July 30, 2025 • 45 mins
Jeannine Bryant's journey from North Dakota farm girl to right-sizing expert began with a childhood surrounded by grandparents and a natural gift for organization. Today, as CEO of Changing Spaces SRS in Lincoln, Nebraska, she leads a team helping seniors navigate the emotional journey of downsizing with compassion and practical solutions.
"Keep the best, let go of the rest" isn't just Jeannine's business tagline—it's a philosophy that guides her approach to helping clients find the perfect balance between too much and too little. She introduces us to the concept of right-sizing, a positive reframing that focuses on keeping what's meaningful rather than what you're losing. Through stories from her decade of experience, Jeannine illustrates how our attachment to possessions can become barriers to necessary life transitions.
The emotional aspects of downsizing take center stage as Janine explains how our identities become wrapped up in our things. She shares a poignant example of helping a couple move to assisted living—a necessary transition made significantly more difficult by their extensive ceramic figurine collection. This story perfectly illustrates her company tagline: "Life is hard enough. Don't let your stuff make it harder."
Jeannine outlines her systematic five-step approach to right-sizing: decide what to keep, give to family and friends, sell what you can, donate what didn't sell, and remove the trash. She emphasizes that following this order is crucial—by identifying what you'll keep first, you can more easily let go of the rest. She also dispels market myths about the value of china hutches, punch bowls, and other once-prized possessions that now flood the secondhand market.
Beyond her business services, Jeannine shares her passion for supporting seniors through volunteer work with caregiver organizations, offering insights into intergenerational living experiments, and providing resources through her books and website for those who can't access her in-person services. Whether you're planning a move, helping parents downsize, or simply seeking a more manageable home environment, Jeannine's practical wisdom offers a roadmap to living with less stress and more joy.
Check out Jeannine's resources at easyrightsizing.com or learn about her services at changingspacessrs.com to start your own right-sizing journey today.
00:00 Introduction and Host Greetings
00:12 Meet Jeannine Bryant: Right Sizing Expert
01:57 Jeannine's Journey from Farm to Business
04:05 Understanding Right Sizing
06:12 Challenges of Downsizing
09:16 Emotional Attachment to Possessions
12:43 Strategies for Letting Go
17:53 The Five Steps of Right Sizing
21:13 Downsizing Without Moving
22:33 Safety and Comfort in Aging
24:15 Common Downsizing Mistakes
24:41 Understanding the Time Needed
26:01 Senior-Focused Organizations
29:18 Services Offered by Changing Spaces and Easy Rightsizing
33:47 Unique Downsizing Experiences
36:07 Compensation and Pricing
38:57 Handling Family Heirlooms
41:16 The Value of Items
43:06 Resources and Contact Information
44:45 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dennis Day (00:00):
Hello everyone.
I'm Dennis Day with Gettingyour Edge how to Downsize your
Life.
I'm here with my co-host, JudyGratton.
How was your day going so far,Judy?
Judy Gratton (00:09):
So far, so good, Dennis, thank you.
Dennis Day (00:12):
And we have our guest,
Jeannine Bryant from Lincoln,Nebraska, here to talk about her
business.
Our guest, Jeannine Bryant, isa right-sizing expert and author
.
She's worked hundreds offamilies over the last 10 years
(00:34):
as they downsize or clear outtheir home of loved ones who
have died.
She presents at workshopsacross the Midwest offering
practical advice on right-sizing, downsizing, cleaning out an
estate and more.
Cleaning out an estate and more.
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"Segoe UI", sans- collapse;">
collapse;"> Segoe is theCEO and owner of Changing Spaces
SRS in Lincoln, nebraska, whereshe leads a team of 20
employees who help her clientsthrough the transitions.
She is an author of three booksand two yearly calendars about
downsizing.
Janine's website offers aplethora of information about
(01:09):
right-sizing and downsizing.
She is also an active member ofLincoln, nebraska's Coalition
for the Older Adult HealthPromotion, as well as a member
of the Lincoln CaregiverEducation Group.
Her company, changing Spaces,was selected to receive the
Small Business of the Year Awardin 2019 from the Lincoln
(01:30):
Chamber of Commerce She'soriginally from Hillsborough,
north Dakota Jeannine now callsLincoln, Nebraska, her home and
she lives with her husband andtwo children Jeannine Welcome
Jeannine Bryant (01:44):
Thank you, I'm so happy to be here.
Dennis Day (01:45):
I appreciate it.
You've got a thriving businessin this.
You've got a podcast and you'vegot books.
You've got a great website thatoffers amazing information.
How did your journey fromgrowing up on a farm in North
Dakota to founding ChangingSpaces SRA shape your approach
to supporting downsizing?
Jeannine Bryant (02:08):
I always say that I was very blessed to grow
up surrounded by older adults.
I grew up on a farm.
My folks were farmers up inNorth Dakota.
My brother is still a farmerand my dad lives up there.
My mom has passed away but Igrew up one mile from one set of
grandparents and a mile and ahalf from the other set of
grandparents.
We were the only grandkidsaround that.
(02:28):
We had some cousins in anotherstate, but it was like my
brother and I and then all fourof our grandparents.
We had a great aunt and unclewho never had any children, so
my mom was the entertainer ofour whole extended family.
All these older folks wouldalways be over at our house for
every birthday, every holiday.
Families All these older folkswould always be over at our
house for every birthday, everyholiday, and I just grew up
(02:52):
around them.
I've always loved working withseniors and I've always been
gifted and really enjoyorganization.
For me as a kid, reorganizingmy closet was like the most fun
thing I could think of.
I used to stay up late and doit.
When I discovered that that'ssomething the world needs, that
organization piece mixed withworking with older adults, I
thought, oh my goodness, this isthe job for me.
When I came to Lincoln,nebraska, we could see that
(03:13):
there was a real need for olderadults who had been in their
homes for decades and thenmoving into these gorgeous,
wonderful retirement communitiesthat were popping up all over.
But it's overwhelming to thinkabout.
How do you even make that kindof a transition?
How do you cut your squarefootage and your possessions in
half and move into a smallerapartment like that and to do it
(03:35):
well?
And so that's where ChangingSpaces was born Fantastic.
Dennis Day (03:40):
It sounds like a wonderful childhood.
Fantastic, it sounds like awonderful childhood.
Jeannine Bryant (03:44):
Oh yeah, it was great.
I loved growing up on the farm,but my number one goal was to
get off the farm.
I always wanted to be a towngirl and so now I am.
But now as a mother and I havea couple of city kids, I think,
oh man, I wish you could havethe farm upbringing, but I like
living in town personally.
Judy Gratton (04:06):
You use the term right sizing.
Can you explain whatright-sizing means to you?
Jeannine Bryant (04:08):
Yes, we love that term because it puts a
little bit more positive spin onit, but I always say it's
right-sizing is finding thatperfect place between too much
and too little.
My job is not to encouragepeople to get rid of all of
their stuff.
My job is to help people keeptheir favorite stuff and then
let go of that stuff thatdoesn't mean so much, so that
(04:31):
their favorite stuff can bebeautifully displayed and used
in their new living situation.
Keep the best, let go of therest.
That's the phrase that I alwayssay yeah it's a really good one
.
It makes it more.
I think when people hear thatterm downsizing it just feels
like we're focusing on whatyou're giving up.
Judy Gratton (04:49):
I know it's a negative connotation, but
right-sizing is also verydependent on who they are and
their personality and wherethey're going or not going.
Jeannine Bryant (04:59):
I think it's a really good it yeah absolutely,
and everyone gets to choose forthemselves how much is enough.
Right?
We work with some gals, maybe,who are quilters, and so they
need and want and use a wholebunch of fabric, right, that
they want to keep with them, andthey want to fill their sewing
room to the gills with fabricand whatever, whereas someone
(05:20):
else might be totallycomfortable with more of a
minimal lifestyle.
And so it's whatever works forthe individual.
But what we want to do is wewant to let go of that stuff
that is weighing on us andcausing us stress.
If you love it, I want you tokeep it, but it's that excess
stuff.
Too much stuff is just like toomuch food.
We eat food, we need food andwe enjoy food, but if you gorge
(05:44):
yourself at some point, you makeyourself sick with too much
food.
Same thing with stuff.
Right, we want our homes to bebeautiful and we want to enjoy
them.
At some level.
It becomes the opposite, andnow it's your home is not
enjoyable to be in becausethere's too much stuff.
Dennis Day (05:59):
Now your business has also has a tagline Life is
hard enough, Don't let yourstuff make it harder.
How did that phrase originateand how does it fit in with your
business?
Jeannine Bryant (06:12):
That phrase originated just from me watching
our clients struggle with theirstuff.
And just a recent example twoweeks ago we moved a couple into
an assisted living apartment,and the majority of the folks
that we work with are movingeither to a townhome or
independent living, and so it'sa happy move.
They're proactively choosing toright size and move to a more
(06:35):
manageable home.
Assisted living is anotherlevel of care, and the only
reason someone goes to assistedliving is because life has
gotten hard enough in theircurrent home that now they need
more nursing help to help themwith their activities of daily
living.
And so this couple reallyneeded to move.
It wasn't a I want to move,it's we need to move.
(06:57):
But their stuff, everyhorizontal surface in their
house was covered.
Every horizontal surface wascovered with a little ceramic
figurine.
I've been doing this a longtime.
It was the most ceramicfigurines I've ever seen in one
place at one time, and they lovetheir collections and it was
extremely hard for them to letgo of those collections and it
(07:20):
became a huge barrier and a veryhigh hurdle that they had to
jump over.
Honestly, we had to drag themover that hurdle to get them to
the other side where they couldmove into assisted living, and
again we packed their favoritecollections and brought them to
their new apartment.
But they had to leave a lotbehind, and when your things
(07:42):
accumulate and you don't addressmaybe your attachment to your
objects in your home, it canbecome a big hurdle to living
your best life at whatever stageit is that you're in, and so
that was an example where lifeis hard for them.
They needed to move to assistedliving and their stuff made it
even harder.
It would have been hard even ifthey had not had all this stuff
(08:05):
, but all that stuff made it awhole lot harder to let go, and
they're stressed now they'reworrying about.
Of course we moved them toassisted living.
The majority of that stuff isstill left in their house right.
And we've had conversations.
The adult son is totally finenot putting the house on the
market for a while.
They're going to let it sit,but eventually all that stuff
(08:26):
will need to be dealt with.
So there's a quote that I oftenuse by a professional organizer
, Sue DeRoos.
She says that we all getorganized eventually.
We just might not be around forit, and so either we deal with
our possessions or someone weleave behind will have to deal
with them eventually right.
Dennis Day (08:50):
Yeah, we've talked about that numerous times on the
podcast, about if you love yourchildren, you will get rid of
your stuff.
You'll be part of that processbecause your children have lives
and they have other things todo.
They may not have their ownkids, so they don't want to sort
through your stuff and get ridof boxes and so forth.
Talk a little bit about thatattachment.
Jeannine Bryant (09:12):
I know we all suffer from that.
Especially if we're not careful, our identities can become
wrapped up in our possessions.
I have a 14-year-old daughterand 11-year-old son, and it
struck me recently I was tryingto teach my teenager about how
you never really be satisfiedwith your stuff.
She wanted to buy an expensivepair of jeans and I was trying
to tell her, hey, that's be funfor about a week, but then after
(09:34):
that you're over it and it'snot really make you happy
anymore and I thought, oh, waita minute.
That's the same kind of lessonthat I'm teaching older adults
and it's the same lesson that Ineed to learn as well when I'm
sitting there scrolling andbuying because I'm bored or
whatever.
Stuff does not bring uscontentment or peace.
Right, contentment and peace tocome from something other than
(09:57):
our stuff.
And in fact, if the stuff getsout of hand, it can bring us the
opposite of contentment orpeace or certainly rob that
contentment and peace from thosewe leave behind.
Like you were saying, if wepass away and our kids have to
come and take I don't know, aweek off of work, it's take
longer than a week to empty outa house, right, and so maybe
(10:19):
they spend every weekend for sixmonths or 12 months, coming and
trying to empty out your house.
That's robbing them ofcontentment, peace, their
opportunity to mourn you,because they're stressed about
dealing with your stuff.
Judy Gratton (10:31):
Resentments.
Trust me, we're going throughthat right now with my mother in
law passed.
We're very fortunate that wedon't live there, but my sister
inlaw is like full-time tryingto take care of this condominium
.
That is huge and I've neverseen so much stuff All very nice
(10:53):
stuff, my gosh.
I was talking to a client thatwe're going to be listing her
home here shortly that isdownsizing and she brought up
the idea of condominiums, ourgrandparents and our parents and
how our parents were raised inthe depression era.
So I think some of theenvironment or what we live in
(11:16):
affects how we look atquote-unquote stuff.
With me, I felt thisresponsibility to take on all of
the family heirlooms and now noone wants them.
It's interesting to see howdifferent generations are
looking at stuff.
Jeannine Bryant (11:34):
Absolutely, and you're so right.
Past generations didn'tstruggle with the sheer amount
of stuff because getting stuffwas hard right, it was expensive
and you couldn't just order iton your phone and have it
delivered to your door.
It used to be really expensiveto fill up your home.
When you think about your firsthome, perhaps we used to get a
lot of hand-me-downs from ourparents and now it's cheap and
(11:57):
easy to go to Target or Ikea fora newlywed couple and outfit
their whole place.
Judy Gratton (12:02):
I've heard that yes, I've heard that over
grandma's China closet orwhatever it is.
They don't want it and it'sreally hard to get that point
across to people who feel thatthere is this value behind their
china closet.
It's really hard to get them tounderstand that there really
(12:24):
isn't anything there.
Jeannine Bryant (12:26):
I know it's a hard pill to swallow.
Judy Gratton (12:28):
So what are your strategies then?
When you approach people, doyou have a strategy of how you
start to get them to understandthe importance of letting go of
some of the things that they'reholding on to?
Jeannine Bryant (12:44):
The majority of the clients that we work with,
the issue has been forcedbecause they are facing a move.
They've decided that they'regoing to move by the time they
contact us.
So then we're dealing in aspace where we have to just face
reality.
We always start with a floorplan.
We measure their furniture thatthey think they want to take.
We have measurements of the newplace and we create a floor
plan so that they can see it onpaper what's going to fit and
(13:06):
what's not going to fit.
So is the apartment or is thenew townhome big enough for your
dining room table?
And if so, then is there alsoroom for the buffet and the
china hutch, or is there roomfor only one of them?
Or do we need to take just thesmall curio cabinet that goes in
the corner?
We really get down to brasstacks.
I remind them they can't put 10pounds of flour in a five pound
(13:28):
sack.
So we just got to work withwhat our new space looks like,
what's going to fit in there,furniture wise.
Then, after we know thefurniture, we can start going
through the little stuff thedishes, the books, the clothes,
the holiday decorations anddeciding what's going to fit in
that new space Because, forinstance, the china Okay, if
they can fit the china hutchinto their new place and they
(13:50):
want to bring it, then great,they can fill that thing with
china if they want.
But if the china hutch can't go,then can the china go?
And if it does, then where isit going to live?
Are we going to put it in oneof the kitchen cupboards?
Everything that we pack?
We have to have an answer forwhere are we going to put this,
have to have an answer for whereare we going to put this?
(14:11):
And so that's why we alwaysstart with that floor plan,
because we just have to facereality that we need to.
We can't just bring it becausewe want it.
We have to have a place to putit, because it's not all going
to fit.
Judy Gratton (14:19):
Yeah, and that many times they'll just go,
we'll get a storage unit.
Yeah, it's like what.
Jeannine Bryant (14:28):
I know I always joke.
Lynn, you must have too muchmoney.
You can just send me moneyevery month instead of sending
it to them.
Because what's the next play?
If you're downsizing, if you'removing to a retirement
community, do you think you'regoing to buy a house in five
years where you're going to havemore room?
That doesn't make any sense.
No one's going to ever go getthat stuff.
And so when we're dealing withestate sales, my company runs
estate sales and online auctionsas well, and so we have to have
(14:51):
that conversation that we'renot going to get out what we put
into it, probably because it'sall supply and demand.
And if we're dealing with aclient who is 85 years old,
everyone in their generation hasvery similar things in their
house they all have the chinahuts, they all have the curio
cabinet, they all have the snacktrays, they all have the punch
(15:11):
bowl, and they're all downsizing, and so a lot of those things
are flooding the market andthere's more supply than there
is demand.
If you need a punch bowl, it'dbe hard to go to Target and buy
a punch bowl, but you can find alot of secondhand punch bowls,
because there were a bunch thatwere produced in the 1950s and
no one uses them anymore, right?
So we're all trying to get ridof them.
(15:31):
So that drives the price down.
Big brown china hutches are adime a dozen now and then I try
to tell my clients that that'sokay.
Because, again, going back toour identity, however much money
you get for that item is in noway a reflection of how much you
loved that item, how much lifehappened around that item.
You bought that item is in noway a reflection of how much you
loved that item, how much lifehappened around that item.
(15:52):
You bought that item 30 yearsago and you have loved it for 30
years and you've had dinnersfor family throughout the year
and it served its purpose.
So God bless it.
Maybe a 25 year old is going tobuy it and paint it pink and
that's okay.
The secret to drama-freedownsizing is to let go of it
first emotionally and thenitfree downsizing is to let go
of it first emotionally and thenit becomes a lot easier to let
(16:13):
go of it physically.
Dennis Day (16:15):
That's a really interesting point.
Do you think people are gettingcaught up in the price?
So if I have this thing that Ithink is incredibly special,
meaningful to me, and nobodywants to buy it, does that bring
negative feelings to people?
Jeannine Bryant (16:34):
Yeah, it does.
And so that's why we say, boy,if you think it's incredibly
special and meaningful, then ifwe can figure out a way for you
to keep it we're going to try tofigure that out right, let's
try to find a place in your newhome to keep it.
But if it doesn't fit, thenhere we are back at reality
again.
You think it's incrediblyspecial, but you cannot
(16:55):
physically keep it.
You tried to talk your familyinto keeping it.
They are not willing to keep it.
So now here we're in a position.
Right, beggars can't bechoosers.
We have to find someone.
And if it's a big item, it hasto be someone local who will buy
it and then have the ability tomove it.
And if they have to findsomeone and if it's a big item,
it has to be someone local whowill buy it and then have the
ability to move it.
And if they have to hire movers, then that's a couple hundred
dollars more.
(17:15):
And all of these things factorin.
And I always joke that showAntiques Roadshow is a very it's
a fun show, I love watching it,but it's not very realistic and
most of us don't have thesepriceless treasures in our homes
.
And I often say boy, I hope youhave some mutual funds because
your used couch is not going tofund your retirement.
Dennis Day (17:33):
It's just not.
That's great.
So in your book Ready to RightSize and on your website you
break down right sizing intofive steps.
Can you list those steps andwalk us through one of those
steps that your clients oftenfind challenging?
Jeannine Bryant (17:55):
Yeah, I think that the biggest challenge that
my clients face is not going inthe right order when we're doing
those steps.
So the first step, when you'reemptying out a house, is to
decide what you will keep.
And this is if whether it'syour own house, you're moving,
or if it's a loved one's home,when they've passed away and
you're tasked with emptying itout.
(18:15):
Decide what you're going tokeep.
Right, you think about all thestuff in that house as being in
layers.
The top, the best layer, shouldbe what you want to keep, and
you get to decide okay, don'tlet guilt factor into that
decision what do you want tokeep?
The next layer is give whatyou're going to give to family
and friends.
Giving could be keepsakes and,emotionally, things with
(18:37):
emotional attachment, thosekinds of things that you want to
give away.
Or it might be practical things.
Hey, I have a nephew who'ssetting up his first apartment
and he needs a crock pot and achair and a kitchen table.
Great, take these things.
The second is give away tofamily or friends.
The third step, then, is sellwhat you can, and the reason we
(18:58):
do that is because you know whenyou're selling what you can,
it's like we've been talkingabout and you think you're China
Hutch, you should be able toget at least $425 for it, right?
And someone comes along and noone's interested.
Finally someone offers you $175for it.
It feels insulting, but becauseyou've already gone through
(19:19):
steps one and two, now yourealize that everything that's
left in the house is stuff thatnobody needed, nobody wanted or
nobody had room for.
So here we are facing realityagain.
We love this thing, we'd liketo get $425 for it, but here's
someone offering us $175.
What other options?
No one wanted this.
(19:40):
So what other options do wehave?
So it makes it easier to let itgo for maybe less than you had
dreamed you would get for it.
And then step four is donatewhat didn't sell.
And then the fifth step isremove all the trash, because
every house, even the cleanesthouse, has trash, and I always
remind people that.
Step four, that donation.
We want to make sure that we'redonating quality items to the
(20:02):
charities, things that could beused or things that would sell
in a charity shop, because thoseplaces are running on
shoestring budgets.
Don't just bring them yourtrash that then they have to
turn around and sort through andthen dispose of themselves.
So, just going in that order isthe secret sauce to those steps
.
Judy Gratton (20:20):
And your organization will handle that
entire package for them.
Jeannine Bryant (20:24):
Yes, we do, and that's what my team.
We will stand alongside you asyou do all of that.
But what I would get all thetime is phone calls from people
outside of our geographic regionsaying, boy, could you help me
through this process?
And as much as I would want to,I couldn't.
They couldn't afford for me tosend my team out there to help
them.
That's when I started writingthe books and the website Easy
(20:46):
Right Sizing that I have,because I wanted to educate and
help people.
Even if me or my team wasn'tphysically there to help them
with the sorting, I could atleast tell them what to do.
Judy Gratton (21:00):
So in a recent blog the title of the blog
Calcizing Supports Aging inPlace Even If you Don't Move you
stress that downsizing isn'tjust for people who relocate,
and I find that to be a greattopic.
Could you give us some examplesof where you've worked with
people who've stayed in theirpresent home and still you've
(21:21):
dealt with downsizing with?
Jeannine Bryant (21:24):
them, folks, and I tell them what I do for a
living, they always say I'm notgoing to move and I'm like
that's okay, I'm not going tomake you.
They're worried that I'm goingto make them move.
But really this isn't just forolder adults.
All of us, at any age, right inAmerica, we have stuff in our
homes that we don't need, wedon't use and we don't
(21:44):
particularly want.
So really this should be alifelong practice of going
through and culling through youritems, but particularly for an
older adult.
I have even visited with clientsin their homes and they say I'm
thinking about moving, I reallydon't want to, and they have
these gorgeous homes andobviously enough money.
And I think to myself andsometimes I say to them boy, I
wouldn't want to move either.
This is amazing.
You've created an amazing homeand if they have the money, even
(22:08):
if they end up in a place wherethey need the help, they can
have in-home health care cominginto their homes and helping
them there.
So not everyone has to move,but going through that
downsizing process can make thehome safer and more comfortable,
even if you're staying in place.
So I think about a client thatI worked with a couple years ago
, where you go up the stairs butthere's little piles of stuff
(22:31):
on each stair that you weregoing to bring upstairs or
downstairs, and then you get upto the second floor and you walk
down the hallway and nowthere's the stuff has started
like leaking out of the roomsand into the hallways and so
there's stuff on both sides ofthe hallway and mobility becomes
an issue.
And tripping and falling hazardsare always a red light for me
when I'm visiting with a client.
(22:52):
If you or your spouse ends uphaving to be in a wheelchair or
use a walker or even a cane, orif they're just not quite as
nimble on their feet or steadyon their feet as they used to,
anything that's sitting on thefloor, even a simple throw rug,
can be a trip or fall hazard,and we've all seen those
statistics that a fall after theage of 75 is a big deal right,
(23:17):
and some people never recoverfrom it.
A lot of people recover halfwayfrom a fall like that.
So anything you can do toprevent falling hazards, but
also even in your cupboards andclosets and drawers, getting out
the stuff you're not using,just makes life so much easier.
You don't have to wrestle withthe stuff.
Maybe you have things in yourhome that you used every day for
(23:39):
many years, but now we're in adifferent chapter and maybe it's
been five years since you'vegone fishing okay, but yet all
that fishing tackle is still outin the garage.
Let's get that out of your homeand into the hands of someone
else in your community or yourfamily who can put it to good
use.
Judy Gratton (23:55):
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Dennis Day (23:59):
You've highlighted 10 mistakes that families make
when helping seniors downsize.
What mistake do you see mostfrequently and what's your
advice to families to help avoid?
Jeannine Bryant (24:13):
I w w wonder what it was that I wrote down.
So this is one of thedownloadable resources website
,easyrightsizingdotcom .
, .
e e easyrightsizing.
com website, easyrightsizingcom,and I had a hard time picking
just one, but I chose mistakenumber nine.
That's listed, which isunderstanding the time needed,
and it goes back to what we weretalking about earlier.
(24:35):
If you've lived in your homefor 20, 30, 40, 50 years which
is a lot of our clients it'sgoing to take more than a week
to empty it our clients.
It's going to take more than aweek to empty it out, and it's
going to take more than a weekto even just to move out.
Things tend to accumulate overtime and it's very easy to kick
the can down the road andprocrastinate.
But what I tell folks is thatit's my recommendation that
(24:57):
they're proactive and they startearly, because in three years
or in five years, you will haveeven more stuff right, because
it keeps coming in every day.
We got more stuff coming intoour house.
You'll have more stuff and lessenergy with which to deal with
it, and so do it now.
But if, particularly if a lovedone has passed away and maybe
the adult children are cominginto town to empty out the house
(25:19):
, like you were saying Judy,with your mother-in-law,
emptying out that condo is goingto take more than a week.
Judy Gratton (25:25):
Oh, so far, I think they're into it about four
months.
Yes, right.
Jeannine Bryant (25:31):
You just don't when you haven't done it.
And most people don't right.
They maybe go through thisprocess once or twice in their
life.
They just vastly underestimatehow much time and energy it's
going to take.
Judy Gratton (25:50):
That's true.
So you are a member of somesenior-focused organizations the
Lincoln's Coalition for OlderAdult Promotion as well as a
member of the Lincoln CaregiverEducation Group.
Can you tell us about thoseeducations and why you're
willing to volunteer?
Jeannine Bryant (26:02):
Yeah, my city of Lincoln, Nebraska.
I love it, it's the perfect.
I guess it's a small city.
To a farm kid from North Dakotait seems like a big city, but
we're about maybe 300,000 peoplehere and it's a perfect size
community because everyone whoworks in the senior industry
most of us belong to thiscoalition for older adult health
promotion and I'm quite surethat a lot of cities around the
(26:24):
country have groups like thiswhere it's just a networking
group, where everyone who worksin the senior services industry
gets together monthly foreducation or social.
And it's so important becausewhen we're working with the
senior population, it's avulnerable group and they have
lots of different needs right.
They don't just need, maybe, myhelp with right sizing, they
(26:44):
need help with home health careor hospice or insurance or
whatever.
And it's so powerful to know,when you're sitting with a
client, to hear about theirneeds and to know exactly who
they should call and not just a1-800 number for a company it's
oh no, I'm going to suggest youcall Andrew at this place, Tell
him I sent you and to knowreally that client will be taken
(27:08):
care of because you know thesepeople right and you all work
together.
So that's why, to me, that's avery important organization
group and we are a group ofprofessionals who give
presentations and providesupport groups for people who
are serving in that caregiverrole, and that is not a role
(27:29):
that any of us ever expect to bein, but most of us, or at least
half of us, probably will findourselves in at one point or
another.
There's a great quote I don'thave it in front of me, but it's
something like at one time,everyone will either need a
caregiver or be a caregiver intheir life, and that is a
difficult time.
(27:50):
It's a difficult time foreveryone for different reasons.
For a lot of women that we workwith who are in that caregiver
role sometimes this generationthis might be one of the first
times in their life wherethey're making all of the
financial and sort of householddecisions.
Maybe their husband primarilyserved that role and if he's not
able to now, they're thrustinto that.
(28:10):
On the opposite side, a lot ofmen of this generation are maybe
not used to being a caregiver,right?
My father is 77.
He has never once changed adiaper in his life, right?
And that's just the generationand the culture that we grew up
in.
And so for someone at the ageof 77, to suddenly be a
caregiver for their wife is awhole new world right, and he's
(28:33):
not prepared for it and they'rethrown into it, and so to be
able to provide the support andeducation of resources for those
caregivers is really important.
Judy Gratton (28:44):
That is wonderful.
I love that.
I'm wondering if we have anygroups like that here.
That is really a great idea.
Dennis Day (28:51):
Did you start either of these groups?
Jeannine Bryant (28:54):
No, I didn't start them, but I just recognize
a good group when I see one andI thought oh, I can volunteer
my services.
Dennis Day (29:01):
Okay.
Well, let's get the extent ofyour business here.
You provide, it seems like, allkinds of different services.
What are the things that you dowith your business and the
things that you don't do?
Jeannine Bryant (29:13):
Sure, yeah, I have two businesses right
Changing Spaces and Easy RightSizing.
So Changing Spaces is myservice-based company in Lincoln
, nebraska, and we help withmoves and in-home estate sales
(29:46):
and online auctions.
So we help get someone movedand then we help empty out the
website where I have videos andblog articles and downloadable
resources that you can get.
And then I've self-publishedthese books on Amazon on the
right sizing process.
So the first book I publishedis called Ready to Right Size
and it's basically astep-by-step handbook of how to
downsize right.
If someone called me and said,exactly, tell me step-by-step
what to do, that's what thisbook is.
And then my second book iscalled Keep the Memories, not
(30:09):
the Stuff, and I wrote thatbecause I knew that the hardest
category of stuff to let go ofis that keepsake clutter, the
stuff that's all wrapped up inthe emotions of lots of times
it's someone you've lost.
And then my third book that Ijust put out is called 101 Ways
to Connect with a Senior andthat came out of.
(30:31):
I always joke that I should havecalled the book what Are we
Going to Talk to Bernice Aboutthis Weekend?
Because my mother-in-law,bernice she was 90.
She's passed away now, but shelived in a retirement community
and we'd go and visit her andyou talk about?
We talk about the NebraskaCornhuskers she was a sports fan
.
We talk about the weather,catch up on the family gossip,
(30:53):
and then what do we talk about?
And so I'm trying I was tryingto always think of ideas to
deepen that relationship, tohelp my kids connect with her in
a new way.
Older adults have this fount ofknowledge and experience and
I'm always trying to figure outdifferent ways to tap into that
and to hear some of that.
And so that's what that book is.
It's just 101 Ideas forConnecting with a Senior.
(31:13):
And so all of that is availableover at EasyRightSizingcom.
Wonderful, okay.
Dennis Day (31:19):
I guess from the title.
When I saw that I was thinkingit's a how does somebody who
doesn't have a connection to asenior can get connected to a
senior as a volunteer orsomething like that?
Family members, Absolutely.
Jeannine Bryant (31:34):
Yeah, I sent copies of it to the local
retirement communities for theiractivities directors because it
would work for that as well.
But yeah, I primarily wrote itfor family members, because some
people are naturally good atthat and other people are not,
and other people need some ideasand some prompting.
Judy Gratton (31:53):
Is there an organization?
I think there is.
There's Big Brother, Big Sisterfor kids.
There's something like that forgrandparents or where you're
adopting.
Jeannine Bryant (32:06):
Yeah, I do think there is.
I don't know that it's anationwide thing, but I think
that there are programs likethat throughout the country.
Something interesting that'shappening here in Lincoln,
nebraska, is a new communitythat was built by an
organization here.
It's called Sage Living, and itis every other floor it is
older adults, and then on theother floor it is college
(32:29):
students, and they're primarilynursing students who are in our
local college of nursing andthey live in the same building,
and so then there's opportunityfor interaction there, and which
I think is a it's a great.
It's one of the first I thinkof its kind and they're testing
it out.
But I think is a great.
It's one of the first I thinkof its kind and they're testing
it out, but I think that's great.
Anytime you can mix generationsright, that is wonderful.
Lincoln sounds like it's got itgoing, yeah it's a great city,
(32:52):
except it's too hot in July andAugust, but other than that it's
a great city.
Dennis Day (32:56):
Actually I love Lincoln.
My son went to Nebraska,Wesleyan, to play soccer and get
a degree in finance and wewould come, of course, and visit
and I thought, gosh, this isreally good.
It's very flat, yes, going fromSeattle, but it was a nice
little town.
(33:16):
You could get around and peoplewere always friendly.
And one time we came and wesaid we're from Seattle, oh, you
brought the rain with you.
You were grumpy because it wasraining.
Anyways, it's a lovely place.
We really enjoyed it.
One of the things I ask anybodywho's involved in estate sales
or helping people downsize weask what's the most unusual,
(33:40):
interesting thing you have foundor experience you have.
Jeannine Bryant (33:45):
That's an interesting question because
there are so many.
The thing that came to mindinitially I'll tell you is and
I'll keep it clean, but it was avery long walking stick and it
was made from the reproductiveorgan of a buffalo a male
buffalo.
And we were like what, howcould that possibly be?
And we googled it and, sureenough, it's a thing.
(34:05):
Apparently I think it was asouvenir that someone had bought
on a trip somewhere.
But, we sold it.
Dennis Day (34:13):
Okay, Somebody wanted it, that's right.
Now out in Nebraska are youdoing a lot of farms, this sort
of downsizing.
Jeannine Bryant (34:21):
Yeah, a lot of our clients are right in the
city of Lincoln, but sometimeswe do operate out of acreages,
which can be more of a challenge.
I grew up on a farm and Ialways say on a farm you don't
just have a house full of stuff,you have a shed and a barn and
all these other outbuildingsthat are filled with stuff, and
we do operate estate sales andonline auctions out of acreages.
(34:43):
Sometimes, if there's a reallylarge amount of stuff on an
acreage, then we will refer thatout to a traditional in-person
auction team where they're outthere with the auctioneer For
farm equipment and the thingsthat you would find in the
outbuildings.
Online auctions are stilldefinitely on the rise and
there's some very largecompanies in the Midwest who do
(35:03):
farm auctions.
But yeah, it's that much harderwhen you move off of a farm or
off of an acreage just becauseof the sheer amount of stuff,
and so even more incentive tothink ahead and plan and maybe
do it earlier rather than later.
Okay.
Judy Gratton (35:19):
Wow, my son-in-law bought recently and I was like
why they don't have acreage.
And he bought a tractor online,nice, okay.
Yes, he lives in a small townin North Carolina and his family
he has family who are farmers,so apparently it is out at one
(35:39):
of the farms there, but I'm likea tractor.
Jeannine Bryant (35:43):
It's like a Tonka truck for a kid.
They grow up and they stillwant it Exactly what?
Judy Gratton (35:48):
it was.
Dennis Day (35:49):
Nice.
So, Jeannine, you have thisbusiness.
This is your part, or maybelarge source, of your family
income.
You have 20 employees who haveto compensate for their work.
Tell us about how you structuregetting compensated for this
expertise and time.
Jeannine Bryant (36:13):
Absolutely yeah .
Everyone who's interested inour services gets a free in-home
consultation, because peoplewant to know how much is it
going to cost?
And our answer is always howmuch stuff do you have?
Because there's such a widevariety, right?
Even if you're moving from athree-bedroom home into a
one-bedroom apartment.
Some three-bedroom homes arepacked to the gills and some
three-bedroom homes are neat asa pin.
So we always go out and wevisit with them, we explain our
(36:35):
services and then we get a tourof the home, and the whole time
we're making notes about howfull the house is.
But we're also making notesabout the client as we have a
conversation with them.
Is this a client who's going toneed a lot of hand-holding?
Is this client already prettyorganized?
And really we just have to comein and do some packing and
unpacking and it'll be done.
And so from that we puttogether a quote that we send to
(37:00):
them and then they can decideif they want to use us or not.
I would say for us to help witha move, which means floor plan
sorting, packing, managing moveday and unpacking.
Depending on the size of theplace they're going to, it's
anywhere from $3,000 to $9,000,depending on if it's a
one-bedroom apartment or if it'sa whole house move.
And then for our estate salesand our online auctions we take
(37:21):
a percentage.
We specialize in larger sales,so we look for a total of
$15,000 or more in total sales.
So that means that thewholesale is going to bring in
$15,000 or more.
On average our sales would beabout $18,000 to $20,000 total.
We take 35% of that, and thenthere is also a setup fee,
(37:41):
depending on how much work thereis to be done in the home.
One of the things I say,unfortunately, is that it costs
a lot of money to have a lot ofstuff.
And so even if we get a phonecall and it's a beautiful
million dollar home and it'sfilled with things and it's
going to be a great estate sale,it still takes a lot of
manpower to set up that estatesale because we empty out every
(38:02):
drawer, every cupboard, everycloset, we organize it, we throw
out the trash and then we priceeverything and that takes a lot
of manpower.
And you know, unfortunately wecan't pay hourly workers ten
dollars an hour anymore.
So you know, unfortunately wecan't pay hourly workers $10 an
hour anymore.
So you know, our fees have goneup.
And so then the fees for ourservices have gone up as well.
But what we do at the end ofthat sale?
I mean we hand them a nice sizecheck, but then what we're also
(38:28):
handing them is an empty house,and that's what we have to
remind them.
What we're doing is we'reemptying out your house so that
it can be put on the market andsold, because that's your main
asset here is the house, not thestuff inside of it.
But in order to sell the house,we got to do something with the
stuff inside.
Judy Gratton (38:41):
You deal a lot with the family after someone
has passed Do?
You do a lot of work with themas well.
Jeannine Bryant (38:48):
Yeah, I would say maybe half of our sales that
we do are a situation like thatwhere someone's passed away and
the family is emptying it out,and so our first rule is that we
want you and your familymembers to go through and remove
anything you want to keep, andthen we come in and we'll sell
whatever is left, and that'sanother thing we're watching for
(39:08):
when we do that.
In-home consultation is any kindof red flags or anytime someone
is saying, oh, this is a veryspecial piece, and then we'll
gently have that conversationand say, boy, if you are able to
take that with you, we wouldlove for you to take that with
you, because I always say Idon't want to have a sale for
someone who doesn't want to sale.
And if you don't want me tosell it, then you can keep it
and we'll just sell the thingsyou are ready to let go of, and
(39:30):
we'll sell it for as much moneyas we possibly can.
And after all this time inbusiness we have about 18,000
people who get our emails, andso we do have quite a following,
and we have anywhere from one,two or three sales every week.
So we see a lot of the sameshoppers every week, and so we
are able to get pretty goodprices.
But we're also able to sellabout 85% of the stuff in the
(39:52):
house, and that's the real valueis again emptying the house out
.
Judy Gratton (39:55):
But you understand the values, you understand how
to price things correctly.
Jeannine Bryant (40:01):
Yes, absolutely .
Judy Gratton (40:02):
And when my I had two mother-in-laws the second
one is one that recently passed,but when the first one passed
she had a white Bieber coat andthe family.
I was holding a garage sale,estate sale, whatever you want
to call it and this woman camein and she wanted to buy quite a
(40:24):
few things, including the coat,for around a hundred dollars.
And I'm like, yes, go, goodbye.
And the family was like,absolutely not, that coat is
worth thousands.
And I'm like that coat is notworth anything because I'm not
wearing them anymore.
And they refused.
The woman went away with theother things, but not the coat.
(40:45):
The coat went from child tochild to my daughter and my
daughter never wears.
And I'm like, how did you endup with that coat?
I don't know, but I don't wantit.
I'm like exactly, exactly.
Jeannine Bryant (41:00):
Yeah, your stuff is worth whatever.
Someone will give you for it,right, right.
And if you are selling thingsat a garage sale, then you are
limited to the people who cometo the garage sale and who have
cash in hand.
That's who you can sell it to.
And you're absolutely rightWith something like furs, you
have to take a lot of thingsinto account.
Now, here in the Midwest peoplestill do wear furs, but it has
(41:22):
to be cold enough, it has to bethe right size, it has to be the
right style and not outdated,and yeah, and so sometimes we do
hold on to things for guilt orpass them on and think that
they're worth a lot of money,and it's just a fool's errand,
isn't it?
Judy Gratton (41:36):
I think that China is another one that I had three
sets of sterling or sterlingplated flatware and I'm down to
some crystal glasses, and Ibasically have given it away to
friends who wanted it, becausemy kids didn't want any of it.
Jeannine Bryant (41:54):
Yeah, they're not using it.
And I have that.
I did not register for Chinawhen I got married because my
mom had passed away and so Iknew I'll just take her China
whatever.
So I have her China.
But ask me, how many times ayear I use it?
Maybe once.
Judy Gratton (42:08):
Went out and bought cheap China, because if
it broke then I didn't have toworry about it like I literally
walmart china, that I didn'tcare if the kids dropped it on
the grounds and I thought if Idon't want it, why would they?
Jeannine Bryant (42:21):
don't on'd on'd , don't don't, life changes
and that's okay, and becauseit's not like a moral, that's
again.
It goes back to what how westarted.
It gets tied up into ouridentity.
It's not a moral issue onwhether or not you want these
items or don't want these items,and so we have to be careful
about not guilting our familymembers into keeping things.
Judy Gratton (42:41):
That's great.
I like that.
Dennis Day (42:45):
Jeannine, thank you so much.
This has just been absolutelyfantastic, and if people are
interested in your books, wherewould they find them?
Jeannine Bryant (42:55):
Absolutely.
They're all available on amazon, but an easy way to get to them
is easyrightsizingcom.
You just click on books andthere's a link to purchase any
book that you would like, and Ialso have an online course on
there as well.
It's actually over three hoursof video content me walking
folks through each of thelessons of going through the
right sizing process, andthere's a bunch of free
(43:16):
materials on there as well.
So easyrightsizingcom.
Dennis Day (43:21):
And if they were in the Lincoln, Nebraska area, how
would they locate you?
Jeannine Bryant (43:27):
Absolutely Yep.
Changingspacessrscom the SRSstands for Senior Relocation
Services.
So changingspacessrscom and Ishould mention that we run
online auctions every week andwe do provide shipping, so even
if you're in another state andyou buy something on our online
auction, we can have it shippedto you.
Dennis Day (43:48):
Fantastic, I'll have to look at that.
Judy Gratton (43:51):
The online auction .
Where did they find thatFantastic?
Jeannine Bryant (43:53):
I'll have to look at that.
The online auction where didthey find that?
That's at changingspacessrscom.
Dennis Day (43:57):
Great Again, thank you.
Such valuable information,interesting insights and what a
resource for Lincoln you are.
Thank you Keeping in touch withthese volunteer organizations
so you can help people further.
Really, an amazing, amazingsystem.
You have Fantastic.
Thanks so much for joining us.
(44:17):
Appreciate you taking the timeout of your day to be here.
Jeannine Bryant (44:20):
Yes, thank you guys.
I love talking about it, sothank you for the opportunity.
Judy Gratton (44:25):
We really appreciate you coming on.
Dennis Day (44:28):
Thanks again, and that's it everyone.
This has been Getting.
Judy Gratton (44:32):
Your.
Dennis Day (44:32):
Edge Out who Downsized your Life, and we hope
you enjoy this information.
And if you want moreinformation about Janine and her
business, we will have links onour website and in the podcast
notes and so forth so you cancontact her and
easyrightsizingcom is prettyeasy to find.
(44:55):
Thanks so much.
Jeannine Bryant (44:57):
Yes, thank you guys.
Dennis Day (44:58):
Appreciate it.
We'll see you next time.
Jeannine Bryant (45:02):
Cool, thank you .
Hello everyone.
I'm Dennis Day with Gettingyour Edge how to Downsize your
Life.
I'm here with my co-host, JudyGratton.
How was your day going so far,Judy?
Judy Gratton (00:09):
So far, so good, Dennis, thank you.
Dennis Day (00:12):
And we have our guest,
Jeannine Bryant from Lincoln,Nebraska, here to talk about her
business.
Our guest, Jeannine Bryant, isa right-sizing expert and author
.
She's worked hundreds offamilies over the last 10 years
(00:34):
as they downsize or clear outtheir home of loved ones who
have died.
She presents at workshopsacross the Midwest offering
practical advice on right-sizing, downsizing, cleaning out an
estate and more.
Cleaning out an estate and more.
height (00:44):
normal; font-size
color (00:44):
rgb(0, 0, 0); white-space-collapse:
collapse;">
5pt; font-family (00:44):
"Segoe UI", sans- collapse;">
collapse;"> Segoe is theCEO and owner of Changing Spaces
SRS in Lincoln, nebraska, whereshe leads a team of 20
employees who help her clientsthrough the transitions.
She is an author of three booksand two yearly calendars about
downsizing.
Janine's website offers aplethora of information about
(01:09):
right-sizing and downsizing.
She is also an active member ofLincoln, nebraska's Coalition
for the Older Adult HealthPromotion, as well as a member
of the Lincoln CaregiverEducation Group.
Her company, changing Spaces,was selected to receive the
Small Business of the Year Awardin 2019 from the Lincoln
(01:30):
Chamber of Commerce She'soriginally from Hillsborough,
north Dakota Jeannine now callsLincoln, Nebraska, her home and
she lives with her husband andtwo children Jeannine Welcome
Jeannine Bryant (01:44):
Thank you, I'm so happy to be here.
Dennis Day (01:45):
I appreciate it.
You've got a thriving businessin this.
You've got a podcast and you'vegot books.
You've got a great website thatoffers amazing information.
How did your journey fromgrowing up on a farm in North
Dakota to founding ChangingSpaces SRA shape your approach
to supporting downsizing?
Jeannine Bryant (02:08):
I always say that I was very blessed to grow
up surrounded by older adults.
I grew up on a farm.
My folks were farmers up inNorth Dakota.
My brother is still a farmerand my dad lives up there.
My mom has passed away but Igrew up one mile from one set of
grandparents and a mile and ahalf from the other set of
grandparents.
We were the only grandkidsaround that.
(02:28):
We had some cousins in anotherstate, but it was like my
brother and I and then all fourof our grandparents.
We had a great aunt and unclewho never had any children, so
my mom was the entertainer ofour whole extended family.
All these older folks wouldalways be over at our house for
every birthday, every holiday.
Families All these older folkswould always be over at our
house for every birthday, everyholiday, and I just grew up
(02:52):
around them.
I've always loved working withseniors and I've always been
gifted and really enjoyorganization.
For me as a kid, reorganizingmy closet was like the most fun
thing I could think of.
I used to stay up late and doit.
When I discovered that that'ssomething the world needs, that
organization piece mixed withworking with older adults, I
thought, oh my goodness, this isthe job for me.
When I came to Lincoln,nebraska, we could see that
(03:13):
there was a real need for olderadults who had been in their
homes for decades and thenmoving into these gorgeous,
wonderful retirement communitiesthat were popping up all over.
But it's overwhelming to thinkabout.
How do you even make that kindof a transition?
How do you cut your squarefootage and your possessions in
half and move into a smallerapartment like that and to do it
(03:35):
well?
And so that's where ChangingSpaces was born Fantastic.
Dennis Day (03:40):
It sounds like a wonderful childhood.
Fantastic, it sounds like awonderful childhood.
Jeannine Bryant (03:44):
Oh yeah, it was great.
I loved growing up on the farm,but my number one goal was to
get off the farm.
I always wanted to be a towngirl and so now I am.
But now as a mother and I havea couple of city kids, I think,
oh man, I wish you could havethe farm upbringing, but I like
living in town personally.
Judy Gratton (04:06):
You use the term right sizing.
Can you explain whatright-sizing means to you?
Jeannine Bryant (04:08):
Yes, we love that term because it puts a
little bit more positive spin onit, but I always say it's
right-sizing is finding thatperfect place between too much
and too little.
My job is not to encouragepeople to get rid of all of
their stuff.
My job is to help people keeptheir favorite stuff and then
let go of that stuff thatdoesn't mean so much, so that
(04:31):
their favorite stuff can bebeautifully displayed and used
in their new living situation.
Keep the best, let go of therest.
That's the phrase that I alwayssay yeah it's a really good one
.
It makes it more.
I think when people hear thatterm downsizing it just feels
like we're focusing on whatyou're giving up.
Judy Gratton (04:49):
I know it's a negative connotation, but
right-sizing is also verydependent on who they are and
their personality and wherethey're going or not going.
Jeannine Bryant (04:59):
I think it's a really good it yeah absolutely,
and everyone gets to choose forthemselves how much is enough.
Right?
We work with some gals, maybe,who are quilters, and so they
need and want and use a wholebunch of fabric, right, that
they want to keep with them, andthey want to fill their sewing
room to the gills with fabricand whatever, whereas someone
(05:20):
else might be totallycomfortable with more of a
minimal lifestyle.
And so it's whatever works forthe individual.
But what we want to do is wewant to let go of that stuff
that is weighing on us andcausing us stress.
If you love it, I want you tokeep it, but it's that excess
stuff.
Too much stuff is just like toomuch food.
We eat food, we need food andwe enjoy food, but if you gorge
(05:44):
yourself at some point, you makeyourself sick with too much
food.
Same thing with stuff.
Right, we want our homes to bebeautiful and we want to enjoy
them.
At some level.
It becomes the opposite, andnow it's your home is not
enjoyable to be in becausethere's too much stuff.
Dennis Day (05:59):
Now your business has also has a tagline Life is
hard enough, Don't let yourstuff make it harder.
How did that phrase originateand how does it fit in with your
business?
Jeannine Bryant (06:12):
That phrase originated just from me watching
our clients struggle with theirstuff.
And just a recent example twoweeks ago we moved a couple into
an assisted living apartment,and the majority of the folks
that we work with are movingeither to a townhome or
independent living, and so it'sa happy move.
They're proactively choosing toright size and move to a more
(06:35):
manageable home.
Assisted living is anotherlevel of care, and the only
reason someone goes to assistedliving is because life has
gotten hard enough in theircurrent home that now they need
more nursing help to help themwith their activities of daily
living.
And so this couple reallyneeded to move.
It wasn't a I want to move,it's we need to move.
(06:57):
But their stuff, everyhorizontal surface in their
house was covered.
Every horizontal surface wascovered with a little ceramic
figurine.
I've been doing this a longtime.
It was the most ceramicfigurines I've ever seen in one
place at one time, and they lovetheir collections and it was
extremely hard for them to letgo of those collections and it
(07:20):
became a huge barrier and a veryhigh hurdle that they had to
jump over.
Honestly, we had to drag themover that hurdle to get them to
the other side where they couldmove into assisted living, and
again we packed their favoritecollections and brought them to
their new apartment.
But they had to leave a lotbehind, and when your things
(07:42):
accumulate and you don't addressmaybe your attachment to your
objects in your home, it canbecome a big hurdle to living
your best life at whatever stageit is that you're in, and so
that was an example where lifeis hard for them.
They needed to move to assistedliving and their stuff made it
even harder.
It would have been hard even ifthey had not had all this stuff
(08:05):
, but all that stuff made it awhole lot harder to let go, and
they're stressed now they'reworrying about.
Of course we moved them toassisted living.
The majority of that stuff isstill left in their house right.
And we've had conversations.
The adult son is totally finenot putting the house on the
market for a while.
They're going to let it sit,but eventually all that stuff
(08:26):
will need to be dealt with.
So there's a quote that I oftenuse by a professional organizer
, Sue DeRoos.
She says that we all getorganized eventually.
We just might not be around forit, and so either we deal with
our possessions or someone weleave behind will have to deal
with them eventually right.
Dennis Day (08:50):
Yeah, we've talked about that numerous times on the
podcast, about if you love yourchildren, you will get rid of
your stuff.
You'll be part of that processbecause your children have lives
and they have other things todo.
They may not have their ownkids, so they don't want to sort
through your stuff and get ridof boxes and so forth.
Talk a little bit about thatattachment.
Jeannine Bryant (09:12):
I know we all suffer from that.
Especially if we're not careful, our identities can become
wrapped up in our possessions.
I have a 14-year-old daughterand 11-year-old son, and it
struck me recently I was tryingto teach my teenager about how
you never really be satisfiedwith your stuff.
She wanted to buy an expensivepair of jeans and I was trying
to tell her, hey, that's be funfor about a week, but then after
(09:34):
that you're over it and it'snot really make you happy
anymore and I thought, oh, waita minute.
That's the same kind of lessonthat I'm teaching older adults
and it's the same lesson that Ineed to learn as well when I'm
sitting there scrolling andbuying because I'm bored or
whatever.
Stuff does not bring uscontentment or peace.
Right, contentment and peace tocome from something other than
(09:57):
our stuff.
And in fact, if the stuff getsout of hand, it can bring us the
opposite of contentment orpeace or certainly rob that
contentment and peace from thosewe leave behind.
Like you were saying, if wepass away and our kids have to
come and take I don't know, aweek off of work, it's take
longer than a week to empty outa house, right, and so maybe
(10:19):
they spend every weekend for sixmonths or 12 months, coming and
trying to empty out your house.
That's robbing them ofcontentment, peace, their
opportunity to mourn you,because they're stressed about
dealing with your stuff.
Judy Gratton (10:31):
Resentments.
Trust me, we're going throughthat right now with my mother in
law passed.
We're very fortunate that wedon't live there, but my sister
inlaw is like full-time tryingto take care of this condominium
.
That is huge and I've neverseen so much stuff All very nice
(10:53):
stuff, my gosh.
I was talking to a client thatwe're going to be listing her
home here shortly that isdownsizing and she brought up
the idea of condominiums, ourgrandparents and our parents and
how our parents were raised inthe depression era.
So I think some of theenvironment or what we live in
(11:16):
affects how we look atquote-unquote stuff.
With me, I felt thisresponsibility to take on all of
the family heirlooms and now noone wants them.
It's interesting to see howdifferent generations are
looking at stuff.
Jeannine Bryant (11:34):
Absolutely, and you're so right.
Past generations didn'tstruggle with the sheer amount
of stuff because getting stuffwas hard right, it was expensive
and you couldn't just order iton your phone and have it
delivered to your door.
It used to be really expensiveto fill up your home.
When you think about your firsthome, perhaps we used to get a
lot of hand-me-downs from ourparents and now it's cheap and
(11:57):
easy to go to Target or Ikea fora newlywed couple and outfit
their whole place.
Judy Gratton (12:02):
I've heard that yes, I've heard that over
grandma's China closet orwhatever it is.
They don't want it and it'sreally hard to get that point
across to people who feel thatthere is this value behind their
china closet.
It's really hard to get them tounderstand that there really
(12:24):
isn't anything there.
Jeannine Bryant (12:26):
I know it's a hard pill to swallow.
Judy Gratton (12:28):
So what are your strategies then?
When you approach people, doyou have a strategy of how you
start to get them to understandthe importance of letting go of
some of the things that they'reholding on to?
Jeannine Bryant (12:44):
The majority of the clients that we work with,
the issue has been forcedbecause they are facing a move.
They've decided that they'regoing to move by the time they
contact us.
So then we're dealing in aspace where we have to just face
reality.
We always start with a floorplan.
We measure their furniture thatthey think they want to take.
We have measurements of the newplace and we create a floor
plan so that they can see it onpaper what's going to fit and
(13:06):
what's not going to fit.
So is the apartment or is thenew townhome big enough for your
dining room table?
And if so, then is there alsoroom for the buffet and the
china hutch, or is there roomfor only one of them?
Or do we need to take just thesmall curio cabinet that goes in
the corner?
We really get down to brasstacks.
I remind them they can't put 10pounds of flour in a five pound
(13:28):
sack.
So we just got to work withwhat our new space looks like,
what's going to fit in there,furniture wise.
Then, after we know thefurniture, we can start going
through the little stuff thedishes, the books, the clothes,
the holiday decorations anddeciding what's going to fit in
that new space Because, forinstance, the china Okay, if
they can fit the china hutchinto their new place and they
(13:50):
want to bring it, then great,they can fill that thing with
china if they want.
But if the china hutch can't go,then can the china go?
And if it does, then where isit going to live?
Are we going to put it in oneof the kitchen cupboards?
Everything that we pack?
We have to have an answer forwhere are we going to put this,
have to have an answer for whereare we going to put this?
(14:11):
And so that's why we alwaysstart with that floor plan,
because we just have to facereality that we need to.
We can't just bring it becausewe want it.
We have to have a place to putit, because it's not all going
to fit.
Judy Gratton (14:19):
Yeah, and that many times they'll just go,
we'll get a storage unit.
Yeah, it's like what.
Jeannine Bryant (14:28):
I know I always joke.
Lynn, you must have too muchmoney.
You can just send me moneyevery month instead of sending
it to them.
Because what's the next play?
If you're downsizing, if you'removing to a retirement
community, do you think you'regoing to buy a house in five
years where you're going to havemore room?
That doesn't make any sense.
No one's going to ever go getthat stuff.
And so when we're dealing withestate sales, my company runs
estate sales and online auctionsas well, and so we have to have
(14:51):
that conversation that we'renot going to get out what we put
into it, probably because it'sall supply and demand.
And if we're dealing with aclient who is 85 years old,
everyone in their generation hasvery similar things in their
house they all have the chinahuts, they all have the curio
cabinet, they all have the snacktrays, they all have the punch
(15:11):
bowl, and they're all downsizing, and so a lot of those things
are flooding the market andthere's more supply than there
is demand.
If you need a punch bowl, it'dbe hard to go to Target and buy
a punch bowl, but you can find alot of secondhand punch bowls,
because there were a bunch thatwere produced in the 1950s and
no one uses them anymore, right?
So we're all trying to get ridof them.
(15:31):
So that drives the price down.
Big brown china hutches are adime a dozen now and then I try
to tell my clients that that'sokay.
Because, again, going back toour identity, however much money
you get for that item is in noway a reflection of how much you
loved that item, how much lifehappened around that item.
You bought that item is in noway a reflection of how much you
loved that item, how much lifehappened around that item.
(15:52):
You bought that item 30 yearsago and you have loved it for 30
years and you've had dinnersfor family throughout the year
and it served its purpose.
So God bless it.
Maybe a 25 year old is going tobuy it and paint it pink and
that's okay.
The secret to drama-freedownsizing is to let go of it
first emotionally and thenitfree downsizing is to let go
of it first emotionally and thenit becomes a lot easier to let
(16:13):
go of it physically.
Dennis Day (16:15):
That's a really interesting point.
Do you think people are gettingcaught up in the price?
So if I have this thing that Ithink is incredibly special,
meaningful to me, and nobodywants to buy it, does that bring
negative feelings to people?
Jeannine Bryant (16:34):
Yeah, it does.
And so that's why we say, boy,if you think it's incredibly
special and meaningful, then ifwe can figure out a way for you
to keep it we're going to try tofigure that out right, let's
try to find a place in your newhome to keep it.
But if it doesn't fit, thenhere we are back at reality
again.
You think it's incrediblyspecial, but you cannot
(16:55):
physically keep it.
You tried to talk your familyinto keeping it.
They are not willing to keep it.
So now here we're in a position.
Right, beggars can't bechoosers.
We have to find someone.
And if it's a big item, it hasto be someone local who will buy
it and then have the ability tomove it.
And if they have to findsomeone and if it's a big item,
it has to be someone local whowill buy it and then have the
ability to move it.
And if they have to hire movers, then that's a couple hundred
dollars more.
(17:15):
And all of these things factorin.
And I always joke that showAntiques Roadshow is a very it's
a fun show, I love watching it,but it's not very realistic and
most of us don't have thesepriceless treasures in our homes
.
And I often say boy, I hope youhave some mutual funds because
your used couch is not going tofund your retirement.
Dennis Day (17:33):
It's just not.
That's great.
So in your book Ready to RightSize and on your website you
break down right sizing intofive steps.
Can you list those steps andwalk us through one of those
steps that your clients oftenfind challenging?
Jeannine Bryant (17:55):
Yeah, I think that the biggest challenge that
my clients face is not going inthe right order when we're doing
those steps.
So the first step, when you'reemptying out a house, is to
decide what you will keep.
And this is if whether it'syour own house, you're moving,
or if it's a loved one's home,when they've passed away and
you're tasked with emptying itout.
(18:15):
Decide what you're going tokeep.
Right, you think about all thestuff in that house as being in
layers.
The top, the best layer, shouldbe what you want to keep, and
you get to decide okay, don'tlet guilt factor into that
decision what do you want tokeep?
The next layer is give whatyou're going to give to family
and friends.
Giving could be keepsakes and,emotionally, things with
(18:37):
emotional attachment, thosekinds of things that you want to
give away.
Or it might be practical things.
Hey, I have a nephew who'ssetting up his first apartment
and he needs a crock pot and achair and a kitchen table.
Great, take these things.
The second is give away tofamily or friends.
The third step, then, is sellwhat you can, and the reason we
(18:58):
do that is because you know whenyou're selling what you can,
it's like we've been talkingabout and you think you're China
Hutch, you should be able toget at least $425 for it, right?
And someone comes along and noone's interested.
Finally someone offers you $175for it.
It feels insulting, but becauseyou've already gone through
(19:19):
steps one and two, now yourealize that everything that's
left in the house is stuff thatnobody needed, nobody wanted or
nobody had room for.
So here we are facing realityagain.
We love this thing, we'd liketo get $425 for it, but here's
someone offering us $175.
What other options?
No one wanted this.
(19:40):
So what other options do wehave?
So it makes it easier to let itgo for maybe less than you had
dreamed you would get for it.
And then step four is donatewhat didn't sell.
And then the fifth step isremove all the trash, because
every house, even the cleanesthouse, has trash, and I always
remind people that.
Step four, that donation.
We want to make sure that we'redonating quality items to the
(20:02):
charities, things that could beused or things that would sell
in a charity shop, because thoseplaces are running on
shoestring budgets.
Don't just bring them yourtrash that then they have to
turn around and sort through andthen dispose of themselves.
So, just going in that order isthe secret sauce to those steps
.
Judy Gratton (20:20):
And your organization will handle that
entire package for them.
Jeannine Bryant (20:24):
Yes, we do, and that's what my team.
We will stand alongside you asyou do all of that.
But what I would get all thetime is phone calls from people
outside of our geographic regionsaying, boy, could you help me
through this process?
And as much as I would want to,I couldn't.
They couldn't afford for me tosend my team out there to help
them.
That's when I started writingthe books and the website Easy
(20:46):
Right Sizing that I have,because I wanted to educate and
help people.
Even if me or my team wasn'tphysically there to help them
with the sorting, I could atleast tell them what to do.
Judy Gratton (21:00):
So in a recent blog the title of the blog
Calcizing Supports Aging inPlace Even If you Don't Move you
stress that downsizing isn'tjust for people who relocate,
and I find that to be a greattopic.
Could you give us some examplesof where you've worked with
people who've stayed in theirpresent home and still you've
(21:21):
dealt with downsizing with?
Jeannine Bryant (21:24):
them, folks, and I tell them what I do for a
living, they always say I'm notgoing to move and I'm like
that's okay, I'm not going tomake you.
They're worried that I'm goingto make them move.
But really this isn't just forolder adults.
All of us, at any age, right inAmerica, we have stuff in our
homes that we don't need, wedon't use and we don't
(21:44):
particularly want.
So really this should be alifelong practice of going
through and culling through youritems, but particularly for an
older adult.
I have even visited with clientsin their homes and they say I'm
thinking about moving, I reallydon't want to, and they have
these gorgeous homes andobviously enough money.
And I think to myself andsometimes I say to them boy, I
wouldn't want to move either.
This is amazing.
You've created an amazing homeand if they have the money, even
(22:08):
if they end up in a place wherethey need the help, they can
have in-home health care cominginto their homes and helping
them there.
So not everyone has to move,but going through that
downsizing process can make thehome safer and more comfortable,
even if you're staying in place.
So I think about a client thatI worked with a couple years ago
, where you go up the stairs butthere's little piles of stuff
(22:31):
on each stair that you weregoing to bring upstairs or
downstairs, and then you get upto the second floor and you walk
down the hallway and nowthere's the stuff has started
like leaking out of the roomsand into the hallways and so
there's stuff on both sides ofthe hallway and mobility becomes
an issue.
And tripping and falling hazardsare always a red light for me
when I'm visiting with a client.
(22:52):
If you or your spouse ends uphaving to be in a wheelchair or
use a walker or even a cane, orif they're just not quite as
nimble on their feet or steadyon their feet as they used to,
anything that's sitting on thefloor, even a simple throw rug,
can be a trip or fall hazard,and we've all seen those
statistics that a fall after theage of 75 is a big deal right,
(23:17):
and some people never recoverfrom it.
A lot of people recover halfwayfrom a fall like that.
So anything you can do toprevent falling hazards, but
also even in your cupboards andclosets and drawers, getting out
the stuff you're not using,just makes life so much easier.
You don't have to wrestle withthe stuff.
Maybe you have things in yourhome that you used every day for
(23:39):
many years, but now we're in adifferent chapter and maybe it's
been five years since you'vegone fishing okay, but yet all
that fishing tackle is still outin the garage.
Let's get that out of your homeand into the hands of someone
else in your community or yourfamily who can put it to good
use.
Judy Gratton (23:55):
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Dennis Day (23:59):
You've highlighted 10 mistakes that families make
when helping seniors downsize.
What mistake do you see mostfrequently and what's your
advice to families to help avoid?
Jeannine Bryant (24:13):
I w w wonder what it was that I wrote down.
So this is one of thedownloadable resources website
,easyrightsizingdotcom .
, .
e e easyrightsizing.
com website, easyrightsizingcom,and I had a hard time picking
just one, but I chose mistakenumber nine.
That's listed, which isunderstanding the time needed,
and it goes back to what we weretalking about earlier.
(24:35):
If you've lived in your homefor 20, 30, 40, 50 years which
is a lot of our clients it'sgoing to take more than a week
to empty it our clients.
It's going to take more than aweek to empty it out, and it's
going to take more than a weekto even just to move out.
Things tend to accumulate overtime and it's very easy to kick
the can down the road andprocrastinate.
But what I tell folks is thatit's my recommendation that
(24:57):
they're proactive and they startearly, because in three years
or in five years, you will haveeven more stuff right, because
it keeps coming in every day.
We got more stuff coming intoour house.
You'll have more stuff and lessenergy with which to deal with
it, and so do it now.
But if, particularly if a lovedone has passed away and maybe
the adult children are cominginto town to empty out the house
(25:19):
, like you were saying Judy,with your mother-in-law,
emptying out that condo is goingto take more than a week.
Judy Gratton (25:25):
Oh, so far, I think they're into it about four
months.
Yes, right.
Jeannine Bryant (25:31):
You just don't when you haven't done it.
And most people don't right.
They maybe go through thisprocess once or twice in their
life.
They just vastly underestimatehow much time and energy it's
going to take.
Judy Gratton (25:50):
That's true.
So you are a member of somesenior-focused organizations the
Lincoln's Coalition for OlderAdult Promotion as well as a
member of the Lincoln CaregiverEducation Group.
Can you tell us about thoseeducations and why you're
willing to volunteer?
Jeannine Bryant (26:02):
Yeah, my city of Lincoln, Nebraska.
I love it, it's the perfect.
I guess it's a small city.
To a farm kid from North Dakotait seems like a big city, but
we're about maybe 300,000 peoplehere and it's a perfect size
community because everyone whoworks in the senior industry
most of us belong to thiscoalition for older adult health
promotion and I'm quite surethat a lot of cities around the
(26:24):
country have groups like thiswhere it's just a networking
group, where everyone who worksin the senior services industry
gets together monthly foreducation or social.
And it's so important becausewhen we're working with the
senior population, it's avulnerable group and they have
lots of different needs right.
They don't just need, maybe, myhelp with right sizing, they
(26:44):
need help with home health careor hospice or insurance or
whatever.
And it's so powerful to know,when you're sitting with a
client, to hear about theirneeds and to know exactly who
they should call and not just a1-800 number for a company it's
oh no, I'm going to suggest youcall Andrew at this place, Tell
him I sent you and to knowreally that client will be taken
(27:08):
care of because you know thesepeople right and you all work
together.
So that's why, to me, that's avery important organization
group and we are a group ofprofessionals who give
presentations and providesupport groups for people who
are serving in that caregiverrole, and that is not a role
(27:29):
that any of us ever expect to bein, but most of us, or at least
half of us, probably will findourselves in at one point or
another.
There's a great quote I don'thave it in front of me, but it's
something like at one time,everyone will either need a
caregiver or be a caregiver intheir life, and that is a
difficult time.
(27:50):
It's a difficult time foreveryone for different reasons.
For a lot of women that we workwith who are in that caregiver
role sometimes this generationthis might be one of the first
times in their life wherethey're making all of the
financial and sort of householddecisions.
Maybe their husband primarilyserved that role and if he's not
able to now, they're thrustinto that.
(28:10):
On the opposite side, a lot ofmen of this generation are maybe
not used to being a caregiver,right?
My father is 77.
He has never once changed adiaper in his life, right?
And that's just the generationand the culture that we grew up
in.
And so for someone at the ageof 77, to suddenly be a
caregiver for their wife is awhole new world right, and he's
(28:33):
not prepared for it and they'rethrown into it, and so to be
able to provide the support andeducation of resources for those
caregivers is really important.
Judy Gratton (28:44):
That is wonderful.
I love that.
I'm wondering if we have anygroups like that here.
That is really a great idea.
Dennis Day (28:51):
Did you start either of these groups?
Jeannine Bryant (28:54):
No, I didn't start them, but I just recognize
a good group when I see one andI thought oh, I can volunteer
my services.
Dennis Day (29:01):
Okay.
Well, let's get the extent ofyour business here.
You provide, it seems like, allkinds of different services.
What are the things that you dowith your business and the
things that you don't do?
Jeannine Bryant (29:13):
Sure, yeah, I have two businesses right
Changing Spaces and Easy RightSizing.
So Changing Spaces is myservice-based company in Lincoln
, nebraska, and we help withmoves and in-home estate sales
(29:46):
and online auctions.
So we help get someone movedand then we help empty out the
website where I have videos andblog articles and downloadable
resources that you can get.
And then I've self-publishedthese books on Amazon on the
right sizing process.
So the first book I publishedis called Ready to Right Size
and it's basically astep-by-step handbook of how to
downsize right.
If someone called me and said,exactly, tell me step-by-step
what to do, that's what thisbook is.
And then my second book iscalled Keep the Memories, not
(30:09):
the Stuff, and I wrote thatbecause I knew that the hardest
category of stuff to let go ofis that keepsake clutter, the
stuff that's all wrapped up inthe emotions of lots of times
it's someone you've lost.
And then my third book that Ijust put out is called 101 Ways
to Connect with a Senior andthat came out of.
(30:31):
I always joke that I should havecalled the book what Are we
Going to Talk to Bernice Aboutthis Weekend?
Because my mother-in-law,bernice she was 90.
She's passed away now, but shelived in a retirement community
and we'd go and visit her andyou talk about?
We talk about the NebraskaCornhuskers she was a sports fan
.
We talk about the weather,catch up on the family gossip,
(30:53):
and then what do we talk about?
And so I'm trying I was tryingto always think of ideas to
deepen that relationship, tohelp my kids connect with her in
a new way.
Older adults have this fount ofknowledge and experience and
I'm always trying to figure outdifferent ways to tap into that
and to hear some of that.
And so that's what that book is.
It's just 101 Ideas forConnecting with a Senior.
(31:13):
And so all of that is availableover at EasyRightSizingcom.
Wonderful, okay.
Dennis Day (31:19):
I guess from the title.
When I saw that I was thinkingit's a how does somebody who
doesn't have a connection to asenior can get connected to a
senior as a volunteer orsomething like that?
Family members, Absolutely.
Jeannine Bryant (31:34):
Yeah, I sent copies of it to the local
retirement communities for theiractivities directors because it
would work for that as well.
But yeah, I primarily wrote itfor family members, because some
people are naturally good atthat and other people are not,
and other people need some ideasand some prompting.
Judy Gratton (31:53):
Is there an organization?
I think there is.
There's Big Brother, Big Sisterfor kids.
There's something like that forgrandparents or where you're
adopting.
Jeannine Bryant (32:06):
Yeah, I do think there is.
I don't know that it's anationwide thing, but I think
that there are programs likethat throughout the country.
Something interesting that'shappening here in Lincoln,
nebraska, is a new communitythat was built by an
organization here.
It's called Sage Living, and itis every other floor it is
older adults, and then on theother floor it is college
(32:29):
students, and they're primarilynursing students who are in our
local college of nursing andthey live in the same building,
and so then there's opportunityfor interaction there, and which
I think is a it's a great.
It's one of the first I thinkof its kind and they're testing
it out.
But I think is a great.
It's one of the first I thinkof its kind and they're testing
it out, but I think that's great.
Anytime you can mix generationsright, that is wonderful.
Lincoln sounds like it's got itgoing, yeah it's a great city,
(32:52):
except it's too hot in July andAugust, but other than that it's
a great city.
Dennis Day (32:56):
Actually I love Lincoln.
My son went to Nebraska,Wesleyan, to play soccer and get
a degree in finance and wewould come, of course, and visit
and I thought, gosh, this isreally good.
It's very flat, yes, going fromSeattle, but it was a nice
little town.
(33:16):
You could get around and peoplewere always friendly.
And one time we came and wesaid we're from Seattle, oh, you
brought the rain with you.
You were grumpy because it wasraining.
Anyways, it's a lovely place.
We really enjoyed it.
One of the things I ask anybodywho's involved in estate sales
or helping people downsize weask what's the most unusual,
(33:40):
interesting thing you have foundor experience you have.
Jeannine Bryant (33:45):
That's an interesting question because
there are so many.
The thing that came to mindinitially I'll tell you is and
I'll keep it clean, but it was avery long walking stick and it
was made from the reproductiveorgan of a buffalo a male
buffalo.
And we were like what, howcould that possibly be?
And we googled it and, sureenough, it's a thing.
(34:05):
Apparently I think it was asouvenir that someone had bought
on a trip somewhere.
But, we sold it.
Dennis Day (34:13):
Okay, Somebody wanted it, that's right.
Now out in Nebraska are youdoing a lot of farms, this sort
of downsizing.
Jeannine Bryant (34:21):
Yeah, a lot of our clients are right in the
city of Lincoln, but sometimeswe do operate out of acreages,
which can be more of a challenge.
I grew up on a farm and Ialways say on a farm you don't
just have a house full of stuff,you have a shed and a barn and
all these other outbuildingsthat are filled with stuff, and
we do operate estate sales andonline auctions out of acreages.
(34:43):
Sometimes, if there's a reallylarge amount of stuff on an
acreage, then we will refer thatout to a traditional in-person
auction team where they're outthere with the auctioneer For
farm equipment and the thingsthat you would find in the
outbuildings.
Online auctions are stilldefinitely on the rise and
there's some very largecompanies in the Midwest who do
(35:03):
farm auctions.
But yeah, it's that much harderwhen you move off of a farm or
off of an acreage just becauseof the sheer amount of stuff,
and so even more incentive tothink ahead and plan and maybe
do it earlier rather than later.
Okay.
Judy Gratton (35:19):
Wow, my son-in-law bought recently and I was like
why they don't have acreage.
And he bought a tractor online,nice, okay.
Yes, he lives in a small townin North Carolina and his family
he has family who are farmers,so apparently it is out at one
(35:39):
of the farms there, but I'm likea tractor.
Jeannine Bryant (35:43):
It's like a Tonka truck for a kid.
They grow up and they stillwant it Exactly what?
Judy Gratton (35:48):
it was.
Dennis Day (35:49):
Nice.
So, Jeannine, you have thisbusiness.
This is your part, or maybelarge source, of your family
income.
You have 20 employees who haveto compensate for their work.
Tell us about how you structuregetting compensated for this
expertise and time.
Jeannine Bryant (36:13):
Absolutely yeah .
Everyone who's interested inour services gets a free in-home
consultation, because peoplewant to know how much is it
going to cost?
And our answer is always howmuch stuff do you have?
Because there's such a widevariety, right?
Even if you're moving from athree-bedroom home into a
one-bedroom apartment.
Some three-bedroom homes arepacked to the gills and some
three-bedroom homes are neat asa pin.
So we always go out and wevisit with them, we explain our
(36:35):
services and then we get a tourof the home, and the whole time
we're making notes about howfull the house is.
But we're also making notesabout the client as we have a
conversation with them.
Is this a client who's going toneed a lot of hand-holding?
Is this client already prettyorganized?
And really we just have to comein and do some packing and
unpacking and it'll be done.
And so from that we puttogether a quote that we send to
(37:00):
them and then they can decideif they want to use us or not.
I would say for us to help witha move, which means floor plan
sorting, packing, managing moveday and unpacking.
Depending on the size of theplace they're going to, it's
anywhere from $3,000 to $9,000,depending on if it's a
one-bedroom apartment or if it'sa whole house move.
And then for our estate salesand our online auctions we take
(37:21):
a percentage.
We specialize in larger sales,so we look for a total of
$15,000 or more in total sales.
So that means that thewholesale is going to bring in
$15,000 or more.
On average our sales would beabout $18,000 to $20,000 total.
We take 35% of that, and thenthere is also a setup fee,
(37:41):
depending on how much work thereis to be done in the home.
One of the things I say,unfortunately, is that it costs
a lot of money to have a lot ofstuff.
And so even if we get a phonecall and it's a beautiful
million dollar home and it'sfilled with things and it's
going to be a great estate sale,it still takes a lot of
manpower to set up that estatesale because we empty out every
(38:02):
drawer, every cupboard, everycloset, we organize it, we throw
out the trash and then we priceeverything and that takes a lot
of manpower.
And you know, unfortunately wecan't pay hourly workers ten
dollars an hour anymore.
So you know, unfortunately wecan't pay hourly workers $10 an
hour anymore.
So you know, our fees have goneup.
And so then the fees for ourservices have gone up as well.
But what we do at the end ofthat sale?
I mean we hand them a nice sizecheck, but then what we're also
(38:28):
handing them is an empty house,and that's what we have to
remind them.
What we're doing is we'reemptying out your house so that
it can be put on the market andsold, because that's your main
asset here is the house, not thestuff inside of it.
But in order to sell the house,we got to do something with the
stuff inside.
Judy Gratton (38:41):
You deal a lot with the family after someone
has passed Do?
You do a lot of work with themas well.
Jeannine Bryant (38:48):
Yeah, I would say maybe half of our sales that
we do are a situation like thatwhere someone's passed away and
the family is emptying it out,and so our first rule is that we
want you and your familymembers to go through and remove
anything you want to keep, andthen we come in and we'll sell
whatever is left, and that'sanother thing we're watching for
(39:08):
when we do that.
In-home consultation is any kindof red flags or anytime someone
is saying, oh, this is a veryspecial piece, and then we'll
gently have that conversationand say, boy, if you are able to
take that with you, we wouldlove for you to take that with
you, because I always say Idon't want to have a sale for
someone who doesn't want to sale.
And if you don't want me tosell it, then you can keep it
and we'll just sell the thingsyou are ready to let go of, and
(39:30):
we'll sell it for as much moneyas we possibly can.
And after all this time inbusiness we have about 18,000
people who get our emails, andso we do have quite a following,
and we have anywhere from one,two or three sales every week.
So we see a lot of the sameshoppers every week, and so we
are able to get pretty goodprices.
But we're also able to sellabout 85% of the stuff in the
(39:52):
house, and that's the real valueis again emptying the house out
.
Judy Gratton (39:55):
But you understand the values, you understand how
to price things correctly.
Jeannine Bryant (40:01):
Yes, absolutely .
Judy Gratton (40:02):
And when my I had two mother-in-laws the second
one is one that recently passed,but when the first one passed
she had a white Bieber coat andthe family.
I was holding a garage sale,estate sale, whatever you want
to call it and this woman camein and she wanted to buy quite a
(40:24):
few things, including the coat,for around a hundred dollars.
And I'm like, yes, go, goodbye.
And the family was like,absolutely not, that coat is
worth thousands.
And I'm like that coat is notworth anything because I'm not
wearing them anymore.
And they refused.
The woman went away with theother things, but not the coat.
(40:45):
The coat went from child tochild to my daughter and my
daughter never wears.
And I'm like, how did you endup with that coat?
I don't know, but I don't wantit.
I'm like exactly, exactly.
Jeannine Bryant (41:00):
Yeah, your stuff is worth whatever.
Someone will give you for it,right, right.
And if you are selling thingsat a garage sale, then you are
limited to the people who cometo the garage sale and who have
cash in hand.
That's who you can sell it to.
And you're absolutely rightWith something like furs, you
have to take a lot of thingsinto account.
Now, here in the Midwest peoplestill do wear furs, but it has
(41:22):
to be cold enough, it has to bethe right size, it has to be the
right style and not outdated,and yeah, and so sometimes we do
hold on to things for guilt orpass them on and think that
they're worth a lot of money,and it's just a fool's errand,
isn't it?
Judy Gratton (41:36):
I think that China is another one that I had three
sets of sterling or sterlingplated flatware and I'm down to
some crystal glasses, and Ibasically have given it away to
friends who wanted it, becausemy kids didn't want any of it.
Jeannine Bryant (41:54):
Yeah, they're not using it.
And I have that.
I did not register for Chinawhen I got married because my
mom had passed away and so Iknew I'll just take her China
whatever.
So I have her China.
But ask me, how many times ayear I use it?
Maybe once.
Judy Gratton (42:08):
Went out and bought cheap China, because if
it broke then I didn't have toworry about it like I literally
walmart china, that I didn'tcare if the kids dropped it on
the grounds and I thought if Idon't want it, why would they?
Jeannine Bryant (42:21):
don't on'd on'd , don't don't, life changes
and that's okay, and becauseit's not like a moral, that's
again.
It goes back to what how westarted.
It gets tied up into ouridentity.
It's not a moral issue onwhether or not you want these
items or don't want these items,and so we have to be careful
about not guilting our familymembers into keeping things.
Judy Gratton (42:41):
That's great.
I like that.
Dennis Day (42:45):
Jeannine, thank you so much.
This has just been absolutelyfantastic, and if people are
interested in your books, wherewould they find them?
Jeannine Bryant (42:55):
Absolutely.
They're all available on amazon, but an easy way to get to them
is easyrightsizingcom.
You just click on books andthere's a link to purchase any
book that you would like, and Ialso have an online course on
there as well.
It's actually over three hoursof video content me walking
folks through each of thelessons of going through the
right sizing process, andthere's a bunch of free
(43:16):
materials on there as well.
So easyrightsizingcom.
Dennis Day (43:21):
And if they were in the Lincoln, Nebraska area, how
would they locate you?
Jeannine Bryant (43:27):
Absolutely Yep.
Changingspacessrscom the SRSstands for Senior Relocation
Services.
So changingspacessrscom and Ishould mention that we run
online auctions every week andwe do provide shipping, so even
if you're in another state andyou buy something on our online
auction, we can have it shippedto you.
Dennis Day (43:48):
Fantastic, I'll have to look at that.
Judy Gratton (43:51):
The online auction .
Where did they find thatFantastic?
Jeannine Bryant (43:53):
I'll have to look at that.
The online auction where didthey find that?
That's at changingspacessrscom.
Dennis Day (43:57):
Great Again, thank you.
Such valuable information,interesting insights and what a
resource for Lincoln you are.
Thank you Keeping in touch withthese volunteer organizations
so you can help people further.
Really, an amazing, amazingsystem.
You have Fantastic.
Thanks so much for joining us.
(44:17):
Appreciate you taking the timeout of your day to be here.
Jeannine Bryant (44:20):
Yes, thank you guys.
I love talking about it, sothank you for the opportunity.
Judy Gratton (44:25):
We really appreciate you coming on.
Dennis Day (44:28):
Thanks again, and that's it everyone.
This has been Getting.
Judy Gratton (44:32):
Your.
Dennis Day (44:32):
Edge Out who Downsized your Life, and we hope
you enjoy this information.
And if you want moreinformation about Janine and her
business, we will have links onour website and in the podcast
notes and so forth so you cancontact her and
easyrightsizingcom is prettyeasy to find.
(44:55):
Thanks so much.
Jeannine Bryant (44:57):
Yes, thank you guys.
Dennis Day (44:58):
Appreciate it.
We'll see you next time.
Jeannine Bryant (45:02):
Cool, thank you .
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