Give Your Eyes a Rest: Listen to Audiobooks for Free
Marly Mora
Most of us enjoy reading and consider it one of life’s greatest pleasures. Many older adults find that age-related challenges keep us from enjoying reading as much as in the past. That small print seems to get smaller and smaller. Audiobooks offer the opportunity to stimulate our minds and enhance our quality of life.
An audiobook is the successor to books on tape or a CD that you may have listened to years ago. Some audiobooks are read by the author, while others are narrated by a voice actor. There are thousands of titles available, from classic literature to science fiction, and you’re sure to find topics that will interest you.
The growing demand for audiobooks has increased tenfold over the last decade, and has grown dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you find getting out for entertainment is not as easy as it used to be, consider that audiobooks help make reading accessible to almost anyone, anywhere.
Don’t worry about being tech savvy. Using audiobooks is easier than you think. Senior Village volunteer Bente Fongemie is available to help you with the loan of an audiobook player and assist with easy instructions on how to access books from the local DesertView Library here in SaddleBrooke. Bente can be contacted at [email protected] or by calling 520-825-8543.
Senior Village is a non-profit organization providing services to its SaddleBrooke members to help them live independently. We are “Neighbors Helping Neighbors.” For more information, visit www.seniorvillage.org or call 520-314-1042.
Garage clutter
Is Clutter Overwhelming Your Life or Creating Frustration?
Diane Demeroutis
The act of decluttering helps you learn about yourself: What do you love? What do you need? What do you really use?
For many people, learning how to get rid of clutter can be life changing. For others, it’s manageable, but they’d like it better if it just magically disappeared. Two usual reasons clutter exists are that you are either too emotionally attached to everything or you keep moving it further down your to-do list. Managing your clutter and learning to keep it that way is absolutely satisfying. The secret is in making it as easy as possible for you to tackle it. It all starts with making a conscious decision to get rid of it once and for all because your life will improve and your home will be so much better off because of it. This task may seem daunting, but if you start with 10 to 30 minutes a day and make a commitment to declutter, you will have a sense of accomplishment.
Give everything a home. When items don’t have a designated spot of their own, it can be easy to leave them on a dining room table or corner of a closet. Cluttered spaces invite more clutter. By working systematically through your house to reduce and organize until every item has its own home, you’ll give yourself a leg up on keeping organization intact. If you buy or bring home something new, something old must go.
Free yourself from societal notions about what deserves to be kept sentimentally. Even when it comes to family treasures, passing items on to people who can use them now may feel like a better tribute than keeping them in storage just to hang on to them. Ask yourself, “Can someone use this more than I?” If the answer is yes, consider letting go.
If you struggle with regret after getting rid of things, use black garbage bags or boxes to collect your donation piles and put them somewhere out of sight. Set a calendar reminder for three or six months. If during that time you find yourself missing something specific you’ve put away, you can retrieve it. At the end of that time, if you haven’t once looked for a “to be donated” item, it will feel safer to let those things go permanently.
Understand that every organization system needs maintenance to work. Reevaluate the effectiveness of your current system quarterly or twice a year. Make it part of the process when you switch your seasonal wardrobe or when you do your spring cleaning.
Separate sentimentality from monetary value. Choose and keep only a few of your favorite mementos, ones that can represent the memories you hold dear, letting go of the rest.
Finally, remember that most homes are filled with items collected over decades. You can’t expect yourself to be ready to purge everything in a day or a weekend. Learning to live with less takes time. Decluttering takes time. The key to achieving success is not giving up. Senior Village Moving on Team is here to give you advice. Contact us at 520-314-1042.