Do You Need a Professional Organizer?
September 27, 2006
Is your house a disaster area? Do you have a job outside the home that doesn’t give you time to organize your house? Perhaps you have a physical disability that prevents you from lifting or reaching up to put things where they belong.
Sometimes when you get so far behind in caring for your home that it seems impossible to find anything, it would be best to hire a personal organizer. Personal organizers are trained to look for ways that will help you get - and stay - organized.
Before you hire an organizer, you need to do some research.
1. Do you need your entire house organized or just a room or two?
2. Are there rooms that will be “off -limits” to an organizer, such as a home office or a teenager’s room? Teens hate to have their space messed with!
3. Are there personal or expensive items that you will have to remove from a room before an organizer starts work?
4. Have you determined a budget for your organization project?
Now that you know what you need, here are some things you need to from a personal organizer before he/she is hired:
1. How long have you been a personal organizer? How much experience do you have? Do you specialize in a certain area of organization? (Will that area of organization be of help to me?)
2. Do you have a list of references? May I contact them?
3. What do you charge for a project? Do you charge by project, by day, or by number of hours worked?
4. Do you charge for the initial consultation? How much?
5. Are organizational supplies such as bins and baskets included in the project or will I have to purchase them extra? (This will help keep you on budget.)
6. Will I be involved in the decision making process for the project? (If not, interview someone else! It is your house, after all!)
7. Will you have an assistant or other people helping you?
8. Are you (and your employees) insured and bonded in case of accident, damage to property or theft?
If you do your homework before hiring a professional organizer, you will know exactly what to expect from him or her and he or she will know exactly what to expect from you. There will not be any nasty surprises at the end of the job.
Once the organizer has organized your home, it should be easier for you to keep it neat and tidy. Every item will have its home and you will only need to remember to take each item home after you have used it. If you let everything pile up again, you will just have to hire the organizer to organize it all for you again - and that doesn’t make much sense - does it?
Organizing to Get Clean and Organized
September 21, 2006
Time management and housekeeping: Do they really go together? They can if you set goals and take it one step at a time.
First, you want to identify what you want. What is your “Clean IQ?” Are you a neatnik or more relaxed? This is your decision based on your own priorities.
Now that you know what level of clean you want, you will set some goals to reach that level. Go through your house, room by room, and decide what needs to be done to bring it up to your expectations.
Perhaps your first priority will be to organize the room. Based on that decision, write down everything that must be done to accomplish it. Don’t worry about cleaning it right now. You’ll worry about that aspect of the project later.
And speaking of projects, I would treat each room, or part of a room, as a project. Break each room/project down into doable tasks. Go through all of the rooms and areas of your home at once.
After you’ve gone through all of your rooms and written down everything , write down everything else that you know needs to be done, such as picking up your dry cleaning, having your car serviced or writing a letter to your friend. Write it all down and get it out of your head. This is what I call a brain dump!
You are going to have one heck of a list! But, remember, you are going to take each item as a baby step.
Your next step is to set up a schedule to work on your projects. Be reasonable in setting up the time you have available. You’re not going to get it all done in one day. After all, it didn’t get unorganized in one fell swoop!
All done? Good! Your next step is to look at all of your rooms and decide which is most important to YOU to get clean and organized first. I always like to start with the laundry area because when you start going through your other rooms, you’ll nearly always have some laundry. If your laundry room is already clean and organized, it makes doing all of that other laundry much easier.
Now, get yourself four boxes and label them STAY, MISPLACED, GIVE AWAY and TRASH. Go through your rooms: rrom by room, area by area, item by item and put each item into the appropriate box. Take trash items to the garbage bin immediately. Box up the charity and/or garage sale items and deal with them as soon as you can. Take your misplaced things and put them in a central location. Don’t try to put them away at this point. If you want to be REALLY organized, sort them into boxes by the room they should go in.
Now, clean your room according to “your” level of clean and begin putting everything that belongs in this room where it should go. If it doesn’t have a place, find one that makes sense, probably where you are most likely to use it.
One room is finished! Go on to the next room in line of priority. Wash, rinse and repeat!
You can get clean and organized. It just takes time and persistence…and getting a little cooperation from your family, of course.