Professional Organizer or Bust!

Yes, I hired a professional organizer. Overall, it was an interesting and helpful experience and I’ll continue to work with her until I am clutter free. From a budget perspective, she does not charge too much more than the woman who cleans my house. So I’m planning to have my house cleaned less often to help cover the new costs for the organizer.

With my professional organizer by my side and my tail between my legs, I began removing clutter from my life. Some of the clutter we tackled was apparent (my box full of junk mail, random photos, papers that needed to be filed). However some of the clutter was actually a surprise to me. She politely forced me to open the doors of my dining room credenza and to my surprise I literally recycled and/or threw out 90% of what was behind those closed doors.

It is a very humbling experience to look a total stranger in the eyes and justify why you have been keeping stuff that you will never use.

As a result of my 90 minutes w/ my new paid-for friend, plus two extra hours of homework that she gave me, I accomplished the following:

1. Created a new system for junk mail and things that need to be shredded.

2. Moved all of my old billing statements and things I need to be shred into a “Things to be Shredded” box.

3. Created files for important documents.

4. Bought and hung an 18-month calendar and actually started entering important dates (instead of placing sticky note reminders onto my front door).

5. Emptied two boxes of “things to review”. I also miraculously found a place for the things I wanted to keep.

6. Reorganized the baby clothes I need to hand off to my friend.

7. Reorganized my husband’s video and camera equipment. 

8. Got rid of an old junky table that was taking up space. I placed a FREE sign on the table and put it at my curb. It was gone in a matter of hours.

9. Found a home for my art supplies (the now cleared out credenza).

10. Created a system to start storing appropriate things in my car (a zip-lock of coupons, weight watcher paperwork, etc).

It was time well spent. Her next visit is in mid-August and I am counting down the days!  

Check out the National Association of Professional Organizers referral website to find a professional organizer near you.