Motivation Monday - Difficult Times

Hello out there my TMS friends, it's been a long time!

I'm sure most of you know I've been away while I was by my mother's side as she went through weeks in the hospital, weeks in a rehab, back to the hospital for another week and then sadly she passed away on November 12.

It's been a very difficult time. I'm sorry I haven't been here to support our TMS team and readers, and really don't know when I might get back to any kind of regular blogging.

During the the initial time of my mother's illness my posts here were all about how important it is to have things in order with legal matters, banking, etc. My mother knew her health was getting really bad and then it became a matter of desperate panic to try to get things in order. It wasn't more than a couple of days after finalizing her will, health care surrogate, and power of attorney that she was admitted to the hospital.

I'll beg you one last time to please get your affairs in order! Nobody should have to be scrambling like that to get things done in their final days.

The next thing I have to address again is to please stop saving stuff! Sadly, I haven't even had a chance to grieve for my mother because of stuff.

I had to go into her home the day after she passed away to start trying to sort through paperwork to find what I needed for the cemetery - that's one thing that was prearranged but finding that paperwork was like finding a needle in a haystack. It was then that I really realized the extent to which my mother saved stuff. She had every bill, info on anything and everything, every card anyone ever sent her, every photo she received and all put together with all the important documents - I don't mean just recent, I mean for years, and years, and years, and years!

It isn't just paperwork. My mother was a collector and a saver of all kinds of things. I have worked over there all day every day besides the 3 days over Thanksgiving weekend when we traveled to Miami and had her memorial service - other than that I've been there all day every day just going through and sorting out her things. I might be a little more than halfway there after 3 straight weeks, 7 days a week. Thankfully I was able to extend my leave of absence from work but it's sure no pleasure trip, it's unpaid time off, and worst of all it's extremely draining physically, mentally and emotionally. Please don't do this to your family!

This experience has really opened my eyes more than ever about getting motivated to decultter and organize my own home once I get things finished at my mother's home. I hope my experience will help get all of you motivated too, don't wait until later.

Live simply - Live well

Martha (MM)