ORGANIZING SOLUTIONS: SERVICES

Got stuff and need HELP?
A two car garage, where no cars will fit. . . gifts and cards stuffed in the junk room that's called "the bottomless pit". . . enough nails, bolts and screws to start a hardware store. . . plenty of games and toys all over the floor. . . overflowing closets containing "nothing" to wear. . . antiquities in the attic, buried somewhere up there. . . photos scattered all about, but none available to see. . .bills, papers, and tax receipts, none where they should be.

So, you could get organized -- if only you had some direction and motivation? But you're afraid I'm too far away to offer help? Not so! Since 1991 I've put order to homes (and lives) by offering many different services (see below for definitions). If you're frustrated and fed up, wanting to "do something" but not knowing how to go about it, or even where to start, here's help!

• E-mail Solutions:
  $100 for a package of one month of E-mail advice and brainstorming. Pictures of your problem area welcomed! Here's a typical, daily E-mail:
  
  "I have so much clutter and junk in rooms that were bedrooms for our children, but they left home and now they are so jammed packed with saved
  things that they're bulging at the seams. The clutter is the main problem. . . it just looks so bad, cluttered, messy and just ugly. But I don't know how to solve the problem of making it all come together and look neater and cleaner. . . Can you help?"
  
  
• Telephone Consulting:
  $50 an hour, one-hour minimum. 10% discount if you book three sessions or more. Pictures of your problem area welcomed!
  
  
• Walk-thru consulting: **
  We walk through the home or problem area and discuss the client's frustrations, priorities, and goals for the outcome. Solutions range from how to display collections, rearrange a room, create more storage, life-management strategies, etc. and setting priorities. As we brainstorm solutions I tape record the ideas, leaving the tape so the client won't become overwhelmed with the various choices.
  
  
• Hands-on organizing: **
  Some clients want help with purging unwanted or unused items; some just need me to develop creative ways to store or "hide" the clutter. After determining frustration areas and goals, I roll up my sleeves, determine where (and how) items should be stored, and do it! Basically I group like items together and place them near where they are typically used. I sort and remove useless things such as expired coupons, dried-up paint, etc. I label boxes, many times making a map or inventory list(s). Clients are not required to be at my side the entire organizing session. In fact, many times I assign them to work in another area The time spent in a home varies on the project. Many times I arrived armed with dinner ingredients for the client's crock pot so their dinner is ready and the client can relax after I'm gone!
  
  
• Relocation Organization: **
  Includes down-sizing for a new but smaller home; overseeing the move (sort of mediating between the mover and the client); following behind the un-packers and putting items in place; and/or getting a home ready to sell fast by de-cluttering and storing excess stuff, rearranging and/or sprucing up, etc.
  For out-of-town moves I can set up and organize the home before the client arrives. I'll even stock the shelves with groceries and make a map of my client's favorite stores.
  
  ** Hands-on organizing, Walk-thru consulting, and/or Moving services: $50 an hour, in any city where I'm nearby (remember, I speak all over the country). If I don't have a scheduled visit, add travel expenses (I prefer to drive east of the Mississippi whenever possible)

Other Information Sources:
Home Safety Site: This is a growing concern for me, since there are many
times I enter a home and realize it is truly a fire hazard, or that the piles
of stuff could easily cause a fall. I see storage spaces used unwisely,
only because the homeowner "didn't know any better." Learn more about how to
make your home as safe as possible by visiting: www.loweshomesafety.org

Attention Organizers!!
As you read my website are you thinking, "Gee, I'm organized, I'd like to do
this for a living!"? If so, training is NOW available at www.OrganizedU.com
OrganizedU offers reasonably priced teleclasses (they're like a conference
call) for beginner, intermediate, and advanced organizers both residential
and business ones. Classes are taught by some of the top, experienced
organizers in the industry. What a great concept, learning how to set up,
market, and manage an organizing business--all without putting on makeup and
driving somewhere!!

Decorating, Gardening & Remodeling Advice: I call Home & Garden TV an
addiction! And their web site is just like the television channel full of
helpful info. Try it, you'll like it! www.hgtv.com

Woman's World Magazine: Ok, so I write for this weekly publication, but as
an average consumer I can also testify that this is a great magazine for
people short on time. It's full of short articles. I call it "bedtime reading," because you can read an informative or uplifting article in just a few minutes. Also, I rate the recipes in WW as the best of all women's magazines (I'm on a strict allergy-related diet so I actually do a lot of cooking). You may have ignored this magazine if you're not interested in dieting, since the cover story is always about a new diet. But try it,
you'll like it!

Do you have a site that has helped you in better organizing your home? Let
me know and I'll get it posted!