7 Things I’ve Learned After Becoming a Professional Organizer
Kara, here! If we haven’t met or you don’t know my story, I found The Little Details and Stasia like a lot of us do, passing by our studio on Mass Ave! I quickly went online (on my phone before I even made it home from my morning walk) and was intrigued. Considering I won “most organized” as my yearbook superlative, you could imagine my excitement when I found TLD around the corner from my apartment. After a few interviews and trial runs with the team, here we are today! I’m sharing 7 things I’ve learned since my professional organizing journey began.
#1: The S.P.A.C.E. acronym. The first thing Stasia will teach any of us is the organizing process: Sort, Purge, Assign, Contain, and Equalize created by Julie Morgenstern. You cannot buy bins before knowing what you want to store where. You cannot easily purge items without sorting what you have first. When in doubt or overwhelmed if you’re organizing, repeat S.P.A.C.E. in your head. It really works every time!
#2: Elfa is everything! As I was learning on the job, I was thrown into a lot of elfa installations. Today, I can design and install my own closets. We use elfa because it’s so easy to customize and is simple to change over time. I’ve learned a lot about what works and why in closet design and can’t recommend elfa from The Container Store enough!
#3: The pace of organizing depends on the client. Everyone wants to know how long it will take to organize their home, or just their basement or kitchen. We always say, “we wish we could wave our magic wands!” but one size does not fit all. Many factors, such as how present a client is with me, how fast they make decisions, and what percent of things they are willing to purge go into how long the process takes.
#4: You’ll get really dirty and really strong. When people ask what I do each day, they assume I fold a lot of clothes and make things look pretty. That’s true maybe 25% of the time. More often, I’m building shelves in dusty basements, disposing of dead mice, and sorting tools in a freezing cold garage. It isn’t always glamorous, but we get it done! The stories that come from these days are always some of the best. I can always leave knowing I didn’t get as dirty as Kirby (IYKYK).
#5: Moving can be magical. If there is one time in your life you’re going to hire a professional organizer, have it be when you move! We will help you purge, pack, take inventory, manage storage units, space plan, and unpack. The first few times we relocated couples and families who were on vacation from one home to another in one weekend, I was blown away!
#6: Like any service job, you’ll learn to work with a lot of personalities. While organizing services may seem like a luxury, I’ve found it most rewarding to work with people who really need it. From busy new moms to people with ADHD, organizing goes a long way. It’s very special to make a positive difference in people’s lives.
#7: A team of 7 can do A LOT in 4 hours! Holy moly. Entire garage installations, every closet in the house, and taking down multiple Christmas trees at a time. Group projects are one of the biggest perks of this job. No matter how sappy it is to say, I’m so lucky to have made great friends along the way. We continue to surprise each other and ourselves every day!
We’re hiring right now, by the way! If this sounds like your dream job then apply here.
