blair lifestyle: your lifestyle - downsizing

4
Stuart Giles Cathie Reid : YOUR LIFESTYLE March 2013 30 MINUTES WITH... From Adele’s Desk Our year has started with a very strong “move or make-over” flavour. Already this year we have moved homes for two clients and have a further six relocations in the sched- ule. We are in the process of making over four home offices, one master bedroom and a living room! We project manage the entire process, source trades, suppliers and products and pull it all together so our clients get the outcome they desire - usually without having to lift a finger (if they don’t want to!). With the huge number of lifestyle programmes now showing on tv, people are becoming more and more inspired to make changes – large or small – to their homes. They recognize that with a little bit of decluttering, reorganization and inspiration you can change the space you live in. This is something we at BLM love doing for our clients, and in this issue we are excited to share one such experience, as well as giving you some useful, easy tips on downsizing. Enjoy! BLM: What prompted you to look for concierge/organising services? SG&CR: The constant sound of balls bouncing on walls - it had become pretty obvious our existing family home was start- ing to struggle to provide the necessary outlets a sports mad 7 year old boy needed. At the same time, the APHS Packag- ing business that Cathie leads had just taken on a major investor with a view to constructing one of the largest medication repackaging facilities in the world right here in Brisbane. This came a week after we had expanded our national APHS pharmacy busi- ness to include a majority stake in the leading provider of private day cancer care in the country. With so much happening in our professional lives, the idea of preparing to buy/sell/move and all the associated logistics felt beyond us. BLM: Why did you choose to use BLM? SG&CR: I think awareness of the existence of the BLM service was probably a fortunate result for us. Cathie and Adele were both alumni of the 2011 Telstra Business Women's Awards and I think it shows the value of the time and energy sponsor com- panies AND participants put themselves through in these type of programs. BLM: What kind of solutions were you looking for? SG&CR: Initially we really just needed to get our family home of 7 years de-cluttered and running smoothly so that we could begin to contemplate starting to look at alternate housing options comfortable that our house was at least approaching "market ready" status. The BLM team did such a great job on this project we then had to decide if we still really wanted/needed to move, because everything looked so good and we had so much more storage space etc. The balls kept bouncing on those walls though, so we figured we would need to move on to the next stage and try and find a new family home. ...the BLM team went on to co-ordinate all aspects of the move. continued page 4 Managing Partner and Executive Chairman, APHS - Your Pharmacy Partner and Chairman, Integrated Clinical Oncology Network CEO, APHS Packaging

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Page 1: Blair Lifestyle: Your Lifestyle - Downsizing

Stuart Giles

Cathie Reid

: YOUR LIFESTYLEMarch 2013

30 MINUTES WITH...From Adele’s Desk

Our year has started with a very strong “move or make-over” flavour.

Already this year we have moved homes for two clients and have a further six relocations in the sched-ule. We are in the process of making over four home offices, one master bedroom and a living room!

We project manage the entire process, source trades, suppliers and products and pull it all together so our clients get the outcome they desire - usually without having to lift a finger (if they don’t want to!).

With the huge number of lifestyle programmes now showing on tv, people are becoming more and more inspired to make changes – large or small – to their homes. They recognize that with a little bit of decluttering, reorganization and inspiration you can change the space you live in.

This is something we at BLM love doing for our clients, and in this issue we are excited to share one such experience, as well as giving you some useful, easy tips on downsizing.

Enjoy!

BLM: What prompted you to look for concierge/organising services?SG&CR: The constant sound of balls bouncing on walls - it had become pretty obvious our existing family home was start-ing to struggle to provide the necessary outlets a sports mad 7 year old boy needed. At the same time, the APHS Packag-ing business that Cathie leads had just taken on a major investor with a view to constructing one of the largest m e d i c a t i o n r e p a c k a g i n g facilities in the world right here in Brisbane. This came a week after we had expanded our national APHS pharmacy busi-ness to include a majority stake in the leading provider of private day cancer care in the country. With so much happening in our professional lives, the idea of preparing to buy/sell/move and all the associated logistics felt beyond us.

BLM: Why did you choose to use BLM?SG&CR: I think awareness of the existence of the BLM service

was probably a fortunate result for us. Cathie and Adele were both alumni of the 2011 Telstra Business Women's Awards and I think it shows the value of the time and energy sponsor com-panies AND participants put themselves through in these type of programs.

BLM: What kind of solutions were you looking for?SG&CR: Initially we really just needed to get our family home of 7 years de-cluttered and running smoothly so that we could begin to c o n t e m p l a t e starting to look at alternate housing

options comfortable that our house was at least approaching "market ready" status. The BLM team did such a great job on this project we then had to decide if we still really wanted/needed to move, because everything looked so good and we had so much more storage space etc. The balls kept bouncing on those walls though, so we figured we would need to move on to the next stage and try and find a new family home.

BLM: Did we deliver those solutions?SG&CR: Once we found the perfect next home for our family to live in - read large backyard, pool, trampoline (which BLM sourced and installed as a surprise for our kids) and a park right out the front door - the BLM team went on to co-ordinate all aspects of the move. Once this process was complete they then oversaw getting our original home "market ready" and liaised with the selling agent all the way through to the successful auc-tion result and settlement.

BLM: How has engaging BLM changed your lifestyle?SG&CR: We are now living in a home perfect for our growing family needs, ideally located within walking distance of school.BLM: What has been the stand-out moment of our services to you?SG&CR: We were fortunate enough to have planned a once in a lifetime family holiday to enjoy the London 2012 Olym-pics and the planets managed to align (or were aligned by

“...the BLM team went on to co-ordinate all aspects of

the move.”

BLM) in a way that enabled us to leave our original home to head off to the Olympics and return three weeks later (with a wonderful set of family experi-ences) into our new home with 150+ boxes of items already unpacked (by de-clutter experts) and all amenities/ utilities in place and opera-tional. Whilst there were a few "I wonder where..." moments in the ensuing days and weeks it was still the most wonderful/ stress free moving experience you could contemplate.

BLM: Would you recommend BLM to others?SG&CR: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend BLM to other people, particularly if they found them-selves in a position like we did, knowing that we had equal and competing pressures that meant we needed a family relocation solution and knew we had virtu-ally no capacity to deliver one ourselves.

BLM: Anything else you would like to add?SG&CR: Nup :)

continued page 4

Managing Partner and Executive Chairman, APHS - Your Pharmacy Partner and Chairman, Integrated Clinical Oncology Network

CEO, APHS Packaging

Page 2: Blair Lifestyle: Your Lifestyle - Downsizing

BLM: What prompted you to look for concierge/organising services?SG&CR: The constant sound of balls bouncing on walls - it had become pretty obvious our existing family home was start-ing to struggle to provide the necessary outlets a sports mad 7 year old boy needed. At the same time, the APHS Packag-ing business that Cathie leads had just taken on a major investor with a view to constructing one of the largest m e d i c a t i o n r e p a c k a g i n g facilities in the world right here in Brisbane. This came a week after we had expanded our national APHS pharmacy busi-ness to include a majority stake in the leading provider of private day cancer care in the country. With so much happening in our professional lives, the idea of preparing to buy/sell/move and all the associated logistics felt beyond us.

BLM: Why did you choose to use BLM?SG&CR: I think awareness of the existence of the BLM service

was probably a fortunate result for us. Cathie and Adele were both alumni of the 2011 Telstra Business Women's Awards and I think it shows the value of the time and energy sponsor com-panies AND participants put themselves through in these type of programs.

BLM: What kind of solutions were you looking for?SG&CR: Initially we really just needed to get our family home of 7 years de-cluttered and running smoothly so that we could begin to c o n t e m p l a t e starting to look at alternate housing

options comfortable that our house was at least approaching "market ready" status. The BLM team did such a great job on this project we then had to decide if we still really wanted/needed to move, because everything looked so good and we had so much more storage space etc. The balls kept bouncing on those walls though, so we figured we would need to move on to the next stage and try and find a new family home.

I don’t know how many of you watch Location, Location, Loca-tion on the Lifestyle Chanel – I just love it!

All those gorgeous properties hand picked by Kirstie and Phil for inspection, and then the excitement when the lucky buyers finally get the house they almost lost due to a dodgy build-ing inspection. What we don’t see is the headache that follows when the featured couple actu-ally has to move!

When moving house, your space most certainly will change - it will be either larger or smaller, depending on your reason for moving.

The most challenging type of “space change” is downsizing - particularly during the already anxious time of selling or buying a new home.

When downsizing, your goal is to simplify your life. You don’t need to get rid of everything that’s dear to you, but you do need to reduce the number of belongings

you have accumulated over the years. If you think about what you really use in your home on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis it amounts to a fraction of what is actually in your home.

The key component to downsiz-ing is doing a “possessions audit” and matching it to your new living space. Read on for some tips and suggestions when starting the process of going through years of accumulated belongings in your home.

Begin in the areas of the house that you are currently not using, such as spare bedrooms, as this will be least disruptive to every-day life. These areas often con-tain items that have not been used for some time and may not be missed when passed on to children, grandchildren, charity or the auction house.

When you have decided in which room to start, make decisions first on the large items and work your way down to the small items. This way you won’t get overwhelmed and frustrated

before you even get started. Items can be sorted into:

Keep - this includes items you are not willing to part with, and items you definitely want in your new home;

Give – to family or friends;

Sell – have a garage sale or list on ebay;

Donate - to a worthwhile charity; and

Throw away.

To keep track where the items are going, you can create an inventory, separate the items into separate piles or mark the items with stickers - choose a method that works best for you.

Once you have made a decision on your belongings the trick is to act straight away by:

• Putting items to be thrown away into garbage bags and leaving out for collection.

• Calling your charity of choice and arranging for a pickup as soon as you have enough items to justify them making a trip.

• Asking family and friends to make arrangements to pick up their items, or deliver to them.

It is also a good idea to work through this process even if you are upsizing! At the end of the day, changing spaces can be rather overwhelming, however like any big project, just take it step by step.

BLM: Did we deliver those solutions?SG&CR: Once we found the perfect next home for our family to live in - read large backyard, pool, trampoline (which BLM sourced and installed as a surprise for our kids) and a park right out the front door - the BLM team went on to co-ordinate all aspects of the move. Once this process was complete they then oversaw getting our original home "market ready" and liaised with the selling agent all the way through to the successful auc-tion result and settlement.

BLM: How has engaging BLM changed your lifestyle?SG&CR: We are now living in a home perfect for our growing family needs, ideally located within walking distance of school.BLM: What has been the stand-out moment of our services to you?SG&CR: We were fortunate enough to have planned a once in a lifetime family holiday to enjoy the London 2012 Olym-pics and the planets managed to align (or were aligned by

BLM) in a way that enabled us to leave our original home to head off to the Olympics and return three weeks later (with a wonderful set of family experi-ences) into our new home with 150+ boxes of items already unpacked (by de-clutter experts) and all amenities/ utilities in place and opera-tional. Whilst there were a few "I wonder where..." moments in the ensuing days and weeks it was still the most wonderful/ stress free moving experience you could contemplate.

BLM: Would you recommend BLM to others?SG&CR: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend BLM to other people, particularly if they found them-selves in a position like we did, knowing that we had equal and competing pressures that meant we needed a family relocation solution and knew we had virtu-ally no capacity to deliver one ourselves.

BLM: Anything else you would like to add?SG&CR: Nup :)

Tips on Downsizing

FEATURE STORY

Changing Spaces

Page 3: Blair Lifestyle: Your Lifestyle - Downsizing

I don’t know how many of you watch Location, Location, Loca-tion on the Lifestyle Chanel – I just love it!

All those gorgeous properties hand picked by Kirstie and Phil for inspection, and then the excitement when the lucky buyers finally get the house they almost lost due to a dodgy build-ing inspection. What we don’t see is the headache that follows when the featured couple actu-ally has to move!

When moving house, your space most certainly will change - it will be either larger or smaller, depending on your reason for moving.

The most challenging type of “space change” is downsizing - particularly during the already anxious time of selling or buying a new home.

When downsizing, your goal is to simplify your life. You don’t need to get rid of everything that’s dear to you, but you do need to reduce the number of belongings

you have accumulated over the years. If you think about what you really use in your home on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis it amounts to a fraction of what is actually in your home.

The key component to downsiz-ing is doing a “possessions audit” and matching it to your new living space. Read on for some tips and suggestions when starting the process of going through years of accumulated belongings in your home.

Begin in the areas of the house that you are currently not using, such as spare bedrooms, as this will be least disruptive to every-day life. These areas often con-tain items that have not been used for some time and may not be missed when passed on to children, grandchildren, charity or the auction house.

When you have decided in which room to start, make decisions first on the large items and work your way down to the small items. This way you won’t get overwhelmed and frustrated

before you even get started. Items can be sorted into:

Keep - this includes items you are not willing to part with, and items you definitely want in your new home;

Give – to family or friends;

Sell – have a garage sale or list on ebay;

Donate - to a worthwhile charity; and

Throw away.

To keep track where the items are going, you can create an inventory, separate the items into separate piles or mark the items with stickers - choose a method that works best for you.

Once you have made a decision on your belongings the trick is to act straight away by:

• Putting items to be thrown away into garbage bags and leaving out for collection.

• Calling your charity of choice and arranging for a pickup as soon as you have enough items to justify them making a trip.

• Asking family and friends to make arrangements to pick up their items, or deliver to them.

It is also a good idea to work through this process even if you are upsizing! At the end of the day, changing spaces can be rather overwhelming, however like any big project, just take it step by step.

Tips on Downsizing

Page 4: Blair Lifestyle: Your Lifestyle - Downsizing

BLM: What prompted you to look for concierge/organising services?SG&CR: The constant sound of balls bouncing on walls - it had become pretty obvious our existing family home was start-ing to struggle to provide the necessary outlets a sports mad 7 year old boy needed. At the same time, the APHS Packag-ing business that Cathie leads had just taken on a major investor with a view to constructing one of the largest m e d i c a t i o n r e p a c k a g i n g facilities in the world right here in Brisbane. This came a week after we had expanded our national APHS pharmacy busi-ness to include a majority stake in the leading provider of private day cancer care in the country. With so much happening in our professional lives, the idea of preparing to buy/sell/move and all the associated logistics felt beyond us.

BLM: Why did you choose to use BLM?SG&CR: I think awareness of the existence of the BLM service

was probably a fortunate result for us. Cathie and Adele were both alumni of the 2011 Telstra Business Women's Awards and I think it shows the value of the time and energy sponsor com-panies AND participants put themselves through in these type of programs.

BLM: What kind of solutions were you looking for?SG&CR: Initially we really just needed to get our family home of 7 years de-cluttered and running smoothly so that we could begin to c o n t e m p l a t e starting to look at alternate housing

options comfortable that our house was at least approaching "market ready" status. The BLM team did such a great job on this project we then had to decide if we still really wanted/needed to move, because everything looked so good and we had so much more storage space etc. The balls kept bouncing on those walls though, so we figured we would need to move on to the next stage and try and find a new family home.

If you need to create just a little more hanging space for your guests, then take a look at this innovative product.

Closed it is a picture frame, open it is extra hanging – Genius!

Available at www.greenappleorganising.com.au

Product of the MonthInstaHANGER Photo Frame$34.99

30 MINUTES WITH... continued from front page

BLM: Did we deliver those solutions?SG&CR: Once we found the perfect next home for our family to live in - read large backyard, pool, trampoline (which BLM sourced and installed as a surprise for our kids) and a park right out the front door - the BLM team went on to co-ordinate all aspects of the move. Once this process was complete they then oversaw getting our original home "market ready" and liaised with the selling agent all the way through to the successful auc-tion result and settlement.

BLM: How has engaging BLM changed your lifestyle?SG&CR: We are now living in a home perfect for our growing family needs, ideally located within walking distance of school.BLM: What has been the stand-out moment of our services to you?SG&CR: We were fortunate enough to have planned a once in a lifetime family holiday to enjoy the London 2012 Olym-pics and the planets managed to align (or were aligned by

BLM) in a way that enabled us to leave our original home to head off to the Olympics and return three weeks later (with a wonderful set of family experi-ences) into our new home with 150+ boxes of items already unpacked (by de-clutter experts) and all amenities/ utilities in place and opera-tional. Whilst there were a few "I wonder where..." moments in the ensuing days and weeks it was still the most wonderful/ stress free moving experience you could contemplate.

BLM: Would you recommend BLM to others?SG&CR: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend BLM to other people, particularly if they found them-selves in a position like we did, knowing that we had equal and competing pressures that meant we needed a family relocation solution and knew we had virtu-ally no capacity to deliver one ourselves.

BLM: Anything else you would like to add?SG&CR: Nup :)

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EventsJoin us at James Street Up Latefor welcome cocktails and canapes.

Space will introduce their latest collec-tion from Kartell including the gorgeous Comeback Chair.

Join us from 5pm at Space Furniture, then feel free to enjoy the rest of the James Street Up Late event at your leisure.

One of our guests will win a Comeback Chair in the colour of choice.

Space Furniture10 James StreetFortitute Valley

RSVP's essential:[email protected] 55 8463

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Fairfield Gardens QLD 4103

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