Latest / Marci talks money (and life) / Decluttering, Organization, and Financial Wellness with Caryn Martinez

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Decluttering, Organization, and Financial Wellness with Caryn Martinez · Marci talks money (and life)

• Marci Grossman (00:00.959) Hello, I am MoneyMarci, welcome. I am thrilled to welcome today's guest, Caryn Martinez. If you have been following my episodes at all, you may have heard Caryn before. She was my very first guest on my very first episode discussing her experiences as a serial entrepreneur. She is my good friend and does my seasonal wrap up, She is my good friend and does my seasonal wrap up episodes so that I can review the season without sitting there talking to myself. I'm excited to have her on this episode to talk about decluttering and organization because those are things that many of us have issues with in our life and it can have a financial impact for many different reasons. Welcome Caryn. Caryn (00:47.758) Hi, I'm so thrilled to be on here as an actual expert. Marci Grossman (00:52.863) Well, so Tell us about your expert and your experiences with decluttering and organizing. Why are you a good guest to have here? You're not a professional organizer. Caryn (01:03.544) I am a good guest here because I actually have not only my own personal experience with decluttering and organizing, and not only because I've helped family with decluttering and organizing, but also because for a few years I ran online decluttering and organizing sessions called Sortganize. I created that. I created it because I was part of some online groups. And I enjoyed them very much, but they were never at the right times that I wanted, you know, that was really good for me to be in them every week. So I created my own and I also created my own way of running them too. I mean, if I was going to customize it, I was going to really customize it. So it's called Sortganize. And in the show notes, Marceal have links to a place that you could be part of our community on Discord. Marci Grossman (02:03.187) That's awesome. I guess One of the things I want to start with, if this doesn't kind of take you out of order, is that there are many different ways to organize and declutter. And I guess maybe I should back up and talk about the difference between organizing and decluttering. Caryn (02:22.252) Yeah, so this is what several experts have said and I 100 % agree with it. You can't organize clutter. You'll just end up moving your clutter from place to place and you won't get to the place of ease in your house or your office that you want to. be. So the first thing to know is that you always have to start with getting rid of the things that won't fit in your space because you only have finite space and you also only have finite patience and brain power to shuffle stuff around even if you can cram stuff into the space. So de-cluttering always has to come first. Organizing comes after that and I would, you know, I'm going to say this first. I thought this was something that was going to come up. later in the conversation, but it's good for people to know this right now. Your organization needs will change over time. So if you're listening to this and thinking, it all used to work so well for me, why is it not working now? It's because your needs for the way your space and your things and your records have to be have changed. I'm gonna give you, would you wanna hear my own personal experience with that? Okay. Marci Grossman (03:46.293) Please. Caryn (03:48.012) Well, I used to own an entertainment agency. This was years ago. And my home office was completely set up to make that easy. So I needed things that I could see on the wall and physically grab. I was physically grabbing things, handing them to musicians, making copies of this is back in the CD and DVD time, making copies. Had a printer right there because I was printing out contracts. Everything had to be like right there where I could just grab it right away and do it. So I always thought, I must be the sort of person that likes to see everything and have it right out there for me to see. But when I closed that business, I realized, huh, I don't like my office like that anymore. I don't need that. And this was like years later when I realized I don't need the giant calendars on my wall and the things on the trays on the desk. So now everything is all put away and I have for what I do now a very nice and calm space. that I consider nice and calm. So my needs changed over time and your needs may change over time as well. That would happen to anybody in their home space whether or not they have kids or pets and things like that, it changes. Marci Grossman (05:03.881) That makes sense. Most of what I do, whether it's through accounting and meetings and that, or through the podcast and such, feels like it's calendar based and scheduling. And for me, a lot of things work really well digital and there's a certain amount of things that have to be paper. They have to be things that I can see multiple pages at a time, which you can't really do easily on a phone. You know, my file cabinet's how I file things even I've seen has changed over time. I'm a minimalist wannabe. I am not there. But I would love to have just less stuff. Caryn (05:38.51) Mm-hmm. Caryn (05:48.428) Less stuff to do that. Well, I know that you were interested in the different methods of decluttering. And I can give you a little bit of advice for that that I thought was great advice and worked really well for me. And now that they've seen how well it works for me, for example, my husband is now doing the same thing with his spaces. So the very first thing to think about is actually to not think about Don't start with any area or type of clutter that requires making emotional decisions. If you haven't been doing this at all, Those are the hardest things to do, the things that stop you and weigh you down. So don't start with emotional decisions with all the really personal stuff. And also don't try to start with an area or a type of item that has a lot of aspirational items because those can be very emotional too. In other words, you bought this because you really, really thought you'd be doing that particular thing. You You aspired to it or you maybe aspired to that type of clothing or wardrobe, anything you aspire to. Don't start with emotional things or aspirational things. Start with the things that are a lot more neutral. I also found this to be very true when I followed this advice and then I pass this on to other people, starting with a kitchen or a bathroom or a drawer in a kitchen and a bathroom, because those don't tend to be very aspirational. And you'll immediately see the stuff that you really, really know that you can get rid of, like expired makeup. You know You can get rid of that. You know, That's the really obvious thing, this stuff that you know that you're not going to regret getting rid of. So... That's how the very start. Marci Grossman (07:47.516) Okay, I've seen decluttering some that are more along the lines of choosing what you want to get rid of and other ones that are along the lines of choosing what you want to keep. And then I guess a whole range of things in between them. Caryn (08:03.81) Well, part of it depends on when you're, if you were for, do you want me to give an example of a closet? Do you want to give an example of that for it? If, whatever interests you to know, if you walk into your closet and you are constantly all the time, you know, rejecting things, rejecting things, rejecting things to get to the one or two things that you always like Marci Grossman (08:13.109) Anything. Caryn (08:33.186) to wear. It's the style that you like, it's the comfort that you like, it's the size that you like. And That's an example where you would definitely choose what to keep because it seems like you're just stumbling over everything else. That would be a choose what to keep moment, you know, compared to a choose what to get rid of moment. On the other hand, if you walked in and you immediately say, wow, you know, there's a bunch of stuff that's just worn out and, you know, worn out, outdated, you know, you immediately see this stuff that you're like, why am I, why is this here? Stuff that you might not even want to donate, you know, throw it in the trash and you'd start with what you want to get rid of. So it is personal in that way. Marci Grossman (09:26.031) And I guess because when we have these conversations, I always have ideas and end up going in one direction and another direction is the financial component of this is that if you can't find things, you are spending your time and you may be spending your money. you may be spending your money buying something that you already have. Caryn (09:47.404) Not only that, you may have lost cash. In one of the groups that I liked participating in, the post-session question they always asked is, did anybody find money? And sometimes people would find actual cash or checks that they had set aside and had lost and couldn't find. But even more than that, there is both direct and indirect financial ramifications to having a lot of clutter or not having an organization system that's good for you. Directly, Here's what I mean by direct. You don't wanna have to rebuy items or parts because you just can't find them and you really need them. That happens to people a lot. You can also miss sales and coupons. Like you really wanted to buy something on sale and save some money, but by that time the sale is over and the coupons are expired. Other things that really impact your budget, food that's gone bad in your fridge or your pantry. Not knowing what's in your fridge. So you're scrambling and saying, I could make dinner. no, maybe I can't. And then you end up ordering in when you really could have made the thing because you don't know what's in the fridge and the pantry. Or here's something that it still sometimes happens to us not knowing or remembering when something is broken and then you need it right away and you can't wait to take it to the repair shop. So you're buying something new, whereas if you had been organized enough to get that to the repair shop, you wouldn't have had to buy another one. So those are the direct, do you see what I mean by direct? That's like the direct line between this thing and actual money coming out of your bank account. Marci Grossman (11:35.239) Right, and I hear stories of people who go to move and when it's time to move and hire the truck and whatever else, they don't have time to go through their stuff there. So it's when they're unpacking they realize that they moved stuff that they didn't need to pay to move. Caryn (11:50.52) yeah, that's another one. That is a direct, direct sort of thing. There is, but You also touched on indirect things, which are really important. indirect things. And I actually wrote some like big notes I wanted to make sure that I talked to on here. If you have trouble getting out of the door on time because you just don't have all the things together, to get out the door, even if you're trying to wake up extra early and things, it can impact your job or your school or your kids' school. So that is an indirect way that it hurts you. Also, sometimes people can neatly corral all of their items. They have a lot of things and it's neatly corralled so the place doesn't look like it's a total mess. But if you're constantly having to sort through and skip over items that you wanted just in case, you get what they call decision fatigue. You're making dozens of extra decisions, little decisions constantly. And that's a distraction that just adds up. So when you think you've got your mind on something that you really have to do and get done, this can happen in offices too, and you're ready to go and then micro decision, micro decision. And it just adds up. So those are indirect ways that Marci Grossman (13:17.193) Yeah, and the indirect ways build to direct ways because then you walk out the door and you're already frustrated and you'll just, here, take my money, just fix whatever things you can fix, just, I don't wanna make any more decisions, I am done with decisions, I'm done with whatever. And The paperwork, can't find the warranty paperwork for something that broke or gathering your tax information and... Caryn (13:23.566) Mm-hmm. Thank Marci Grossman (13:45.402) now it's going to take two or three trips because you didn't have everything together that you needed. If you go to sell your house and you don't have the paperwork of the things that have made it increase in value that may impact how much of the sale of your house might be taxable. I mean, all of these things, Organization adds up in so many different ways that we don't even realize because then it impacts other decisions or... Caryn (14:05.806) Okay. Marci Grossman (14:11.677) other things to go on because now I'm driving back and forth to the accountant three times with, this piece of paper and that piece of paper because you don't want to email unless they have secure portals. You don't want to email anything that has your social security number on it and things like that. So now you're running back and forth. or your whatever it is, All these things add up. It's like going back to the grocery store because you thought you had a can of diced tomatoes, but you really only have tomato sauce. Caryn (14:34.424) He really did. Caryn (14:41.774) Or you had diced tomatoes and they're expired. You're like, I know I had it, but I didn't check the dates or I didn't put them away with the new things in the back. That sort of thing. Marci Grossman (14:47.358) Right. Marci Grossman (14:57.651) Right, the old thing keeps getting rotated to the back. Caryn (15:00.332) Yeah, do you want to talk about information and records? Because that tends to be a lot that has to do with financial things. I'd be happy to talk about physical decluttering, too. What would you like to? Marci Grossman (15:17.186) I want all of it. mean as much as we can fit in in about a half hour. Caryn (15:21.544) okay. Well, Since it's the MoneyMarci Show, I actually need to tell you something that I and other people have found frustrating when they're trying to get help for taxes. So since you are a CPA, I'll turn this back on you. There are so many people that their financial paperwork is very disorganized and they say, Okay, now I really have to hire an accountant. I can't do this by myself anymore. I really need help. But the financial, a person, usually a CPA, is now asking them for information that they can't find in the first place. And other saying is just, Please, please, can you at least help me with this year's taxes? I've been in trouble. And it's like a catch-22. This is a catch-22. They need help because they don't know what's going on. But then the accountant is these things. Marci Grossman (16:25.141) Well, and I understand that, on the flip side, if I'm getting a new client, I'm gonna start with last year's tax return. If you don't have it... Caryn (16:31.886) So if they have last year's tax return, which they probably can find, because you can get that still online, correct? Was that still done? You can request. Marci Grossman (16:40.751) You can request from the IRS, but that does take a period of time. So we're recording this in January. It will probably post live sometime in February. You know, At this point in time, hopefully you already have made contact with your accountant. If it's a new one, If it's your regular accountant, they kind of know when to expect you and have already reached out with their paperwork. But if Caryn (16:51.063) and Caryn (17:03.66) The people with the bad disorganization problem haven't. So of course, it's always better to get it done even if it's late. if you cannot find last year's tax return, get it, request it, and everything, because that seems to be the minimum that a CPA would need to help you, correct? Marci Grossman (17:28.157) Right, because we need to kind of know what's going on. We don't want to file a tax return for you that misses a lot of information that we would have been aware of, questions we would have known to ask if we'd have started with last year's tax return. That said, sometimes there are reasons that's totally not available. And I'm gonna have you sign an engagement letter that says, you know, I'm doing the best I can with the information you give me, but you're taking responsibility. Caryn (17:40.705) Anyway. Okay. Marci Grossman (17:56.51) for what you give me as well as you're ultimately signing off that yes, this has everything it's supposed to have. I'm an accountant, not a magician. But it does, There's personal responsibility. I've had people reach out to me, hey, I haven't filed in a couple years, I wanna do something. And I'll say, okay, great, let's set up a meeting. Okay, well, I'll get back to you as soon as I get my calendar. And then they never get back to me. Caryn (18:04.206) We'll Okay. Caryn (18:24.11) Marci Grossman (18:24.445) or they'll get back to me three months later, okay, when can you see me? Well, you know, here's what I can do. Okay, I'll get back to you. And they don't, and I have had a couple of clients, very short-lived clients with me, that were expecting me to babysit them and keep calling them back, right, and here's another piece of paper, and here's another piece of paper. And I can't bill them enough and they won't pay enough for what it would take for me to be... their babysitter to get that. So there has to be some personal responsibility. That said, there are tax preparers that you can always find someone that will work with you, whether it's the level of what you want, whether you're talking about a CPA or an enrolled agent or one of the franchises that offer tax preparation, or whether you're going online and you're getting tax software to do your own. There has to be personal responsibility. We all understand that nobody is perfect in the organization and in everything else, but we can only do so much. Caryn (19:29.742) But actually, So what you're saying though is that you can, if you have your hands on last year's tax return, at the very least, you might be able to have somebody that can help you because otherwise, and I've seen this personally in all of these groups that I've been part of, people that are just completely adrift and, you know, need to know where to start. So that is a place to start. everybody in place to start. And one thing is that everybody, even if it's, even if you haven't kept good records, if you have a bank account, everything for the past at least five years will be online there, you know, for your bank account. Marci Grossman (20:15.505) If not online, can request information from your bank account. You can request W-2s from whatever year from your employer. You can say, whatever, need, People do that all the time. Caryn (20:18.018) Mm-hmm. Caryn (20:26.328) People tend to do have People have those W-2s because they haven't had a chance to lose them. Marci Grossman (20:34.293) Well, I'm talking about if someone says, hey, I haven't filed in a few years and I can't find anything in the mess, you can call up your employer, your prior employer and say, hey, I need my 2022 W-2 and they'll get it. That doesn't mean they'll get it immediately. That doesn't mean, you know, how fast it will happen, but that information is available if you need to get it. And ultimately, whether you prepare it yourself or not, you are responsible for... for the information on your tax return and including everything that should be there. Caryn (21:05.454) Well, let's talk about then paper organization or digital file organization. It doesn't matter if it's paper or digital files because you still have to have that information and find that information. so let's, let me see, what is the best way to start this? The first thing to do is to say, I called my group Sortganize because sorting comes naturally to me. That's I called it Sortganize. a A lot of people are dealing with a pile of paper. And the best way that I found to handle that is to go from the macro to the micro, from the large categories to the small ones. Some things are never going to need small categories, but some are. But if you Don't feel bad, if you're tossing certain types of information just into big boxes that later you'll go through and separate it more, and then later you'll go through and separate it more, that's a perfectly valid thing to do. You don't have to get it all done right away the way you might see it on a TV show. I want to say that that's often because People will get really behind with their health insurance stuff and their their bank stuff and the warranty stuff. So you might have like house things, bank things, car, know, car things. And then later you'll divide it between the cars that were in your house and the different people's bank accounts and the, and the different health things. So you can go from big to small. So First of all, that might make people feel much better about it. And then, you know, you can also ask yourself, this is really important, do you really struggle to find all of your information and records? Or are some easier for you to find than others? Are there some things that you always can grab and other things that you just struggle with? And I will bet that the difference is, is that the records that... Caryn (23:17.418) are easy for you to find are ones that are set up in a way that's easy for you and the ones that are difficult to find are somehow filed or stored with somebody else's storage or filing system. Maybe something that you were taught in the past, that a professional set up for you in the past. Maybe it was your spouse's system, but you're in charge of it now. You're not, you You're doing it rather than your spouse. That could be a problem right there. because whether it is just you work better with digital than paper or whether the paper files are set up different. So think about that. And then also think about which records need to be kept in perfect order because they're really like paper trails and which are more fiddly. which would have to be for fiddly. So for example, you could take all of your car's old maintenance records and just put them in one general file because that's your paper trail but you're not like pulling that out for a particular purpose. Do not put your old tax paperwork into one general file. Marci will tell you. So you could be more fiddly with things like your health insurance statements and your tax things because you really are going to have to look at those more carefully or you could in the case of health insurance be like really missing money. But yeah, don't worry about organizing, or same thing with, You talked about warranties, Marci, and things like that. you know, There's household things, there's car things, different things that have warranties on it, your warranty stuff could be in a general folder because you're not going to have trouble seeing the difference between your refrigerator and your toaster oven. That's like really obvious when you look at it. So that's where you don't have to be as fiddly to do that. So that is my advice. I'll give you another thing of advice that I do. This is more fiddly, but it's really helpful. It has helped me a lot. So realize that the manufacturers are making this really hard for you. Okay, I know this is hard. This is hard because they make it hard. When you get a new appliance or something, Caryn (25:39.222) you know how they want you to register it and everything like that. And you have to like usually look for the stupid number. They don't just have it there because they don't want it to be easy for you with a magnifying glass or your readers like looking at it. But write that on the What's it called the The instruction manual Write it on the instruction manual. Or if the instruction manual is this big, giant, thick thing with six languages, you can go online and print out the couple of pages that are good for you. you know, just if you like having it paper that way and write it on there. I can't tell you how many times, you know, things just didn't last. So I could go right to my file and pull that out and go, that's the number on it right there and called them up and they're like, darn it, I have to send her a new one. And they had to send me a new one. There. Marci Grossman (26:34.341) Well, that's There you go. That's your your organizing paid off Caryn (26:39.254) My organizing paid off. It has paid off a lot because things do not last very, very well. And if it's under warranties, they've got to send you a new one. Marci Grossman (26:48.66) That is true. So I often talk about how baggage from what we have, what our parents did, what our grandparents did, whatever impacts our financial habits. I'm assuming that also works for our decluttering and holding onto things and whatever else habits. Caryn (27:08.95) Yeah, it gets really difficult when your relatives want to dump their clutter on you. Sometimes they don't think of it as clutter. I have a friend who actually might be a good guest on the show. She's an expert at appraising things. And she says that she sees so many people of retirement age now that are so disappointed that their children don't want what they think is very valuable. Marci Grossman (27:17.682) Ha ha ha! Caryn (27:38.474) It's rarely, if ever, very valuable. And if it is valuable, sometimes they would rather sell it. But usually it's not valuable. It's not. And so sometimes the people trying to give you all the things do think it's valuable. Sometimes they literally just are there decluttering their house and they're like, hey, you guys take this. Because for some reason they can't, they don't feel good about giving it to a charity shop, which is really what should have happened to it. So yeah, That really affects you because now you're you're in the position of either refusing it or turning it around and giving it to the charity shop yourself. Marci Grossman (28:21.052) Right, right. well, those are the things that they emotionally don't want to get rid of. But if they give it to you, the friend or family member, then they're not really getting rid of it. And now maybe you don't have that same emotional to it, but you're afraid to get rid of it because they're going to ask about it. yeah, grandmas, great-grandmas China, whatever, these things don't necessarily have value to you. Caryn (28:41.261) Yeah. Marci Grossman (28:49.48) They can't go in the dishwasher, they can't go in the microwave. Maybe it's not a full set, maybe it is, but it's not a style that you're interested in. But they have this strong emotional attachment to you and now you've got something that you really just have no interest in, but they've given it with such great love and pride and this is their way of not dealing with their attachment to it. And what do you do from there? Caryn (29:18.21) Yeah, and it's harder if they have the great love and pride for it. Although at that point, now this depends on the person, if they're able to just say, I really don't have space in my home for this thing, not accepting it in the first place, it could be a possibility. I just cannot do this. But you're describing like one of the most difficult things that there is. Sometimes too it's difficult even if the relatives have gone and you're like, why do I have this thing? People have trouble letting go even then sometimes. But the most important thing is that usually you have something that does fit into your life that is a great memento of the person. It doesn't have to be a piece of furniture. Marci Grossman (30:16.297) And it doesn't have to be all of the things that they give you. So this is where I'm going to bring, and I'm going to mispronounce this terribly, so I apologize to anyone Swedish out there. Dostadning, which is Swedish death cleaning. I have been fascinated by this for years, which is when people are getting older or when their health isn't as much Caryn (30:19.286) Yes. Marci Grossman (30:43.573) they start doing the sorting so that they're not leaving it for their beneficiaries, for those who are left behind when they pass, they start getting rid of it. just, you know, You and I both have recently lost a parent and there have been things that come with that. Caryn (31:02.574) And you know, it's really important you said the word beneficiaries. So if If you really want to make things easier for your loved ones, not just perhaps when you're gone, but even if you were disabled and they're taking care of you, it is not making it easier for them to give these things to them, unless it is something that they would really like. I better give this jewelry to my daughter now before things get crazy later. That's... That's one thing, but generally, no, this is getting it away so that they don't have to deal with it like you may have dealt with your parents and everything. But this gets to, I'm going to circle back to some different types of paperwork and things. If people that are listening to this have made an estate plan or they have a trust or anything like that, that information, that paperwork and those ways of storing it are super helpful to whoever is handling your affairs. Again, not just after you've gone, not just the executor of your Estate, but children or spouse who are taking care of you if you're not, you you're incapacitated. And that is, if you're wondering, how do I organize that paperwork, you can look at that and say, look at the way they have the sheets of paper that are saying the bank accounts, the names and numbers of the people, like the accountants, the doctors, the everything. That's super important, and it's a way to organize information, because you're organizing for the people that will help you. And it does help you yourself right now to do that. So I did want to mention that sort of thing. Caryn (33:06.85) But yeah, I think I got away from your death cleaning. But it does have to do with paperwork and files and things like that. Don't make them go through the expired warranty cards and instruction booklets from 30-year-old appliances that you may not even own. Marci Grossman (33:26.685) Yeah, When my mom was moving and that was about five years before she passed, so about a decade or so ago, my brother and I were both local and we made a rule that if she said, do you want my whatever, we would take it. No questions asked, we would take it even if we turned around and donated it just to get things out of her house because if we said no Caryn (33:41.101) Mm-hmm. Caryn (33:44.811) and Marci Grossman (33:47.616) then she might hold on to it to see if the other one wanted it, to see if she had a friend that might want it. And these weren't things that anyone was going to want necessarily. mean, These were lovely things in good condition, but we all had homes. We all had, you know, too many sets of whatever. And so whatever it was, our answer was absolutely. And we put it in our car. Caryn (33:53.678) you Marci Grossman (34:12.393) We check in with the other one and say, okay, what's going on? Are you interested in this? And then that way we could get rid of stuff to make her move easier. Caryn (34:21.208) I really like that idea. Yeah, that is a really good idea. And obviously she wasn't checking up on these items, because she might have wanted to. Marci Grossman (34:28.367) There were things I held onto because I knew she might check up on them, but a lot of these were things she wasn't going to check up on. And so was absolutely, I will absolutely. And we joked about it. Caryn (34:39.096) Yeah. You can also say if there are things that you're keeping for your own sentimental purposes, that could include things that you have in files as well as objects, you can also specifically tell your kids that that can go. Like, I want it now. you know, things that like I'm proud of something that I had published now 45 years ago, 50 years ago. I have that thing. Yes, it's there. you know, like I'm proud of this prize-winning paper I wrote in college. I still have that kind of stuff, but you know what? My daughter can trash that. I gotta tell her, you trash, you see these files right here in the section of the file cabinet? Don't go through that. Nobody needs that. Just trash it. I like to look at it occasionally. You do not have to look at that. Marci Grossman (35:37.039) It's interesting because going through my mom's stuff, I found papers that, they were my papers, but I was happy after I finished, I got a good grade, I've now moved on, but she held onto them. And it was fun, I looked at them and said, that's cool, and now it goes in the recycle. Caryn (35:51.04) She held on to it. Caryn (35:55.726) Get rid of that right away. Yeah. You know, I, This is more for things that you have purchased or given to you that were not sentimental, but also, I guess you could talk about some things that are like that. Some people are hanging on to things because they really feel like they darn it, I need to give it away, but this is hard to give away. It can't be given away for some reason, or it's difficult to give away this item. And they're trying to find the best way to do that, and they really don't want to just throw it out. And this is actually something that came from one of the experts I like to listen to a lot. She goes, in 100 years, it's all going to be landfill anyway. Your home is not the alternative to the landfill. If it has to hit the trash, it has to hit the trash know, it's that's just and you're not losing any money for it for doing that. You're not losing any money for giving away something that you once paid for or your relative once paid for because that money has already been spent. you Don't stress yourself out, if you can't easily give the thing away, it's going to be landfill. So we may as well do it now. Marci Grossman (37:30.838) Yeah, there is that. That reminds me of garage sales. I have tried, I think, twice to have garage sales and I had good quality stuff out there and, you know, because it wasn't a neighborhood garage sale, so there were just onesie twosie in the area, didn't get a lot of turnout even though I did all the things you're supposed to do and put out all the signs and all of that You know, for two days to make $25, it wasn't worth my time. Caryn (37:34.382) Mm. Caryn (37:59.586) Not worth it. I find that the only people that get something out of garage sales are the people that like socializing with their neighbors in that way. Like my sister-in-law is always having garage sales. Well, She does not have a cluttered house and she's like not, I mean like how, why are you even having things? But she'll ask people, she goes, give me the stuff that you need to sell in a garage sale. Why? she likes putting on garage sales. But otherwise, you know, it, it. You're right, that's not particularly helpful. Marci Grossman (38:32.745) Right, I mean, I even had the things you're supposed to have. I had gently worn kids things, I had some kids toys, I had all kinds of things. And when you've got the neighborhood garage sales where you've got 50 houses in a neighborhood that are having a garage sale, you're gonna get the foot traffic and you'll be able to get rid of stuff. But you have to consider the value of your time versus. Caryn (38:43.521) it. Caryn (38:54.562) Mm-hmm. Marci Grossman (38:55.411) the small amount you're gonna get for this. Don't be so sure because I paid 50 bucks for this 10 years ago and I've used it for eight of those years and finally decided I haven't been using it anymore that it still has dollar value to me in it because there's your time to get that, to get that where it might give you a buck back. Caryn (39:08.59) and value. Caryn (39:16.386) I do have a suggestion, and I think you know about this too, for people that want to feel good, they just can't give it away anonymously, they want to feel good about doing it. On Facebook, there is a national network of groups called Buy Nothing for people that request to have, say that they have something to give away or even something to loan. It's called Buy Nothing. They keep it usually within a square mile of where you live or a couple of square miles. That's really great. You get to actually know some of the people in the group sometimes. So if you say, I have this thing, sometimes there are people that are really down and out that really need it. Or maybe they're not so down and out, but they really need it. It's nothing to You don't need it. But for them, they don't have to buy the thing. They would like your used thing and just that used thing, you know, and They just come right to your house and get it. Some people on the buy nothing groups will collect things for other people in the group who are disabled, they can't leave the house and everything, or they'll put out a call, helping such and such a family. It's really nice. if you feel like you... you know, your items to do that you know you're going to do some good and people don't have to pay for them like they would at some of the charity shops. That's a good way to do it. So it's called buy nothing. Marci Grossman (40:48.157) I love my Buy Nothing group and I love my FreeCycle group. I have things that I want to get rid of and I can post them there and sometimes I'll need some odd little thing that I know I don't really want to go out and buy and someone might have and I have posted asking for a something and sometimes someone has it and I don't have to go out and spend whatever I just have to run to their house and pick it up. I love my Buy Nothing and my FreeCycle groups. Caryn (40:50.349) you want it? huh. Caryn (41:05.237) Okay. Marci Grossman (41:18.153) They are the best for just getting rid of things or getting odd things you need. Caryn (41:25.186) Mm-hmm. So, was there, there were so many things to talk about, but was there stuff that you especially wanted to know about, whether it's physical items or paperwork items or everything? Marci Grossman (41:41.462) I know, I mean, you know, I think we've probably covered the bulk of anything. I was going to just be about to ask you if there was anything you wanted to cover that we hadn't mentioned yet. I love that you brought in the Buy Nothing and FreeCycle. I, I meant to and I didn't put those in my notes, so I would have possibly forgotten them. Caryn (42:01.966) Yeah, I'm looking through my notes here to see. kids that we covered there. We talked about, Oh here's something that's actually pretty important. Although, If you feel like you just have way too much stuff, too much clutter, and you really want to do something about it, and you're able to start small, I would suggest starting small. Sometimes once you start and saying, you know, these things are going to go, you'll be surprised by how much you're like, what is this? But sometimes you really, for reasons of your life, have to start with a particularly large or stuffed area. You may have somebody that's gonna come to live with you in your house or something big is gonna happen and you really have to tackle something like that. You can't just say, I'm gonna build up my skills by starting with a drawer. So if you have to do a large or particularly stuffed area, Please start prepared. By prepared, I mean gather trash bags, boxes and bags for donation, lots of random cardboard and plastic boxes, just random stuff like that, markers and labels, all that kind of thing. Because what's gonna happen is you're probably not going to be able to do, you you're not going to be able to work steadily on this big area. It's exhausting and it would be discouraging and you people just don't have the time to do that as well. So that means that in addition to things that you know have to leave your house, you have things that you're really going to keep, but you're not going to just stuff them back on the shelf or back in the drawer You know, that has to have a place to be while you go through the entire area and then maybe clean the entire area. So be prepared with all of this stuff in advance so you don't have to run out and be getting these things and have them in the room with you like the trash bags and things like that. And then keep your things in the ugly cardboard and plastic boxes until you have a better idea Caryn (44:21.942) of how your newly cleared space will actually work. And also some of those things may work in other parts of your house and you may have a thing to do. It's not good to buy nice organizational things right away, because that could be a real waste of money if it's not gonna work for you. And even things like, are they clear or are they opaque or the size and how you do things, keep things in the icky stuff until you figure out. Because I do have to say one thing. There people that will say that you can't buy your way out of disorganization, which is true in one way. But on the other, I have to say that I have never regretted the nice Home Edit drawers and bins and stuff that I bought. And I followed the advice, and I didn't buy all of that stuff right away. And I know that Not everybody can afford that, but I have to say that once I was really making really great headway and everything was like much better, not just where you can see, but in my cupboards and drawers and everything like that, after I got to that space, I didn't regret those purchases, probably because I didn't make them right away. And so I was glad that I did that. So eventually you can have things that look nice. Just wait to have the things that look nice. Marci Grossman (45:46.078) Wait until you know what your organization's style and needs are. Caryn (45:49.964) Yeah, that's exactly it. And how things will fit into that particular space. You may end up swapping out furniture and things like that. Why am I doing it with this weird thing when I really need a file cabinet? Marci Grossman (46:06.485) So I have a lot of websites and social media for Caryn to share. What is CanaryChat? Caryn (46:18.146) you know what? We didn't end up covering that. That's why it, okay. So remember why I said that There are sometimes special circumstances that make it hard to follow the standard advice that people give. Like One thing that's generally good advice is that if you haven't worn something for a couple of years, you can get rid of that thing. I mean, you're just, it's just not going to happen. If you've never been that size in 30 years, you know. looking at it is just making you feel bad. But there are some times when it comes to medical problems that makes it harder to follow that advice. Now I'm chemically sensitive. I can't easily rebuy clothing items because it takes me a long time to be able to wear that clothing after it's been new. Amount of time it has to be processed to get rid of the chemicals and fragrances. or when certain things have been, you know, I wore them out in public, wore them on vacation, that takes a long time. So I have clothes that is for those kind of going out emergency purposes. I can't get rid of that as easily as other people. Sometimes people say, you can just rebuy that. I can't easily just rebuy something. And there are other, that's why I mentioned Canary Chat, because that's where people who are chemically sensitive, I run this group and I've run it for 20 years at least. That's where we talk about problems that we have when we're chemically sensitive. Another thing that would happen also is you may not be able to get rid of things that you think of very well if you have a parent with dementia. We didn't go through this at all, but I two parents with that. When you have that, may have, there's a whole thing, You may have people that one day say, what is that? I don't need that and then the next day miss it a lot. that's another thing they have. Anyway, that's why Canary Chat is there. And then I think the other ones make sense though are Sorcanized because the other things have to do with Sorcanized, my Caryn's Creative Community on Discord and my Facebook group too, Caryn's Creative Community are where you'll find Marci Grossman (48:29.695) Yeah. Caryn (48:44.578) I'm going to revive Sortganize I guess I should have said this into something that, first of all, we'll have the chat rooms for people to talk to each other, but then maybe also have some of the sessions that we used to have. Marci Grossman (48:56.745) Okay, That sounds awesome. I appreciate you being on. I've learned so much more about you. Things I didn't know quite how well you were involved in the organization stuff. I know you had run some sorting and organizing challenges, but with all the creative stuff you do, I'm never sure what fits in. I don't know how you organize all the hats you wear. but. Caryn (48:58.702) Yeah. Caryn (49:21.774) Well, sometimes I sometimes I drop hats. In fact, there's a hat that I'm actually well, you know what? Well, we'll talk about it afterwards, but I'm going to tell you a good hat that I'm dropping. This is how we do this. Marci Grossman (49:35.657) Fair enough, fair enough. So Thank you for being my guest today. Caryn (49:41.282) Thank you for having me on the show. I've really enjoyed it. I will come back anytime to like chatter on a way about it. Cause I'm actually, I'm like really happy about it. It's in my own personal life. It's been like years. I like we've been working on the things for years, but it affects my family too. Now my husband's working on his things. And if you say years, it doesn't mean like I was digging my way out of a mountain of stuff. I mean that it, it, it took years to say, yeah, I thought that I was the perfect know, decluttering person and yet I had this and why and I'm so much happier when I did that or years to figure out the way I wanted the house to run and everything. So yeah. Marci Grossman (50:23.317) I imagine that you do it for a while and then other things come up and it doesn't become as much of a priority and then things shuffle around and then it's like, let's get back to organizing it. Caryn (50:35.67) Yeah, or you're organizing changes. You think everything is running really well and you're like, it could run better. Marci Grossman (50:41.895) Right, you see something new, you hear a new word, you see a new organization style and the next thing you know it's a whole new way of looking at your things. Anyway, To my listeners I will be sharing a link to Caryn's information in the show notes. Please check her out. her out. She shares a lot of interesting information. Don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and stay tuned. I'll see you next time. This has been MoneyMarci. Caryn (50:51.31) Yeah. Marci Grossman (51:11.291) on Marci Talks Money (and Life).