This was a previously recorded interview on the podcastSustainability Explored.
Do you wonder if being green in decluttering means keeping garbage? Are you curious where to start decluttering and what you need to avoid? Have you found yourself in a FOMO or a JOMO frame of mind most often? Learn about green decluttering and eco organizing.
To learn more about Anna and the Sustainability Explored: https://annachashchyna.com/
Anna’s podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxh1erc0uQCnGEA9MRtsutA
To learn how Julie can support you: https://reawakenyourbrilliance.com/
Certified life coach, author & award-winning professional life organizer Julie Coraccio shares steps and tips to support you in creating the life you choose, deserve and desire through decluttering your life, mindfulness and how to organize your life.
About Clear Your Clutter Inside & Out
Clutter is stuck stagnant energy and prevents you from creating the life you choose, desire and deserve. We discuss clutter in all its forms: energetic, spiritual, emotional, mental & physical, relationships, health, finances and more. We share tips and take action steps for clutter free living and how to organize your life and death with end of life planning. We’re thinking outside the box on areas where people might not realize where clutter is blocking them. When we remove clutter from our lives we can discover our passions, lead the extraordinary lives we are all meant to live and share our gifts with the world.
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Transcript
Julie Coraccio 0:00
Today on Clear Your Clutter inside now we’re talking about sustainability explored. Do you wonder if being green in the cluttering means keeping garbage? Are you curious where to start to cluttering? And what you need to avoid? Have you found yourself in a FOMO? Or a Jomo frame of mind most often? Learn about green decluttering, and eco organizing as we continue our month focusing on interviews. Do you control your clutter? Or does your clutter control you? Unclear your clutter inside now, we’ll teach you awareness as well as action steps to create change in your life. Come on, let’s get started. I am passionate about sustainable decluttering. And organizing. I know they’re not always the most listened to on popular on my podcast. But I’m gonna keep sharing these because it gives me hope that I’m planting a seed. I also talk a lot about end of life organizing something that I’m definitely very interested in doing, and sharing because I think there’s so very important. So we’ll talk a little bit of green and some other things today. And it is on the sustainably explored past podcast with Anna and I’m not even going to try to pronounce her name. She’s from the Ukraine. And she says at the beginning just because I have a track record for butchering any everything. Especially when it comes to pronounciation super excited because this was my first interview from someone the Ukraine, that’s probably the farthest away from me that I have done an interview. So it was just made me really, really excited to do that. And it just reminds me of the power of podcasting and connecting people and that we really are one, we are part of the world and we are global people. We are global citizens. I’ll give you a brief description of our channel. And you can find out more and I’m going to include this in the show notes because it is her name Anna. And I again, it’s a name that I can’t pronounce but it is also sustainability explored podcast. It’s also on YouTube and you should be able to find it. So it’s a channel on sustainability and innovations in business and economy. To learn more about sustainability across industries, every week, she invites professionals working on the implementation of innovative sustainable solutions for the future. To explore circularity and resilience, corporate social responsibility, leadership and culture, impact, investment and so on and give some guidance on how to actually implement sustainability and business. Again, the tips I give you are some for business but everything can be applied to your home as well. So sit back and enjoy my interview with Ana.
Anna Chashchyna 3:15
Hi, and welcome to sustainability explored every week this podcast navigates a new topics through interviews with the most disruptive minds in sustainability, turning their experiences working behind the scenes into actionable advice you can implement and use in your life no matter your background. My name is Anna. I am an environmentalist, sustainability consultant, and the host of this show. Today we’re joined by Julie Coraccio, an award winning professional life and end of life organizer, author and certified life coach. Julie is passionate about supporting people in clearing clutter in all areas of their life, getting organized and becoming more mindful and aware. She was the first person in the state of North Carolina to be an eco organizer and do green decluttering and organizing and have won national and regional awards for her work. As she puts it. That might might not seem like a big deal. But organizing can be incredibly wasteful. And if you can teach people to buy less stuff in the first place, it has an impact. Let’s find out today how to become more organized by less and better to live a more mindful and enjoyable life. And very happy Julie joins us today at sustainability explored and I can’t wait to discuss this topic with her. We will welcome her in a second. welcome Julie. I’m so so happy to have I’m here today with us at sustainability explored, I must say it’s one of my most favorite topics, it always tickles my imagination, how far we can go with our decluttering, and how we started clattering in the first place. But before we start with our you know, on the topic interview, I’d like to know a little bit more about you. What’s your background? How did you start your path in sustainability and the decluttering journey, in particular?
Julie Coraccio 5:32
Well, at first started, I believe, you can’t separate the personal from the professional. So with your, especially if you’re a business owner, what your ideals and morals are automatically going to translate into your business. So I have always loved hiking, I have always loved nature. And so that really is a use began my interest in being aware of Mother Earth, being aware of nature of the fragility how, you know, I personally believe with all the climate change going on Mother Earth is not happy. And you know, she’s doing a hurricane to say, Hey, wake up, you got to make changes. So I was very aware just because of my love of nature. And I always tried to be eco friendly, and do what I can, like we have, I believe you can do things on a small scale. And on a big scale, like we got an electric car for an example. And, you know, I’m so excited for your podcast, because one of the things I think is really important is to educate, but I’ll get to that in a moment. So anyway, this was always my interest. And then when I started my business in 2009, I’ll never forget, I’d been in business a month, and I went out to coffee with someone to network. And the first thing she said was, I hate professional organizers. Now, normally, I would have been like, oh, no, and run away. But I said, Well, why, and we ended up having this awesome conversation. And she said, they’re so wasteful. And I said, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can be green, you can do all this eco friendly stuff. And so I left that meeting with my purpose, I said, I’m going to be an eco organizer. So I did research, no one else was doing it. So I was the first person in the state of North Carolina to focus on eco friendly organizing and decluttering. And people said to me, you’re gonna, you’re gonna fail, there’s no way that you can succeed, being green. And the opposite happened, I won a national award, I want to regional award. And so it has been how I’ve gone forward with it. But one of the things that I think’s really important, what I do is educating people. So for example, we are sadly in an HOA here in America called homeowners association, where they’re crazy. So they denied our request to have solar panels. And they are so backwards in their thinking, and they don’t understand North Carolina is the third highest rate of return on your solar investment. We are 100%, our roof is 100%, south facing which is ideal. And so you have to educate people to make them aware to make them understand. Because even with data, the unwillingness to have someone install solar, like I can’t even wrap my head around it. So I see, with people, these small building blocks that I do if they don’t know anything that eventually allows them to understand more. Does that make sense?
Anna Chashchyna 8:33
It does. First I have a question. You mentioned that. The Lady of the meeting said Life organizers. I’m not familiar with the term and I’m afraid the listeners either.
Julie Coraccio 8:47
So what I do is I help you organize your life. I also do end of life organizing, right? You might have heard the term Swedish death cleaning. Yes, that’s something that’s so life. So personal life, professional life, kids, anything that involves your life. It’s not organized in which way. So if you have an office, for instance, maybe you need to have your office organized so you can find your papers easily or your filing cabinet or your clothes closet, or your garage helping that. Does that make sense now? Mm
Anna Chashchyna 9:23
hmm. Well, now the next question is I don’t even know how to put it. It means that people have so much stuff. It comes from abundance, the need to organize life. I have in this room in my office that I share with my husband, we have three drawers each and that’s it. This is all the places where our documents are our electronics, all the cords and stuff. And that’s all And that’s great to organize.
Julie Coraccio 10:02
But in America, it’s the opposite. We have too much. You know, we I mean, look at the houses that we built. I haven’t been to the Ukraine. So I don’t know what it’s like over there. But being I have traveled through Europe and other countries. And you know, it’s a completely different ballgame. And so Americans tend to have this attitude bigger is better, more is better, I think that we finally started to switch that. But the clutter is related to that. So that’s what I’m saying. Like, if you can’t find what you need, maybe you have too much stuff. And you have to do this without judgment. If you shame people tell them they’re wrong. They’re just going to get embarrassed and shut down and what I found in my work, there’s usually a reason within, why are we buying too much out of fulfill a need, maybe I don’t feel good enough. So I’ve got to go out and buy more clothes and show my neighbor that I am good enough because I own all these beautiful clothes, right? There’s usually that deeper meeting. So when I talk about the clutter in your life and work with people, I want to get as deep as we can and figure out what else is going on here. What is driving the need to obtain so much. Does that making sense?
Anna Chashchyna 11:13
Yeah, absolutely. So you have to be even a psychologist or a life coach, to understand the deeper feelings of why people act certain ways.
Julie Coraccio 11:26
Correct. So I am a certified life coach. I’ve lived life, I think my life experience definitely helps out in that. And it’s important to understand that now if I think someone really needs professional help, obviously, I’d refer them. But that I think, is important. And most of the clients that I attract are interested, they know they’re stuck, but they might not know well, how do I move forward? And I just don’t know. But I think that that’s really important. Now someone that works with hoarders has much more extensive training, because there are usually deep psychological issues behind that. But I’ll give you one example. So I had a friend that had a stack of paper about three feet tall. And I was like, what and been there for years. And I said, Well, what’s a stack of paper? And so we started to have a conversation. And she said, Well, those are articles that I’m I’ve clipped out and I’m going to send the people. And I said, but they’ve been sitting here for years, there’s this huge pile of papers. And as we talk, she said, I’m afraid if I don’t send these articles and keep in communication, that my family won’t love me. As soon as she expressed that she was able to know that that wasn’t true. And that was false. And we put the entire paper pile into the bin into the recycling bin because she knew it wasn’t. But we had to dig, we had to have this conversation to understand what was the deeper meaning behind that. And as soon as she expressed it, she knew that wasn’t true. She knew they loved them. It didn’t matter if she sent them a recipe or not. So that’s one example of what I’m talking about, like find out what’s going on dig a little deeper. Yeah,
Anna Chashchyna 13:05
that’s you’re almost describing my father, we are now getting to read collectively as a country of certain coins that are out of use. Nowadays, banks accept them. Yeah, I guess it’s part of the inflation. So coins, 125 and 25 out of us and my father has a well, a lot of them. And I’m like, do you understand that in three months, it’s just gonna become garbage? He says, No, it’s history, it would have been a history if you would keep one two of each, like, okay, but then you have key loss of them imagine you will have to move I’m not gonna move. So what he says, and you might have an opinion on that, he says, Let It seats, it doesn’t ask for food like it does. You don’t have to feed it. So what’s your problem? And I don’t have anything to say to that.
Julie Coraccio 14:03
Well, one thing I would suggest, I can appreciate him wanting history. But do you know what a shadow boxes. So it’s like here in America, you can get them. So it’s a little frame. And it usually has like maybe a black material, velvet material background. And so you could put some of the coins and arrange them in a really pretty way that you could hang on. So you keep a couple the ones that you think are really beautiful. So you hang that up and you honor history. So I would say to ask your father, what is this costing? Well, first of all, it’s taking up space. It’s taking up physical space, everything is energy, whether you believe that from a spiritual perspective, or you believe that from a physics perspective. So I would say to your dad, how is this draining you? Like at the back of your mind, drip, drip, drip, they’re all these things. And so what is sitting there is actual money. cuz a lot of times, I’ll see to say to people look around all the clutter in your home, that was money at some point. And now it’s clutter. So he has literal money sitting around his house. And I would say, Well, what do you want it? You could What would you like to do with that? Is there something you’d like to buy, you can buy necessities like food, but maybe you want a new winter coat, you know, whatever it is. And so that’s literally a physical drain, it’s a mental, it’s an emotional drain. Even if he can’t articulate it, it’s there. And it’s the back of his mind.
Anna Chashchyna 15:33
Wonderful. I’m gonna try the technique on him. Definitely. I myself went through a decluttering process recently and how it happened, we moved into a new space that was designed with a designer, we are renting this apartment. So it’s not mine. And yet, because it’s so harmonious here, it started to call for harmony inside, I worked with the stylist completely changed my wardrobe, it was time to let go of certain things. And funny you should mention that everything was money at some point, I even managed to sell a sweaters, pullovers bands to sell for a little bit and but yet I needed to be sure that people needed it to give away is another strategy. But I wanted to first try, you know, to test this idea that if you pay money for it, that means you really need it. So I tried that, and it worked. Even certain shoes, my size is not common. I have quite a long foot. So even some of the shoes were sold. And I started to go more and more I fixed my nutrition, I fixed my sports schedule. I reorganized my papers even got rid of the documents that made no sense anymore. Why are we keeping things that are? Irrelevant? really irrelevant. So recycling, recycling, and I literally felt I started to breathe differently. My posture changed. Wow, exactly what you’re talking about energy drainage. You’re working with people for how many years?
Julie Coraccio 17:17
Since 2009? So that’s, what 11 years 11
Anna Chashchyna 17:21
years? Did they share with you certain success stories?
Julie Coraccio 17:25
Do you have any champions? What has been happening in their lives? Well, first of all, I’m very proud of you because you have literally decluttered your life. And you have seen how it’s the inside is reflected on the outsides you are yourself a success story. So one example is I had a client who had a bunch of she put all her papers in her clutter on her dining room table. And she was a newlywed, and so they couldn’t eat on there where you’re meant to eat. Now, you know, I believe food is connection. I’m someone who cooks. And you know, and that’s how I connect. And I try to have my husband works a swing shift, but now works from home. So every night I try let’s try to eat dinner together, because I think that’s an important time to connect. So once we cleared the dining room table, it improved her marriage, because they were able to sit, they were able to take dinner, and not understanding, even though it was the one dining room table, how it affected their marriage and how it affected other areas. So that was something I was really excited about. I had a client, who her mother in law, every time she came over would complain about the house. And that upset her. It hurt her feelings it caused again another example of strain in the marriage. And once we cleared that it helped her confidence it improved her relationship with her mother in law and prove relationship with our kids and our husband. So those are just a couple examples of what people are able to do. I have another client I worked with recently, who really understood the connection between the physical clutter and the rest of her life. Her physical clutter allowed her to apply for some support and housing, because she’s not in a great housing situation. It allowed her to speak up for herself with medical concerns instead of the doctor saying this is what you need to do. She’s able to say, Well, can we discuss it more I have some concern. And so it really reflected more on her outer life and having more confidence, standing up for yourself, which to me is just as as valuable is clearing the physical clutter. You know, when we clear our clutter, we can share our gifts with the world because clutter prevents us from doing that. You know our world is in such a not great state these days, especially here in America. And what if we were to live in a world where everyone was sharing their gifts if everyone was doing what they were excited and passionate about? We’d look like a completely different world. I really believe that. Do it true, it’s true overwhelm of stuff. Can’t find what you need when you need it. Tired of wasting time and energy maintaining your mess, longing for peace of mind. get control of your clutter, your clutter doesn’t control you. Reclaim time, money, vanity and resources. Physical got butter 365 Journal prompts to support you in clearing your physical clutter. Free Gift purchase to support you even more, and your journey to declutter your life.
Anna Chashchyna 20:46
Earlier in our conversation, you said when you refer to that conversation with the lady, I hate life organizers and you decided to become an eco organizer. What does it mean? What is the difference?
Julie Coraccio 21:01
So I teach people to be sustainable when decluttering? And when organizing. So as one example, do you know your recycling lots? So as we’re decluttering Do you know what we can recycle? can I provide for you a resource, I know this guy that he’ll come Holloway that junk, but he recycles what he can. He donates what he can and he sells what he can. So that way, it’s not just being thrown in the landfill. When we’re organizing, can we upcycle or repurpose? Is there something in the house you already own that I can use instead of having to buy a plastic container and increasing consumerism. It’s about making people aware, as we’ve talked about, why are we buying? What need Are you trying to fulfill? You know, if you aren’t using it, you don’t love it, you don’t like it? Why are we getting more? And it’s about increasing that awareness. And it’s not about shame. I don’t feel that that shame is productive. So it’s about teaching people to rethink. Do I need that? Why am I buying that, as I’ve talked about? So it’s becoming more it’s about awareness, and taking action to create change? Does that make sense?
Anna Chashchyna 22:17
Absolutely. Absolutely. Does. Did you have to deal with convincing people? Or do you only help those that come pre convinced?
Julie Coraccio 22:28
No, I have, but I will meet people where they are. So I am always trying in conversations or if having to make a referral to slip in education. And so most of the time, people are like, hey, that’s really cool. I didn’t know that. And in a couple instances, I believe I’ve planted seeds. So maybe they weren’t ready to do something today. But that doesn’t mean down the road, they won’t be and again, if you do it from a place of love, instead of shaming, blaming and judging people are more open to hearing it.
Anna Chashchyna 23:03
Someone who wants to start decluttering what would you suggest to do that in the first steps or and what to avoid?
Julie Coraccio 23:12
Great question. So I would say it really depends on how much stuff you have. Maybe you have a deadline. For instance, you’re getting shells installed in the closet. So you might want to start there. Or if you’re not paying your mortgage on time, because your office is so full of paper clutter, you’re gonna want to start to clutter in your office. Or if you’re you aren’t getting good sleep and your health is out of whack because you have a bunch of stuff on your bed and can’t sleep. That’s where you’re going to want to start. So I would look at things like that or what’s driving you absolutely insane. Start there. And then what I’d say is, if you’re a morning person, don’t try to declutter at night. Do it when you’re in the right frame of mind. If you’re really stressed out at work, it’s probably not the best time to start to declutter. Also to remind people that small steps add up to big wins. If you spend 10 minutes a day decluttering that’s over 60 hours in a year, just over 60 hours. You I mean, that’s over a week of work, you can get a lot accomplished. And those little steps build upon each other. When you take that first step. It allows you to take that second step. So if you’re listening and like my whole house needs to cluttered, don’t look become overwhelmed and look at the big picture. Focus on what first step can I take? What can I do right in this moment, and I’m going to ask everyone watching and listening. What one step can you take to declutter your life right now, it might mean saying no to something you don’t want to do. It might mean stopping right now and taking 10 Deep breaths. It might say, You know what, I never wear that blouse anymore. I’m going to donate it or give it to a friend or try to sell it. Small Steps add up to big wins.
Anna Chashchyna 24:58
You know, it makes me think that digital space is becoming more real than the physical space. Do you have any tips for those who tend to accumulate emails for example, or the no promotions, promotion materials and updates from shops and send an old applications they never use?
Julie Coraccio 25:22
That’s a great you should be calling your apps and electronics and technology don’t use on a regular basis? I’d say every six months or a year, most definitely, what apps aren’t you using on your iPad? Let those go email, oh, my goodness, we can get really sucked into that. So that’s where you’re really got to exercise discernment. So if you deleted every time, take two seconds to hit the unsubscribe button. There are also apps out there, like unroll me where you can they’ll do an analysis and say, Hey, I think you should delete all these emails, because you haven’t opened them in six months. And that, you know, if you want to spend a little bit of money can help you in one fell swoop, really the clutter. And so take the time to unsubscribe or find something like unroll me, if you’re really not interested, then let it go. And then I say create folders for stuff that you really need to save and need easy access to. But then you’re going to want to declare those if you haven’t looked at them in a year, why are you still holding on to them? Again, be smart, if you like, for instance, I have most of our cat’s health and medical records in an email, I’m going to keep those in case I need to reference something. So you know, or if it’s something for taxes, I have folders for taxes. But once we’ve hit seven years, so anything from 2012 and earlier here in the USA recommend holding on for seven years, they can be deleted, I don’t need to hold on to that anymore. So those are some new tips.
Anna Chashchyna 26:56
Right? You know about continuing the digital detox topic. I guess it’s connected to the fear of missing out FOMO. You know, if we go down deep down the psychological meaning like, Yes, but how will I unsubscribe, maybe there will be something interesting for me in the future. So I don’t want to let go just yet. What does it have to say about us?
Julie Coraccio 27:24
Well, I have two thoughts on that one, ask yourself, can you trust that you’ll get what you need when you need it. So that when you want to find that really nice date outfit, that all of a sudden it’ll pop up in your newsfeed or you’ll get an email about it. And then the other thing flip that FOMO Fear Of Missing Out to Joy Of Missing Out Wow, look at that digital clutter your release. I recently was off Facebook, I think Facebook is awful. And I hate it. And if I didn’t have a business I would remove myself completely. I was off Facebook for five weeks and boy did it feel good. I had someone crazy come on my wall with all this anger and I’m like what am I doing? So I stepped back I deleted the app from my iPad it to make that easier. And it made a huge difference. And so I let it go and the mental clutter I released of not sealing craziness on Facebook, the emotional clutter that I was able to let go of I felt it was like a weight had been lifted. So those are two things consider Can you trust you get what you need when you need it? And what joy can you find of missing out?
Anna Chashchyna 28:36
Yeah, do you work only with individuals or with companies organizations corporations to
Julie Coraccio 28:44
I do more so in the speaking and the presenting?
Anna Chashchyna 28:48
Ah okay, so they don’t invite external people to declutter their archives paper crafts, for example they
Julie Coraccio 28:56
do but that’s not something I specialize in. I’m more interested in working with individuals to create individual chain now I love speaking and presenting I love to do corporate presentations but that’s where my focus is as opposed to having an archival clean out I mean, I can’t help with that but I I get excited seeing personal change and making a difference there i That’s where I like to have my impact.
Anna Chashchyna 29:21
That’s cool. What are your professional dreams goals? aspirations for 2021 2020 was hard enough already. Let’s think positive now.
Julie Coraccio 29:33
I’m with you. I’m gonna call this current year the year that shall not be named. So in 2021 I’ve got big changes coming up. We’re moving. We are going back to my childhood town and wheeling West Virginia so I’ve got where I we downsized last year and did the process again this year. I am going to be working on books I currently have two 10 Journal prompt books. And I have another book that’s more DIY called Clear clutter inside out. So I hope to write two more personal books because that’s about clearing my inner clutter. And that’s important to me, and I’m working on an end of life book as well. So it’s gonna be a lot of writing next year, is that’s really important to me. And I have been studying plant medicine. And so I believe everything I consider myself holistic is related. So how can I bring what I’m learning about plants into my practice? So for instance, if you’re stressed out, let’s have some oat straw tea, here are some things you might want to explore. And I have been making my own flower essences, and love that and think that’s very amazing. So I don’t know how it’s gonna play out. I’m, I’m doing the course through the end of March, and then I’m going to retake the entire thing, because there’s so much incredible information. But that’s those are what I’m going to be working on and 2021.
Anna Chashchyna 31:02
Wow, I have one more question. When you say organization organizing the end of life? Yes. And that Swedish concept that you mentioned, I’m familiar with the idea, like declutter, to the point, Declutter. And imagine what people will see once you’re a gun, how they’re gonna find your space, but I let you expand on the on the topic.
Julie Coraccio 31:29
Sure. So it’s a couple of things. First of all, when you go on to the next grade adventure, you don’t want to leave your loved ones stressed out, you want to be able to provide peace of mind. Did they know what you want for your funeral? Have you planned that all? What’s your legacy? What do you want people? Maybe it doesn’t it’s not about being famous, it’s about what will my family like to know? What would I like to leave them, maybe you want to leave them? These are my values. These are the principles that I’ve lived my life by, and I want to get that down for you. If they’re an artist, maybe you want to have information from all their artwork that they can, maybe it’s going to Museum, maybe you want it in your the homes of your loved ones. But you know, taking the time to say this is what this piece was about. Do you have legal paperwork? Now? I don’t know how it is in the Ukraine. But for example, there multiple famous cases, Aretha Franklin, it’s still being debated. You know, they found a will in the in the couch cushion? You know, they’re contesting that now, prince didn’t leave a will. And he’s been gone, what, three or four years now. And so you’re leaving people stressed out? Or what did he want? What were his wishes? What are the passwords, maybe you don’t want to be on Facebook when you go. And if you don’t have passwords, at least here in America, like with email, you can’t necessarily you have to get a court order to get the email open. And they might not allow you to do that. And so there are all these things that you have to think about to make life easier. For those you’re living behind. We’re a cat family. I can’t tell you how many pets get thrown out on the streets, because there weren’t any plans made for that. I when I go, I don’t want to be on machines. Don’t go nuts. I want to make sure that that’s understood. I said to my nephew the other day, if I lose my mind, smother me with a pillow, I don’t want to stay in this condition. So truly, it’s been that’s what my choice. I don’t Yeah, yeah, I don’t want to be a burden to everyone. So it’s about organizing all of that. And taking care of that, you know, what I say is have a binder, create all the information. Where’s the key for the safety deposit box? What do you want to happen? And then no one’s left behind, then you’ve given the gift of peace of mind. And then there’s the whole other piece of all your stuff. You know, most kids today, most younger generations don’t want a lot of stuff. And they’re having to deal with cleaning out their parents home. I want to tell you something, if you accumulated stuff over 40 or 50 years here in America, that’s a lot of stuff. That’s not something that’s going to be done in a day. That’s month I had a friend that spent 18 months now not every day, but cleaning out her parents home. Not you know, not every weekend, but 18 months of your life, clearing out clutter from a home. Is that how you want to spend your time? Is that what you want your leave for your loved ones? Probably not.
Anna Chashchyna 34:34
But you know, the problem is that no one knows when this end of life happens. So when is the right time to prepare
Julie Coraccio 34:43
right now? Because you never know when your number is called right now. I don’t care if you’re young you’re a lot younger than me you should have you should have all that now everyone should
Anna Chashchyna 34:54
write well. Oh God calls for a call for action.
Julie Coraccio 35:00
But yes, right
Anna Chashchyna 35:01
I completely share your point of view and there is a say in I started yesterday know how to translate Life is uncertain, saying as Ukrainian is more snappy. But yeah, Life is uncertain you mean you don’t know you may not know, not anticipate when your number is called, as you say,
Julie Coraccio 35:27
My mother has been very ill. And this is one of the reasons a year has has been awful. And so she had unexpectedly, two heart attacks and a stroke. Now two or three years ago, and this is why I got involved with end of life organization. My father had my siblings and I sit down with an attorney with an accountant. Now my parents aren’t wealthy. And so that’s the other thing. I don’t care if you don’t have a lot of assets, you want a legal document, you can do something like here in the US, I think it’s called Legal Zoom, and prepare that or you can make a document, have it notarized. But everyone should be doing this. And so my dad said, This is what we want, what are your questions? And so and we said, okay, here are questions, but a lot of things we Okay, these are their wishes, this is what they want to happen. So when my mom became ill, thankfully, she’s better and hopefully we’re gonna have around for a much longer time. I didn’t have to worry about that. I don’t have to worry about any of that now already know what her wishes already know what questions they hadn’t we had that man, I can focus on my mother on loving my mother helping taking care of my mother not being like, Hey, where’s the key to the deposit box? Hey, what do you want to happen when I don’t have to worry about that? So peace of mind, you can’t put a price tag on that. You
Anna Chashchyna 36:51
know, it sounds like it’s definitely better to do now that we are safe, sound alive, healthy, then last moment. What the dime you really don’t want to spend on figuring out where is the key to the safe deposit, you know?
Julie Coraccio 37:08
Exactly, exactly.
Anna Chashchyna 37:11
But, you know, on a more philosophical note, when you were saying maybe someone was a painter, and you want to give it to the museum or give it to family members, there is a in the back of my mind, sort of a negative connotation. Today the person is alive. It’s a living person, it’s nice, it’s, it’s good to touch the person, the next day the person is not alive. And suddenly you we are afraid of something I cannot even formulate properly and suddenly, no superstitious maybe I don’t want to touch the clothes. I don’t want to have anything with that stuff. Like
Julie Coraccio 37:59
I don’t think there’s anything wrong. I think that’s an individual belief. Like for instance, I have a painting that was in my grandparents home when I was growing up. And so it brings me joy when I look at it, that’s it reminds me of my grandmother. So I don’t see that as something bad. Now again, now what I would also say is if you really believe that you can do a space clearing, change the energy around it, you can get sage to smoke out any negative energy you feel. Now I would say if you really feel a negative attachment, or negative energy, let that go. But you know, we’re all gonna die. It’s just a question of when. So then I would probably say if someone has that strong reaction, maybe spend time contemplating what you feel about death, maybe there’s, it’s really about their own mortality and their own fear of death, as opposed to, you know, oh, now someone’s dead. And the other thing I want to say is, you know, I’ve worked with people who have held on to boxes of stuff for years that were left to them, that didn’t care enough to open about them, but are afraid to let them go. And this is what I always say that loved one is gone on to the next adventure, they would want you to be happy. If you don’t like it, let it go. They don’t want they wouldn’t want their possessions or their memory to be a burden on you. They would want you to be happy.
Anna Chashchyna 39:28
So it’s never about actual things. It’s about the philosophy it’s about the connotations the feelings, the attachments we have
Julie Coraccio 39:40
to in my view it is p other people might not take that view but my view Yes.
Anna Chashchyna 39:45
I love your your view thing I tend to share it yes I’m also more of them tend to look into the essence into the core of things. So why am I buying Why am I accumulating it? Back to the back to the physical world, I had a blues with long sleeve. And I’ve been moving quite a bit in the past couple of years. So whatever I didn’t take with me to another country, I would leave at my parents then I would pick it up from my parents go to another place. It has been like that for like, two, three years, two and a half years until we eat arrived again to the new apartment, and I started trying that clothes out and that long sleeve turned out to be short like this. Make my god so and this is not the only thing Oh, obviously. But that one I kept it was snow white color, like I needed to keep it then. Ah, okay, so I cannot wear it. Anyway, so why my was like, carrying this kilos. I was paying for movers, for movers to move my stuff from one place to another. All that luggage, all those air fares. That’s just not right.
Julie Coraccio 41:12
So you’re not alone. You’re not alone. And it’s a process like you’ve done a lot of work. And you can see the results. And that’s why I say take that one step, just begin and the more you do it, the easier it become really,
Anna Chashchyna 41:26
Julie, what would be your one piece of advice for the listeners, you have to pick up one thing?
Julie Coraccio 41:32
Okay, one thing I would say, to remember that no matter what happens in life, you are good enough, you are worthy enough, and you are loved. Because in my view, in my experience, the clutter is about the deeper issue. And a lot of times if you felt good enough, you wouldn’t have to worry about accumulating a huge wardrobe. If you felt worthy, you wouldn’t allow yourself to be in an unhealthy relationship. And if you felt loved, you wouldn’t allow all types of clutter to accumulate in your life. So no matter what happens, you’re good enough. You’re worthy enough and you’re loved.
Anna Chashchyna 42:12
Thank you so much. Thank you. It was joy speaking with you today. And all the best for 2021. Thank you so much for the listeners. Thank you. Ciao, ciao. Wow, that was Julie Coraccio. And I love this interview. I really hope you also got inspired to learn something new today we’ve been we went a little bit philosophical, but it felt needed. I really appreciated it. If you have any questions for me or Julie, reach out on LinkedIn, we’re both they’re approachable, findable, and eager to talk. If you like the podcast, you know what to do, subscribe, share on your social media, leave a review on the platform you’re listening on. Especially if you leave a review on our pod chaser page, just look for sustainability export, or on iTunes. Read in your review replying to you getting back to you on that always makes me very, very happy. Well, finally, yes. Find me on LinkedIn. challenge me with your questions, suggest guests or topics you’d like me to cover in the future. I will certainly try to make it happen. To record those interviews with people you’re most interested in heaven on sustainability export. This was sustainability explored episode number 70 season end of season six, and me your host and Natasha, thank you again for listening for being with us today. And always and until next time next Thursday. Take care stay sustainable. Bye bye.
Julie Coraccio 44:07
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai