Last week, I introduced you to the 4 phases of life and how when you have your babies can impact upon your phase of life. This week, I explore this topic even further and share with you how caring for family members can also affect your organizational phase of life. Having a baby, the topic of last week's podcast, is a welcome and joyous life event. When you have a baby, you're thrust into the accumulation phase. All of those toys...food...clothes...furniture...! This week's focus is on when you become a caretaker for a family member. Unfortunately, when you become a caretaker of a family member, that's not such a joyous life event. Sometimes we'll see it coming and have a gradual lead in, other times it rocks our world in an instant! Often this will be due to medical emergencies, like when a loved one falls and breaks their hip...which I've found in recent years is a real thing and it happens A LOT! I can share from first-hand experience that being a caretaker is EXTREMELY time consuming. You have an immediate prioritization shift in your life. You're thrust into having responsibility over two sets of everything...two households, two sets of bills, etc. Whatever stage of life you were previously in, when you become a caretaker, you're also now in the survival phase, too. In this podcast episode, I share with you some really useful ideas on how to cope if this happens to you. I also have two super useful products that are designed to help you keep track of, and ultimately share when needed, important personal information. One focuses on medical information (i.e., insurance, current and past prescriptions, medical history, etc.). The other focuses on financial information, mainly for spouses to keep a joint record (i.e., bank details, etc.). They are editable so you can fill one in for yourself, another for your parents, and I even fill the medical record out for my children. It's just so useful to keep all the information that you have in one simple record. Next week, I look at how losing a close family member can affect your phase of life. I'm sure you can guess what phase you find yourself in when that happens! Full blog post can be viewed at organize365.com/170 A special thank you to this week's podcast sponsor, the National Association of Senior Move Managers!