Last week my team and I started packing for our clients who are moving. We had helped them declutter before they put their house on the market, and now the house has sold. So, we are back to help them sort through their belongings to decide what stays and goes and to which location. This is why it is a "complicated move." The items that are staying are going to be sold in an estate sale, since they are significantly downsizing. The items that are going will either go to a house they own or a storage unit in another city, or the condo that they recently purchased. The final phase of this job will be helpi.ng them unpack the condo, once the boxes we packed are delivered by the movers. We are keeping track of where everything goes by packing everything that goes to the house and storage in plastic tubs that are clearly labeled. The items being packed for the condo are going in cardboard boxes and are also labeled. Then, all the tubs are being stacked in one area of the garage, while all the cardboard boxes are stacked in another area of the garage. Certain items that can't be sold and aren't being taken are being discarded like expired foods and spices. We completed the downstairs and guest quarters of the house last week and will be going back next week to complete the upstairs. I have unpacked for so many clients over the years and am convinced that organizers do a much better job of packing than moving companies. The movers' goals are just to move the stuff and use as much paper and boxes as they can to charge the clients the most they can (in my opinion.) Organizers actually pack the boxes in an organized fashion and don't waste tons of paper on items that aren't breakable anyway. We clearly label the boxes, and we don't pack trash and other items that the client doesn't want to take anyway. It may take a little longer and cost a little more to work with organizers when packing for a move, but in the long run you save time and money when unpacking organized boxes and have a more organized and stress-free move.

     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!

I worked last night until 7:30pm. Sometimes, my clients who work M-F only have weekends and holidays available, so I try to be flexible. My clients were two sisters who recently moved into their mom's house after she moved into a nursing home. So, they had to combine the three households into one which has been difficult. Since I discovered they had tons of storage in the garage attic area, I suggested we move some of their mom's boxes up there to free up other storage space for their things. After hauling a bunch of boxes up the attic ladder, we utilized all the empty space for their boxes and loaded up one car full of things to be donated. In the end the garbage and recycling bins were full also. I also hung up some pictures and organizers inside the house, then we tackled one of the bedrooms which was full of boxes of mostly clothes and shoes that had never been unpacked. After purging tons of shoes and clothes already in the closet, there was plenty of room for all the keep clothing in the boxes. It was quite an undertaking for the three of us which I'm sure is why the one sister hadn't tackled it on her own.  We made so much progress in 6.5 hrs. that I think we completed most of what my clients had wanted to work on for now. I think they enjoyed working with me as much as I enjoyed working with them. They commented on how mellow I was and not uptight like other organizers they had met before.

The rest of the week, Wed-Fri, I worked for a couple who were getting ready to put their house on the market and needed to down-size. On Wed. one of my assistants and I tackled the woman's closet. We pulled out all the shoes, purses, clothes and other miscell. asking the client if she wanted to keep or donate every single individual item. It took us 4 hours to get through everything, even though our client made extremely quick decisions. We cleaned off the empty shelves in the closet before putting all the keeps back in an organized manner. I didn't count, but we had approx. 12 black trash bags full of donate and 2-3 bags of trash. The closet still looked full afterwards, but very much decluttered. It's amazing how much one closet can hold! The client was extremely happy with her "new" closet. The rest of the week we did many more closets and the basement. By the time we finished on Friday the house was ready for it's first showing on Sunday. The hardest parts of the job were hauling all the bags down the stairs and outside and all of the basement bags and items up the stairs. I'm thinking all those stairs must be why my hip has been hurting me the last few days! I definitely appreciate having the weekends off to recuperate especially since I have a full week scheduled coming up. 

My job on Monday went well, but was quite tiring. The garage turned out amazing, but took me 3 hours to do instead of 2 hours as predicted. There was tons of cupboard and drawer space, so I was able to put most of the items away. After breaking down tons of boxes and sweeping up all the trash, sawdust, leaves, and dirt the garage looked really good. I am so used to working with assistants now that it is frustrating how much longer projects take when I work alone. I remembered to take my fan, so it also wasn't too hot by the time I was done at 1pm. Then, I tackled the master closet and spare room closet. They also just needed some tidying up mostly on the built-in shelves. I used quite a few baskets and shelf dividers I always keep stocked in my car. I moved a few clothes around and made sure they were all hanging the right direction and were sorted by color. Organizing is all about the details! Most organizers are perfectionists which I admit I tend to be. The spare room closet housed all of her shoes in a jumble on the floor and in a broken door organizer. I recommended that she get a large shoe rack for the bottom of the closet and use the shelf above the bar also for shoes instead of the miscell. she had there. I was able to pair up all the shoes on the closet floor getting rid of the broken door organizer. I found other homes for everything else that had been on the floor and shelf. It wasn't perfect without the shoe rack, but a big improvement from how it was. The closets took a little over 2 hours to complete. The client seemed happy. She was young and single. Perfectly capable of doing the work herself, but had no desire to do it and was happy to pay me to do it for her. Today was completely different from my usual organizing. One of my regular clients needed help selling things at her guild she belongs to, so she paid me to assist with that. I had to help haul everything there in my truck, set-up and take down, and haul it back to her house. The worst part was waking up 2 hours earlier than I normally do to get to her house so early. It was a nice break from my usual work, and we all went out to lunch afterwards. So far, I've worked 9.25 hours this week!