Commonwealth Club: Rightsizing for Your Next Chapter

A desire to simplify, an upcoming move, a remodel, and general overwhelm are among the many reasons we are called to rightsize our lives. The things that occupy our closets and shelves have all sorts of memories and hopes attached to them. Those same things can also be obligations or burdens. Deciding what to shed and how to go about it can be overwhelming in its own way.  That’s where life organizer Debra Baida comes in. For close to 20 years, she has been empowering and guiding people through their life transitions. She is an empathic facilitator with a focus on making the paring-down process as navigable and sustainable as possible. Creating space while simultaneously holding space are among her superpowers. Deb is also a go-to resource for donating and rehoming unwanted items. Keeping useful things out of landfill is essential to her work ethic.  About the Speakers Debra Baida is a life organizer and founder of Liberated Spaces, which she opened in 2007 after two decades working as a picture editor. Her award-winning company has been a San Francisco Green Business since 2008 and became the fifth certified Green Business Innovator in California in 2018. Deb has been a featured guest on KQED’s Forum and a presenter at Stanford d.school. She appeared in a "PBS Newshour" story about San Francisco’s zero-waste goals. Her organizing tips have been included in media outlets including Reader’s Digest, Food Network, San Francisco Chronicle, and Homes & Gardens (UK). Nigel Poor is an artist and podcaster whose work explores the ways people leave behind evidence of their existence. In 2011, Nigel got involved with San Quentin State Prison as a volunteer teacher for Mount Tamalpais College. In 2017, she co-founded the prison-based podcast, "Ear Hustle," a Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Peabody Award nominee. Her work as a visual artist has been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in museum collections, including the SFMOMA and the M.H. deYoung Museum. Nigel is a professor of photography at California State University, Sacramento. She’s the author of The San Quentin Project, published by Aperture, and co-author of This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life.