If you’ve been reading our monthly newsletters, following us on social media, or checking out our website, you are probably familiar with Simplify Expert’s amazing offer of a complimentary consultation. Founder Denise Allan visits your home and spends about an hour meeting with you and assessing your organizing needs and goals.
I am a Simplify Experts employee, but I am also a homeowner with current decluttering needs! With one child launched, another off to university in the Fall, and only one teen left living at home, our family will be downsizing to a smaller home in a couple of months. Our current home has 10 years’ worth of accumulation. Going from a fairly large home to a medium-sized home means getting rid of significant pieces of furniture; toys, games, sports equipment, books, and clothes that our older kids no longer need; and all kinds of household items we no longer use.
The closing date for our new home was looming, and the listing date for our current home was moved up. We weren’t quite in “panic mode,” but we did need to speed up our process and get the house ready—fast!—for the video/photo pro, and then to list a few days after that. You’d think after four months of quarantine we would have already completely organized and decluttered the house (as well as learned a new language and kept a sourdough starter alive). Our home wasn’t particularly messy or disorganized, but once we started the process of going through everything, it felt and looked like a small tsunami had hit. My kids took everything out of their closets, shelves, and under-bed storage. My husband and I did the same with our offices, the storage room, rec room, and study. The hallways and larger rooms became depositories of everything and we could barely even walk through! Overwhelmed much?
Fortunately I had already booked an assessment with Denise weeks ago! She came over COVID-style (mask and social distancing), and we walked through each room and looked in every closet. She was not at all daunted by the debris lining the hallways and covering the floor. Denise had her clipboard and a file folder with my name, and she wrote down specifics on what I wanted to achieve: from which furniture I planned to consign, to which kiddo needed extra help with their room, to what kind of organizing and packing our family needed. She offered a variety of ideas on the kind of support a professional organizer could give us. I appreciated her words of encouragement that we’d get it all done, but not as much as I valued how validated and unjudged she made me feel.
Later that day Denise sent me a detailed assessment outlining the support she thinks we could use now, and then later when packing up to move. She had specific hour amounts estimated for different areas of our home, for working with family members, and for particular projects. She also gave me an estimate of the total hours and the rate—the transparency is very helpful for budgeting. Denise also gave me a couple referrals for movers, and an estimate on packing materials. We will be starting in a few days, and we are already feeling a sense of relief knowing that we will get what we need done with the help and support of compassionate professionals!
If you’ve ever considered availing of the complimentary assessment offered by Simplify Experts, hopefully this gives you a glimpse of how it works and what happens when Denise visits your home. Have a partner who’s not bought in on professional organizing? Read up on how to get them on board! The free consultation is a no-risk, no-obligation way to learn how a professional organizer can help bring calm, organization, and relief to your surroundings.