If you’ve never worked with a professional organizer before, you may wonder what it’s actually going to be like.
What will the organizer think when they see your home? Are they going to make you get rid of things? And one of the questions we hear most often: Do I need to do anything to get ready before you come?
The answer to that last question is easy: No.
In fact, I would rather you didn’t.
We Need to See How You Really Live
There have been many times when someone has wanted to postpone a consultation until they’ve had a chance to clean up, get rid of some things, or do a little organizing on their own.
I understand the impulse. Having someone come into your home and look inside your closets, cabinets, and drawers can feel incredibly vulnerable. Our belongings are personal, and people can be very judgmental about themselves when they feel like they “should” be more organized.
We’re not judging you.
More importantly, we actually need to see your home the way you normally live in it.
I’ve worked with clients who did some “organizing” before I arrived because they were embarrassed for me to see what was really going on. The problem was that when I got there, what I saw didn’t match what they had described to me. By trying to fix the problem before I arrived, they had inadvertently hidden some of the information I needed to understand why the problem existed in the first place.
A good organizing system shouldn’t just make your home look better. It should address the reason the space wasn’t working for you.
To do that, we need to see what’s really happening.
We Start Where You Live
At the beginning of a home organizing project, one of the first things we do is prioritize where to start.
Clients will sometimes want to begin in a storage room, basement, attic, or another area they don’t see very often. There may be plenty of organizing that needs to happen there, but I usually recommend starting in a part of the home where you spend your time.
It might be your kitchen, living room, or bedroom.
There’s a reason for that.
When we organize a space that is part of your everyday life, you don’t just see the difference. You feel the difference.
You experience what it’s like when you can find what you need, when the things you use have a place to live, and when the space functions better for you.
That experience matters. Once you understand how much better your everyday environment can work, it gives you the momentum to move on to the basement, attic, storage space, or closet behind a closed door.
Then We Start Sorting and Categorizing
Sorting and categorizing are the foundation of almost every professional organizing project.
Let’s use a closet as an example.
Our team may begin by taking things out of the closet and sorting them into categories. As we work, we’re also asking questions. What is this? Do you use it? Do you want to keep it? Does it need to live in this closet? Would it make more sense somewhere else? Is it something you want to donate or discard?
The important thing is that you don’t have to make decisions about the entire closet at once.
When people look at a room or closet filled with belongings, they often see the totality of it: I have to deal with all of this.
We don’t.
We work methodically, one area and one category at a time.
Something interesting also happens when we start categorizing. Instead of making a decision about one item in isolation, you can see the full range of what you have. It’s often much easier to make decisions when you can see everything in a particular category together.
You Make the Decisions. We Help You Make Them.
Professional organizing isn’t about someone coming into your home and deciding what you should keep or how you should live.
Our job is to ask questions, listen, and help you make decisions.
Sometimes those questions are practical: Where do you use this? How often do you need it? Who else needs access to it?
Sometimes we need to listen for more than the literal answer.
I learned that very early in my career.
When I started Organize Me 25 years ago, I was a solo organizer. I could spend hours working one-on-one with a client. I had to give that person my complete attention, ask questions, listen carefully to their answers, and sometimes understand the subtext of what they were telling me.
That’s important because people often come into an organizing project feeling as though they should have been able to solve the problem themselves.
At the same time, I was also physically doing the organizing. I was sorting, moving things, creating systems, and trying to solve the problem while keeping my attention on the client.
It was hard to do both.
That experience is one of the reasons I believe so strongly in the way we work today.
What Changes When You Work With an Organizing Team?
Organize Me is now a team-based business, and we typically send at least two team members to an organizing project.
That changes the experience for the client.
One team member can stay focused on you. They can ask the questions, listen to your answers, and help you work through decisions.
At the same time, another team member can be executing those decisions.
As you decide that something belongs in another room, someone can move it there. As you identify items to donate, someone can prepare them to leave the home. As categories emerge, someone can begin creating the physical system that will support them.
You aren’t sitting there answering questions while the work waits.
There is another advantage: you have two brains working on the problem. Our team members can talk to each other, see things differently, and work together to come up with a solution that makes sense for you.
That part can actually feel a little like magic.
We Work Methodically So You Don’t Have to Tackle Everything at Once
A professional organizing session can involve a lot of decisions. That doesn’t mean you have to make all of them at once.
When a space feels overwhelming, we make it smaller.
We might work from left to right or right to left. We might concentrate on one drawer, one section, or one category at a time. The exact approach depends on the space, but the principle is the same: one thing at a time.
We’re not overwhelmed by the whole room because we know we can get through it methodically.
That confidence matters.
Part of our job is to hold the bigger picture so that you can concentrate on the decision in front of you.
Being Organized Isn’t Something You Either Are or Aren’t
There is one misconception about professional organizing that I would really like to change.
People sometimes think that organized people simply are organized, as though it’s a quality you either possess or you don’t.
I don’t believe that’s true.
Being organized is a practice.
We aren’t coming into your home to perform some kind of magic that you could never reproduce after we leave. We’re helping you create systems that make it easier to do the things you need to do.
And those systems need to be maintainable.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you personally have to maintain every system. You may delegate some of that work to someone else. What matters is that the system makes sense for the people who actually have to use it.
A beautifully organized space that no one can maintain isn’t a successful organizing system.
What Should You Expect at the End of an Organizing Session?
Yes, I want you to see a difference.
I want you to walk into the kitchen, bedroom, or living room we worked on and immediately recognize that something has changed.
But I also want you to feel a difference.
You shouldn’t leave an organizing session believing that we possess some ability that you don’t. You should understand more about what wasn’t working, have systems that make your life easier, and know what needs to happen next.
Most of all, I want you to leave with hope and confidence that things can change for the better.
Ready to Get Started?
You don’t need to clean up before you call us. You don’t need to organize before the consultation. And you definitely don’t need to be embarrassed about letting us see what’s really going on.
That’s where we start.
If there are areas of your home that aren’t working for you, schedule a complimentary introductory call with Organize Me. We’ll talk about what’s causing you stress, what you’d like to change, and how our team can help you create practical organizing systems that work for the way you actually live.
