremation Paperwork

□ His □ Her List of Current Bank Accounts,

        Accounts & Contact Information

□ His □ Her List of Current Credit Card Accounts,

        Account & Contact Information

□ His □ Her List of Utility Providers, Account & Contact Information

        □ Cell Phone

        □ Phone

        □ Electric

        □ Gas

        □ Pool

        □ Yard Work

□ His □ Her List of Employees and scheduled payouts

        □ Nurse

        □ Home Health Aide

        □ House Keeper

        □ Maid

        □ Driver

        □ Other

        □ Other

□ Internet & Authority to Close Accounts (Passwords)

□ His □ Her Financial Adviser Contact Information

□ His □ Her Retirement Information

□ His □ Her Passport

□ His □ Her Driver’s License

□ His □ Her Social Security Information

All information is located in one specific folder where "in case both are incapacitated" can be found by our next designated person or is available in case an emergency evacuation is ordered.

Another Grab & Go file has current year’s financial information, have discussed where past and more recent tax papers are located.

I like my stuff, why should I simplify, right size, organize, or declutter?

AARP says that 1 in 3 of adults over will experience a fall this year. Could you be the one that falls breaking something thus requiring hospitalization or nursing home care or have a fall so dire it causes your death?

Check out North Carolina’s Fall Statics which back up this claim and further more notes that falls start to increase after the age of 50.

 http://www.injuryfreenc.ncdhhs.gov/DataSurveillance/Falls-NC-2009-Factsheet-Update2011.pdf

Another site backs up the short version  http://www.injuryfreenc.ncdhhs.gov/DataSurveillance/2013FallsBurden.pdf

Have you tripped, fallen, stubbed you toe, barked your shins, caught your arm/leg/body on the sharp corner of a piece of furniture?

Has anything fallen on you from a shelf, cupboard, closet or from a stack of something just sitting out somewhere in one of your rooms?

Is the floor in any room of your house a waiting booby trap?

Can you walk freely in the rooms of your home without tripping or bumping into things?

Are horizontal surfaces in your home a magnet for multiple haphazard piles of stuff?

Do you lose things in your home--mail, bills, other important paperwork, keys, meds, glasses, coats, billfold, purse, shoes, checkbook, etc.?

Have you missed a bill payment, doctor’s appointment, medication?

Are you constantly late to where you are going?

Have you missed dates with family or friends?

If one or more of the prior things happens to you on a constant basis, then yes, you should, simplify, right size, organize, or declutter! 

No one can predict the future. Having your home safe and organized will be a plus if someone visiting your home is in a cast, recovering from surgery, using crutches, a cane, a walker, and a wheel chair. (See fall injury data, you want your home safe for visitors as well as yourself and family--liability home owners insurance claims could be devastating.)You never know when you might find your mobility compromised. And the kicker is that nursing staff generally doesn’t do house cleaning.

If, for some reason, you find that you need a cleaning service then check out an article, House Cleaning Services-Average Prices & Costs that I found on July 15, 2017 at  http://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/cleaning-services/#closing-article .

The detailed article states at one point that, 

      Prices and considerations for and individual

          versus a service vary widely. 

      Some rates you could be looking at are:

      $50 to $70 for an individual for two hours

      $80 to $150 for a professional cleaning company for 

          two hours.

To me, common sense dictates that the better organized my home is before a cleaning company comes in to clean, the more that the cleaners can accomplish while they are cleaning on my dime. If the little ordinary everyday cleaning events are out of the way, then the professional cleaners can tackle projects that I can’t accomplish. Or to put it another way, the less stuff I have, then the quicker they can clean my home, thus saving me money.

If you are fortunate to have family and friends helping you clean, then having your home organized can help them help you. Their time is valuable. Being on top of it all, everyday, allows your family, friends and you to have a longer social visit or just have more fun.

So simplify, right size, organize, or declutter in order to live in a safer home, save money, time, and aggravation. Doing so will help you in gaining time to have fun with family and friends or complete special projects dear to your heart!

Email me at adaptiveorganization4you@gmail.com if you'd like a free checklist for your home.

What furniture do you have in your living room?

My Main Stream Living Room Furniture is Disappearing

It all started when my niece needed an extra bed for her children when her marriage broke up. Hubby and I had a high back, queen hide-a-bed sofa. It would seat 4 adults or multiple children easily. It had been used for seating about 6 times in the last few years and for sleeping about twice. It took up a lot of space and was hard to move, so, we gave it to our niece. It took 4 adults and removing the legs to get it out of the front door and onto a truck. No need to buy anything new, we still had plenty of chairs.

Next to disappear was the matching twin recliner with a table installed between the recliners. The recliner fit my 6 foot hubby perfectly, but not my 5 foot 2 in frame so much. Once again, it took 4 adults and removing the legs to get it out the door and onto a truck.  My nephew loved his new, man cave, television theater, seating solution.

We rescued a heavy, solid wood, smaller love seat (family heirloom); repaired it, and had cushions made to fit. Fast forward a couple of years, my mother could no longer get out of it and she had to choose alternate seating when she came to visit. Once I could no longer get out of it, without considerable help, the love seat disappeared to find a new home with one of my sisters.

We used to have a 5 foot long coffee table in front of the couch. It temporarily found a home in front of the smaller replacement love seat. After being unable to keep clutter from piling up on it, and repeatedly “barking our shins” on it, we repurposed it into a bench seat by adding a custom cushion and placing it along an entrance wall. It now serves as a landing zone seat for shoe duty.

I replaced the smaller love seat with 2 leather chiropractic seats with arms. The rest of the chairs in the room (also have arms) are light enough in weight for one person to move and have legs that are high enough to vacuum underneath.  The various complementary chairs can be moved in various patterns for conversations and satisfies my need for occasional placement changes, especially when cleaning.

We no longer have a coffee table, we use narrow side tables. Two bean bag chairs function as foot rests or occasional seating.

If I were to do a total living room make over right now, I’d probably buy 4 club chairs and a small side table for each. The results would give infinite placement variations and a spacious open floor area.  I really can’t see ever having big, heavy, main stream furniture again.

My current floor arrangement allows someone to use a motorized wheel chair in the living room. It also allows someone using a walker or cane to sit easily in all the chairs.

One thing I never want again is furniture with square corners.  Bumping into a corner hurts, leaving bruises. It is generally recommended that you pad all sharp edges and corners around small children. Since statistics from various sources state that 1 out of 3 seniors over 65 years of age experience falls each year, adding extra maneuverability space and choosing friendlier furniture with rounded edges should be the way to go.

Drop me a line at adaptiveorganization4you@gmail.com if you’d like a free checklist to enable you to make your home more user friendly.

Something that you might not have thought of if you have to have surgery.

Help! My bed’s holding me hostage!

I’m approaching retirement age. I’ve had some encounters with doctors that you might expect--birth of a child, a hysterectomy, bunion surgery, broken bone in foot to move big toe, and a few of the not so routine test that involve copious visits to the rest room the night before the tests. So… I’ve had a little experience not being as mobile as I’d like to be.

Hubby has had a torn rotator cuff repair, some cracked ribs and some heart procedures done in the hospital. He’s had some experience not being as mobile as he’d like to be.

However….

I’ll admit it, I nagged off and on for over 20 years trying to get him to put in the easy access shower and everything needed to install it; all that stuff was sitting out in the storage building already paid for. About 2 years ago, after he acquired those cracked ribs through no fault of his own, he paid for a company to install a brand new easy access shower.

Fast forward to about a month ago, I had a total hip replacement. I thought I’d done a fairly good job getting the house in shape prior to surgery. Installing stair rails outside, getting up a carpet runner, down-sizing furniture so that there was walking space around each piece, installing extra grab bars in the bathroom.

I even worked on the bed (to get it easier to use). Yes, hubby and I lowered it [still needed a step stool]; yes, hubby installed a headboard with grab points; yes, we changed the bed position in the room for an easier access to and from from the room; and yes, I installed a medical bedside grab bar [glad I did].

Note however; it’s the little things that trip you up--those quarter inch to half inch threshold pieces at doorways, those little strips of metal between tile and hardwood floor changes, the not quite enough space around the toilet to allow the tall adaptive toilet to fit over the existing toilet, and the need for extra clear space and landing zones beside the doors.

Before I left the hospital, the hospital personnel  insisted that I had to have a care giver/nurse or someone in the home able to help me. Hubby became my at-home nurse. I also had to had a bedside toilet [we placed it over our existing toilet], a walker, and grab rails for both sides of any steps. We had it all covered.

What I/we didn’t take into account was my bed. My bed held me hostage.  Once I was in bed, the support pillows, the sheet and blankets encased me like a sausage; I couldn’t even move my toes. Once the pillows were in position and the covers were thrown over my body, I couldn’t get the covers off me past my waist. Once hubby tucked me in bed, I was a papoose or a mummy trapped in the bindings. The only way I didn’t panic was to have my feet uncovered, both of them. My bed still held me hostage but I dealt with it, well sort of.

Now hubby tried he really did, but he really didn’t like having to get up or stop what he was doing every two hours or less to help me out and back into the bed. Before I found a nice loud emergency whistle could get his attention from a room as far away as possible from the bedroom, I’d be in tears of frustration from hollering trying to get his attention.

 [Do I dare say, and yes, I do and have, “hubby, really wasn’t meant to be a nurse,” especially since he kept forgetting to wear his hearing aids.]

During my first 2 weeks at home after surgery, hubby threatened to take a hammer to my whistle after about the 3^rd blow for assistance. Enough said about that. I went to issuing one really long blow!

Well it has been four weeks now and the covers can still trap me. Putting a large handmade bolster across the foot of the bed under the top sheet made moving my toes possible and helped alleviate the hostage situation that I felt trapped in. I’m still not sure where or when the bed will kidnap me again. I’m waiting; I’m practicing; I have a plan; the next time this hostage will be prepared to fight back! 

"What's in this blog for me?" you ask.

“What’s in this blog for me?” you ask.

Just the fact that you’re reading this means you realize that something in your home is not meeting a need that you currently have or anticipate needing.  You are interested in making your home's environment work better for you.  You are not adverse to rolling up your sleeves and getting to work on making your home a “forever home.”

You probably cannot afford to sell your home and move into one of those new retirement communities that offer all kinds of amenities.  And face it, you don’t want to move. You want to stay close to your family and the friendships that have grown over the years.

The act of making your home’s layout and function work better for you does not have to cost a lot of money or take a lot of time. [Note however that bathroom and kitchen makeovers are the most expensive and you’d definitely have to budget for those.] You don’t have to do complete makeovers with all new products. You don’t have to get rid of sentimental things just to make your home more accessible or user friendly.

Commercials bombard you: “Down size, right size. Start brand new. Buy now, pay later, No interest for x years.”  Professional decorators and kitchen/bathroom remodelers can and will help you “do over” your home. However; that will come at a significant cost to you.

No one else is offering to help you help yourself in quite the same manner that I am offering. Within these pages are check lists, list of things that could make your home work better for you. And face it you are the best judge of what will work for you.

Close your eyes think of that room in your home that bothers you the most. What’s one thing you could do to make it better? No, burning it is not an option. Still keeping those eyes closed? No, throwing everything out and starting new isn’t an option either.  Write down 2 or 3 things that you can do to make that room better. Done? When you are done with this section I want you to promise that you will do those two or three things.

So, if you’re going to have to do all the work, what’s this blog about? 

Each reader has a knowledge base of experience... Through trial and error each reader knows what does or doesn’t work for him/her.  Sometimes that knowledge was obtained at great expense and possibly physical pain.

Most of you reading this have learned that helping others is a way of sharing the knowledge, blessings and riches that each has received.  You have learned that you don’t have to know all the answers; you just have to know how to find them.  This writing is my attempt to help you find the answers.

[Mridu Parikh from Lifeisorganized.com is my heroine, check out her web site for steps in serious “take charge” order in your life. She is a serious catalyst to where I am at today.]

I have a check list of things to think about that might work for you and your home. A list of things that you might already have changed or need to plan to change. A starting point as it were.  This list will will help you assess where your home is today and features some things that experts suggest your retirement or ideal home contain. The choices or suggestions on this list are not absolutes, they are suggestions. 

Your day to day circumstances can change, thus your ideal home’s “necessary” needed features can change. This list will help enable you to take charge in implementing those needed changes in your home. Suggestions for additions to the list are welcome.

Everyone is unique: your life experiences, personal circumstance, physical limitations all play a role in what your expectations are in both the present and the future. No one knows you like you do. Strangers can offer advice, only you can determine if that advice is worth implementing.

The need for change is unavoidable. Change occurs with both time and age. Making the most of that change is up to you. It involves time, energy, work, determination, and sometimes money.

So are you ready to “get up off of that thing” and make your small corner of the world better?

Make an appointment with yourself. Set up a time in your busy week to get started.

Enlist help of family and friends if necessary.  Set up a co-op of skilled friends who’ll help each other.

Email or Call me if you want an unbiased viewpoint or you need more help getting started.

Together we’ve got this!

My non-response to the AARP "Downsizing? Ditch These Items"

Today, July 2, 2017,  I read the article at AARP “Downsizing? Ditch These Items” by Jeff Yeager, AARP. 

I had a response and posted it but here’s what I forgot. 

Jeff said something about rented storage and Decorations being on the list. I don’t have rented storage and here’s what I did about Decorations a few years ago.

I returned the large borrowed Christmas tree I used from my brother-in-law after I bought one of those new slim-line trees that had lights at ¼ price after Christmas one year.

The next year we were putting down floating floors and space was limited in the house (around Thanksgiving) as I brought in Boxes & Boxes of Christmas decorations. I decorated the tree, but did Not use light strings or garlands. 

As I placed the decorations on the tree I evaluated them, “use, donate, trash, use elsewhere.” Once I was done I had one “use elsewhere” box of ornaments that went back to the building.

I had quite a bit of “donate” stuff since the new tree was a third to a quarter of the size of the old tree. I loaded the trunk, backseat, and passenger seat of a Toyota Corolla with Christmas decorations and took it straight to Good Will so that others could use them.

That’s not counting the stuff that went to the trash, or the boxes of additional Christmas Stuff I didn’t bring into the house.

Another year, I went through the tabletop decorations. I set them up on a table and let the nieces and nephews pick what they wanted. They knew they weren’t new but they were quality decorations. Had less than a small shopping bag to take to Good Will that year.

PS: Never did the outdoor decorations for seasons so I had none to purge.

So, what will you do with your extra Christmas stuff this year? 

Response to AARP's "Downsizing? Ditch These Items," by Jeff Yeager, AARP

Today, July 2, 2017,  I read the article at AARP “Downsizing? Ditch These Items” by Jeff Yeager, AARP . Here’s my response.  I loved it and for those who were shall we say less enthused about some of the suggestions then here goes "nuthin'."  Pick out what applies to you, dismiss the rest. It was written for those who don't know where to start. You've got it together, more power to you.

When my siblings and I were at hospice waiting for my mother to die, we planned our mythical "when I win the lottery" house to be built at the beach. 4 siblings, 4 Master suites, 4 walk in closets, 4 his/hers with small sitting room and 4 ADA roll in bathrooms , with 4 college dorm kitchenettes. There was going to be a large open living room  (Wifi} and a 3 bay wash sink, a prep sink, a hand wash sink and in another area a serving counter that had 4 burner stove top so stuff could be left to stay warm in cooking container as well as a walk in pantry since it was my ticket. I wanted an under counter beverage container here also. One sibling was all for everything being throwaway in the kitchen (no dish washing). I want one large freezer and one large refrigerator. A Hoosier baking station, A Butlers pantry for drink stuff beside the fridge. A snack pantry area. A coffee station. All of this without a lot of higher cabinets and nothing below 15 inches from the floor. Compromised on higher cabinets--could use it for disposable food service storage.  Oh! Don't want to forget- his/her computer access each room. We could pool our resources, have privacy when we needed it and each could do his/her own thing. 2 room bunk house for when the kids come to visit. Built in bunks and storage. 2 separate showers and dressing rooms. Triple occupancy stalls in 2 separate bathrooms. Can I say NOT going to happen. I didn't win.

We bought our home 40 years ago and have been renovating it into our retirement home ever since.

I'd love to have a bigger house, mine is only 1000 or so square feet. It has a living room, 1 bathroom, kitchen, dining area, 2 bedroom (one is now the exercise/bird/library sometimes dining room) Could and did make room when daughter came back and brought more with her for about 2 1/2 years.

Current debt is utilities and the loan for the really necessary new air/heat system. 

Clothing-when everything is clean the clothing fits in closets and drawers. New rule-1 in/3 out.

Exercise equipment, yep I use it and will use it more for rehab coming up.

Kitchen stuff, love it, using it, keeping it.

Car down to one, just can't afford 2.

Childhood memorabilia -Daughter has hers and I've my tassel and diploma. What not's or dust catchers are behind glass and have a designated limited display space. 

Furniture--been replacing larger, heavier pieces with lighter, more flexible arrangement stuff that "fits,"  is easier to get out of, and allows walk space beside and in front of it. Dare I say "electric wheelchair" space available in each room. Perk: easier to clean under and around the stuff.

Books, mags, dvds. As long as they fit my shelves & magazine racks I'm keeping them. However, I regularly Drop renewals, purge and donate to various places.

Files Yuck! All my tax returns. 7 year back up full of only itemized. Warranty/manual/return boxes once the warranty is gone ditch the box and paperwork. Item replaced ditch the rest and get rid of the old item. Have a "evacuate or in case of emergency" file or "when I'm gone": legal paperwork (wills, power of attorney), insurance, titles, loan and resolutions, marriage, death, birth, etc. Bright red file easily grabbed.

Enjoy folks, only way I'd get to down size is to go into a nursing home. Hubby says he'll call Good Will and tell them to load the bookcases and contents, the craft building contents, my display cases and contents, and the two pieces of exercise equipment. He'll give my parrot to a breeder.

Yippee!! I'm done. Aren't you glad!