Healing Trauma: Organizing My Childhood Home 61 Years Later

One day, on my way home from an organizing job, I had the impulse to stop by my childhood home.  As it turned out, the owners were outside, so I took a chance and introduced myself.  They graciously invited me in, and I took a trip down memory lane.

I was back in the house I knew from birth to third grade.  It was a lot to take in.  I tried to absorb as much as I could in that short visit.

As we talked, I shared that I was in the neighborhood because I was an organizer.  My host said, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been looking for an organizer!”

We exchanged information, and I left that day, marveling at the synchronicity that had played out. 

Fast forward a couple of months, and this sweet family engaged me for organizing services.

This week was my first session back at the house.

I had many memories in that house.  Some were happy, but many were negative, and a few were traumatic.

As we moved through the house, I kept trying to relive those memories, to feel them again.  There was part of me that wanted to tap into them.  To remember them on a visceral level.  I’m not sure why that was important to me.

But the funny thing was, I couldn’t.

I know, it’s been 61 years.  But I believe it was more than that.

I teach in my Decluttering Mastery course that our identity and our actions are all formed from our beliefs about ourselves.  And those beliefs are usually formed from events and relationships from our childhood.

When I was young, I remember waking up from a nap, and as I moved through the house, I realized my mother was not there.  Standing in the hallway, alone in the house, I felt terror, a sense of being utterly alone, and then anger.

I know now from my studies that trauma embeds itself in our bodies.  We carry it on a cellular level.

I thought I had worked through that event about 20 years ago with a counselor, but surprisingly, it came up again earlier this year in a way that was clearly needing my attention.  We often heal in layers.

In fact, 2025 has been an intense year of personal growth.

My work earlier in the year was about letting that memory go.  Changing how I felt about it.  Releasing it from my body. Healing the childhood trauma.

So now, in November, I find myself standing in that same hallway, sixty years later.

I tried to tap into that experience.  To relive it.  To feel the feelings again.  In a way, to show solidarity with that earlier version of me.

Maybe to just feel all the aspects of the unique opportunity to physically be in the space again.  It was fascinating to contemplate from an observer’s perspective.

The interesting thing was, I couldn’t feel it.  I could only see a shadow of her.

It was as if that trauma had happened to another version of me.  One that doesn’t exist anymore.

As we move through life, we have the opportunity to grow and evolve.  In fact, I believe that’s why we’re here in these bodies.  To expand and become more of who we truly are.

Sometimes it takes trauma.

That same hallway carried one of my happiest memories of childhood.  I loved playing in the built-in hamper.  It was dark and cozy, and I remember often curling up in there.

It was fun to celebrate that memory with them and their young son, who also enjoys that space.

I brought old pictures to show the family how things originally looked. Parts of the house have been remodeled, but most of it is the same – physically.

The energy is different as it has carried several owners through the decades of their own experiences.

This week, I had the privilege to come full circle.  Physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

As I work with this new family on creating a peaceful space for their memories, I have the confirmation that I have healed some of my own.

What a gift.