Monday, September 17, 2007

You've Come a Long Way, Baby!

It took "Renee" some time to get up the courage to contact me. She saw an article about me in the Sylvania Advantage.
And thought ... enough is enough.
Then sent me an email in July.
I promptly responded and encouraged her to check out my blog.


A few weeks later, she took another step and set up a consult appointment with me. As Renee showed me her home, I watched and listened to her. She was tense, nervous, embarrassed, obviously upset she was showing me around.



The area I felt needed to be addressed first was her bedroom. Papers, bags, clothes and other items covered her floor.







Another area was her garage. She recently moved and the garage is where everything went that didn't make it into her home.

As she told me her story, I continued to listen, finally saying:
"This is a big job. I can help you.
There is no reason to worry about this any longer."

Why I love my job is people like Renee. When I showed up to our appointment, she came nearly running out the door:
"I am SO glad you are here!"

Now, she was stressing about her family arriving home and she was glad I was there to support her. This response to my arrival was WAY better than the first grumble,
"I can't believe I am letting you do this."

We broke down what needed to be done in small tasks.
Got the home in GREAT shape, then finished sorting through her garage.










Renee treated herself to a new bedding set.
And she thought she could get two cars into the garage.

We opened and sorted out all her stuff. Renee needs to continue going through some boxes and let go of many more things. She will, I'm coming back to check on her.

She made amazing progress.
She is extremely happy with her home.
I am very proud of her.
I saw how difficult this project was for her.
Best part is, Renee smiles a lot more now.

Thank you "Renee" for being brave enough to contact me.
And now, you have been blogged.

How have you helped someone overcome a fear?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i was very lucky to have a place of my own even though i just moved here 6 yrs ago. after a series of apartments and roommates, i finally bought a house. i moved in 3 yrs ago. it took me two years to empty all the boxes and have my car park in its own home, my garage. i didn't know i own a lot of stuff. finally last year i was able to purge, donate and throw away things. i still need a bit of trimming with regards to my cds but i'm getting there. my keep things/stuff has a place of its own and i'm happy.