The incredible lightness of cleaning, Cindy Rhys’s way

SALISBURY — A large number of people, conceding by their presence that they need help, attended Cindy Rhys’ Lighten Up! presentation at Noble Horizons on Saturday, July 9.

In the promotional material, Rhys described the topic as “de-cluttering and downsizing for the reticent and overwhelmed.”

Rhys, an energetic and humorous person, told a story of a client — an elderly man who was moving and needed help sorting through a lifetime’s worth of stuff.

Complicating the scenario was a somewhat tense atmosphere between the client and his adult son.

Just getting into the house was a challenge, Rhys said.

And the client was slumped in a chair in the kitchen, looking unkempt and surrounded by bags filled with papers.

Father and son were, apparently, arguing about the fate of a coffee table before Rhys arrived.

Rhys said she believes in taking these things in small, manageable doses — two or three hours per day.

And on the third day, when she came to the house, the client himself answered the door — clean, neat, wearing a freshly ironed shirt and looking completely different from the man she had met a couple days before.

“There was a physical change in his face,” Rhys said.

Which brought her to the first rule of decluttering: “You Are Not Your Stuff.”

And the second rule: “Your Stuff Does Not Control You.”

Rhys asked the audience how many were planning to move in the next 10 years. A lot of hands went up.

“Gotta start now,” said Rhys. “If you’re moving and you’re unprepared, other people will make these decisions for you.

“Think deeply about the things that surround you,” she continued.

A rather dramatic exercise is to imagine the house burns down, destroying everything except the clothes you are wearing and your wallet or purse.

“What would you miss most? That question will refine your thinking.”

If there is a short-term disability, are critical documents (such as financial papers, wills, insurance policies, property titles) in a place where someone can find them?

Rhys said before doing anything else, it is important to get those important documents together and organized.

And then proceed in a deliberate manner.

“De-cluttering is not to act hastily,” she said, noting the time she found an original birth certificate in a bag of otherwise useless receipts.

Rhys said that, “Letting go is not a natural state — it is a learned response. To let go and not grab anything else takes practice.”

She also cautioned against starting off by buying a bunch of plastic storage containers.

“Containers are for hoarders.”

Instead, get some ordinary cardboard boxes and start sorting items under these categories: keep, toss, recycle, donate, shred.

“Whatever I touch goes into one of the boxes.”

Do this in one room and one room only.

And like a horror movie, do not go into the basement to stash something.

Why not?

“Because you’ll get stuck in the basement. We’ll need to send a search party.”

For help and more information, go to www.onthemoveconsultants.info.