What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 5:30pm Tuesday 9am - 5:30pm Wednesday 9am - 5:30pm Thursday 9am - 5:30pm Friday 9am - 5pm

Good Sorts Ltd, Chiltern House, 45 Station Road, Henley on Thames (2025)

14/05/2025

An introduction to Good Sorts wouldn’t be complete without Ludo and Arthur who are the two youngest members of the team. They’re 17 weeks old and as adorable as they look - most of the time!
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The rest of the team is a little older and has slightly more experience. Teamwork is at the heart of every Good Sort. Starting with nuts and bolts, it makes us more efficient and cost-effective for our clients. We can match the expertise and experience of the team members to the client’s particular needs - art, antiques, books, fashion, admin or coping with mental or physical frailty. But there’s more to teamwork than nuts and bolts. There’s magic.
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Our clients turn to us when they’ve exhausted every other way of going through a lifetime of accumulated possessions - doing it themselves, relying on family and friends or the household help they already have. They come to us when the enormity of the task has sunk in and they realise they’re completely overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.
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So there you are … relieved that you’ve finally called in expert help, but apprehensive because you don’t quite know quite what to expect and then, of course, there’s the cost. Wouldn’t you rather spend the money on a holiday or not at all?!
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The doorbell rings and you see a team of impeccably turned out Good Sorters. Each one of them is smiling, happy and enthusiastic. The atmosphere changes from dread, uncertainty and overwhelm to the buzz, energy and enjoyment of collective effort. That’s the magic of teamwork.
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Time and time again a beaming client has hugged us at the end of a Good Sort and said ‘I’ve enjoyed this far more than I ever thought possible.’ In Maya Angelou’s famous words, it’s not what you do that people remember, but how you make them feel. xxCaroline

🏷️•Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions•

16/08/2021

Good morning! How are you? No, really – how are you? Are your summer weekends starting to feel vaguely normal? Ours are, just about. We’re slowly getting back to Sundays of leisurely lunches with family and friends, getting out and about and general Sunday stuff although one thing has changed.
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I used to leave planning the week ahead until first thing on Monday morning. Now I scribble in my journal / diary / planner – all in one Moleskine notebook – on Sunday afternoon. And I make a rough draft of Facebook posts too. This was meant to be a fluffy, August-y caption about roses and using ridiculous amounts of Spode Blue Italian china on the breakfast table. Having listened to the news, I changed my mind.
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I tried to imagine what it would be like to be a woman in Kabul this morning. Someone who had started a small enterprise of her own. Or the mother of a daughter at school or a young woman wanting to go to university so that she could become a doctor or a teacher or journalist.
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Of course, the tragedy that is taking place doesn’t only affect women and girls but I’d spent some time over the weekend reading Anya Hindmarch’s book, When in Doubt, Wash your Hair. Somehow the juxtaposition of her insight into being a woman entrepreneur with the unfolding events in Afghanistan makes them even more tragic and horrifying.
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This is usually my August admin week. I’m a like a child facing a plateful of creamed spinach and I have to bribe myself with all sorts of treats to tackle the mind-numbing piles that have been cluttering up my desk for far too long. This year I’m reminding myself what a privilege it is to be here doing them – peacefully, for myself and my own little business. Have a lovely week. More cheerful roses coming on Wednesday, I promise! xxCaroline
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🏷 Organise• a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

30/06/2021

I read somewhere the other day that if you’re struggling to find what you want to do – something you’d enjoy and something you’d be good at – you should think back to what you loved as a child. I’d never thought about it before 🙄 but of course it’s so true.
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I’ve never been happier in my working life than I am now – basically doing all the things I loved as a child! Listening to stories, keeping everything in order, mediating (I’m a middle child!) and being surrounded by objects that mean something.
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So two questions….Is there an element of the things you loved as a child in what you do now? And another one …. When does ‘stuff’ become ‘things’ or when does an object, no matter how mundane, start to mean something?
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I'm fairly certain it happens when there is an unbreakable association with something else. A person, a time, a place – or even making you feel terribly clever because it was the first piece of, say, Russian silver you bought when it was out of fashion and now everyone wants it!
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Giving ‘stuff’ and ‘things’ away is an inevitable part of sorting through a Lifetime of Possessions. Our clients are incredibly generous at donating ‘stuff’ to charities. Sometimes there’s a dilemma about whether something is still useful or not, but not the heart searching that precedes giving away a ‘thing’ you love. It’s not always easy to get it right.
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The theme of the July Newsletter is giving – and receiving – gifts. There’s the story of my husband being nearly murdered over a pair of candlesticks, my favourite London window-shopping walk and a book recommendation that’ll have you reciting poetry as if you were a child again. And chocolate cake! You can subscribe by clicking the website link www.good-sorts.co.uk and waiting for the pop-up or message me with your email address. xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

28/06/2021

Years ago my husband came close to being murdered in the hallway of a New York apartment building. The cause was a pair of beautiful and valuable Russian candlesticks. His would-be murderers weren’t gun-carrying thugs from an organised crime gang. They were his wife and his brother-in-law – with their bare hands.
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I’m being a Monday morning minx. You won’t know the rest of the story until the Newsletter comes out on Friday though my husband obviously survived and my brother and I weren’t banged up on Rikers Island – by a whisker. It’ll be no surprise that one of the most potentially treacherous areas we help our downsizing clients navigate is gifts from their Lifetime of Possessions to family and friends.
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Walking through a minefield, tiptoeing on egg shells – double every metaphor for the fraughtness that lifetime gifts can cause. The other side is that they can be some of the most precious gifts you will ever give or receive.
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The theme of the July Newsletter is giving – and receiving – gifts. I’m putting the finishing touches to a Good Sorts Guide as well. I’ll link it in the Newsletter. As always there’ll be a recipe. This month it’s a fabulously easy but sophisticated cake – I’ve given the recipe to more family and friends than any other. The book recommendation was a present I gave to myself years ago and I still turn to it time and again.
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If you’d like to subscribe to the Newsletter, go to our website www.good-sorts.co.uk . A pop-up will appear in about 10 seconds. Or you can message me your email address and I'll add it for you. Have a lovely week. I can’t believe Wimbledon is starting today. This summer feels almost more weird than last – or is that just me?? xxCaroline
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PS The rose is Desdemona. We’ve planted her for the first time this year. She's an absolutely beauty!
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🏷 • Empathy • Confidence • A Plan •

23/06/2021

Rocks, Pebbles and Sand – perfect if time planning isn’t your thing! I’m great at planning a Good Sort 🏆 - and occasionally blowing my own trumpet 🎺🎺 - but desk-time planning not so much, mostly because I don’t much enjoy sitting at a desk. But I’m a new woman since Rocks, Pebbles and Sand came into my life!
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Whatever period I’m planning – a day, week, month, year – I start off with three headings. Writing Rocks, Pebbles and Sand doesn’t weigh me down before I start, as a solemnly written To Do List did. Sometimes I even draw Rocks with smaller Rocks around them, each with a task written on it. It might sound silly but it makes it fun! We ALL need fun.
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Rocks are the big, important things that are essential for Good Sorts or for me. They usually need to be broken down into a series of smaller tasks or goals and they need creative thought. Pebbles are the things that are still important but only take an hour or two. They’re often routine things – like writing Instagram captions.
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Think of the day or week as a container. Put the Rocks in first. If you put the Pebbles or Sand in first you can’t get the Rocks in. Don’t try to fit in too many. One or two is usually enough for a week. Then start adding Pebbles in the gaps around the Rocks.
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If you’re completely in control of your time – a student revising or you have minions for everything 😉 – you can put in as many Rocks and Pebbles as will fit. If your days are like mine and there’s always something unpredictable – a new client telephoning or a flurry of emails to answer – you can’t fill your time container to the top. You need space for the unexpected.
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I’ve already put the Rocks and Pebbles in the container this week and some are done 😊 🎉 There’ll be more about Sand on Friday. If only it were sand on a 🏖 ! xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

21/06/2021

‘Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.’
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‘Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.’
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‘If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run..’
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Which is your favourite….Benjamin Franklin, John Updike or Rudyard Kipling?
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I’m slightly hesitant about contributing another word to the millions that have already been written about time planning but here goes. During the winter lockdown I decided I had to have a serious re-think of how I planned my time. Every detail of a Good Sort, including time planning, comes naturally to me. I can just ‘see’ how to do it.
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Planning desk time is another matter because I fidget, get bored, get distracted and I hardly ever have good ideas when I’m looking at a screen. I could feel Franklin, Kipling and Updike looking down on me disapprovingly – and more importantly, at the end of a week with a lot of desk time, I always felt frustrated because I rarely achieved what I wanted to. I tried lots of different time planners, To Do Lists and tweaking my bullet journal but nothing really worked – until I discovered Rocks, Pebbles and Sand.
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Think of the day, week, month – even year – ahead as a container and what you want or need to do as Rocks, Pebbles or Sand. Rocks are the big, important things. Things that are essential for your business or for you as a person. The things that only you can do. They go into the container first. I find one – or at most two – is enough for any given week.
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I’ve got my list of Rocks. I’ll make a final decision over which go into the container labelled W / C 21st June over a cup of coffee! More on Pebbles and Sand later in the week – if we don’t all freeze xxCaroline
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🏷 •Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions•

16/06/2021

Yesterday evening as I drew the curtains I looked out on a mass of roses from every window. The scent wafted gently around me. We have a long narrow town garden. I say ‘we’ but it’s Mr GS who is the real gardener. He’s loved gardening since his grandfather showed him how to plant a nasturtium seed when he was three. The garden is designed around a strong structure – clipped yew, box and pittosporum – and beautiful foliage plants like hostas, melianthus and hydrangea quercifolia but in June there are roses everywhere.
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It’s British Flowers Week so I think I'm allowed roses! Back to the story of Good Sorts. After I’d rushed back from Robert Dyas with ‘a little help is worth a lot of sympathy’ spinning round my head and written LISTEN in capitals as the first step of any Good Sort, I thought about the next steps.
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Feeling overwhelmed. Feeling as if you don’t know where to start. Feeling as if there are a million chaotic decisions to be made. It’s the same for everyone – just as it was for my mother and my family.
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I wrote down words like information, clarity, simplicity, calm, perspective – and phrases like fresh eyes, re-framing the context, curate not purge. And then I wrote ‘How?’ And I had another 💭 💡💡💡 I thought back to my Sotheby’s days. It’s just like choosing between all the different lots in a sale – except you don’t have to pay for them! Which are the ones you love and the ones you need?
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The second step of a Good Sort is turning your lifetime of possessions into a Sotheby’s sale with a dash of Peter Jones thrown in! It changes everything – controllable, clear, efficient and, most surprisingly of all, exciting and fun.
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It sounds as if the weather will break later so one of the non-negotiables on my To Do list is picking an enormous bunch of roses! Have a lovely day xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

14/06/2021

The heroine looks up pensively from her notebook into the middle distance. The scene blurs and a new scene comes into focus…..LONDON, 12 YEARS EARLIER. Three people are locking the door on an empty house – an elderly woman and a younger couple. Looking white and wide-eyed with stress and exhaustion they climb wearily into a car as overloaded as a 19th century tinker’s cart.
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Fast forward five years and the scene moves to Robert Dyas – I know… super-glam. The younger woman is standing in the checkout queue behind another elderly woman who says to the salesgirl, ‘Well, yes, dear….but a little help is worth a lot of sympathy.’
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It’s not exactly ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again….’ but the first scene happened as my mother left the house where she’d spent 35 happy, busy years. The second scene is a snippet I overheard as I was first thinking seriously about Good Sorts. I immediately went home and started writing down ideas.
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You need a detailed understanding of the people and the context. You have to empathise with the emotions they’re going through. You have to be a confidante, counsellor, sounding board and, yes, occasionally a mediator. I wrote down the first step of a Good Sort. In capitals. LISTENING.
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If you can't wait for the next instalment 😉 click on the website link in our profile. Scroll down the Home Page and there’s a video of real life me talking about Good Sorts.
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It's a week of rosy photos. The lovely, floppy one is The Generous Gardener and the elegantly neat one is Queen of Sweden. If you're looking for rosy inspiration you *must* get a copy of Victoria Martin's Favourite Roses for Cutting from Stokesay Flowers.
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It sounds as if the news won’t be great today so here are some virtual roses for everyone 💐 xxCaroline
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🏷 • Empathy • Confidence • A Plan •

02/06/2021

Has anyone got some cold milk and a packet of butterscotch flavour Instant Whip? I can taste it now and hear the sound of an old Prestige rotary whisk. This is the second of the ‘things I remember in my grandmother’s hands’ posts – except I can remember using one of these!
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A couple of people asked me yesterday how I choose the things that I photograph – an old egg slicer wouldn’t be everyone’s choice and it’s sometimes quite a surprise to our clients! It’s easiest to explain by starting with what I don’t photograph.
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I don’t photograph anything that would compromise our clients’ confidentiality or security which rules out very valuable or personal things. I also don’t take interior or exterior shots for the same reasons – and because my photographic skills aren’t up to it. There are occasional exceptions, but only if it’s impossible to identify where we are.
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A lot of what we do isn’t very photogenic in a social media way. It’s not like professional organisers who transform messy cupboards into immaculate order for perfect before and after photos. We’re helping clients sort through a lifetime of accumulated possessions making hundreds of decisions. I could post lots of photos of neatly labelled cardboard boxes but we’d probably all get bored.
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That leaves the amusing, the unusual, the quirky, the things that trigger memories – for you, for us and, of course, our clients. The Good Sorts vibe we create is one of being helped by empathetic, caring, positive friends who know exactly what they’re doing. The conversations and reminiscing that happen whilst we’re all working away are an important part of that.
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If you’d like a relaxing read about flowers for the table, the best roses for picking and much more here's a link to the June Newsletter https://mailchi.mp/05f136c8f662/fairylike-and-yet-dignified Perfect with an ice cream🍦🌞 xxCaroline
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🏷 Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

01/06/2021

Isn’t it wonderful that the first day of summer actually feels like summer … Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I got a wonderful feeling everything’s goin’ my way!
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Well, I don’t feel quite like that but I feel so much better for the weather having properly turned and that there were friends around our table yesterday for the first time since last summer.
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We kept it simple and they came for tea – cucumber sandwiches, egg and cress sandwiches and an old-fashioned coffee and walnut cake, Earl Grey and a large G & T before everyone went home. If you haven’t tried the pink Fever Tree Aromatic Tonic Water and added a good squeeze of lime, instead of lemon, you must! It’s so delicious and refreshing.
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I'm trying to keep everything simple this week ….when I plan my social media for the week I write down a visual theme, or red thread, that runs through all the photos. It's much easier to see on Instagram than it is on Facebook but never mind!
This week there is literally a red thread but this is what I wrote down as the visual theme ‘Things you remember in your grandmother’s hands’. It’s a week of battered, old-fashioned kitchen utensils.
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Who doesn’t remember an egg slicer like this? Well, those of us who are old enough anyway 😉 The slightly waxy feeling plastic, off white turning to yellow and the twanging wires. In years to come will those snazzy Joseph Joseph ones be turned over and over in a young person’s hands in the same way as childhood memories come flooding back? I hope so because those memories are very special.
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Have a lovely week – full of sandwiches, cake and everything goin’ your way! xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

12/05/2021

More tulip spam to go with my blatherings on 'Empathy, Confidence and a Plan'. When I came across the phrase in a political commentator’s Twitter it resonated like the hammer hitting Big Ben. No exaggeration - well, not much. I know what it feels like because I once stood next to Big Ben - right next to it at the top of the tower – at the moment it strikes. It was an off-the-clock amazing experience (awful pun🙄) - once I’d got my breath back from climbing the stairs.
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Back to empathy, confidence and a plan. These tulips couldn’t be anything other than ‘confidence’, could they?
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Have you ever thought how much long-term damage lack of confidence does? Over-confidence may lead to short-term disasters but lack of confidence stops you trying things, doing things, facing up to things – and most of all, it’s stops you enjoying life. It’s a little beast. Believe me, I know that from personal experience too.
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There are endless self-help guides to gaining confidence but it isn’t complicated. You do have to make yourself try things that don’t come easily, you do have to start with ‘baby steps’, find things you love and sometimes you have to make a superhuman effort to haul yourself up by your own bootstraps. There aren’t short cuts but one day you’ll just wake up knowing you’re a different person.
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And here’s a quick fix for situations where you’re quaking in your shoes – it happens to everyone! Walking into a room full of strangers still tops my list. Make yourself laugh. My go-to confidence booster is channeling mouse-y Joan Fontaine saying ‘I am Mrs de Winter now’ to creepy Mrs Danvers in Hitchcock’s Rebecca.
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I hope you have at least one terrific laugh today and that you help someone else to laugh. It’ll do wonders for your confidence and theirs! xxCaroline

🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

10/05/2021

Tulip spam this week….not quite spam, but you’ll have to read through a few contortions to get to ‘relevance’! Last week I went a whole day without hearing or seeing the news. That last happened at least five years ago. It made me wonder what political journalists feel like – relieved, exhausted, creative – now that people like me aren’t hanging on their every tweet!
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Before my grip on the twitterati loosened, I wrote down verbatim something I read on James Fallows’ feed. He’s an American journalist and writer. He wrote in the context of one of President Biden’s first big speeches ‘….as people in the speech writing biz know, the basic structure of any effective speech-in-time-of-trouble is: 1) empathy 2) confidence 3) a plan.’
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Empathy, confidence and a plan. It resonated so strongly with me that I’ve made it one of Good Sorts’ hashtags on Instagram. You don’t have to be making a speech watched by millions of people – you can have an audience of one – but if they’re looking to you for support and guidance in their individual time of trouble, those are things they’re looking for. It doesn’t matter if you’re a politician or Good Sorts.
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There’s a lot of talk about Emotional Intelligence – including empathy – as if it’s a gift that’s bestowed at birth. Yes, some of us are better at it than others but did you know that it’s also a skill that you can learn? The root of empathy is kindness – do something kind for someone and watch how they react. The more kind things you do, the more you understand empathy and the more you boost your own confidence. Proven neuro-science! Win-win, no?
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It's Mental Health Awareness Week. All of us have felt wilted – I told you it was contortions to get to the tulips – at some point over the past year. Our mental health needs more nurture than ever. Have a kind week – starting with yourself! xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

Good Sorts Ltd

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Monday	9am - 5:30pm
Tuesday	9am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	9am - 5:30pm
Thursday	9am - 5:30pm
Friday	9am - 5pm