Home Organizing & Decluttering
Organizing is not a one-size-fits-all method. Your home should reflect your individual personality and your values.
Creating Functional Living Spaces, One at a Time
A good professional organizer will not force you to get rid of any possessions, especially items that have value to you in some way. In my experience though, it’s rare to organize a home that doesn’t require some degree of decluttering first. This is why communication is number one on my list of company values.
Organizing is not a one-size-fits-all method. Your home should reflect your individual personality and your values. It should also support your current needs. My goal is to get your home functioning in a way that supports the people who live there and your unique lifestyle.
You can choose to be as involved in the process as you want to be. By listening to your concerns, needs, and vision, together, we create functional systems by placing your items in a way that is logical to you.
Lifestyles are constantly changing. Separating households, blending households, work-from-home, multi-family living, young adults living at home longer, retirement, downsizing, or aging in place are a just few reasons that a space in a home needs to be repurposed and/or multi-functional. As a professional, I am trained to see through the chaos and create zones that are task-specific and effective.
Your Home Tells A Story, What Should It Say?
- Do you want your living space to feel like an oasis with Zen like qualities?
- Are you interested in the trend towards Minimalism and free yourself from the burden of too much stuff?
- Do you get comfort from having items displayed that bring back memories?
- Are you a collector and want to have the items you love curated in a respectful way?
- Are you someone who loves to create and need your tools and supplies easily accessible?
Here are a few tips and guidelines we encourage our clients to think about.
- The less we own the less we have to organize.
- Items we own should ‘live’ in the area they are used.
- Being organized is a process and a mindset, not an end result.
- Storage spaces are for storage. Living spaces are for living.
- One item in means one item out.
- The 90 day rule. Asking yourself, have I used this item in the last 90 days? Will I use this item in the next 90 days? If the answer is ‘no’ then out it goes.
- The 20/20 rule. Asking yourself, can I replace this item for under $20? Can I replace this item in less than 20 minutes? If the answer is ‘yes’ then out it goes.
- If all of your items are special, then none of them are.
What to expect in a session
Organizing and/or decluttering sessions can last between 3 and 6 hours per day, with the specified number of hours booked in advance.
Yes, Virtual Sessions are an option! If you are ready to tackle your home and are willing to do the physical work but are feeling overwhelmed or stuck. This may be the right service for you.
Virtual organizing sessions happen via FaceTime, Zoom or another video conferencing application and can last between 1 and 3 hours per day, with the specified number of hours booked in advance.
Don’t
- Think you can do this by yourself in a day.
- Pull everything out of the closet and drawers all at once and dump them in the middle of the room.
- Keep an item just because it may come in handy one day.
- Decide to throw everything away all at once, only to spend time searching for an item you don’t remember giving away.
- Second guess yourself when you’ve made a decision about letting an item go.
- Purchase organizing materials before you’ve gone through the decluttering process.
- Spend hours trying to collect a small amount of money for an item that may have a little value.
Do
- Consider decluttering and organizing a process that takes time and thought.
- Focus on what you are keeping, not on what you are letting go.
- Allow yourself to feel emotions.
- Re-gift an item you know you will never use.
- Donate your items to charities that will use them or sell them and put that money back into the community.
- Realize that perfection is unattainable.
- Celebrate that you are doing this for you!
