Simplify Experts Receives Angie’s List Super Service Award 2016!

Simplify Experts 2016 Super Service Award

We are so proud to announce that for the third year in a row, Simplify Experts has earned the coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award. This award goes to the top 5% of service companies which service the local area marketplace. The winners must meet strict eligibility criteria including an “A” rating in overall grade, recent grade and review period grade. We are thrilled and excited to continue to provide excellent professional home organizing services to the Seattle area.

Simplify Experts is the most accredited professional organizing firm in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to other accreditations, Denise Allan is the only Master Trainer in Chronic Disorganization in the PNW.

home organizing

Professional Home Organizer’s Favorite Podcast!

Professional organizers enjoy Happier a podcast from author Gretchen Rubin

We enjoy a weekly podcast called Happier with Gretchen Rubin. She discusses how to build positive habits into our daily lives. Here are some of Gretchen’s awesome tips.

Gretchen says: “Don’t accumulate excessive amounts of things“: free mugs, rubber bands, plastic take out containers, soy sauce packets, chopsticks. These things have perceived value; you’ll never need more than 10 rubber bands, so come up with a max number and only keep that amount.
Gretchen’s one-minute rule: to help yourself keep on top of small annoying little tasks. To keep clutter down, consider setting a microwave timer for one-minute: you can pick up a few toys, or hang up coats, put away a pair of shoes, or recycle junk mail, or put dishes in the dishwasher. If you do this a few times a day, or even once a day, you will notice more peace and less clutter around your home.
From research, Gretchen found that when people are under a ton of stress they go deeper into their habits whether they are good or bad habits…so it is important to have good habits to fall back on when things are tough. For the same reason, it is important to teach our children good habits starting when they are young.
Another Gretchen mantra is: “Outer order contributes to inner calm.” Clean up or organize one small area in your home. 10 minutes. A drawer, or desktop. You will feel control over the stuff of life and you will feel more calm and satisfied, and energized.
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” A quote from Voltaire used by Gretchen Rubin in a recent podcast. We love this quote. In short it means we shouldn’t strive for unobtainable perfection, but rather, be honest with ourselves about our available time and energy. This applies to clutter in many ways. For example, some moms dream of creating beautiful custom scrapbooks for each of their children, but haven’t been able to get started for years, all the while hanging onto to every piece of their child’s memorabilia making the project more daunting by the day. Some folks hang on to broken furniture or appliances with intention of repairing them. As a result, they may lose the functionality of a garage or closet where the item takes up much needed storage space.

Check out Gretchen Rubin’s podcast for more handy tips on how to be happier!

home organizing

Fabulous NAPO Service Project

The first Saturday morning in May I had the privilege of leading a service project for my Seattle NAPO chapter. NAPO is the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals of which there are 4,000 members worldwide. We have a Greater Seattle chapter that meets monthly on the first Tuesday evening in Bellevue. This Seattle chapter has 35 plus members and I am currently serving on the board as Treasurer.

Service to others is an important personal value of mine; volunteering in some capacity for organizations I participate in is a pretty easy segue. Our chapter decided to support a non-profit this year and put a call out for applicants. I participated in the site visits of the two non-profits that were the finalists and with that visual assessment piece; we decided to support Gay City Health Project.

Gay City is Seattle’s LGBTQ center that promotes wellness for the LGBTQ communities by providing health services, resources, an art venue, and a sense of membership. I led a team of 6 organizers for 5 hours overhauling a storeroom that had become extremely cluttered. It was a physical project with many thousands of pounds of papers hauled out for shredding or recycling. A large SUV was filled with garbage items that were taken to the transfer station. We brought in stronger shelving units to make better use of vertical space and saw the flimsy wood shelving that we moved out to the street with “free” signs quickly walk away. We zoned the areas of the storage room, used every storage container we had available, and labeled everything. Event t-shirts and swag were divided by sizes and folded. It was an amazing transformation of a space. Unfortunately as the storeroom was in a basement and the lighting was not great, I don’t have high enough quality before and after photos to share.

Thank you Gay City for the opportunity to serve. Deputy Director Susan and Marketing Director Robert worked tirelessly with us. We had a blast. If you know of a non-profit or even an individual in need that could benefit from some volunteer organizing support in 2017, please email me at denise@simplifyexperts.com.

Pictured above, the group of organizers who helped to transform the storage room for Gay City.

-Denise Allan

NAPO, Volunteer

Thrilled to be listed as one of the 10 Best Seattle Professional Organizers

Local Seattle Reporter Stephanie Yoder helped Sparefoot find the top recommended professional organizers. Stephanie’s focus of the article was on moving skills that is a task that we at Simplify Experts take on with gusto.

moving, unpacking

How I Started Home Organizing Company Simplify Experts

My journey toward starting Simplify Experts began in 2007. I was looking to make a change in my career. I had been running auctions for non-profits and feeling burned out. I had some flexibility in my mornings and became aware that I was planning my cardio machine workouts at my gym at the time that the organizing shows were on HGTV. I was hooked on the shows Mission Organization and Clean Sweep with organizer Peter Walsh.

becoming a professional organizer, denise allan, Professional Organizer

What makes you an ADHD specialist?

To be an ADHD specialist requires many hours of study. As a life-long learner, I am glad that Simplify Experts values learning and education. To support my learning I am a member (called a subscriber) of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD.)

ICD is very focused on its mission: to provide education, research and strategies to benefit people challenged by chronic disorganization. Members include professional organizers as well as mental health professionals and academics.

ADHD, Professional Organizer

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