It’s amazing what my clients find when we clean out a long ignored space. Often these items come with amazing stories.
Names have been changed and stories have been approved to share…..
Sandra lived alone in a beautiful home on a hill, overlooking a busy commercial area. While she has the home most people dream about there was one room that she was ashamed to show her guests. Only her closest friends knew it existed, let alone had even seen it. She called it her “Chaos Room”. Thus the name stuck as a moniker for that catch-all space most people have in their homes. It’s what keeps me busy!
For years Sandra treated this small room as the place to put things she wasn’t sure what to do with. So it’s varied collection of items included office supplies, pictures, wrapping paper, books, collectibles from her trips around the world, a TV and much more. There was also a good layer of dust on most items. This was actually the first time I realized I should have brought a dust mask and safety goggles, but hadn’t yet thought about adding them to my ‘go kit’.
At the end of our third hour working on the room we wrapped up the visit by scheduling another two hours the following week to finish up. This is when she spotted it, a torn white t-shirt on top of a filing cabinet, under a book.
Her face lit up with a huge mischievous smile when she grabbed it. I could see her mind go back in time and she asked “Do you want to know what this is?” Of course I said yes and she proceeded to tell me the story of her 50th birthday party. Her girlfriends took her into the city for dinner and a show. But little did she know that they were going to see the Chippendales. After quite a few adult beverages the manager asked if she wanted to go on stage and she gladly agreed. Not one to shy away from a good time she very much enjoyed the solo strip tease experience. And at the very end when he finally ripped his tank top off and threw it on her she knew it was a night she’d never forget.
But she did forget it for most of the last 12 years and was beyond thrilled to take the trip down memory lane with me. I was just happy to have seen someone experience such joy in a happy memory. Inspired by this I decided to reach out to some of my old friends from fun times past. It’s never too late to reconnect.
A Harmonized Space 