In the spirit of Mari Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I recently decided to organize my photos so they are more readily accessible, all in one place, and easier to enjoy. Good plan right? But how to incorporate all my pre-digital prints? I knew to do this right, I’d have to tackle my collection of print photos, which live in photo albums. 46 photo albums to be exact.
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Love creating things that are meaningful, beautiful and fun to make? Do you like to avoid mass-produced items that end up in the recycling or garbage after just one use? Want to include a unique and personalized decoration at your kid’s birthday celebrations?
Look no further than birthday bunting using your own mementos!
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Oh what fun it is to work in a job where one take-on so many different roles to accomplish the task.
“Professional Organizer” is the term we use at the onset of a new organizing project, but in reality, there are many more we could include.
Here is my shortlist of ten roles professional organizers take-on – I am sure there are more to add!
Inherent in “less stuff” is often a desire to declutter, release what is no longer useful and make order in our spaces.
Makes sense.
The interesting part is the link between less stuff and more life – is what we might be after more freedom? Sanity? Ease? Happiness? Intentionality? All of the above?!
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I admit it – I love fall. The back-to-school and ‘start of something new’ energy makes me feel excited and optimistic. It also makes me want to organize like crazy! After the laidback-ness of summer, fall is prime-time to reassess, reorganize and reboot. Here are 4 simple ways to do just that!
When I was asked to write for the Ease Up blog, I immediately felt optimistic and hopeful, and a bit nervous as well. There is so much to discuss when it comes to organizing and living with more ease, but will people find what I have to say useful? Interesting? Worth their time and effort?
In nearly every residential organizing project where there have been children living in the home at one point in time, there comes the moment when the pile or the bin or the box or the area of children’s art work is unearthed. Some parents have kept everything; the white paper with the faintest line of colour on it, because their child barely had the strength to grasp the crayon. Some parents whittle the pile down to a few artifacts from each year and they explain that to me with a guilt-stricken face as if they are confessing to some atrocity. Either way… it is time to chat about it.
For me, it was less of being “inspired to become an entrepreneur” and more of “discovering that I have always been an entrepreneur” and more of “becoming extremely dissatisfied with the status quo of being employed”. Being an employee was stifling for me. Over and over I felt that my employers undervalued, underappreciated and undercompensated my skills, effort, loyalty, attitude, work ethic and dedication – and all of that does not lead an individual to a very good place. Having discovered that I have a strong and true entrepreneurial spirit is empowering – personally, professionally and financially.
Most of us have been there at one time or another – suffering, in some area, from disorganization-associated stress. The look and feeling of being disorganized deflates our morale, curbs our productivity and wastes our most precious resources: space, belongings, money, energy and time. Clutter and disorganization are difficult for many people to avoid, especially considering the way we are encouraged to purchase things and how fast-paced and multifaceted the events and obligations of our lives are. I’ve had clients realize for themselves that Professional Organizing is a new necessity – a necessity for the 21st century.
Some individuals have the tools, time and desire to make their physical lives orderly for themselves, but what if you don’t? The best answer is… hire a Professional Organizer (a PO). Although POs have existed for nearly 15 years, this professional title still surprises about 50% of people. The other half of the population, who have hired a PO or had a friend hire one, know the immense value we deliver. In short, all organizers deliver ease in your physical existence – the absence of difficulty or effort. In other words, smooth operations. We use organizational and efficiency solutions to create ease in our clients’ physical lives.
Just as some people need a personal trainer to prioritize, support and provide the expert guidance to improve their physical health, a PO is hired to prioritize, support and provide the expert guidance to improve a person’s organizational systems. Fortunately, with a PO – you don’t have to do the workout. A PO like me does not stand-by and tell you what to do – I roll up my sleeves, get right into the middle of your stuff and space and do it for you with your needs at the forefront of my mind.
Professional Organizing is a personal service that can make clients feel extremely vulnerable – you are in fact asking someone into your space to make your physical space function and look better. We should see everything; if we don’t, we cannot deliver our best end product. If your PO is good, you will feel like a trusted friend is working for you and you will quickly feel comfortable inviting them to handle your belongings and work in your private space. It is easy for me to practice non-judgment with my clients – I actually recognize that asking for organizational help (or any kind of help for that matter) is a wise and courageous move. It takes a strong person to admit when they need help and an even stronger person to hire help. Heaven knows that “No Man Is an Island”; this is true for me too. I cannot, and do not, take care of all my needs by myself; I need the support of different professionals in my life too. I have come to learn that we are all here to support one another in our areas of weakness – organization and efficiency solutions just happen to be my strength that I can offer to others to make their lives easier.
Here is an organizational system that helps you manage the use of your reusable shopping bags in a way that ultimately conserves your mental and physical energy. When implementing any new organizational system, it is important to remember that it takes a small initial investment of mental energy to change your patterns and follow the system. However, once you’ve got it down and the system becomes mindless (and it will) you will experience greater ease every time you need to use your reusable bags, for the rest of time.