Embark on a journey with me, Marcy Backhus, as I reveal how transforming your space can lead to a tranquil mind. Picture the warmth of the Arizona sun as I weave tales of retirement bliss, from launching a church book club to private art viewings in Chicago. You'll be inspired to tackle your own cluttered corners and overstuffed drawers with my personal tales of decluttering triumphs—from mismatched socks to the poignant farewell to a shelf of well-loved novels. I'm rolling up my sleeves and guiding you through the refreshing process of creating a serene home environment, one cherished item at a time.
As the conversation takes a sobering turn, I stress the critical importance of emergency preparedness for my peers, especially for the 27% of us over 60 flying solo. Learn the lifesaving signs of a heart attack and the immediate steps to take that could very well save your life. I'll share the essentials of having a medical info list ready, securing your furry friends for the safety of all, and the significance of staying composed in the face of crisis. Join me for this heart-to-heart as we embrace the coming spring with open arms and a newfound appreciation for the beauty of an organized life and the peace of mind that comes with being prepared for the unexpected.
Embark on a journey with me, Marcy Backhus, as I reveal how transforming your space can lead to a tranquil mind. Picture the warmth of the Arizona sun as I weave tales of retirement bliss, from launching a church book club to private art viewings in Chicago. You'll be inspired to tackle your own cluttered corners and overstuffed drawers with my personal tales of decluttering triumphs—from mismatched socks to the poignant farewell to a shelf of well-loved novels. I'm rolling up my sleeves and guiding you through the refreshing process of creating a serene home environment, one cherished item at a time.
As the conversation takes a sobering turn, I stress the critical importance of emergency preparedness for my peers, especially for the 27% of us over 60 flying solo. Learn the lifesaving signs of a heart attack and the immediate steps to take that could very well save your life. I'll share the essentials of having a medical info list ready, securing your furry friends for the safety of all, and the significance of staying composed in the face of crisis. Join me for this heart-to-heart as we embrace the coming spring with open arms and a newfound appreciation for the beauty of an organized life and the peace of mind that comes with being prepared for the unexpected.
Hello and welcome to the AJA for Sissy's Podcast. My name is Marcy Backes and I am your host. Well, I missed an episode last week. It feels weird, but just life. I was traveling, things happened and I didn't put up an old episode, I didn't do anything. So hopefully you have found your way back here and we can get settled in for a new episode this week. So grab your coffee, grab your ice-cheat, grab your Diet Coke, whatever you need, sit back, relax and we will get started. So, wow, I have like two weeks to catch up on. Well, let's see this week.
Speaker 1:Where I'm coming to you from is from my nephew, david and his wife Angie's home here in Arizona. They graciously let me stay for a whole week so I could soak up some sun, get some warmth, before I head back to Chicago. My husband, craig, is flying in right now. He'll be here with us for the weekend. We have some fun things planned for the weekend and then Craig and I will go home on Sunday. So I hope your last few weeks have been great. I'm trying to think it's been a bit quiet.
Speaker 1:I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I got a facial here in Arizona. It was awesome. Self-care always important. You know I'm a big advocate for self-care. I also, on Tuesday, went out with one of my dearest friends. We were buddies when we both lived in Oregon and our kids grew up our daughters especially we're in the same classes and things and she lives here in Arizona, so I was able to go out to lunch with my buddy, joan. We had a great time. It's one of those kind of friendships you just feel like no time has passed when you meet, and I do adore that and I cherish those types of friendships. I hope you have those types of friends too, from living in different places. I do have quite an array of friends in my life. So, and you know the fun thing, last Friday, the 9th, one of my new friends in Chicago, one of my pool pals. She invited me to a day at the Art Museum. Her son has worked at the Art Institute for 26 years and he gave us a private tour of a couple of the collections. It was a lovely, a lovely lunch.
Speaker 1:I am really, really embracing this time of life. It took me a while, I think when you retire, I didn't work a whole lot when my kids were growing up. I did little things here and there. And then when Alec was a senior, I went to work for the City of Irvine and did a good 10 years there. So that's what I retired from. But I'm finally kind of settling into this retirement life. I'm finding my niche, I'm finding things to do.
Speaker 1:Craig and I, our church, st James Cathedral in Chicago. We are now starting a book club at church. So we're very excited about that. They are getting the ministries going again. We had a leadership meeting on Saturday before I flew out to Arizona and in that leadership meeting Craig and I have taken the leadership position of the book group. But they have added all there's leadership positions. There's a dinner club, the book club, we have a parish picnic. We have all kinds of things that are going to be happening. And people stepped up, stepped up at that meeting and took leadership roles. So Craig and I will be doing that and we're doing just a secular book club. It's not. The books don't have to have religious tone to them at all. Actually, the less the better. If somebody wants to start a religious book club, that's great. But this one, craig and I, are just looking at doing books and things that are popular right now, books that we have enjoyed. So we're looking forward to that. It'll be on the first Tuesday of every month and we will be meeting at our church, so Craig and I are so much looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:Starting that, let's see what else has happened in the last couple of weeks. I'm not too much, you know. It's been beautiful in Chicago. On and off We've had excuse me, it's been cold here this morning in Arizona, arizona, my nose is running. Chicago's had some beautiful weather, I'm not going to complain and it has not been a rough winter at all. But I have enjoyed being here and soaking up sun. I lay out in the backyard on the chase lounge with the dogs and we soak up sun. During the afternoon. I've done some fun things here done a little shopping, a little this, a little that, and tonight we are going out for dinner the four adults and tomorrow we are going on rideables. So I'll let you know about it next week. But what it is? I found this in Old Town Scottsdale here in Arizona. They have these little characters you can ride. They're like I don't know animals. There's giraffes, there's unicorns, there's all kinds of things and they take you on a tour of Old Town Scottsdale. So that's going to be fun. Then we're going to go out to lunch and just enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful weather here. I have no complaints.
Speaker 1:So today, in the body of our podcast, I've realized I've talked a lot about getting rid of things, downsizing, decluttering. We've had a few episodes about that, but what I do realize is that it's not as easy for everyone as it may be for someone like me who is just a hucker, a tosser and a hucker, and I thought maybe we would take something this week and talk about easy decluttering something just to give you some wins to get you started. So if you're one of those people that struggles with throwing things out, getting rid of things, today's episode is for you. We're going to talk about gently decluttering, gently tossing, and when I say tossing, it may mean that you give it to a charity. It may mean that you are a little bit too a charity, it may mean that you actually need to toss it and it may mean that you give it to a friend, and then there may be some things that you just put away, get them out of the rotation type thing. So we're going to talk about that and I hope that this episode today for those of you that struggle with this, but it's a really important thing to do, especially as we get older.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm going to get on my soapbox about clutter in your life is clutter in your brain. When you walk into a room and it's cluttered, it affects everyone, let me tell you. It affects everyone differently, but it is not a positive effect. And if you want to make positive changes in your life, whether it be for health or wealth or wellness, whatever it is you need to live in a decluttered space. It's important. So today we're going to talk about that 21 easy things to toss. So sit back and we're going to get started with that. All right back into the board, talking about 21 easy things to toss. And again, I do recognize that for all of you, tossing is not necessarily easy. And again, when I say toss, I'm not talking about throwing it out, not all of it. Anyway. I'm meaning remove it from your home, put it, have it live where it needs to live, somewhere else. So the first thing we're going to talk about today it's super easy Socks with holes or singles.
Speaker 1:Why, oh why, do you have singles in your drawer? That other sock is long gone. You haven't found it in a year, you're not going to find it, and if you do, you're going to get rid of it too. So toss your socks with holes and singles, and I'm also going to throw this, this in there. Gee, you have underwear. Does your husband have underwear? Holy socks that are underwear that the elastic doesn't work. Please treat yourself to some new underwear and some new socks. G clutter the ones that don't serve a purpose, and those are things I honestly think you could toss, all right. So we've. We've cleaned out that drawer, right, we've got our socks organized. Now then go in and organize your socks. I've just done that recently. I'm not a big sock wearer I hate wearing socks, as a matter of fact, but in Chicago it is a necessary evil sometimes. So I've just done this. I've gone through and I've pulled anything that was missing. Get that sock drawer and underpants drawer cleaned out.
Speaker 1:Number two we are going to move on to old magazines and junk mail. I'm thinking as maybe my generation, but a little behind us in their fifties. People don't have magazines so much anymore. We don't get magazines as much as we used to. But go through them, get rid of them. They're online people. If there's an article and there's a recipe, go in, clip it out online to do a screenshot of it. If you don't know how to screenshot, teach yourself that on your computer, super easy and place it in a file on your computer. You do not need to keep magazines, you do not need to keep junk mail. And there's one more thing I'm going to throw in there. You don't need to keep menus from your favorite takeout. They have them online. So those are some things that you can recycle.
Speaker 1:Number three now this one, I think, is going to be tricky, because there's no way Craig would ever get rid of a book. My friend Mary would never get rid of a book anyway either. But if you really don't have a library, you aren't holding onto your books. Take your books to your friends of the library there's usually one at every library and they put them in their resell and donate them. You can write it off on your taxes, talk to your accountant first and they get donated and they live a second life. And if you are somebody that doesn't feel you need to hold onto books, you just do because you don't know what to do with them. Take them to your local library and they usually have a friends of the library attached and that money that is earned at friends of the library goes to support the library. So think about that.
Speaker 1:Now. This one is important, and I, if you do this when you're decorating so outdated home and holiday decor. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about home decor. First, look around your home. The beauty about downsizing, I'm going to tell you, is that everything Craig and I have in our house we love, because there's not room to have things you don't love, there's not room for clutter. Now Patrick the cat decided the other night a beautiful yellow vase that I've had since Kyle was a baby. I remember buying it. It was a very interesting yellow vase, very heavy, as a matter of fact. Well, while I was here in Arizona, patrick decided to push it off the table, break it and then when Craig came out in the middle of the night, patrick was just down looking at it, shattered on the ground. So but the beauty about our space is everything we have curated it like a museum to have everything that we love, from the artwork on the walls to the furniture, to the pillows. Everything is things that we love. I suggest you do that with your own home. And another thing I used to do in my home when I had a bigger home. I would take all the knickknacks and things from every room, put it on the dining table and then I'd take them and replace them and it gave you a whole new fresh feeling. So if you want to do something like that, do that and anything you have left over.
Speaker 1:Get rid of Holiday decor Every time at this age. Every time a holiday comes up and you decorate, you should be getting rid of things you should not be purchasing. Now I have purchased a few things the last few years living in the condo because I just didn't have things to fit certain spots, but I have also gotten rid of. So make sure these times when you're decorating, either give it to your kids if it's things for them or donate it. But every time you're decorating for a holiday, make sure that you're getting rid of things as well.
Speaker 1:Expired pantry items. This is the worst and I know my mom. You know my mom was the worst and I think this is generally happens a lot. You know you look and stuff in their refrigerator and they could have it from like 1978, I swear. But go through your own refrigerator, get rid of things. You know I have learned that the Dollar Tree has condiments and things like that in much smaller bottles. Craig and I don't need a giant bottle of ketchup. First of all, craig doesn't eat condiments, so I get a smaller bottle of ketchup. I get a much smaller thing of mayonnaise at the Dollar Tree. I can afford mayonnaise at the regular grocery store but they're gigantic and I'm never going to go through that. So think about that. Think about looking at the Dollar Tree for smaller items when you don't need to buy as big of an item. So go through your expired pantry and refrigerator.
Speaker 1:Get rid of old notebooks and journals. Okay, mismatched Tupperware. If you people are holding on to mismatched Tupperware, shame on you. Get rid of it, recycle it, get rid of it. I only have and again, because I only have room for what works and what nests I have to have things that nest because in our condo I don't have room for hither and yawn. And let me tell you I don't eat my whole meal when I go out anymore, so I always get a Tagot container. These Tagot containers they've been giving me lately are pretty nice. I keep them more than my Tupperware. Let's see here Okay, incomplete games or puzzles, or puzzles you've already done. Donate them to donate puzzles to a retirement home. They love puzzles or friends that love to do puzzles. Do a puzzle trade if you're a puzzle doing family, but get rid of games and puzzles that are missing pieces. You don't need to hold on to that Expired beauty products.
Speaker 1:I suggest that you get a list from the internet on how long mascara, eye shadow, foundation, blush last and if yours have been in there a long time time, to toss and get new. Or if you're like me, I have tried to minimize my beauty routine, as I've minimized everything else in my life and I'm only keeping things that I actually like in my beauty box that I use to get ready. So get go through it, get rid of it. Warn out rags and towels. Oh, please, get rid of those. You don't need them.
Speaker 1:Unusable freezer food. Good Lord, go through that freezer If something you have no idea what it is. Bye, bye and shame on you for not labeling it when it went in. But go through your freezer. I went through mine a while ago. I had some frozen vegetables that have been there just a little too long. Got rid of those. I know it's hard, but you know sometimes we overbuy or we buy things like cauliflower rice we think we want and then we hate it and realize I should just eat regular rice and eat less of it. So, cauliflower, anyways, go through your freezer. Get rid of those things.
Speaker 1:All these things I'm talking about today make it easy, make it light, make it fun. You don't have to do it all in one day. I will put this list up on my website, wwwaging8forsissy'spodcastcom. It'll be on the resources page. You can print this list out. You can work from it. Do one a week, do two a week until you've done them all.
Speaker 1:All right, where are we at? We are at broken or outgrown toys. Okay, you probably don't have kids anymore, obviously, but you may have grandkids. If you've got broken or toys that they can't use anymore, do a toy swap with some of your other grandparent friends. Do a toy swap If you have a high chair and you no longer have young ones. Find out if there's someone in your neighborhood that has grandkids that needs a high chair. Find a new home and a new use for these things. They're not meant to be put in a closet. They're not meant to not be used. Items like this are meant to be used. Make sure they're being used. Okay, here's a good one Gifts that you won't use. If you get something and you don't like it, either re-gift it or get rid of it.
Speaker 1:Worn out sheets and bedding, please, please, please. Now, I used to have so much of that stuff because there was room. Now that there's not room, I have one of those. I do those sucker bags with the vacuum. I love those and when you have a small place they're great. But I have two pillows the sheets and the comforter for our fold-up bed that we use when guests come and I suck that down and it's all. It's like a package Ready to go. When someone comes, we undo that, we get it ready and we make the bed. I also have one more. If I have to have someone on the couch and other than that, I don't have anything. Craig and I have two sets of sheets. When those get yucky out, they go, new ones come in. I have a cup full of different duvet covers just because I like them for different times of the year. But if you have extra excess, get rid of it.
Speaker 1:Towels, sheets, comforters, things like that. Look at your local rescues. They need them for the animals. So if you're going through your towels. You're going through those things. That is super important to look at giving them to a rescue Toiletries. No one actually uses Out the door dinosaur hairspray you, hey moose. You don't use anymore. Let it go.
Speaker 1:People Expired medicines and prescriptions absolutely let those go. But when you do that, take them back to the pharmacy. They usually have a place or if you have a hospital near you, they have a place to dump old prescriptions. Do not put them in the water system or the trash system. They seep into the land and they hurt the animals. So make sure you're disposing of expired medicines and prescriptions correctly.
Speaker 1:Retired exercise equipment and donate it. If you're not using it, get rid of it. Put it on free on your neighborhood, your neighborhood listing. Give it to those that will use it. I had a bunch of at home exercise equipment. I've got rid of it all because I go to the gym now. I don't need it. I don't have room for it. It has to go.
Speaker 1:Okay, old, discolored pillows? Okay, look at your pillows. If they are gross, get rid of them. You can get them at Costco, you can get them at Target, you can get them at Walmart. They're not expensive. You don't even want to know how much dust, mites and grossness are in your pillows. Get rid of them. Get new ones.
Speaker 1:Excess cleaning products Again, I've just done this. Only keep the cleaning products that you enjoy. If there's some you don't see if a neighbor enjoys them, give them a second life, but don't let them just sit in your cupboard. If you don't enjoy that particular product, move it along. Dead electronics and chargers I'm telling you here and now all those cords that you have saved, you don't need them. You haven't touched them in three or four years. Everything has been moved on, everything is updated. Make sure you only have the electronics and cords that you use and need. Do not need that drawer of crazy wires. Okay, so this one's a big one for me right now.
Speaker 1:Clothes that don't fit right now. Well, since I lost 50 pounds, a lot of my clothes don't fit right now. So I did go through my closet, my winter closet, and took out two giant trash bags and three small ones of clothes that just don't fit. And then what I did was I went to what are the things you should have in your closet. I found a list and I made sure that I got pants that fit that list and that fit me, because there's nothing worse than ill-fitted clothes, I think. So go through anything that doesn't fit right now. If you're between sizes, put it in a rubber made, put it in the garage. I'm okay with that. If you think you're going to use it, put the date on it. You put it in the garage. If you don't open it in a year, just don't even look in it, take it and let it go. So if that's something that you're more comfortable with with clothing, then do that.
Speaker 1:I have all those clothes. I haven't donated them. I'm still struggling because there's been a lot of times in my life I've lost weight and I've regained weight. I don't intend to do it this time. I've made much bigger mental changes and physical changes, so I don't think I'm going to slide back. I got to work on that and so I understand that part. It's a lot of really nice clothes that I just put in those bags. I've always dressed nice, whether I'm fat or thin, but it is a mental game. So I understand that part. So put them, label them. If you don't use them in a year, if you don't get into them in a year, bye-bye Out the door, dinosaur, as I say.
Speaker 1:So this is a list of 21 things that you can do to easily toss right now. Don't make it a big deal. I'm going to put that list up on the website. If you have questions, feel free to agingfastoneatgmailcom. That's the number one, agingfastoneatgmailcom. The website is wwwaging8vorsesyspodcastcom. On there you always have my resources. You can also listen to the episodes from that. Again, you can get these episodes on all of the platforms. I don't think I'm not on any of the platforms, I'm on all of them.
Speaker 1:That was a lot to say. I hope that life is going good for you. Don't forget we've talked about this it is tax time. When I get home, I know next week I'm going to be home for a week and then I'm flying to California. I'm going to be home for a week and a half. That week and a half I have on my list of to-dos get the tax stuff ready for Craig, my part of it. If you are in that mode, work on your taxes. Don't forget Again, we've talked about you can find free places to help you with your taxes in your senior years if you need that, hang in there. I've got a senior moment for you. I hope this little toss away was helpful.
Speaker 1:Aarp had a really good article on how to save your own life. We're going to talk about just one of them. Good or bad, it doesn't matter. A lot of us are living alone. Some 27% of Americans 60 and older are living alone. Being our own advocate and relying on ourselves is super important.
Speaker 1:Let's just talk about if you're having chest pains. If the discomfort that lasts for more than a few minutes goes on and comes back again, especially with activity, it may signal a heart attack or some cardiovascular event. This can feel like a dull, ache, uncomfortable pressure, chest fullness or a squeezing sensation, jaw pain, shoulder, back, neck discomfort. First of all, call 911. Do not attempt to drive yourself to the hospital. You want to save your own life. This is what you do. You call 911, you let them know that you're having chest pains.
Speaker 1:Pop an aspirin to get into your bloodstream faster. Keep aspirin in your kitchen or an area of your home that you're normally in. You don't want to be moving around too much, but if you need to get the aspirin, it's important. Put it under your tongue or chew it to get into your bloodstream faster. Pull together your meds Now.
Speaker 1:I carry a list of medications. I don't take a lot, but I do have that list on my phone because when I was going to the hospital a lot and having some issues, I needed to have that information. My suggestion is that you have that Always. Take a picture of your excuse me, your medical card front and back. If you can unlock your front door to make it easy for the paramedics to enter.
Speaker 1:If you have animals, try to secure them. Sit down, preferably in a comfortable chair near the entrance of your home. Take slow, deep, calming breaths. The more you can control your natural instinct to not panic, the better. That is how to save yourself.
Speaker 1:Think about those things. Have your home set up, especially if you live alone, so that you can help yourself in an emergency. Have your pets trained. That's super important, especially dogs. Cats are a little harder, but normally if someone comes into the home, the cats scatter. Dogs want to be a part of everything. If you can put them in a sit and a stay and if you train that to do that when the door opens, it will really help your first responders. It will help keep your pets safe, because there's nothing worse than going to the hospital and your door being open with the paramedics and your animal getting out.
Speaker 1:Really think about that. Do a run through, just like you would for the fire department. I used to run my kids through fire drills at home and I can suggest that you do that as well. For this, have yourself a plan. The thing about a plan is the reason that we do plans, the reason we walk kids out every month onto the playground through a fire drill, because if you do it enough, it becomes an instinct. When, when emergencies happen, you react better. I hope that was all a helpful episode this week. I love doing this. I love talking to you. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope life is good. Spring is around the corner, yay, and remember AJ and A Prasissi.