Sidetracked Home Executives has been in business for 42 years! That means there are thousands of women out there who have used the 3x5 card file system for organizing their homes and families. One of the best parts of the system is that it’s flexible and easy to pick back up if, in the course of life, it was abandoned for a few months, years or decades. Here’s a neat letter from one such woman!
Dear Pam,
Wow! 42 years! I think it was about 1995 (just guessing since it's been so long ago!) when I found you and started using the file system. You saved my sanity, and probably the sanity of my 5 children and husband.
We were a poor military family and I discovered yard sales. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, because now I could actually buy clothes for my children without making them myself. I was a pretty good seamstress but even that was expensive. But of course that backfired on me, and I became addicted. I bought everything I could afford! I started to get my life under control and started clearing things out. Not very efficiently, though, because my kids had by then also become my accomplices at yard sales.
Anyway, many years have gone by and now the kids are all grown with kids of their own. I'm cured of my addiction, but some of my kids aren't. I have one son, a stay-at-home dad with 4 children, ages 2-12. His wife is a doctor so she's W A Y too busy to help. He's on his own with the house. He's pretty overwhelmed, but he’s NOT a clutter bug, so he's wearing himself out trying to keep the house clean. He's usually making excuses that he's too busy picking up after everyone to get them to help, or teach them better habits.
They're moving from the east coast to the west coast, (I live in Oregon and also have a part-time home in Washington. Do you have any suggestions about how he could help his family? I think he might be interested in the card system. It might be simpler for him, and for the kids. Do you still have the "Fairy" for the kids?
Sorry to talk your ear off, but I've wanted to tell you for years how much I appreciate you and all you do!
Take care,
Lisa
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