When I started getting paid to organize for people in 1998, I had no formal training. Because a cleaning client asked me to organize a room for her, I found that I had a gift for working with people to transform their space. Word of mouth led to me giving up my cleaning clients and mainly doing organizing for a living.
I love my job for many reasons, including the fact that I get to learn new things and find ways to improve. Organizing is an adventure because every client has unique needs which I want to help meet. With 27 years of experience under my belt, I have the opportunity to discover ways to improve and I feel excited about continuously improving my skills and techniques.
Recently I felt more motivated than ever to fine tune my methods, and thus I want to share them with you. Here you go…
Preparing for our session: I wrote an article about how to prepare for an organizing job. I realized that since I am helping many of my clients go through memories that bring up challenging feelings, it would be good if they could do some things ahead of time so that the emotions were easier to deal with and the time I spend with them could be most productive. I am totally willing to be present with clients and their feelings with an empathic response. Yet because their desire is to declutter and downsize, I also want them to be able to make wise decisions quickly. Here is the article I wrote: https://becomeorganized.wordpress.com/2025/03/23/2947/
Shallow Containers: My “shallow container” technique continues to be my most effective tool for helping clients make decisions quickly. I discovered early on that constantly asking someone “What about this?” leads to decision fatigue and often the client just wants to quit. Now I put items which need decisions into shallow containers so the client can quickly look at the items and tell me what to do with them. I used to use shallow cardboard boxes, but I realized that plastic shallow containers are better because I can nest them, and I don’t have to keep finding cardboard boxes. I do have some shallow boxes available so I can leave them with the client if necessary.
Wearing everything in my apron: I have my apron organized so that almost everything I need is in my apron for easy access. For me, speed is important because I want to keep up with the client’s decisions. Labeling is important and can be time consuming, so I want my marker and labels to be close at hand. I do want to figure out how to make a holster for my tape gun which is also nice to have close by.
Ringing the bell to celebrate progress: I like to make organizing more fun than a chore. So I have a bell which I ring when a box is filled, or something big is disposed of, or anything else comes up to celebrate. This lightens up the mood. Maybe not everyone needs this, and I tune into needs, but a recent client really enjoyed the bell and the encouragement. We all need to be acknowledged for progress, not perfection. Our brains work better in a joyful environment.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: When I first started organizing, my client wanted to collect every pin, paper clip and rubber band from clutter that covered all of his kitchen counters. I realized that the clutter was going to take a long time using this method. Now I encourage clients to put low priority replaceable small stuff in one box to be sorted later, given away, or thrown away. By setting aside low priority small stuff to sort later, my time is used more effectively, and decluttering results are much more profound.
Being Flexible With Sorting Categories: As much as I would like to have boxes with labels that have the same categories for every client, I find that every client has unique needs which I need to tune into quickly. But some categories never change, like trash and high priority. My most recent client had no need for the undecided box or give away. He just wanted to put the stuff in his car from the storage unit and not put them in boxes. But I make labels for boxes as soon as I figure out the categories that are needed, and I clip them on with labels that can be changed easily as we explore the needs.
Sorting like with like: One of the most overwhelming things for clients is the sorting process because they don’t know where to start. I have found consistently that when we can get similar items together, they can more easily sort the items either with me or when I am gone. For example, just last week I helped a client organize his storage unit. He was shocked to find out how much bedding and towels he had inherited from his mother once we started uncovering the stuff and putting it in one place in boxes that could be easily stacked and labeled. Now he knows he can let a lot of that go, and can choose to sort one category instead of many. We also got all of his papers together so he can sort one box at a time at his leisure. I have paper sorting techniques for clients who need them which you can find here.
I love my job and feel so grateful that I can contribute to people’s well being by helping them downsize, declutter and simplify their lives. Their happiness is my joy!
