Ms. G fell and broke her hip. She crawled to the bedroom, pulled her sheets, pillows and blankets down, crawled back to the kitchen and laid on the kitchen floor praying one of her neighbors would find her. A few days later, still on the floor, she crawled to the home office, found a near dead cell phone in the bottom of a random box stashed haphazardly on the floor and dialed 9-1-1.

Fast forward two weeks. Life Easier is referred by a Redfin real estate agent, “Ms. S is her sister. She needs help breaking down the house and getting Ms. G to a senior community.”

Fast forward another week and a half, April 12th Ms. S and I finally meet. She lives in Michigan and, also like me, loves coffee and pastries. We have torn the house apart, sorted it, and were able to get rid of items with no emotional attachment. Now Ms. S had the more difficult task of making some decisions for her sister.

As a caregiver herself and business owner who helps caregivers, Heidi knew the first meeting between the sisters post-accident might be difficult so she asked, “How did the first meeting go with your sister?”

Ms. S responded, “Well she’s refused all my calls until now. Now that I’m physically here, her only comment was that I looked fatter than the last time she saw me.”

Heidi shook her head and pulled Ms. S into a big bear hug and said, “That sucks, I’m sorry. You are an amazing sister to come down here to help Ms G. I’ve been there and I know this is tough. There’s never enough appreciation for what you have to go through as a caregiver.”

Ms. S left Saturday – a week and a half after she arrived. The nearly 2000 SF house went on the market the next day. Life Easier had sorted and emptied it in just three weeks(!), spending some extra time so Ms. S could see and approve anything to be sold or donated.

• Life Easier teamed up with Ms. S and her real estate agent to create the clean-out and move plan.
• 80% was kept out of a landfill by donation to charities or to recycling facilities both in and outside of the state.
• 6 charities benefited from all the donations!
• Life Easier arranged for an auctioneer to come and pick up sellable pieces. Proceeds from the auction will help offset some of the moving costs.
• Life Easier sold the armoire for her for $300 after the auctioneer turned it down. (Beast armoires like this are not popular these days.) Life Easier then made arrangements to have it delivered to the buyer.
• The cleaning people were arranged and scrubbed the house sparkling clean.
• Ms G’s furniture and loved items were moved to her new assisted living community.
• Life Easier even found her birth certificate. Turns out she’s two years older than she told everyone including her sister! ?

Heidi asked Ms. S on her last day, “How are you feeling?”

Ms. S enthusiastically replied, “Absolutely FANTASTIC!!! You guys are worth every penny!”

Read more Stories from the Frontlines of Clutter