organizinghero

With a new month, comes new opportunities! I didn’t start my new year off the way I would have wanted to due to catching the flu…but, now I realize that IT’S OK! Things don’t always go the way we plan. Being a perfectionist, I tend to beat myself up when things don’t go according to my plans. I didn’t start the New Year with any resolutions but I did have important tasks and goals that I wanted to accomplish in January in order to “start the year off right”. Well, that didn’t happen. I spent the first two weeks of 2018 either in bed or on my couch. If you know me at all, this is very unusual behavior. It felt foreign but, I literally could not move. The flu hit me like a ton of bricks. After I recovered, I realized that I only had a couple of weeks to accomplish all the tasks I had assigned myself for the month. Enter panic mode! Thoughts began pouring in…well, more like self-criticism: That little voice inside my head said things like, “How could you be sick for so long? You’re always letting yourself down. How are you ever going to catch up now?” That mean girl voice haunted me for about a day until…

I was vocalizing to someone close to me what my inner bully kept repeating inside of my head. Their answer was simple and it made me put things into perspective: “It’s just a number. It’s just a date. January 1^st? Why does it really matter which day you start?” They were right! Why was January 16^th any different than January 1^st? After all, the Chinese New Year is February 16^th and Rosh Hashanah isn’t even for like another eight and a half months. So, why was I so worried about getting a late start? Who says I’m late? Beating myself up wasn’t getting me anywhere either. In fact, it had brought me to a complete halt. I couldn’t think straight of what I needed to do because I was so consumed thinking about why I had let myself down. I realized that there are situations that are completely out of my control, like catching the flu. I decided that day that I would just start. That’s really what matters the most anyways, right? That we start moving in the right direction…towards our goals.

In December, I had ordered a goal planner for 2018 and hadn’t even peaked inside. One of my tasks for the New Year was to go through it and fill it out. I did that, not on January 1^st as I would’ve hoped, but on January 16^th. And, I was perfectly fine with it. This was my first time ever seeing the Powersheets that I had heard so much about from other organizers. I feel in love instantly with them. The whole process was eye opening. As I answered a series of questions in the first section, I felt like I got to really know myself and what I really wanted. This isn’t your normal “new year, new me” goal setting. There is some serious soul searching that is uncovered as you fill in the blanks. It was odd and somewhat painful to write down my fears, doubts and past struggles. Wasn’t this supposed to be positive? It’s a goal planner after all, right? Soon I would discover that there was a purpose to all of it. Only by writing down the obstacles that had hindered me from achieving my goals in the past, would I be able to figure out how to overcome them and succeed. Page by page, the Powersheets helped me cultivate a plan that I could follow that would ultimately bring me closer to my goals. I learned through the process that it’s not about doing things perfectly all the time. That’s just plain exhausting! Trust me. (Been there. Done that. Not going back.) It’s about making progress, little by little, towards the things that really matter. Every day is an opportunity for us to move forward. Each new month brings not only new opportunities but, it also gives us a chance to reflect on our past actions. To learn what worked and what didn’t the month before. Thinking back on January, I learned that it’s never too late to begin…anything, whatever it might be. Whether it’s getting organized, starting an exercise routine, or filling out your goal planner…just start. Today! Even if it is February 1^st. And, if that mean girl voice starts up again inside your head, tell her to hush up. “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

1. Wrong Containers: You decide to finally tackle that closet in the hallway that’s been driving you nuts for years. You head over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and buy some containers and a few baskets that you think will fit everything. When you get home you realize that you messed up royally. The containers don’t even fit into the closet and the items that were in the closet don’t fit neatly into the baskets or containers. How annoying, right?! So, you put everything back into the bag and decide you will return it back to the store another day and finish the closet later. Sound familiar?
2. Not Enough Time: People tend to underestimate how long it will take them to tackle a project. Especially, if it’s something that they’re really not used to doing. Let’s refer back to the closet example. Once the whole closet is emptied out of its’ belongings, it could possibly turn out to be a bigger pile than what you expected. This might make the task at hand seem overwhelming for some. When you begin sorting, those items might bring up memories and you might linger on the task longer than you expected. Fast forward a few hours…you can’t believe you’ve been at it for so long and now you have to run off to pick up the kids, make dinner, etc. Everything goes back into the closet for “some other day”.
3. You just can’t figure it out: You’ve put your mind to it and cleared your schedule. You’re going to tackle that closet today, no matter what! At least that’s what you tell yourself, anyways. Once you’ve removed the contents of the closet and have everything spread out in the hallway, you come to standstill. What next? What do I put with what? Where should I put that? How many of those should I keep? Some people just get stuck at this point and give up.
4. You get overwhelmed: An average adult makes about 35,000 decisions per day. Now all of a sudden you have to make even more decisions about all the items in that closet in a relatively short amount of time. Brain overload! It’s no wonder many people give up.
5. You simply have too much: Let’s say the closet was originally designated for the kid’s arts and crafts. Now that you’re emptying the closet of its contents, you discover that, not only does it have outdated craft supplies from when the kids (now in college) were in preschool, but it has accumulated a ton of miscellaneous items that you haven’t the faintest idea where they came from. Do you keep them just in case? Do you toss them and make room for more? How many Popsicle sticks does an average person need to have on hand “just in case” a random project comes up?

Organizing any space or area means asking a lot of questions and making a lot of decisions in a short amount of time. Most people start to organize in the right frame of mind and then something just happens. It all goes downhill and they can’t figure out why. Don’t get discouraged! It happens more often than you think. As professional organizer, it is my job to help you get through these obstacles. You don’t have to do it alone! Let us be your organizing hero. Together, we can tackle that closet, or any other space for that matter, once and for all!

When I tell people what I do, the first question I always get is “What is a professional organizer?” or “What does a Professional Organizer do?” My industry is relatively new, only being established in 1985. Every day, there are more of us out there so hopefully someday everyone will know exactly what we do and how we can make an impact on their life.

Once I explain to someone what I do, immediately there’s a spark of interest. You see, what comes naturally to us professional organizers, might seem like a daunting or overwhelming task to somebody else. Everyone that I know has that one closet or spare bedroom that they just can’t seem to get around to organizing. For them, it’s something that can be easily ignored by just closing the door. But, it’s always in the back of their mind. Maybe it will even come up as their New Year’s Resolution. “Clean Out and Organize Closet!!!” So, as soon as someone finds out that there are people, like me, out there that organize for a living (and enjoy the heck out of it!), their next question is “How long will it take?”

Professional organizers work usually work at an hourly rate and in blocks of time. The reason for working in blocks of time is because we want to make an impact on whatever area we are working on with you. Most of the time, just an hour is not enough time to sort through, purge and rearrange an area.

How long it takes or how much it will cost really depends on you. The quicker you are able to make decisions about the items we are sorting through, the faster the process will be. Everyone works at a different pace and some areas are tend to be more difficult than others. For example, organizing your linen closet might be simpler and faster than organizing family photos.

The bottom line is that at the end of the day, you will be happy you made the decision to call us. We all need help at some point. Why not let us help you tackle that problem area today so that you can relax and enjoy your home like you were meant to do. Let us be your organizing hero.