Tom Hay
Move Management Client
We recently completed an extensive renovation of our home, which involved putting more than half of our belongings and furniture into storage for several months while we took refuge in the parts of the house which were not being worked on. Janine was instrumental in not only protecting our sanity during the upheaval but in making the overall experience more delightful than we could have imagined.
In short, Janine anticipated and planned for multiple aspects of our needs at various points during the project, thus taking the energy, anguish and exhaustion away from us completely. My wife and I tend to be “doers,” and had some second thoughts going into the project about handing off the reins to an outside party. We are so glad we did! I am still euphoric about being freed from so many nagging details and physical/emotional stresses that come with moving things in and out. Janine took care of all of it and we are so happy we unloaded the responsibility on her. We had so many other and better things to do with our time, and now we can enjoy our newly imagined home without being worn down by the effort of the process.
To get a bit more specific, Janine met with my wife and I upfront to strategize and lay out a road map of the entire operation. She helped us tremendously just by giving us direction on how to best separate, organize and downsize all of the stuff that would be in play. Then she had the packing and move-out experience laid out in advance, and made sure the movers did their part to describe the contents and location of each box on the tally sheet of items, so they could be easily identified upon return (especially since many were going to different rooms than where they started). Before everything was due to come back, she met with us again to plan out the day(s) and was present as each item crossed the threshold, acting like a master maitre d’hotel, directing each piece to its proper location. And then came the really glorious part.
Janine had suggested that we make use of a small team or organizers to open all the boxes and put things away in their approximate destination spots. We really debated having other people handling our things and deciding where they might go, but that was a needless worry. Delegating the process of opening every box, unwrapping every item and finding a place for it was the best decision we ever made. We were positively giddy when we would walk into a room and see not an impenetrable stack of boxes, but a lovely, well organized space ready to occupy and enjoy. Both my wife and I literally said it felt like Christmas morning or that the elves had come during the night. Delight instead of deadening toil! The organizers even cleared out the many bins our older kids had been lugging back and forth during college, and they were delighted to find so many things they didn’t even know they had anymore. Janine also made sure the movers took away all the boxes and the packing material, so we didn’t have to deal with that either.
At this point, we have no plans to move again in the near or distant future, but if we ever do, Janine will be our first phone call. We also learned that she has contacts for excellent providers of a variety of other services (interior design, furniture restoration, etc.), so we may be calling her again soon anyway.
Gabrielle Zola & Sam Finlay
Guide to a Smooth Move Readers
Janine’s moving check-list and timeline for moving prep was essential to our smooth transition into our new home. It gave us a clear game plan for taking on the seemingly overwhelming process of moving from a Brooklyn apartment into a house in the suburbs of New Jersey, and helped us avoid so much stress and last minute decision-making. With Organize Me’s Guide to a Smooth Move, we were able to plan out which items to take and where to put them, which to donate and which to discard. We were able to manage our stress in the weeks leading up to the move and turn it into productive planning time. The movers even complimented us on our strategy, something that’s never happened to us before. We were completely unpacked and settled in a matter of a few weeks. Now I recommend this system to everyone preparing for a move.
Jesse Ash
Productivity Client
Janine Sarna-Jones is a true change agent, who has helped open up my life to a better and more organized way of living both personally and professionally. Through her easy step-by-step process we were able to identify patterns of disorganization and clutter and create ways to capture and turn chaos into clarity.
The biggest improvements in my personal life included simple home improvements like adding coat and key hooks by my front door to organizing my closets into sections for work and play. The biggest improvements in my professional life are holding structured business meetings with minutes and a work flow chart that clearly shows our new business process. Janine has been the catalyst for my partner and I to begin using a CRM to improve our project management, break out our daily duties and catalog our potential opportunities. It is priceless to have an expert look at the big picture and help with the small tasks that will help you clear the way for a brighter future. Janine is hands down worth every penny and I cannot thank her enough for her caring commitment to help me improve my personal and professional life systems. If you are ready for healthy, positive changes in your life, contact Janine ASAP!
Maggie Lyon
Productivity Client
Janine Sarna-Jones is an organizational wunderkind! Never have I met someone so trustworthy and sound as a mirror or a coach! Whatever your project entails, Janine weaves her clarity, calmness, and smarts into everything she touches. Projects are always completed with great success and soundness of mind, and one personally comes out of them feeling more in touch with one’s life than one would ever have imagined. Don’t hesitate! Janine is the one.
Ellen F.
Project Management Client
Janine has had a profound effect upon my daily life with what I always considered “small things” like shelves, getting rid of extra stuff, organizing my books, and especially helping me organize my “to do” list. Janine has been so important in my life. As I feel I am getting older and having trouble keeping order in all my activities, knowing that she is “there” to help makes me feel reassured. I am lucky to know her and to be able to benefit from her many talents and ideas of efficiencies.
Joan G.
Move Management Client
I cannot thank Janine enough for all of her expertise and dedication while leading the effort during my move. She was simply outstanding. When I decided to sell my apartment and buy another, I very quickly realized that I did not have time to plan my move. After a colleague recommended Janine’s services, she met with me, asked all the right questions and provided guidance and counsel on my best options. Janine’s ideas and recommendations were instrumental in successfully moving into my new apartment; she worked with the movers, the contractors, the managing agents, the utilities and her team to make my move as seamless as possible.
A move of any type can be challenging and as luck would have it, my move coincided with Hurricane Sandy. Janine was not only my professional organizer but she became my friend and advisor as we navigated all the unexpected pitfalls of the several week delay together. Despite the Hurricane, my move day went smoothly; the contractors completed all of their work, the movers successfully unpacked all of my belongings, my utilities were working and Janine’s team did an outstanding job of setting up my new apartment.
Janine’s calm demeanor, can-do attitude and sense of humor were so helpful to me during my transition that I can honestly say that my move would not have happened without her. Thank you, Janine, for everything.
Sally R.
Project Management Client
Janine and her team were complete lifesavers. I was renovating the apartment I’d lived in for more than forty years where I’d accumulated an enormous amount of things I knew I didn’t need. I had to move and clear it all out for the construction crew and had no idea where to start. A friend recommended Janine, I called her immediately and she started calming me down over the phone and even more so when she came to my apartment and assured me it wasn’t as bad as I thought. She then laid out a very “do-able” plan.
Janine’s plan went into great detail: what to tackle first, how to make the decisions, where to store the sorted items, where and when to send them out, and recommendations for the best truckers and movers. A member of Janine’s team—always calm and productive and efficient—spent days helping me sort, organize and pack. Then Janine coordinated all the pickups, deliveries, and moving dates, not an easy task with syncing up different people’s schedules, apartment building regulations, traffic and times, but Janine and her associate managed it all.
The movers and storage people Janine recommended were equally efficient and helpful. The moving crew was as conscientious and careful about not crashing into the newly done walls as I was.
I could not recommend Janine more highly. I have probably only touched the surface of how much she could improve and smooth life. She’d do it all with her easy style and unflappability, always minimizing the problems and coming up with solutions.
Lucia Kellar
Project Management Client
My experience in working with Janine has been extraordinarily positive. I was contemplating major work in my co-op—painting, refinishing floors, installing custom-made wall units and workspace, and painting furniture—and could not see how it could be done. Janine managed the entire process, while I was away on vacation. She oversaw the many aspects of the work: all the furniture being moved to another apartment and returned when all the painting, refinishing and installation was done, and took care of all the snags that arose. When I arrived home, the work was done and the apartment looked wonderful! Janine is a pleasure to work with—warm, calm and extremely competent. I most enthusiastically recommend her!