0:00 Estates weekly I'm your host Kevin bemel um and I have a squeaky voice this morning I'm not sure why but we're excuse me we're here every um every Monday at 10: am Pacific Time excuse me 1 pm eastern time which is particularly relevant since my guest I I think is coming to us from New York City right indeed I am very good yeah the the big apple right um and we talk about all things related to trusts Estates probates um all of those issues both
0:35 from the standpoint of you doing your own uh estate planning but also for professionals who are engaged in helping people do that or for professionals who are thinking of getting involved in trusts and Estates and are looking to figure out what is that all about so today I'm I'm very happy to uh introduce uh a new friend of mine um like I said all the way from New York City one of my favorite places to be although I haven't been there for a number of years Hillary Cooper is the president of
1:12 uncluttered now before you think that she cleans out closets and you know that that sort of you know mundane thing that is that is not at all what what Hillary does and I can tell you having been through a number of hom uh as a result of the owner passing away I really could have used Hillary because it it can be an absolutely daunting task so you know without further Ado Hillary welcome to trust and Estates weekly thanks so much for
1:47 joining me well Kevin thank you so much for having me and as we say we're live from the Big Apple yes it's Monday afternoon in New York City and we're off to a great start to the week I so appreciate this wonderful opportunity to speak to your audience yeah so yeah so uncluttered is um started as my journey to move with my young children seven times in eight years and go it was a lot of it's the post divorce where the life transitions comes from I have a amount of experience in saying goodbye to things have really learned how to
2:23 streamline and preserve the memory but let the actual item go and this is where you know most of us hold on to storage units because we keep thinking that someday someday we will use everything that's in there someday your children are going to come back from college and say you know where is that stuffed animal or where are my favorite sneakers from sixth grade they're not they're not and the other especially in your trust in Estates world as you get older and this is the largest growing population in the country right now are the Baby Boomers those people between of 58 and 76 and they're about 73 million strong
2:59 and they are the ones that have the storage units the collections and the items from their parents and their grandparents and constantly the idea of thinking that someday somehow someway somebody's gonna ask them oh where's that silver tea set that you know we used in 1962 the truth is that they're not going to and then what you do is you leave children with a tremendous burden of un fluttering your possessions so you know you add to the grieving process the idea that you then have to you know deal with all this stuff and they're not they call
3:34 it a silver tsunami for a reason you know the pop aging all right just getting it's getting older and older but more importantly it's the collection of items that I think everybody sort of just needs to be able to say goodbye to and there's there's value in things as well and it's also wonderful I believe to see your family members enjoying items while you're here well you get to see it you know my grandmother would have said better to give with a warm hand than a cold one and it's really true and but also it's just in every transition you know this is not just about the sort of the seniors it's when your children leave for school when you
4:10 move when you downsize you know when you're an empty nester when you get divorced you know if there's any sort of a transition in your life most likely there are things that you're holding on to that you don't need and it doesn't have to be moving in order to be the you know justification for coming out reaching out to uncluttered it can just be anything can be change of season I have clients that ask me for constantly you know for repeat performances you know come every three months go every four months and spring cleaning is no longer just spring cleaning you know it's really about cleaning out everything as often as you can so you're just not burden by stuff yeah so I
4:49 mean what you're saying is is interesting for me because um I'm a bit of a packrat I think it would be fair to say and I've had to um it you know being in the Navy and moving every two or three years so you just can't you know schle that stuff from place to place and so I really you know had to sort of let let a lot of stuff go and I finally came to the conclusion if I can't catalog it in my library where I have ready access to it or if it's not something I'm going to use on a regular basis like in terms of dishes or something then then it has
5:25 it had to go um and that was kind of the the constraints that I put on it and and so then um you know going through a divorce um much of what I was using you know went right um and I I found myself without any um China which because I do a a fancy dinner at least once or twice a week it was really kind of like wow and I was talking to my sister about it and she said well you know in my storage room I have Bobby it's itish for Grandma's you know China would you like
6:02 it I'm like yeah I would love it right to bring this beautiful China and use it right I would love to have had it you know for for years and years and years so it it it sounds like you help people wrestle with all those kinds of of of issues not just the letting go but maybe also the embracing of the of the individual items that will be meaningful and enhance their lives is is that 100% that's a great example Kevin it's truly if they're China from your grandmother and you've just gone through a transition and you find yourself you
6:38 know where do I where do I I don't want paper and I don't want plastic and I want to use something that's nice you want to have a Shabbat dinner or people over or just if you want to do an Ode to your family your grandmother with your with your daughter you know if you want hey you know here we go we can bring out something you know they say don't don't save the fancy stuff just you know use it every day but that's I have done that with with a number of clients we do that with jewelry we repurpose jewelry you know somebody has something from their grandmother it's a pin it's something just you know looks a little dated but they still remember her wearing it and I have an incredible source and she'll you
7:13 know just repurpose it for you and the same thing you know the China's not going anywhere you know your kids are not going to want it but if you can bring it out what a wonderful thing and then you do stand a slight chance of that being the one one thing that your daughter but she when she moves on after school where she just decides like wow I remember that I have a fondness for it but you're only going to do that with a very small amount of items and have to be super careful and streamline everything and not let it go to a storage unit because nobody goes to visit their Storage Units Storage where clothes go to die it's it's just it's
7:50 it's and it's stuff that you spend a lot of money on every month and then that acre it's yearly and it's multiple years you know you you you close up a parents apartment and they've got a you've got to sell an apartment or a family member moves to Assisted Living they're not going to be able to do it this it's really physical work so my team and I are super well-versed at how to move things around but also listening to the stories so you make people feel good about it see that's really the essence of uncluttered it's what we deliver it's the feeling that we deliver in letting go and that's my my greatest compliment
8:26 from a client is this is a project I've been trying to do for 10 plus years if you were not in the room with me Hillary it never would have been done and it great compliment to have that person say to me you know you've relieved the burden you've relieved the stress but you've preserved the memory that's really that's really the the Crux of this is to preserve the memory but to also let it go and then when you you know when we leave a home it looks significantly more streamlined tidier you it's you never want people to not want to you never want to not invite people over you never want people to come over and you know uh oh my Coke
9:02 closet is a disaster I've got shoes under the bed yes girls everybody in New York City has that but it doesn't need to be a reason it should not be a reason why people don't entertain and I there's a lot of shame in in stuff you know people there's another aspect of this too people hold on to things and they're like oh I'm sorry you can't imagine what my apartment looks like say there's no there's no there's no judgment we are a judgment free zone I would encourage using your grandmother's silver in place of going out and you know buying something that's not of the same quality that you
9:37 wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable spending you know $3,000 on but you may as well use it now use it and enjoy it and then other stuff go same with jewelry same with any sort of vintage clothing you know if you can you alter it take it to the tailer and wear it to be enjoyed but they're also not meant to bog you down and that's the idea of that there's a fine line between enjoying the stuff that you have knowing what to let go and what to keep and I think that uncluttered is really that sort of religion you know we teach you how to feel good about things and letting it go and how to enjoy the items that you have
10:13 you know and and use them to their fullest and create so so let's say you know I'm um someone who you know God forbid my well both my grandmothers have passed away all my grand pass away well you know God forbid my mother has passed away or I'm a I'm an you know an estate a trust in estate attorney and I have a client who's grandparent or parent passed away and and I'm overwhelmed or I can see my client is just sort of overwhelmed by the enormity of the task facing them
10:50 right so how how do you come in and kind of socialize yourself with with that that person who's you know facing first of all the loss of of their loved one um but also just the the sort of mountain of issues that they typically have to deal with the financial issues the legal issues right and then the the logistical issues you know there there may be a home that has to be cleaned out all that so how how do you sort
11:27 of get get in involved in that situation in in a in a way that you know really um I guess lives the the values that you're expressing for uncluttered well I think the most important aspect of this is that we have a team of people that are the utmost of professional in every aspect I have a real estate broker that you know is for right for one type of client I have another real estate broker that's right for another for another type of client I have you know asset Wealth Management people I have trust in Estates attorneys I have accountants I have a list of referrals
12:04 that I feel embody what in uncluttered is so yes we are a full service operation I can suggest and recommend anybody from the best I believe in coins coin resale and stamp resale to something as you know important to a family as a you know Financial wealth management person so that this is this has the been the the Journey of uncluttered is to surround ourselves with a team of professionals that we can also pass along even moving companies you know there's there's there's so many and there are people that will have storage units no matter what it is that
12:40 we say or just you know Logistics you have only so much living space and there is going to need to be a couple of things that go someplace and I've got what I believe to be the best of the best in that and you know we're in New York right now but we're hoping to expand I believe there's great opportunity here this is something like I said about the silver omic that's only going to grow as time goes by and there's just a wealth of opportunity out there and it's a service that's needed you know this is this is the really important part of it this I see every day with each and every client no matter how old they are that everybody needs
13:15 this you know I did a a couple of young couples last week and they had just moved in together and on the Crux of getting engaged and you know there some didn't like somebody else's you know track pants or sweatpants or and I'm in the room and we took everything out of the closet and we went through it so it's sort of the impartial third party you know that I'm I'm 90% unlicensed psychologist 10% de but but that's exactly what it is you know whether somebody is in their 80s and they're moving into an assisted living facility and their family members
13:50 don't live nearby or maybe they're moving them to where they live which is obviously best case scenario we work with a lot of high-end um living uh estate people and people that help with the uh senior Wellness management and the planning of that and that's another that's another wonderful you know I think it's a wonderful source for them and for me because I want to be able to help elderly people and I also want to be able to help younger people and I think that everybody needs the service and continues to need this service even a couple like I said before a subscription service a few times of the year but when there's a big move when
14:25 there's a family member that has lived in a home for 50 or 60 years and we've come up with that a bunch of times and that's just you know the tip of the iceberg you've lost a you've lost a a husband or a wife and you've got to get rid of all of that stuff it is way too enormous emotional task to put on the surviving spouse and then it's not a fair task to put on the the children who are you know most likely our age and if you're in your 40s or your 50s or your 60s if you're lucky enough to be in your 60s and still have parents your parents are not getting up on a step ladder and you know you would not want
15:00 that you're in our position in our age group you know if you're in your 50s and you just you know you're working hard and you want to enjoy your time you're not going to spend your weekend going through your closets and going through your storage units and everybody talks about the task of moving being so daunting so we're the move right before the move because if you can streamline before you move you save yourself in every way you save yourself financially Why move stuff that you're not going to hold on to you save yourself emotionally because if there's going to be you know it's a shortterm move it's a long-term move what have you why take things with you that you don't need you know and
15:36 then again you can even if you do keep on hold of hold of the storage unit you can continue to keep that storage unit but at least you know what's in there right so that that's the other thing I mean I can't tell you oh that's where that was you know I knew that was there you like you just said you know entertaining you know using nice Cutlery flat wear twice a week Linens you know but things need to be you need to know where they are so that they can be preserved so they don't turn yellow and not terribly tarnished and then you know those few items can go into your rotation and you can really enjoy them and then there's stories
16:11 there stories to tell your children but you don't want to have too much of that and the problem is we all do we all do we come from we you and I come from a generation of parents who were you know were survivors and they held on to a lot they felt you know I don't know when I'm ever going to have this again or life is so uncertain right right yeah for sure for sure so um let's say you have a situ and maybe you've already had this situation where um the person's residence is in the New
16:47 York area but the the um uh surviving children are not um and so then it's not just a matter of you know sorting through all things but it's also you know going there and and all of that how do you work with a situation like that where you essentially have you know remote people who who need your service um and and look by the way bless you for thinking I'm in my 50s
17:22 you I I I would not I would I would guess um but um um you know the just you we we have jobs we have you know our children were raising we have our our lives right and it's it's very difficult to you know be going I I went through this with with my my in-laws they lived in Birmingham Alabama I lived here you know in Los Angeles and so that going back and forth it was pra it was a full-time job in many ways right um so
17:58 so how how do you deal with with a situation like that well you know that requires obviously you know we we can go anywhere in the country I mean I'm I'm focusing in New York City because that's where I am that's where my team is and that's where I see is really there's a huge need an apartment living especially to scream that's that's that need I do have a client that has a similar situation but it's a moving things down to boka Ron and I have down there and you know this the service that we are that we are cultivating in New York will be able to go anywhere in the country
18:34 there's there's a real opportunity here I believe in for expansion this is just the beginning of it but we can go anywhere I mean usually my New York City based clients is you know are the the 15minute zoom call you know show me walk me around your apartment walk me around your storage unit give me a little bit of an idea about the stuff and then from there we write up a proposal based upon the job not on the hours because could take more hours than what I and I don't want anyone to think that we're looking at the clock because we're not what we are trying to do is leave you with a feeling of lightness and you know
19:12 positive feelings of joy of less stuff and you know just just all of it being a great experience for you the client and I can't necessarily do that on the clock so it's a matter of of of starting with a zoom call and I can do that anywhere in the country and then I can you know help you figure out where to go from there but you know if you see my website you can see that we have we have all of options available for all sorts of different jobs small and big you know it could be a cleaning out a second bedroom just to make room for you know a family member to come visit because your child
19:48 left for college or just you know you have you're having a third child and you've got a guest room that needs to be turned over and there's stuff in there you got to figure out you know sort of the closet space I can do that you know we can do something with storage units in people's apartment buildings in New York that's that's you know if you're if you're lucky enough to live in a a highend upper condo then you hopefully have a storage closet you call it a unit it's really a closet that goes along but that's you know the same idea even if it's just an elevator ride away people don't go down there you know the only thing you might go down there for is your luggage that seems to be right be
20:23 the biggest the biggest thing that's down there taking up space it's not under your bed but it's in your storage but just you know everything artwork posters you know there's there's tons of and there's Collectibles and wonderful items that I've Unearthed that there could be you know real value to stamp and the coin collections but you know this is this is a service that can be done anywhere in the country we were just Centric on New York right now but that's that's GNA that's going to explain it's G to it's going to explode it's going to change I have a book in the works as well so there's lots of lots of exciting stuff going on and yeah sort of the UN lettered
20:59 movement so so actually I could like if it were if it were me I could you know go to you know my my I I don't want to like you know hex my mother because she's still alive she she turns 90 next month so but but I could like go to her house and I could take my camera and uh my phone I mean you know on a zoom meeting and and I can kind of like show you what's what's going on there and then you can based on what you see and you can ask questions or whatever and and then you can do your assessment and take it from there yeah absolutely that's an idea for another
21:35 Chef Kevin let's let's to be continued I would I I'm happy to show your audience how we how we go through the process and if okay yeah that actually that would be that would be cool um I am thinking I'm working on this show was originally formatted where I turned my living room into a TV studio once a month and we shot the episodes there and I'm working through restream I think I can do something very similar to that and and do some remote shows and such so yeah that that would actually be really neat that way people could see what you're doing um how you know how it works you know live
22:11 basically yeah no your mother's reaction to it you know what what what's what's of great interest I would imagine to my viewers and to your viewers and to myself is just to see the to capture the feeling see it's not tangible what it is that we do and how we do it you really be part of the experience in order to be able to understand it so I be very beneficial and I'd be curious to see your mother's reaction because I've had I've had a number of elderly clients and you know it's it's just you know you're the granddaughter that they that they have or the or the daughter that they have but I'm there doing I'm doing the work that their daughter doesn't want it
22:46 right yeah you want to be you want to be careful because you know Jewish mother only son I want you to meet my friend Hillary right she's gonna be like oh this your friend you know no you're you're New York City based on cluttered buddy who's teach you and make most importantly make your mom feel good about all of it yeah yeah very good that's and that's what and that's what we all want you know at the end of the day everybody just wants to be left with the feeling of of of of Happiness of you know oh I can entertain oh I got that
23:21 room back or oh I don't have to spend $350 a month on that storage unit that I'm never going to and you know those things that everybody starts a New Year's resolution I'm going to get rid of you know it could be the weight it could be the junk in the refrigerator it could be the storage unit it could be I'm finally going to go through my jewelry box and figure out what I'm wearing what I'm not wearing you know and we're the we are the people to call for that you know and and again the process is meant to be joyful and happy and light and you know you have to start somewhere and as as I keep finding out
23:56 you know people will only do this when there's somebody there to hold their hand and that's that's okay that's that's you know that's what we're here for yeah yeah um typically how how do you connect with your clients I mean are you being referred by other clients are you do you work with a lot of um lawyers how how is you know how is that part working that's a great question across the board across the board I have had great success in my networking groups and I've had some great success on social media and and it is a little bit Word of Mouth though that's not really the way to scale the business as I keep
24:32 being told because it it you morphs into okay well I'll tell a friend and a friend and I'll tell a friend and maybe someday it's a matter of getting people at the right time you know I it's you just don't want to hear oh I only if only if I knew that you existed six months ago or I need you in six months you know it's it's hard to build a brand on that so you know we call them different channels and you have to just keep beating the different the drums in different channels and well whether it's you know trust in Estates attorneys or somebody like I said in asset wealth management planning or it's someone in Assisted Living you know any of Assisted Living there's a lot of great Referral
25:08 Services out there I'm working with a number of Super trustworthy ones and again it teaches me more and more with each passing day about where my business needs to go and how it can expand and that's really what it's so much fun because every day is a new day you know you meet all sorts of really interesting people and you see all sorts of really interesting things and I'm just you know very grateful to be in this space and to have this opportunity to grow a business that feels good to me as well as as well as serves a great need for my clients yeah so my and unfortunately we're gonna
25:44 have to wrap up here in just a minute but my one of my closest friends who's uh Pro probably the top probate real estate agent here in Los Angeles um he and I talk about this often and that is one of the great aspects of being in this industry is it gives us an opportunity every single day it seems like almost every minute of the day to really focus on helping someone that do you know do something that's difficult for them to do um and there aren't a lot of businesses I think like that um where
26:22 where people are in typically in such crisis or or at least such emotional an emotional state like look this is not to put anyone down who's you know working in a restaurant but you know people are hungry okay they're crabby and you're you're taking care of them but to take care of people when they're at their most vulnerable I think is is really quite a um a special opportunity for us and you mentioned working with people transitioning to Car Care facilities and those kind of things people are so vulnerable at at those
26:58 moments that I mean like you I'm I'm you know 90% I think unlicensed psychologist right and then the other 10% is just like doing the stuff that needs to be done because it's it's really about helping people individuals couples whatever get through get through all this so just you know maybe uh you know two minutes reflecting on and and sort of summing up for us and then and then unfortunately we're going to have to wrap it up sure um I again I think that uncluttered was built out of my own experience and my need to let things go
27:35 and let my young children feel good about letting things go I think that's the most important part I think that there's no there's there's there's no uh there's nothing but life experience that will shape you it'll nothing will teach you like being Hands-On like going through it yourself if you God forbid faced a help there's nothing no one can no one can explain that to you unless it's actually happened to you you know and no one knows how they're going to react in a crisis situation or in an emotionally charged moment until they have it until they have it so what I like to think is I've had my share and
28:11 out of it I have built a business and an idea and you sort of a religion as I said before that makes people feel good about the transitions that will inevitably happen to all of us you know maybe we all be around long enough to be grandparents and great-grandparents and have collections of things that our children will think a few of are really valuable and have stories you know and again as the population ages the hope is that there will be a lot of you know a lot of stories to share but without the burden of stuff you know to there really
28:48 is a burden of stuff very few people really know how to let go and that's what we're here for we're here to make them feel good about letting go and you know and and carry on and give the give a couple of great things to their grandchildren and let the rest of it go but I would love to I'd love to see your mom's your mom's you might be surprised she's quite a modern artifici andado so oh there's all she has all beautiful things her her father my grandfather was was an artist I have some of his work in in my living room as a matter of fact so uh yeah it's it her her her home is quite a
29:25 Showplace I mean that's again you know it's the the privilege of being able to go into people's homes and see what they've curated is exactly that it's a privilege but I welcome the opportunity if you to to be continued yeah exactly exactly well so Hillary um I'm GNA put your contact information in the show notes so if if if if you know viewers you you want to get in touch with Hillary you have questions um you'll have uh her LinkedIn profile you'll have her website and and if you scroll down on her website I no noticed this uh I think it was yesterday there you can um
30:01 book a time for a a consultation um a complimentary consultation um and and I I encourage you to to reach out to Hillary and and really understand how this can help you help your clients um a as well and and I'm gonna I'm gonna follow up I think my mom would get a kick out of doing a show down at her house so more more to come on that would be great it would be great yeah the cendy app is is my is on my site and yes please feel free to reach out to me from there and set up your Zoom consultation great so I'm gonna
30:36 have you um hold tight while I wrap up the show and and we'll just speak for a couple minutes offline so that so that's our show for today I I appreciate you tuning in hope you enjoyed it and more importantly hope you found it useful um do do spread the word um we're here every Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time 1: p.m. eastern time an hour in for mountain and and Central tomorrow my show is business lessons from the military and I'm going to be talking this is this is um a bit of a touchy subject maybe right now but I'm going to be talking about how you protect your
31:13 business secrets so there's been a lot in the news lately about classified documents and information all this kind of stuff so we're going to we're going to set all that stuff aside but we are going to focus on looking at how the military hand um secret doc secret information and how you can protect it with with your business and then on Wednesday at 10: am Pacific time is people making money and we're going to be talking about what you need to do in order to maintain your business entity you know you can't just set up an LLC uh onetime thing and and
31:49 go on there's there's routine maintenance you have to do just like with a house so um do stay do do stay tuned for that and um and then a week from today we'll pick it up with the next ver with the next episode of FR weekly so thank you very much for tuning in Hillary again thank you so much for joining me and we'll we'll see you all later this week