It doesn't happen often, but I had no client scheduled on Monday, so I had the day off. Tuesday one of my assistants and I tackled a master walk-in closet and near-by coat closet. For the first hour I finished labeling the pantry that we had organized a few weeks before and put some organizing products in place that I had purchased for the client. Labeling is soo important to help the clients stay organized. We had to pull everything out of the bottom of the coat closet which was a jumble of miscell. items. Our client went through her clothing and got rid of three bags full which I took at the end of the day to donate. It took my assistant and I another 4 hours to hang all the clothing facing the same way on the same types of hangers and sort it all by style and color. We even went through bags of mismatched socks pairing up as many as possible. We removed everything from the room that didn't belong in those closets to be rehomed elsewhere. The client scheduled us to come back to continue working on more areas of their home and want us to come once a month to help them maintain their organization.
     Wednesday I worked with a client who is a college professor. We are trying to sort and organize all of her teaching materials which is a lot! She teaches 8 different courses and the materials for each course fill up one to two plastic tubs each. We got through one tub in the 3 hours I was there, but she was very pleased with how much more organized she feels and how much unneeded paperwork was gotten rid of. One overflowing tub now all fits neatly in the tub and is in labeled file folders ready for the fall semester. We will continue next week.
     Today, one of my assistants and I helped a client who was in danger of being evicted from her apartment if it wasn't cleaned up by Sunday. We worked for 5 hours sorting, cleaning, and throwing away trash. I lost track after about 10 trash bags full. The client was so motivated that she went through tons of paperwork for the first four hours until she started losing steam. Hopefully, having such a fresh start will inspire her to continue to go through the boxes we didn't get to. She said we were worth every penny she paid us. We definitely earned it today. My back is killing me, and I am beat. However, my Friday appt. is being rescheduled, since that client was exposed to Covid, so I have a 4 day weekend and plenty of time to recuperate.
     *Update- The client facing eviction above passed her inspection with flying colors! Her landlord was so impressed with her efforts to clean her space that he is now replacing her flooring and kitchen countertops. My client is elated and feels she has a new lease on life. She has since written me a great review on Yelp and has sent me many flattering texts about the great work my assistant and I did. This is why we love our jobs!

 I was camping most of the week, so I only worked the last two days. Both day my assistant and I organized kitchens and pantries. Although they were both about the same size, one kitchen took us 2 hours to complete, and the other one took us 10 hours. Obviously, one kitchen had way more stuff in it, but we also packed many keep items that would not be needed before that client's move. There were also 3 junk drawers to go through which are tedious and time-consuming. The client with the 10 hour kitchen was very involved with the process deciding what could be donated. I think we ended up with about 5 boxes full of donations. With the 2 hour job, the clients just wanted us to organize for them, so there was much less input, although we always had questions when they came back in the room. Since the kitchen was done so quickly, we were able to organize the entire walk-in pantry also. There were many items on the floor of the pantry which made it difficult to enter. After clearing out tons of plastic and paper grocery bags and adjusting some shelf heights, we were able to find homes for everything on the floor. Besides food, the pantry also contained household items, tools, medicines, vitamins, cleaning supplies, party supplies, etc. It was challenging to get through it all. Even I feel overwhelmed at times in the middle of projects, but I know it always get done if I keep working. The results were awesome, but we still need to label next time to ensure it will stay organized! I hope both sets of clients are enjoying their organized, clutter-free kitchens.

I did five different jobs this week for five separate clients. Two of those jobs were for a company called Home Sweet Home that I occasionally work for. They help businesses transfer their employees to new cities and homes by assisting the employees with donating and discarding items before their move to save money on the moving expenses. Thus, I either work with the client to help with the decluttering process, or I just deal with the items they decide to donate or discard. Just got home from one of my Home Sweet Home clients. They had a large truckload that my assistant and I took to the dump. It is extremely hot today, so we were dripping with sweat loading everything up. After the dump, we took another load of smaller furniture and other miscell. to be donated.  I'm still trying to find people that will take some of the other free furniture, otherwise I will have to have the junk hauler take all the rest.

My assistant and I also transformed a garage this week, so that the client can now fit a car into it. We rearranged all the cabinets and drawers and threw away all the trash. Then, we were able to find homes for all the items that were taking up room on the garage floor. The project took us 5 hours to complete.

We also worked on a kitchen and pantry this week. The pantry had lots of miscell. items that weren't food in it, so we transformed it back into an actual pantry. We had to find homes for all of the other things that came out of it. Some items got donated, some were trash, some went into the garage or other kitchen cabinets. We completed about 2/3rds of the project and will be going back next week to complete it and tackle the client's closets, also.

All together, we did 3 dump runs in the last 2 days and 2 donation runs! I'm going on vacation for the next 4 days which I could really use about now.

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 Garages tend to be one of the most popular areas of the home that we organize. They tend to become a catch-all for everything. Donations that never got donated, trash that never got thrown out, paint that is no longer good or needed, etc. My assistant and I tackled the garage today in 4.5 hours with the client's help going through boxes and telling us what was donate, trash, or keep. We moved some shelves around and the items that were on them, so everything had a better home and was easier to access and find. The entire garage was also given a thorough sweeping. We ended up with a truckload of donations and a second truckload of trash and paint that will be taken to the dump. We completely filled up her empty garbage bin. Note: We have a tendency to do that. Clients sometimes schedule us around their trash pick up day! The finished garage was tidy, decluttered, clean, and organized. Another success!