Photograph of a smiling woman - Krista St-Germain
Episode 284 – Exploring grief and clutter with Krista St-Germain

Trigger warning - in this podcast we talk about grief and the death of a loved one.
Has someone you love passed away and are you struggling to work out how to deal with their belongings? In this podcast we talk with grief expert Krista St-Germain. Krista is here to talk amongst other things about showing yourself grace while making the right choices for you when you have lost someone.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Speaker 1  0:00  
As someone you love passed away and are you struggling to work out how to deal with their belongings. In today's podcast we talk with grief expert Krista St-Germain, Krista is here to talk amongst other things about showing yourself Grace whilst making the right choices for you. Just a woman in the in this podcast we are going to talk about grief and the loss of a loved one.

Speaker 2  0:27  
You're listening to the declutter hub podcast, bringing you tried and tested no nonsense tips and advice from the leading experts in decluttering and organizing your home. Now here's your host, Lesley Spellman.

Speaker 1  0:49  
Hello, and welcome, listeners. I'm Lesley, we're delighted you're here to join us as part of your decluttering journey. So whether you're brand new today or have been listening for ages, we want to say thank you so much for being here. It means so much to Ingrid and now that you turn up every week to listen to and support us. While we talk all things decluttering and organizing. We'd love to help more people with their quest for a clutter free home and our podcast is a fantastic way for people to be inspired to take action, we have a favor to ask. If you like what you hear, be sure to hit the follow subscribe or like button on your podcast player. share us with your friends, or share your thoughts on the podcast by leaving a review. Welcome, Chris. Thank you so much for being on the declutter podcast, we are delighted to welcome you.

Speaker 3  1:35  
Thank you so much for having me. I always so excited when anybody wants to talk about grief because we don't talk about it enough, in my opinion. So thanks for having me. It's

Speaker 1  1:44  
so important and it pervades our life really at the declutter hub within our communities. Because stuff as you well know I'm not trying to preach to the converted can be a real conflict in times of distress. And I think it's trying to work that out and work there's so much to navigate isn't there in terms of your emotions when you lose somebody, but the stuff that's associated with that is a part and parcel of it. And it feels like such a disservice sometimes to be offloading things, it feels very personal. And so I know that we're going to want to talk about that today talking about stuff and whether it's important how to navigate those things. But first of all, let's you tell us about your crystal, what's your story? And how come you are a grief expert and what that is actually?

Speaker 3  2:29  
Yeah, well, I'll tell you, it's not really ever something I intended to do. But I found myself after I had turned 40 I was remarried my first marriage didn't end so well. But I found the second love and for me it felt kind of fairytale like you know, it was like kind of like the redemption story of like true love is possible and you can be treated the way you want to be treated and everything was looking up. And I just felt like I was on a real high in my life. And we had gone on a trip we had driven separately and we were coming back home or we're almost home and I had a flat tire and I pulled over on the side of the interstate. And he pulled up behind me hazard lights on stubborn man that he was did not want to call triple A which we paid for it right the service that will come and change her flat tire for you know a baby, I'll I'll just change it myself, we'll get home faster, you know, I just want to get home and cuddle with you. So he's digging in the trunk trying to get access to my spare tire kind of standing between our two cars. I'm standing on the side of the road, texting my daughter who was 12. At the time I had a 12 year old and a nine year old, texting her to tell her we would be late. And it's daylight about 530. In the evening, a driver that we later found out had alcohol and meth in his system did not see us at all did not break just crashed right into the back of Hugo's car and trapped him in between his car and mine. And so I went from a place where honestly I didn't think I needed to know very much about grief, to realizing I didn't know anything about grief. And it felt like the rug just got pretty much ripped out from under me. And so I really ended up doing grief work because when I came to a place where I realized what I didn't know, and I realized how much it held me back. And then I had to go and do my own research and kind of untangle things for myself. I didn't want other people to have the experience that I had. And so that's what I ended up ultimately deciding to do. Right. And also, as many people understand, you know, when you go through something that really shakes the foundation of the way that you live, that can be an opportunity for you to to really check in with yourself and decide, am I living life the way that I want to live it right Am I making the impact that I want to make? Am I living aligned with the values that I have? And that's what happened for me where I realized I didn't really want to keep doing what I was doing. Hugo and I work together at the same company. I didn't really want to stay in here. aerospace, I didn't care about airplanes, right, I wanted to do something different. So eventually I certified as a coach, I did so much research on grief. And then now that's what I do is I specifically coach widowed moms. And my intention is to help them love life again, not settle so many. So many people, after we have a grief experience, are just settling for a level of wellness that is less than what is possible, and I cannot stand that. So that's why I do what I do. That's how I got here. That's

Speaker 1  5:28  
quite a story sending kind of shivers down my spine, because I think it's just so relatable for so many of us really, that that kind of terrible tragedy can actually happen. So sorry, so much for your loss, of course, thank you for sharing that story. And it was very quick and unexpected, and young, and with young children, so all of the things that, you know, potentially make it so much worse than to deal with because it's so unexpected. So I'm sure the aftermath of the accident, had you reel in for quite a while, obviously, it got to a stage where you felt you wanted to heal and look at the sort of trauma that you had endured and grow from there. So how long did it take you to come out from what you call the kind of fetal position to try and start to embrace life again, and start to look at different ways of working? Yeah, first,

Speaker 3  6:22  
I'll say that it's, it's different for everyone, right. So I never want anyone to hear bits of my story, and then use that against themselves. So for me, I went immediately back to therapy, I had an amazing therapist from my divorce actually. And I practically had her on speed dial. And so that was really helpful for me in the first you know, couple of months really to be able to just listen to have somebody listened to me that I didn't feel I was burdening so that I could just make sense of it. Because it's sometimes strange when you have a sudden loss, you know, it happened intellectually. But yet, your brain hasn't really learned that it happened doesn't feel true in your body. And sometimes you just need to talk about it until you reach the point where actually does feel true. So that was really helpful for me in the beginning, I went back to work probably about six weeks after he died. That actually felt really good to me, I wanted the distraction. I didn't want to be home all day. And also, because we had worked together, I found a great deal of comfort, going back to work because the people there knew him and loved him and knew me and loved me, right. And it was just a really supportive environment. Not everyone has that. And then probably, I don't know, maybe three or four months in, that's when I started to feel a little bit plateaued. And what I mean by that is, people keep telling you things like you're so strong, and you're doing great. And I don't know how you do it. And you're amazing. And you kind of understand what they are perceiving in you that has them saying those things, because you are not in the fetal position anymore, you are functioning as the world perceives you to be functioning. But how you feel does not match what they see. Right? How you feel is a little bit more empty, or hollow or maybe robotic, maybe, you know, just when people are saying you're doing so great, you're kind of thinking on the inside. If this is great, I'm in trouble. So this doesn't feel great. And it was kind of at that point where I just happened into a coaching program. Actually, it was somebody that I had followed for a long time listen to her podcast, and she'd never really had anything that appealed to me. And she happened to launch a coaching program at that same time. And I joined it wasn't grief specific. It was just kind of general life coaching. But that's when I started learning some of the things that I teach now. And when I really started seeing that I could take what had happened to me and really decide what I wanted to make of it. Right. I had never heard about Post Traumatic Growth before, that was a new term for me. And so the idea that you could actually take something that you experienced as traumatic and increase your level of life satisfaction, not in spite of it, but because of it was really powerful, also a little offensive. Sometimes, but really powerful in others. Right. And so that's that's kind of what it looked like for me. I started I went and certified as a coach almost 13 months after he died. Right?

Speaker 1  9:23  
Yeah. Just let's talk a little bit more about post traumatic. Obviously, we've talked about post traumatic stress. Yeah, that's often that's very, very common, and certainly, in our world. A lot of people struggle with that. suffer with that. So post traumatic growth is the idea that you take the trauma, and you use that to propel you forwards. No, I'm not a medicine. Yeah, essentially,

Speaker 3  9:51  
right. It's a term that was coined in the mid 90s by a couple of researchers to Dashi and Calhoun were their last names and before their work We kind of thought that after something happened that was traumatic. And at the time, we kind of were defining trauma as certain events were traumatic, other events weren't. Now we know that trauma is really subjective. But the thought was when somebody experienced some something traumatic in nature, that they would experience a dip in wellness. And then the goal was to get them back to the level of wellness that they were experiencing before the trauma. But what their research found was that there were people who were not only bouncing, you know, like down and then back, there were people who are actually bouncing down and then forward. So they were using what had happened to them to inform the choices that they made, so that they were living lives that were even more aligned with what they actually wanted. And primarily, they they noticed that in five domains of life, so there's like a appreciation that you have for life, right? The quality of your relationships with other people. Yes, it's a really good moment to just go, oh, I don't even want to hang out with this person anymore. I don't want this person in my life, or I want to show up in a way that is more honest and vulnerable, you know, those kinds of things, new possibilities, personal strengths, and then spiritual change are the other three of the five categories. Yeah,

Speaker 1  11:16  
so interesting, really. And you see that I think, with people that have undergone serious losses, and then launch themselves into charitable work, and things like that. So would that be an example of that? Would you consider that to be an example of that kind of thing? So people who've lost children or loved ones who then you know, campaign for, you know, if you've lost an unjust situation, let's say, Yeah, you know, that starts? It

Speaker 3  11:43  
definitely, it definitely could be, I like to think about it less about what you do, and more about, you know, why you're doing it. And what helped me because I live in Kansas, in the US, we have a lot of tornadoes here, is, you know, this idea that sometimes a tornado comes in, it knocks down somebody's house, right? And when that happens to you, you didn't ask for it, and you're not very happy that it happened. And you don't have to be, but you are gonna have to figure out what do you what do you want next, right, what house do you want next, you could just try to build a house that's as close as possible to the one you had, there would be nothing wrong with that. Also, though, because you've lived in that house for a while, you've probably learned some things because you've lived there. And if you want to take that opportunity and update the design of your house, you can write maybe you want more windows in a room, maybe you want a different layout in a different room, right? It's just the opportunity to say, Okay, here's what I have learned from living on the planet, and from the things that have happened to me, and I can update my choices accordingly. It doesn't mean I wanted this thing to happen to me, it doesn't mean I didn't love the old house that I lived in. Right? It just means that nobody ever gets to take away from me my ability to choose how I live my life. And I can do that in an even more aligned way. So yes, it could be a charity event. Also, it could just be, you know, I don't want to wear makeup anymore. And so I don't, right, like it could be the tiniest of things. Or it could be some grandiose thing. Yeah.

Speaker 1  13:12  
Yeah. And that leads us very, very nicely Nice segue into stuff. So you talked about houses, you know, that almost horrific idea that someone is going to lose the entire contents of their house and their house with it, and can then regenerate themselves through kind of post post traumatic growth into something where they perhaps have a different type of connection with their stuff. So we are a decluttering podcast, obviously, we want to talk about the loss of a loved one and how that impact impacts them in terms of their things. Because they're things are very, very personal to them personal to you. They are potentially the only thing that you have left other than your memories, and where where does stuff become memories, and where's the kind of balance between those two. So we're going to pop to a break Krista, and then we're going to come back and we're going to unpack that a little bit more. So welcome back. And thank you so much, Krista for sharing your story and your thoughts on post traumatic growth. Bit of a mouthful, that isn't it. I want to talk a little bit more about stuff. So I want to talk about your husband's things that he left behind him how you dealt with that, the timescales associated with that. And obviously, you've not got your own journey, but in you know, in the community that you support, the people that you work with, you will undoubtedly have stories and examples of things that they have done as well and learn from them. And I of course I've got my own in terms of the people that I've worked with. So I'd like to talk about, obviously every journey is different. Every loss is different and is felt differently and people's perception and association with stuff is very different. So when do you feel if this ridiculous question really is the right time because I think that a lot of people in our communities feel a burden from other people to respond to some then. So what are your thoughts on finding the right time to let go of the things or some of the things associated with the person that you have lost?

Speaker 3  15:09  
Yeah, I love that question. Because we put so much pressure on ourselves to do what other people think is right. Sometimes, instead of doing what we think is right, and that's what I would like to offer is that there really is no right or wrong way to do it. And what we really want to do is just give ourselves permission to do it in a way that feels right to us, even when other people don't agree, and they probably won't. So,

Speaker 1  15:35  
exactly. I mean, I think, you know, when we it's interesting, really, because we obviously we work in communities worldwide now online, but we also Ingrid and I also work in people's homes. And if we get a call from somebody very close to when they say to us, they've lost someone within the previous month or six weeks, even something like that, then it's definitely like, just hang fire a little bit, because you're perhaps not ready in a moment of, you know, serious loss to make those big decisions like that. Now, sometimes it's something that has to be done things like probate and all, you know, we have to clear houses out of parents and things like that. So sometimes you have no choice, unfortunately. But sometimes you do. And I always feel that it's other people that are making those people pick up that phone and go it's time you know, people it's time that you look at these things, because people have this urgency that perhaps you don't feel. And so for us, it can be months, it can be years, but I think it's about, as you say, allowing yourself permission to do it in your way, because there is no right or wrong way. Right?

Speaker 3  16:40  
Totally. And the people who love us are probably just as ill informed about grief as most of us are, right? So I'm always fascinated by how when I talk to people about grief, and I asked about grief theory, I will usually ask the question, Who has ever heard of the five stages of grief, and almost every hand will go up? And then I will then ask who has heard of any other theory besides the five stages of grief? And nobody can give me an answer. Right? Well, that was in the late 1960s. And that's the theory that most people know that. There are many other grief theories besides the five stages, right. But that is the theory most people know. And so when that is the lens that they are viewing grief through Of course they think it's it's staged, of course they think it's linear. Of course, they think there's some ending, and very often their brain goes to they don't want to get rid of their stuff. That must mean they're in denial. Right?

Speaker 1  17:30  
Help us out here, then Christian, just quickly go through those five stages of grief, just in case anybody isn't aware of that. Yeah.

Speaker 3  17:37  
So Elisabeth Kubler Ross, first of all, much, much credit to her for creating the five stages of grief when she did right. It was a time when there weren't a lot of conversations happening about grief. And so the five stages that she found were denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. What I think is really noteworthy, though, is that what she was studying wasn't what happens when you are having an experience of losing someone. She was studying what happens to hospice patients when they're coming to terms with their own mortality. Okay. And so it was an anecdotal work based on again, people who were grappling with a terminal illness, and then it was later applied to bereavement. So she wrote on death and dying first, and then she wrote on grief and grieving, she never intended and later in her life, expressed regret that people took her work and made it into a linear stage. First, you must go, you know, be in denial, and then be angry, and then bargain and then depression. And then it reached this place of acceptance, which isn't actually a place, right. She never really intended it for people to use it in that way. But nevertheless, we have and on our popular culture has picked it up. And that's what we see in movies. And that's what we, you know, hear about on the news. And so if we are thinking that grief ends, it doesn't grief is the natural response to a perceived loss, we're always going to have a response to a loss. It may change over time, but we're never going to undo the loss. So we also, there's no end of grief. So it's that to me, coupled with what I've also found to be very frustrating, but true, is that most of us are taught and the people who love us are taught that emotions are problems to solve. Right? We do not know how to feel good when other people don't feel good. And so when we perceive that they are in pain, or they are suffering, we try to fix that. Partly because we want them to feel better, but in large part because we don't know how to feel good when they don't. And so if we see, oh, they've got there, you know, all this stuff has not been dealt with, and they look like they're in pain and I don't know how to feel okay with that. Then I'm going to try to get them to get rid of that stuff so that I can feel better. You

Speaker 1  19:55  
so right, you're so and that's the problem, and it's not necessary. really just in grief as well, you know, if somebody has got, you know, somebody perceives that somebody has got too many things, and that person is suffering as a result of having too many things, there's also a need to Well, let me help you with that, and take you down a path where I'm going to do it almost for you, against your emotions. And it's all, you know, we're very much in the declutter bowl all about emotions based decluttering. So it's all about connecting with your emotions and understanding what it is that's holding you back. Sometimes the light bulb goes on when, of course, and why why am I keeping hold of that thing? That's exactly what it is still need to work in through some people. It's just the revelation that that's what it is, is enough to prompt an action. But for some people, it's still going to take different phased approaches. If if at all, you know, you have to get rid of something just because that's what you feel that your emotions are telling you. That's not necessary to me, but it's about working through and it's about working through, is this thing, is this thing holding me back? Or is it allowing me to, to live my current life, which is very much in line with what you're talking about? Really, which is to try and develop yourself kind of post grief? If that's No, it's not post grief, because it never ends. But you know, you know, that kind of thing. So post trauma, let's call it. So do you mind sharing with us how you dealt with your husband's things?

Speaker 3  21:19  
Yeah, I did it very gradually, I did not put any pressure on myself, which I am so grateful for looking back on it. I remember, there was a particular weekend. I know I have it in my journal. Because I used to write pretty much every day, a letter to him or something in my journal to him was very helpful for me to do that. But there was a certain point where my kids weren't home. And all of a sudden, I felt like I was ready to tackle some of what was in the master closet. And so I remember that being the first thing that I did. And I remember that there were some things that just felt way too difficult to part with in the closet. And what felt easier to deal with. I didn't have much emotional attachment to pants. Right? So I felt okay, like, Okay, what was going through my mind was, it's time for some of these things to go, I think I could bless some other people with these things. And then also, I'm not ready to deal with all of it. So I started with the pants, and some shoes, not all shoes, some shoes. And that's and then I, you know, gradually eased my way in from there, Hugo was known for wearing plaid shirts, that was kind of a joke, like he always wore plaid. And so that was really, really probably the most emotionally charged items were his plaid shirts, some of his you know, like Pink Floyd shirts or other things that just really captured his personality. Yeah, so I just didn't put a lot of pressure on myself. And what I've kind of noticed over time I did the pants and the shoes, and then I would just feel this kind of like, Okay, it's time to do a little more. And so I would just do a little more, and sometimes I would look at something on the wall, you know, and I would be aware of it, and it wouldn't feel right yet. And then at a certain point, I would just kind of start to feel like it's just about time, you know, all of a sudden, it would feel like, Okay, it's time I'm ready. And I just did that throughout the whole house. I didn't take, I didn't force myself to do it. I didn't take, you know, plan big chunks ahead of time to do it. I just kind of let it be what it was. And when it felt right. That's when I did it.

Speaker 1  23:25  
And did you were you influenced by other people? Because obviously, you know, everyone's going to assume or think about, you know, Hugo's things in terms of and that you're going to deal with that. But obviously got your children's take into consideration. I don't know whether there's any other siblings or parents or anything like that? Did you involve them in the process at all?

Speaker 3  23:46  
I involved. So I actually think I had a way easier time than most people. Because Hugo was an only child. So he didn't have siblings, his parents, well, father had passed mother still living and her partner lived in Canada, they weren't particularly interested, honestly, in his belongings. And so he had his son who did live in the city that I lived in, and he was the person that I consulted, right? So if there was anything that I thought he might want, then I would sometimes I would just send him a picture of it and say, Hey, do you want this? He joined the Marines actually, pretty closely after the time that he go died. And so he wasn't really around in the city that I lived in. But yeah, I would send him a picture. Hey, do you you know, do you have any interest in this? Yes or no. And so I had a bunch of tubs in the garage, you know, things that I was setting aside for Lance.

Speaker 1  24:37  
Yeah. And the thing, you know, on a practical level, you know, you talk about sending pictures and WhatsApps and things like that those kinds of those kinds of things can be really helpful to kind of expedite the process a little bit more, because I think a lot of time if you're waiting for people to come to the house to visit, then it kind of you know, kind of delays things a little bit. So those kinds of things where the anybody who's involved in dealing with somebody else's things Think WhatsApp groups are fantastic things. And we've talked a lot I mean, obviously you're coaching widowed mums, do you think it's different for any different for men and women? Do you feel that that grief and the practicalities of it is different if you're a widow or widower?

Speaker 3  25:15  
Well, I will say that I don't coach men. So I'm, I will speak very anecdotally here. I do think men tend to deal with things faster than women in terms of they and this is actually there's the data behind this, they do tend to be in partnered relationships faster, they do tend to remarry faster, right? They tend to. So I suspect that that is also true with stuff. I don't know that for sure. But I suspect given that they re partner faster, they probably deal with stuff faster. But I really think grief is just such a subjective experience. Yeah, there's really not a lot of value in comparing how men do it, how women do it, or even, you know, one woman versus another. It's the comparison sometimes that gets us that creates additional suffering that we really just don't need. Yeah,

Speaker 1  26:07  
I think it's interesting. My own main story about grief really, is I lost my mom when she was 59. So I was kind of in my 30s at the time, you know, it was she had a quite a quick illness, a kind of eight week week illness, I'm an only child, I went into kind of organization, I'm obviously an organizer, I went into complete overdrive in terms of organizational so I was kind of a demon, like, like, I wanted to organize everything, anything, because that's what I knew. So it almost became like a caricature of myself, if that makes sense. And that was the way that I dealt with it, I had other difficult situations to deal with since and I've done exactly the same thing, that's my way of coping is to go into, okay, who needs me to do what and I'm going to be strong and, and all this kind of stuff. And I think now, now that I am getting towards the same age that my mom was when she died, there are things that I wish that I had, you know, things that I wish I had more from my mom, I only kept the only thing that I kept from my mom actually apart from a few little ornaments here. And there was a dressing gown because that was the thing that she you know, like a house kind of thing, cuz she used to wear that quite a lot. You know, she'd come in chill at night. And, and that's definitely something that I remember from her. And so that was the thing that I wanted to keep, because she had not lived with her for a long time. So I wasn't she lived a little bit further away. So I wasn't seeing her every day. So close didn't mean anything, she didn't really have a big attachment stuff, particularly. So that was the thing. But now, I wish that had more things. But actually, if I'm being really honest, what I really want is conversations, it's not stuff, you know, to me. And so, you know, because you missed out that opportunity. And you're 30 Because I was child rearing and, you know, I mean busy with my own stuff to have those conversations to wonder what it was like to be in the her 50s And you know, all those kinds of things. So it's really interesting, really, and you never really, it's hard to make the right decisions, isn't it? And so I know that you talk a lot about giving yourself grace to to know that you did the best that you could do at the time. Yeah,

Speaker 3  28:05  
I think, you know, that is what makes decision making so hard sometimes is that we haven't actually decided in advance how we're going to speak to ourselves in the future. And I think we can make it a lot easier on ourselves. If we do right. If we just decide that. Look, I'm not perfect. I'm I I'm not psychic, and I'm not perfect. And I have no way of knowing that the decision I make today is going to be the decision that I wish I had made in the future. But what I can do is decide that no matter what decision I make today, in the future, I'm not going to be mean to myself about it. I'm not going to beat myself up, I'm not going to tell myself, because you know, we just we have hindsight then that we don't have now. And it's not to say that that makes decision making easy. But I think it makes it easier when we've just decided no, I just will not weaponize this against myself, I will have my own back about it.

Speaker 1  28:56  
And I think that's the most important thing in this whole process is being kind to yourself and understanding that potentially you will make things that you later consider to be kind of well, I wish I had not done that in any kind of realm of decluttering. But like you say, we're not psychic, we don't know what's coming and you know, to mean and so we can only make the decision that's right at the time. But know that perhaps we need to be completely tuned into ourselves to know whether or not it feels like the right time. That's perhaps all we can do and not be influenced by other people. I think that can be quite damaging. You know, in my work that I've done as a professional and within our communities, I think it's when anybody's feels nervous about something and doesn't feel in control of the situation. That's when most mistakes in inverted commas are made. And that's when resentment starts to build and you start to kind of kick back at the people that made to do that and, and it's such a stressful time for everybody, isn't it? That's the thing. It's just an awful time and everyone's got their own way of dealing with things I'd say I went into a kind of crazy and I look back at myself and I'm like what was I even? What was I even think it was, like everyone around me because I was such a strong individual was kind of like, just leave it to do it because that's the way to do another mean that kind of thing. So it's so interesting. So well thank you so much, Krista. I really appreciate everything that you've shared with us. I think it's real food for thought, you know, and you've you deliver it in such a calm way, which I love. You know me which English No, absolutely not. We've tried to calm down for this podcast. But I think it's so important you know, the messages for me do it in your own time when you feel it's right. And don't be dictated to by other people. I think give yourself grace to actually know that you can only make the decisions that are right at the time. And to know which things are special. And we're very much it's drilling down you know, you you can keep every everyone's like you can't keep everything you can keep everything if you want to Yes, ever you want. You want to keep everything, you keep everything if everything is there for 20 years, it's there for 20 years, who's to say that you can't keep everything. But if you feel that you're overwhelmed with the stuff that you have in your home, and it's actually time to let some things go really look for that quality. So for you, Krista, you know, the plaid shirts and the Pink Floyd t shirt as it you said were the things that really kind of spoke to you as being part of Hugo and I think it's finding those gems amongst the some of the things. Not everything is a gem life was just normal and practical. And some things just served a practical purpose. And those some things are much more special than others. So thank you so much. tells people where they can find out more about you because you have a fantastic community of people that you help, right. Yeah,

Speaker 3  31:33  
well, I am also a podcaster. So I have a podcast called the widowed mom podcast, which I recognize sounds very specific. But if anyone just wants to learn more about grief for you know, come listen, we cover lots of different subjects about grief. And then coaching with christa.com is where all the you know all the rest of the information lives like all my socials and all of that. So Oh,

Speaker 1  31:56  
thank you so much. So listeners tell us have you got belongings that you're struggling to let go off from a loved one that's passed away and has this podcast with Krista giving you food for thought we would love to hear from you. So put a note in the comments on our Facebook group on our Instagram or on our website. Thank you so much, Krista for being our guest today, and we wish you all the very best in the future. Thank you.

Speaker 2  32:25  
Thanks so much for listening to the declutter hop podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to us in your podcast player so you don't miss an episode. And we'll see you next week.
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Recent Posts
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Glorianne says:

8 March 2024 at 3:18 PM

an excellent podcast, it is exactly what I needed, definitely too short, I appreciate all the advice
so funny because I also was okay with donating my late husbands pants first
I'm taking it slow because that's the only way to move forward

Reply
1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  11 March 2024 at 11:21 AM
  
  Thank you for listening and your feedback. It's so appreciated. You're so right that moving forwards slowly is the best way.
  
  Reply
Episode 284 – Exploring grief and clutter with Krista St-Germain

Episode 401 – 6 Email Processing Tips to Help You Save Hours and Sanity with Tracy Hoth

Episode 399 – What to do with soft toys with Loved Before

Episode 397 – 10 tips you need to teach your kids to tidy

Episode 396 – Why Resilience and Decluttering go hand in hand with Lucy Wooldridge

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