The Caregiver Cup Podcast

From Chaos to Clarity: Organizing for a Balanced Caregiving Life

• Cathy VandenHeuvel • Episode 248

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Ever felt like a cluttered closet could throw off your entire day? I certainly have, and in this episode, I share my journey from chaos to clarity by tackling the messes in my life—starting with that very closet. We explore how disorganization can stir up stress and guilt, especially for those of us juggling caregiving, work, and household responsibilities. By sharing personal insights, I aim to shed light on how a bit of tidying up can transform not just our spaces, but also our emotional landscape.

Caregivers, this one's for you. We dive deep into the emotional whirlwind that comes with managing multiple roles without a plan. From my own experiences, I discuss practical strategies to keep everything in check, from decluttering to setting daily routines. It’s all about finding simple yet effective ways to bring order to your life, enabling you to focus on what matters most—providing compassionate care without losing sight of your own well-being. The goal is to empower you with tools to reduce stress and enhance satisfaction in your caregiving journey.

Technology and self-care take the spotlight as we wrap up the episode. Managing medications and appointments becomes a breeze with digital tools, while self-care routines act as a much-needed balm for the soul. I discuss how technology can streamline caregiving tasks, and why taking time for yourself is not just a luxury, but a necessity. Together, we explore how embracing organization and self-care can lead to personal growth and a more balanced, fulfilling life. Tune in to learn how you can incorporate these insights into your daily routine, making each day a little brighter and more manageable.

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Speaker 1:

Every time I opened the closet to find my hat, my gloves, extra layers and my running shoes, I was stressed my hat is somewhere in this closet. Where the heck is? My extra socks, the jackets are hanging there and I can't find anything. I would end up tearing the closet apart to find what I needed, and the closet was a mess as I was throwing things around. I would end up tearing the closet apart to find what I needed, and the closet was a mess as I was throwing things around. I would start my walk flustered and sometimes angry over a silly closet. This happened for months. I would get back from my walk and flip the hat up on the top shelf, which I could never see on top of, and hang up my coat and shut the door. I would forget about the clutter and the inconvenience until a few weeks ago when I said enough is enough. I pulled out everything and decluttered the closet. I didn't need five hats, I only use one. I had a bin of blankets that I donated to a dog rescue that were in the way, and I bought a plastic drawer thingy. You know those plastic little things that you can put in the bottom of a closet or use in a dorm room. Well, I bought that and I put my hats in the first drawer, my gloves in the second drawer and then my extra layers. Like I wear two pairs of sweatpants, or an extra pair of sweatpants when I walk and extra pair of socks, and I put those in the third drawer, then I place my running shoes on top of this plastic thingy shelf. Now, each morning it takes me just a minute to get ready because everything is right there and I don't have to search through the mounds of clutter.

Speaker 1:

Well, today I want to talk about the feelings we get when we're disorganized, when we struggle as caregivers through our challenges every day and then we're dealing with the clutter. So hello everybody and welcome to the Caregiver Cup podcast. It's Kathy here and I love this topic because every morning, after transforming that chaotic closet into an organized space, I've experienced a remarkable shift in my day. It made me realize just how deeply disorganized or disorganization can affect our emotions and our overall well-being. Because this is the morning routine I would start out with every day. I would go ahead and do my get up and go stuff, but then I would get ready to walk the dogs and I have a closet right outside of my front door where my jackets hang, where I put all of my shoes that I use when I walk or when I go somewhere. But then there's this shelf and I'm only five foot two. I actually measured five foot three in the doctor's office. I have no idea what happened, but I'm not letting that extra inch go away now. And there's a shelf, but it's higher than I am, so I can never see the top shelf, and I decided, well, that would be for things that I want for storage, that I could use a stool to get up on. And I needed to go ahead and get those hats off of that top shelf because I can't see what I have up there.

Speaker 1:

So I don't know if you can relate, but disorganization isn't just about a messy space. It's a state of mind that brings along a whirlwind of emotions. When things are scattered or out of place, it often triggers the sense of stress and anxiety. Can you relate? You find yourself constantly searching for misplaced items, which can make even the simplest task feel overwhelming or the challenges of the day even worse. The endless search can lead to frustration as time slips away and productivity takes a hit. And for me, as I was looking for everything to get ready for my morning walk, especially in the winter, because I have to put on these extra layers. In the back of my mind, I didn't want to go for a walk anymore, or I was in this crabby mood at the very start, which isn't a good way to start your day. There's also this lingering self or a sense of helplessness that comes with not having control over your environment. You might feel irritated or agitated, much like how I felt every time I opened that cluttered closet, and the chaos can dampen your mood, making morning, like I said, more hectic and less enjoyable, setting this negative tone for the rest of the day. Moreover, disorganization can lead to feelings of guilt or self-criticism. For me, yes, it did. It made me feel this way, especially if you have high standards of yourself or feel that you're not living up to your own expectations. I was never disorganized until I started moving into this caregiver space. Even as a mom, I would spend one day of my Christmas break with the kids, or I would spend a Sunday afternoon and I would get things back to organized, and I took pride in this. But the constant battle against clutter can make you feel exhausted, both mentally and physically leaving energy for other important aspects of your life, and so I want to bring you to the awareness today of this and really talk about this topic in whole. Now let's relate these feelings to our caregiver lives, you and I.

Speaker 1:

Caregiving is inherently a demanding role requiring patience and empathy and unwavering dedication. When you and I, as caregivers, face disorganization, whether it's managing schedules or medications or daily tasks, this emotional toll can be significant on ourselves and everything around us. Imagine having to juggle multiple responsibilities caring for a loved one, managing household duties and perhaps even maintaining a job. Are you there? Yeah, you don't even have to imagine it. If you are doing it and until last year, I was doing that myself but imagine it without an organized system in place and you just winged it every day. Or you just went ahead and tossed everything wherever you needed to toss it because you were so busy, and then, all of a sudden, you look around and you can't find things. This results in stress and anxiety, which can compound, making it difficult to stay focused and effective in providing care. Sometimes this is kind of funny.

Speaker 1:

This is a sidebar conversation, but sometimes I find myself sometimes so stressed or seeing the challenge ahead that I dream about things like I'm trying to solve something and I can't fix it, or I'm trying to get to a destination and I can't get to it, and I analyze that as like there's a lot of stress, but it also can lead to frustration that can arise from the constant need to locate essential items and keep track of important information, leading to feelings of being overwhelmed and feeling like you're trying to chase your tail. This lack of organization can also contribute to burnout, a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion. When caregivers are unable to streamline their tasks, like you and I, they may feel unsupported and isolated, struggling to maintain our own well-being while attending the needs of others, and it's kind of like this persistent chaos that can erode and we don't feel like we're accomplishing anything and we don't feel satisfied, making our journey even more challenging as a caregiver. So let's talk about, first of all, the importance of organization for us as caregivers. You know, implementing organizational strategies can make a profound difference for us as caregivers. Simple changes like decluttering space or creating designated area for essential items and establishing routines can help us alleviate the emotional burdens that we feel when we're faced with all this clutter, when you and I feel more in control of the environment, we experience less stress and less anxiety, and we're able to focus more on our compassionate care. You know, you think about it. An organization fosters a sense of empowerment and efficiency, enabling caregivers like us to manage our responsibilities more effectively. You know, this not only enhances our ability to care for others, but also supports our own mentally and emotional health. So by prioritizing organization, caregivers like you and I can create a more balanced and fulfilling caregiver experience, and the benefits of that can be far more rewarding than we really even think. And so my piece for us today is I want to create the awareness and then let's talk about I'm going to share some stories and tips that I have implemented that are either caregiver related or non-caregiver-related.

Speaker 1:

But being in caregiving for me now, going into my eighth year, everything that is disorganized or I feel that sense of stress really impacts my caregiving role, and I think you can relate to it as well. So now you know we explored now the feelings that we come with with disorganization. But I really want you first of all to think about and I'm going to talk about this at the end is, when you feel disorganized or you have disorganization in your life, what happens to you, and I want you to think about this as you go through. Like I said, when I went for my morning walk and I couldn't find my hat because it was too far on the shelf, because what I did I would just kind of fling it up there to try to catch the top of the shelf Well, sometimes it would be at the end, but sometimes it would be way in the back and I couldn't see it, and then I would get flustered and frustrated Maybe frustrated is a new word for me. So let me share, like I said, some of my personal stories and about how I tackled these, as I challenged these through caregiving, and these examples and tips can maybe inspire you and assist you in maybe thinking about things that you could fix or you could change, and I'm only skimming the surface. This is such an exciting topic for me because I love when it's a quick fix for a lot of feelings of accomplishment sometimes as well. That's what I'm trying to get at. Feelings of accomplishment sometimes as well. That's what I'm trying to get at.

Speaker 1:

One of the challenges that I faced was managing my mom's medication, especially when she moved into her apartment and things were going good and then, all of a sudden, she started developing health conditions. We would go to the doctor and then they would say okay, janet, we need you to take my mom's name was Janet we need you to take two iron pills a day, or we need you to up your dose of blood pressure medication and all that kind of stuff. And she would have this Ziploc bag of her pills and her vitamins and she'd put them in the Ziploc bag, put them in her linen closet, and each week she would come out and fill her pill box, and she would usually do it on a Sunday when I was there. But for some reason, she would either get confused on the day she would get confused, did she just fill the pill box and and what happened is she reached the point where she was taking too much of her medication and or skipping her medication. Well, when she took too much of her medication, it resulted in her overdosing and she ended up going into the emergency room and having a 24-hour stay or 23-hour stay to try to figure out did she have dementia? Why was she doing that?

Speaker 1:

She got to the point and I think I shared this in a previous podcast. She got to the point where she was hallucinating, seeing butterflies and bees in the ceilings of her house, and she took a ride in her car in the middle of the night and hit a street sign. So at that point I called her doctor's office and said okay, we figured out that we think it's because she was not taking her medication on time or she was forgetting. And then she would take two days in a row because she forgot her Mondays and it was Tuesday. She would take Monday and Tuesday together, or she wasn't doing it right, more or less. And the doctor prescribed this customized packing for her where we would know when she would take her medication. And I helped her, set an alarm on her phone so she would know that she had to take her medication. And so the tip here for the organization of the medication was to collaborate with healthcare professionals and talk to them and don't hesitate to ask your pharmacist or the doctor for customized solutions that you could see, because there are so many different types. There's one that looks like a book that you can open up and then you can pop them out, almost like birth control pills, when you would pop them out or you could get the packaging and they would be individualized packing. I think we spent $10 extra a month for this to happen. It was such a game changer. I didn't have to go ahead and ensure that she was doing it. She knew that she had it as well, and so that truly helped. Another thing, too when she went into hospice care, we had all this medication that we had to give to her. We also had all this, and so I took the medication and put it in a shelf. I moved everything around, put it in a shelf with a notebook, and so everything was in one spot.

Speaker 1:

Okay, another story I have and I know I've probably beat this one up a little bit, but it's my grab and go bag. Remember, I said this before To prepare for unexpected doctor's appointments or emergencies, I created this grab and go bag. I'm looking at it behind my door. I bought a new grab and go bag, and I'm really excited about it. I am a big Brighton jewelry lover. Brighton, that's B-R-I-G-H-T-O-N. It's not an ad or a sponsor on the program, which I wish it was, but that's my favorite jewelry, and during the holidays, when you buy Brighton jewelry and you bought it for so much you got a free bag. Oh, my gosh. And so I bought, you know, family and friends, some Brighton jewelry, and I got this love bag and it's so cool and so, but all of this is in there.

Speaker 1:

Like Dennis has his doctor's appointment tomorrow and his chemotherapy tomorrow. So I have already have all of it. It's pre-packed already. It has my chargers in it, it has a bag where I have all my snacks. In it. I have a notebook, my pen, my reading book, all of my essentials, even like a little bag with the nail clipper and lotion and stuff like that, and then Dennis's notes and records. I am not scrambling and I know in an instant what isn't in there, because I use it every day and all I have to do is just assemble it. But think about you and with the California fires going on or the hurricane seasons going on as well, do you have an emergency kit? Assemble a portable kit with the essential items such as medical records, medication, phone chargers, a notepad and other essentials. Now it could be a grab-and-go bag and or a combination of maybe you have some things electronically that you keep on your phone or you keep in a certain spot. Like all of Dennis's medication is in my phone now and a lot of his information is in my phone, the doctors and all that kind of stuff, because if we had to go to the emergency room, I just pull that all out and I have it all handy, so that I'm not saying, well, what is that pink pill? I don't remember what the name of that is or whatever it would be. You know what everything is. So there's not a worry, especially in a stressful time. So there's not a worry, especially in a stressful time.

Speaker 1:

Now, I'm also a little anal when it comes to morning chores and household stuff, and I struggled a lot as a mom of three and trying to work full time and working on all my my boys were in sporting events all the time, and it's like I did not want to have my Saturdays or my Sundays whatever day of the week we had off where I was just frantically working on cleaning the house or getting caught up around the house, getting caught up around the house. And so I made a pact with myself that I would do a little bit every day so that on my day off I wasn't going to go ahead and exhaust myself. Well, I took this same process into caregiving, especially when I was caregiving my dad and my husband, or my mom and my husband when I was dual caregiving. It was really hard. So I realized that trying to do all the cleaning and laundry in one day was much too overwhelming and stressful and, to be honest with you, I never looked forward to the day then as well. So to manage that, I established of the day then as well. So to manage that, I established cleaning and laundry schedules. And this is crazy, but this is what I do. But hopefully you can take a tip or two from it and you can use it in anything. Maybe it's meal prepping or something different.

Speaker 1:

I say Monday is bedding day, and so on Mondays is when I go ahead and I actually recording this on a Monday, right before I'm recording my podcast, my sheets are in the washing machine, and so Monday is my bedding day, where I just know that I don't make my bed on Monday. Everything goes into the washing machine on Monday and I change the sheets and it's not something that I have to worry about, and obviously if I had something going on on Monday, I would change the day. And then Tuesday is my towel day, where I clean all the towels and I do my bedrooms, and so I don't do, I just do. I have two, I have two full baths and a half bath, so I just go ahead and just clean the bathrooms, take all the towels, throw them in the washing machine and I am done for my bathrooms and they're all clean and I make everything really accessible and easy, and so I kind of do that so I don't have to do everything on one day. So I want you to think about that.

Speaker 1:

You know tips on this, and what can you do more manageable, like implement a cleaning schedule, break down the chores into like half hour each day where you're just going ahead and doing it, and assign a specific task each day so that you're not overwhelmed and inconsistent. And if you have the luxury or you have the extra money, maybe it's a cleaning lady so that you don't have to worry about that. But you can do the same thing when you're going ahead and doing meals. Like today I am having chicken for supper and the leftover chicken I am making chicken noodle soup for tomorrow, because Dennis is going to be in chemotherapy tomorrow and for the next two days, and so I think I had to say what can I make it easier for me as well? I'm going to just take a quick drink of water here once. Okay.

Speaker 1:

Another one that I have is Dennis has now all of these meds and after he gets back from chemotherapy those two days I have to watch him really close. And so I'm pulling out the pulse oximeter I think is how you do it, but that one little thing that you put on your finger and a thermometer and medication and taking his blood pressure and Tylenol. So what I did is I designated one shelf in the cupboard in the kitchen where all of those things were always going to be there His Tylenol, his blood pressure cup, the thermometer and so on. This way all the items are in one place, making it easier to find when we need it quickly. And so something simple like that, because for a while there I would just take and I would plop them all, find them all. When I got home from chemotherapy I would go around the house, find where everything was, and then I'd plop them all on the countertop and then eventually I would be like, okay, where should I put all of these, or where were they all? And they were all in different spots, and so, like, dedicating that space now makes it easy, and it is the dedicated space for all of his things and it reduces that panic of trying to figure out where is it, when can I find it, what can we do, oh my gosh, and all that kind of stuff. Maybe it's like I have an ottoman in the living room where you open it up and you could put things in. Maybe it's something like that. Maybe you have everything in one spot there, whatever you can do, to go ahead and do that.

Speaker 1:

Now also think about technology and embracing technology, because it can be a game changer for you. Like I said, I had all my mom's doctor's contacts saved on my phone, along with the clinic and the hospital app that you can go ahead and access her appointments and medical information. I also used a digital calendar to schedule her appointments because then I could share those appointments across the board with my two siblings and I tried to focus in on I was working full time during my mom's three years that I was caregiving for her and Thursdays were my quietest work day, and so I tried with all my might if the doctors were in the office that day. We scheduled Thursday appointments because I knew Mondays were a no-go for me, because I facilitated at my corporate job. I facilitated new hires coming into the company and I managed a group of 28 people that were facilitating across the country, and so I wanted to make sure that I couldn't, if at all might. I couldn't do Mondays, and so, by having a dedicated schedule and looking at how can I leverage technology more, made it so much easier, because there's nothing worse than getting into the doctor's office and you forgot to do the pre-check-in and now you got to fill out the paperwork when you're there or you can't remember which day of the week you have to go, and everything's at your fingertips, especially when you're busy. So I want you to think about what digital tools can you take advantage of that will help you make your caregiver life easier? And are you utilizing the apps from the clinic or the hospital so that you can see the test results and assess the test results? I love Dennis's the doctor's apps that we use, because when Dennis gets his lab results, they also have a look at the trends app, especially with a cancer patient, so I can see his white blood cell count is high today. What's the trends been over the last two months now? Have they gone up? Then at that point I can make note of that and ask the doctor about that, and it's just another tool that can help you as well. And I could go on and on about all of the tools, but just kind of the skim the surface here Now.

Speaker 1:

Another one that I want to talk about is self-care. You know, amidst the challenges of caregiving it's easy for us to neglect our needs. I found that dedicating each morning to self-care was essential for me. In the challenging seasons I would walk right away in the morning. Like Dennis has an early morning doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, I am not going to hesitate to just get up and go and take the dogs for a walk. Now I don't know how I'm going to survive because windchills are so cold right now, but even if it's just a quick jog around the block with the dogs, I'm going to do that. Or maybe for you it's meditation or it's a quiet cup of coffee. Find some time to block off for you for your self-care and if you can make it a priority to go ahead and look at what time can I do that's going to work out every day and try to target that day.

Speaker 1:

I just bought this habit. Let me pull it out here. I'm going to pull my chair back and get it. It's called Habit Nest and at the first of the year I bought it. It's a journaling book. It's a journaling book that I can go ahead and work on when it comes to my physical health. But this habit nest, if you look at it, it's not a sponsor, it's not an ad, but I found this company. They have different ones to go ahead and help you journal, to help you meditate, to help you yoga, to help you lift weights, whatever it would be. They have all of these little ones. They have journaling books, which I'm more of a journaling book person. I love to write and check off when I do something, but they also have it in an app format too, and they have communities and as well. So when you prioritize your well-being, this routine not only charges you, but it enhances your ability to provide compassionate care.

Speaker 1:

Where can you go ahead and prioritize your self-care? Now I want you to think about it on a normal day. Where can I fit that in? For me, I have to do it in the morning, because if I wait until the evening, I'm talking myself out of it. And then I also want you to think about where can you add your self-care when you're in the busiest caregiving day, like if you're in an appointment day with your loved one, where can you go ahead and add your self-care? Are you going to get up earlier in the morning? Are you going to go ahead? If your loved one is having physical therapy, can you go ahead and walk around the clinic that day? Can you go get yourself a cup of coffee and sit in the cafeteria until your loved one is done? What can you do?

Speaker 1:

Or if you're in the midst of really heavy caregiving, what can you do? Like when my mom was in hospice care, my brother and sister we rotated and we all gave ourselves some time alone where I would go for a walk or I'd walk down to the mailbox, whatever I would do so that we could go ahead and manage our self-care. Schedule personal time. That's the big thing. Make self-care a non-negotiable part of your routine. Think about it as filling your gas tank of your car. You can't keep driving and driving and driving without running out of. You're going to eventually run out of gas and so you need to go ahead and look at yourself. Like when am I going to give myself fuel? Whether it's exercising, reading, meditating, enjoying a hobby, prioritizing your own well-being. It's crucial, and well-being can be physical, emotional, it can be spiritual maybe you go to church. It can be social. You need that once a week to just go for a walk with your friend or a lunch with your friend, so that you can go ahead and prevent burnout, and so that's part of the organization piece as well.

Speaker 1:

Now, I've only skimmed the surface, because there are so many ways that you can enhance your organization, like using different technologies for different things, setting reminders on your phone or on your Apple Watch, or whatever. You have to ensure nothing is overlooked. It can be decluttering space, or even when my kids were, when I was raising my kids here's another example raising my boys and I would swear that the dishwasher was invisible and nobody would put their stuff in the dishwashers, you know. And so what I did is I got creative. I wanted them to go ahead and, you know, use the dishwasher. And so I would go ahead and say, okay, I'm going to buy this funky little brush, spongy thing and I'm going to go ahead and do that, and whoever put their stuff in the dishwasher that was a good thing Whoever left their stuff out was the one responsible for unloading the dishwasher at the end of the day, and so it was kind of like a little game. But nothing stressed me out more than seeing all of the dishes there when all you had to do is rinse them off and put them in the dishwasher, and then at the end of the night we would just run it and we would be all set. And so maybe it's your closet, maybe it's clothes that are piled up that need to be folded, whatever it would be, if you can kind of look at trying to figure out ways to simplify things, that may help. Because when I do my towels on Tuesday, I just throw them in the washing machine, throw them in the dryer, bring the basket up and hang them back up. I don't go ahead and fold them all and put them in the linen closet. I just hang them back up, you know. So I don't go ahead and do that unless obviously, somebody needs a towel in the bathroom when they go to the bathroom. Well, you know that's something that's odd, but we can. I usually get it done in an hour and they're all back up and hanging back up.

Speaker 1:

So as we wrap up today's episode, I want you to take a moment to talk about recognizing your disorganization and the stress that it brings you. What does that stress feel like? What does that stress look like that it brings you? What does that stress feel like? What does that stress look like, especially now when you're in the caregiving role and juggling so many pieces? What does that feel like? How is that impacting you? Last week, I talked a lot about energy and fatigue.

Speaker 1:

Well, disorganization isn't just about clutter space. It is about cluttering space, but it's also about the mental and the emotional weight it comes with managing all of the chaos every day. For caregivers, the challenges are amplified by constant demands by provider care or the doctor care managing schedule and ensuring that everything runs smoothly. Managing schedules and ensuring that everything runs smoothly. The stress from disorganization can feel overwhelming, make it difficult for you to stay focused and maintain your own well-being. So it's important to acknowledge that trying to solve everything at once can be exhausting too.

Speaker 1:

So I don't want you to think about oh my God, this is where I'm disorganized and you identify 10 things. That's good that you've identified it, but I don't want you to say, oh God, now what am I going to do? I got to fix all of these. Well, I'm going to talk about doing them little by little and being able to go ahead and try to try one thing at a time. So, instead of adopting a strategic approach instead of instead adopt a strategic approach I'm laughing at myself can make the process more manageable and less stressful Because you don't want to go ahead and stress yourself out because you're trying to declutter and you're defeating the purpose. So here's the strategy that I have found that works for me, along with a simple journaling exercise to help you get started. So if you're listening to this and have access to a notebook, you can go ahead and grab your notebook. You can also go out to the blog today, which I'll have the link in the show notes, but it's kathielvancom forward slash blog. Forward slash 248, which is the episode number where I will have this listed if you can't write it down or if you're driving or whatever.

Speaker 1:

So here's the exercise I want you to identify the clutter causing the most stress. What I would do is I would identify all of it, take a piece of paper and just brainstorm it all out. These are all of the opportunities that I have, and I'm using opportunities as a positive thing and then now pick one. Pick one which clutter is stressing you out and take a few minutes to list all of the items or areas in your home that feel disorganized, like I said, and contribute to your stress. Don't worry about the order of importance and just pick one then. Then you can even try by rating them on a scale of one to 10, one being very minor, 10 being it's stressing me out. My closet was a nine for me because every morning I felt stressed by trying to find my hat, my gloves, my running shoes, where's my extra pair of socks if the windchill was cold out there, that kind of thing. And I have two pairs of shoes, because I have one that has cleats on it for, like the icy conditions, and one but I couldn't see everything underneath all the clutter.

Speaker 1:

And then you want to implement small practical solutions. If the dishes were a major stressor for you, then find a fun sponge and a spray bottle with dish soap or now they have the Dawn Power Spray and involve the kids or involve your significant others and say, okay, we have this funky new spray bottle and sponge and all we have to do is just kind of clean it up and then put them in the dishwasher and you establish that routine that you don't have to go ahead and do Now. The big thing is start small, focus on one area at a time to feel less overwhelmed Right now. I'm thinking right now. Another area that I'm struggling with is my sock drawer my socks and underwear drawer. I swear I've never gone out of the teenager years. It's a mess. It's a mess. What I do, though, to make my life less stressful is all my socks are the same color and the same brand, so I never have to worry about finding the other sock, because they're all black socks right now, and so I just pile them up. But it's a mess right now because some of them I have some of them in one spot and some of them in another. So, when you focus on one area at a time, though, you wanna celebrate progress by acknowledging and celebrating the small victory to be motivated, you know, then adapt your strategy. If it's a simple 15 minute fix, then saying you know what? I'm going to do it in 15 minutes today, and I'm going to turn some music on and I'm just going to celebrate that I got it organized, and I'm going to go ahead and pitch out the things that I don't need, or I'm going to go ahead and reorganize it in a different way.

Speaker 1:

Now, amidst the caregiving responsibility, it's crucial not to forget about your own self-care again, like we had talked about. During these challenging times, I found that early mornings are best for us. I want you to really think about where you're going to go ahead and include your self-care. I hope this is like a priority for you, a nine or a 10 for you. Maybe you experiment I've been experimenting now the last two weeks of where I'm like I move my walks from early mornings to 11 or 12 o'clock during the day because the sun is out at the highest peak and right now, in this crazy winter state of Wisconsin that we're in, I'm kind of losing that that I need more vitamin D, more or less.

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I need to get out of this funk sometimes, but now I'm thinking about it during chemotherapy time. I'm going to have to push it back, so I'm still playing with it and instead I'm doing my morning weightlifting in that slot. So it seems to be working the last couple weeks and I've been playing with it. But remember, self-care for you and finding a schedule is going to be an ongoing process and maybe for you you just need to pause and reflect and do your journaling. Well, doing that? Where are you going to do that and how are you going to prioritize that? And is there clutter, space in the way right now that's making you not relax? Or where are you doing it? That kind of thing? Maybe the night that you do it, you go ahead and set your journal out. Maybe even you have a candle next to it, saying that I know I'm going to light a candle and you have your coffee ready to brew and so all you have to do is set it on a timer or press a button when you're ready to go. Whatever you're doing, are you prioritizing it? Okay, well, I know I beat around the bush and kind of gave you all different ideas, but I'm hoping this episode gets you thinking about.

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Is disorganization causing you stress? Is it making your life feel? Are you feeling a little anxious? But before I end I have two quotes. I am a quote girl. I love quotes. I'm going to use the basic quote here from Benjamin Franklin. He says for every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned. Think about that With my closet. I'm not spending 10 minutes every morning now searching for everything, and if I put that times every day that I walk. That's 70 minutes, but more than that it's emotional frustration it's not there anymore. This quote serves as a powerful reminder that the time we invest in organizing our spaces can lead to greater efficiency and peace of mind as caregivers.

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Taking these small steps can make a significant difference in you reducing your stress, enhancing the quality of care for your loved one. Now, the other one I don't have an author, because it's been said different ways for many people, so I'm going to say unknown here. But organization isn't about perfection. It's about creating a space where you can thrive and take care of those you love. Yeah, by having that grab and go bag. Or by having your notes written out ahead of time for the doctor and you feel organized, walking into the doctor's office with your loved one, you're going to be doing that or by having your gas filled, so you're not frantically having to go ahead and fill up your gas before a doctor's appointment, whatever it would be. Remember, it's okay to take things one step at a time too. You don't have to solve everything all at once. Look at what is priority and prioritize what's most important and try implementing small changes and be kind to yourself throughout the process. Every little step towards organization can significantly reduce your stress, enhance your ability to provide compassionate care.

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So thank you for joining me today. From Kathy here, I want to say thank you. It has been a pleasure to go ahead and give you another episode. I'd love to know a little bit about your organization. Are you an organization expert and just love to go ahead and tackle things and stay organized, or are you trying to work on things and when you are organized or disorganized, what does that feel like for you? I hope this provided awareness for you. And here's to organization, my friend, and have a good rest of the week and we'll talk to you again next Tuesday. Bye for now.