7 Reasons You Might Need to Hire a Professional Organizer

When it comes to organizing your home and your possessions, it can be hard for anybody to know where to start and the best way to go about making your house work for you. With all the various stresses of life, like moving home and having children (or anything that requires deep forward planning with time), it can be hard to even find the time to begin the process of organizing your home.

Professional Organizers are a great option for people who need a little bit of extra help with the process of organizing their things. Whether those things be a reorganization of the interior of your home entirely or having assistance organizing stacks of important paperwork, professional organizers can make the process much easier.

Here are seven reasons you might want to hire a professional organizer, and some ideas of what they can do for you.

1. You Want To Declutter, But Don’t Know Where to Start

Without even getting into situational specifics, if you feel that you are having a hard time even starting the organization process, a simple and short meeting with a professional organizer can help you to plan out your moves and come up with ideas for decluttering efficiently. A professional organizer can still help with the process itself, but they’re available for advising on organization projects as well!

2. Reorganizing the Whole Home

When changing around the interior layout of your home, you should probably be thinking

decluttering, moving, new baby, paperwork, Professional Organizer

Upgrade Your Master Closet to a Great Built-in Closet System

When you decide to remodel or make updates to your home, you might prioritize the kitchen and bathrooms. I completely get it, we spend a lot of our time in those two spaces. But I am here to tell you that you should also consider upgrading your master closet to a good quality built in system, such as the one sold by The Container Store. I’ve just witnessed a client’s amazing master closet transformation, and it is clear just how much easier her day-to-day life will be. Don’t you deserve your day to be as easy as possible? Yes, you do.

The Problem With Wire Closet Systems

When you move into a new home, you might think the basic wire shelf and rod system is perfectly fine. And it might be, for a short while. Then stacks of your clothes will tip over, looking messy. You’ll find that your clothes are hard to reach making it difficult to find what you need and to put away laundry. Since your closet has no designated place for shoes or accessories such a purses, scarves, or belts – your shoes will be messy on the floor, and you’ll have to find alternate place for the other stuff. Your closet may not have a separate spot for long vs. short hanging clothes, the space is inefficient. The laundry hamper has nowhere to live. In addition, your closet is poorly lit.

Together, all these factors contribute to daily frustration and a cluttered mess – and no one needs that!

Our client had been frustrated with her closet for years before she reached out to The Container Store to inquire about their closet solutions. She was surprised when she got a phone call from one of Simplify Experts professional home organizers – Amy Nelson. She called me and said, wait – you guys do closets?

A Better Solution

Technically we don’t. But two our most senior home organizers, Amy Nelson and Alicia Lott are certified closet designers for The Container Store’s – The Contained Home program. This means that they can design the most efficient closet system for your space AND once it is installed, organize it beautifully!

Back to our client: Amy went to the client’s home, walked through the space with her and evaluated what closet system elements best fit the space. The client was able to touch and feel samples of door/drawer materials as well as select from several hardware options.

Once the client approved a detailed design plan, Amy Nelson placed the order and installation was scheduled. At last, the really fun part – placing all the clothing items in the new closet space.
The reveal was amazing!

The new closet design features a his and hers section with plenty of space for everything!

This custom closet uses every inch of available space – very well! No dead corners. No dusty, hard to reach shelves where items go missing.

Closets need good, easily accessible shelves. This new closet has many shelves, for clothes as well as shoes. Closets need drawers, not just for shorts and t-shirts but for jewelry, delicates, accessories, and handbags. The top drawers here have built in jewelry trays.

The LED lights are just the right color – not glaring white, not drearily dark. Just to the left of the long-hang area for dresses is a pull-out full-length mirror – it doesn’t take up any space!

Don’t settle for a wire shelf system in your closet. Make getting ready a joyful experience with a beautiful, well-planned custom closet from The Container Store. You won’t be sorry!

Photo by Artem Bali on Unsplash

Alicia Lott, Amy Nelson, closet, The Container Store

My Husband has GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)

My husband has GAS. He knows it. I know it. The mailman and UPS delivery guy knows it.

I am not embarrassed to admit it; my husband has Gear Acquisition Syndrome – an affliction common among musicians. When I met him, he had a couple of electric guitars and an amp. He rarely played. After many years, he has rediscovered his passion for music, and now that there is a bit more room in the budget, well, he’s begun acquiring more and more gear.

He is an avid follower of YouTube shows like That Pedal Show and Guitar Paradiso. eBay and Craigslist have been consistent sources of hard-to-find gear. Weekend trips to Guitar Center are common.

GAS is a tongue in cheek name that describes

Compulsive Tool Acquisition Syndrome, CTAS, GAS, Gear Acquisition Syndrome, Guitar Center, Hobbies, SABLE, Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy

Four Super Easy Steps to Organize Your Medicine Cabinet

A medicine cabinet is a great place to stash away your personal care products in bathrooms low on storage. Since the contents are behind a closed door, it’s very easy to forget what is inside. Over time the medicine cabinet can become a cluttered mess of long forgotten and expired products. If you want to reclaim your medicine cabinet space, follow these four easy steps:

Clean it out

Take all the contents out of the medicine cabinet. Check the expiration dates on medicine bottles. Dispose of prescrition medicine safely, use this guide to locate a drop-off location. Supplements and over-the-counter medicine can go in the trash. Toss any products you don’t use or need. Carefully remove the glass shelves and wipe them down with glass cleaner.

Make the space work for you

Move the shelves around to suit your needs.

bathroom storage, declutter, decluttering, medicine cabinet

Wake up With More Energy Using These Six Tricks

Need more energy to start your day? Try these six tricks.

Don’t hit snooze

Set your alarm for the latest that you can get up and still be on time. Place the alarm clock across the room (out of arms reach) so you’ll have to get out of your bed to turn it off. This is particularly effective for teenagers who have trouble getting out of bed in the morning.

Open the shades

Let the light in. If it is a dark part of the year, turn on all the lights, and make it as bright as possible in your room.

closet organizing, morning routine, smoothie station

Storing your Hockey Gear in the Garage

NHL Hockey is coming to Seattle as soon as 2020! Seattle sports fans are already excited to have another team to support. Young kids and adults alike will be inspired to try hockey for themselves and that means hockey families will need to find a way to store all that hockey gear.

Where should all that hockey gear go?

Those who already play hockey know that the sport comes with a lot of bulky gear – it’s way more than sticks and skates. The pads, helmets, tape, pucks, jerseys and pants all need to go somewhere.

Garage Organizing, hockey, prostockhockey

Get Control of Your Personal Information – Know What to Shred

Personal information security is a hot topic these days. Between news of identity theft, mass data breaches and social media personal data security, the subject is front and center in our minds. We all want out personal information to be safe, whether it is our financial information, medical records, or social media data. Each year, we handle hundreds of documents that entail sensitive information, physical paper, our personal and financial paperwork.

It can be confusing to figure out what documents we need to keep, how long, and what documents we can dispose of, and how. Some individuals are so anxious about identity theft that they do not dispose of any paperwork at all! That results in massive paper piles, making it nearly impossible to find important documents when you need them. These piles can become an overwhelming burden. Paperwork clutter is a common problem, and very tedious and time consuming to tackle.

So, how can we protect our personal information (without getting buried in paper), at least the kind of personal information which commonly arrives in the mail? What to keep? How long? Why? We have some answers for you.

What Personal Information to Keep and How Long

Tax Returns: Keep copies of all your tax returns. Keep the back-up information and

paper clutter, personal information, shredding

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Without Losing All Your Storage and Creating Clutter

A popular mantra of Earth Day is the catch phrase Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. To reduce the human footprint upon our planet we are called upon to Reduce (use and buy less), Reuse (what we already have) and Recycle (the little that we use over and over). On trash day in my neighborhood, most recycle bins are filled to the brim. That part of the three R’s is the easiest and we do a pretty good job (based on my observation at least) with recycling. It’s the other two R’s – Reduce and Reuse – that folks find to be trickier.

Reduce

To foster the first of the three R’s – Reduce, imagine each new item you bring into the home as an addition to a collection. Whether it is a brand-new product, or one you hope to re-purpose, before you bring it into your home ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have space for this item?
• Am I willing to donate or discard another item in my collection to make space for this one?
• Does this new item authentically fill a purpose in my collection?
• Does this item have a utilitarian use?

Reuse

Many of us have good intentions to reuse various household items. Sometimes, these items take up all our storage space

clutter, Earth Day, Reduce Reuse Recycle

Three Ways to Use Laundry Room Storage Effectively

Laundry rooms are more than just a place to wash and dry your clothes. Any extra storage can be used to store cleaning supplies, back stock of household products and infrequently used household items. Create designated storage areas, zones, for each group, such as in these three examples.

Zone 1: Laundry Care Products

Store laundry detergent, fabric softener, and stain removers in one location. Keep all laundry detergents and supplies together and within reach of the washer and dryer. Label the shelf so that everyone in the family can return items to their correct place. If the shelf is hard to reach store a small number of detergent pods in a container on top of the washing machine. Make sure the pods are well out of sight of little children, but that teenagers doing their own laundry

laundry, laundry room, organizing

Three Reasons Why Being Disorganized is Not Your Fault

It’s not your fault you are disorganized if:

You are spending all day tending to more crucial tasks. Your job is demanding. Caring for your family is a full-time job. Then there are groceries to buy, homework to supervise, sports games to attend, you try to do it all. Something must give, and if that something is staying organized – it’s not your fault. In the past homes were smaller, people owned fewer things, and as a result keeping homes organized wasn’t an issue. One study stated that today the average American family has over 300,000 items – that is a lot of stuff to keep track of and keep organized. Today people work longer hours, spend more time commuting or shuttling children to activities – it’s no wonder so many are disorganized. If you’ve run out of time in the day to maintain an organized home, then it’s time to call for back up.

It’s not your fault if:

Organization isn’t one of your talents. We are all born with different strengths and skill sets. I am a terrible singer, I can’t draw or paint, but I can walk into a room and tell you the most efficient way to organize the space.

decluttering, home organizing, Professional Organizer

Home Organizing