Maureen Thibodeau 
Estate Sale Planner and Personal Home Organizer
Maureen is from Acworth, NH.  She has been an organizer since her childhood.  She relayed stories of organizing her mother's pantry by sorting canned goods alphabetically.  She found it fun as a child to clean and organize her home...she considered this a play time activity.
 
She then reviewed how she evolved into a personal home/office organizer and estate sale planner. She believes she was born with a cleaning and organizing gene.
 
She described that after her brother had a motorcycle crash, she used her skills to help her brother leverage his limited resources to keep his apartment and help him with various financial issues.  She then helped her family prepare for the estate sale following her father's death.
 
A friend in Connecticut encouraged her to consider using her organizational skills as her profession.  
 
Maureen gave us tips for dealing with clutter.  She believes when you manage clutter you can decrease your stress, improve your health and keep you from injury, make the resale of your home more successful, and even earn some money along the way.
 
Downsizing helps you get rid of stuff you really don't need or want. You can begin downsizing at any age. You start by developing a plan/strategy for every room or space in your home or on your property. She gave us a sheet that can help you determine is an item is a "must have', something that your strongly like, something you can do without, or something you dislike or don't care about. This then leads to determining what is trash/rubbish, what should be donated and what you might want to resell or give away.
 
She suggests that you actually schedule time on your calendar to devote to this work.  It may be easier to start small, and tackle one area at a time.
Maureen then spent time reviewing planning for estate sales.  She reminded us that this can be an emotionally charged time as you deal with a loved one's possessions.  Each person needs to determine how involved they want to be in the process. The emotional connection can make it hard to do on your own.
 
Final thoughts:
  • Don't procrastinate...get started. 
  • Think about things that add to clutter daily and deal with them immediately.  Examples, sorting mail into trash, things to be reviewed, and important papers; putting laundry away...never leave a room empty handed...put unwanted stuff in the trash or recycling.
  • Clean-up after yourself.
  • Set up a filing system for important papers.
  • If you have things for value, know the value and record it with supporting documentation.
  • Really important papers should be kept in a fireproof container.
You can call Maureen at (603) 863-8168
 
The book for the children's collection at the Kilton Library given in honor of Maureen is Ideas Are All Around.