March 23, 2007
By Nissa LaPoint
Denver Business Journal
Putting 'em in their place
Allen offers seniors workshops to help them clean up a lifetime of memories and possessions
Sally Allen
Kathleen Lavine | Business Journal
Sally Allen of A Place For Everything uses her experience moving and her knowledge to help people make organization a habit.
Joan Kennedy couldn't let go of the bridesmaid's dress she kept from her wedding -- and in the larger picture, realized she didn't want to clean out her family home prior to moving into Covenant Village.
Along came Sally Allen, founder of A Place For Everything LLC, a Golden home-based business that helps people organize important aspects of their lives.
Through her newest service, Allen advised Kennedy and three other senior citizens about the easiest ways to sort, purge, donate and move their family's possessions before moving into a smaller living space, such as at Covenant Village, a retirement community at 9153 Yarrow St. in Westminster.
Allen developed her workshop series for seniors, called "Right Sizing -- Right Now" for several reasons: As more baby boomers start to retire, the number of senior citizens will increase in the United States -- and many of them will live longer than previous generations. They want to minimize the burden on their adult children, but many lack the energy to do a massive cleanup and reorganization of their possessions.
"I'm all alone and I'm a widow," Kennedy said. "I needed motivation [to organize] and I didn't start until this class ... [Allen] was able to break it down into sections for us."
Allen walks clients through the organization process in four sessions in the workshop. She gives them an organizing workbook, and advises seniors to pick a day and time to begin organizing their homes, then write it on a calendar. Then she said they should pick one object in a room to work on at a time.
"Sally told me to hang [the bridesmaid's dress] out in the open every day for me to see," Kennedy said. "That way, if you do that, you get sick of it ... I donated it to the Lupus Foundation and that made it much easier for me to do."
Allen said she's marketing the workshop to adult children of seniors because seniors don't want to pay for organization help nor do they want to talk about it. It's hard for them to let go of cherished family possessions, she said.
If so, Allen will ask them such questions as, "When was the last time you used it? What would be the worst thing that happened if you let go of this? Why is it meaningful to you?"
Rightsizing a family home also is important for seniors so that their busy adult children, who have full-time jobs and a family, don't have to organize their parents' house after they pass away, Allen said.
"Another reason rightsizing is important is so [seniors] can leave a clean legacy for their children," Allen said. "That's what very few of them think about."
For her workshops for seniors, Allen charges $100 per person for the full program, which consists of four two-hour sessions. She hopes to hold the workshops at churches, hotels or retirement communities.
"The good news is with the right approach and enough time and a little luck, cleaning out the family home can be a positive experience," Allen told the workshop seniors at Covenant Village.
Allen has offered organizational services for 10 years, helping individuals and businesses organize their offices and homes, and helping clients relocate and settle into a new home and improve time management.
She gives seminars and hands-on training for businesses across the country. She uses her experience -- she's moved 19 times herself, because her husband's job as a geologist and her job with Marriott required frequent moves -- and knowledge to help people make organization a habit, she said.
After giving seminars at businesses, Allen will immediately apply what she just taught, helping several people in the office to organize their work areas, she said.
For example, in an office situation she will challenge her clients to make it a habit not to put paperwork down on any available surface, but to take it to its final destination, like in a file.
"It will take 10 minutes to deal with now," Allen said. "[But] if the paperwork piles up, it will take hours to deal with later."
Allen also will go through closets and rooms with clients to help them organize.
One client, Allen said, for years lived with piles of things stacked up on every single surface of her the house.
"She had grocery bags full of things, tote bags full of things and every single surface was full," Allen said. "We finally got her master bedroom and guest bedroom cleared out and brought in housekeepers to clean it for the first time, probably, in five years."
Today, Allen said, people are overwhelmed and don't have time to organize. And because they want instant gratification, they buy too many things -- further cluttering their homes.
"We are a culture of excess, and we just keep purchasing and purchasing and everybody has to have the newest and the best," Allen said. "But people forget that if you put one thing in, you have to take the other out. But we don't do that on a regular basis, and that's why I have a thriving business."
Details
Company: A Place For Everything
Phone: 303.526.5357
Web site: www.aplaceforeverythingllc.com
[Note: Sally Allen also plans to offer her senior workshops at corporations.]