A Chicago Home Organizer's Take on Why this Service is Essential
Most people already know how to declutter and organize their homes. It’s relatively straight forward: decide what stays and what goes and create logical, permanent homes for the remaining items.
Yet, very often, something stands in the way between what we want and know how to do, and what we act upon. There can be many reasons for this, chief among them: lack of time; lack of interest; and lack of experience.
WHEN LIFE IS OVERWHELMING, A HOME ORGANIZER CAN HELP
The most common phrase I hear from my Chicago-based organizing clients is that they want to be more organized, but they’re overwhelmed.
Think about it: when you first get launched as an adult, you might have a one-bedroom apartment, some hand-me-down furniture, and an entry-level job. If you live in a city, you might use public transportation or a bike to get around. Life is relatively simple.
Fast forward a decade or two and maybe you have a multi-bedroom home, a garage, a yard, kids, multiple cars, a demanding career, and aging parents. Fast forward a couple more decades, and now you’ve moved multiple times, gone through significant life milestones and transitions, and seen your household composition change dramatically. Over time, life becomes more complicated.
At some point, most people realize they simply cannot do it all, and they need to prioritize the tasks they want and need to do themselves. Many think nothing of hiring a personal trainer, a yard maintenance service, or a cleaning service. We often contract with such professional service providers despite being capable of doing squats, mowing the lawn, or vacuuming the floor on our own. Why?
We hire help to make life easier for ourselves, not because of some deep personal failing. It’s no different with home organizing. Yes, you could do it yourself, but if you’ve been putting it off, dread doing it, or don’t know where to start, why not consider hiring a helper?
IS IT TIME TO HIRE A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZER?
If you are facing a significant downsizing or decluttering project, it’s not surprising you feel overwhelmed. That’s because each item needs to be considered individually. A single hour could mean hundreds of mental conversations and decisions about relatively inconsequential items. This can be very unrewarding and exhausting work, especially when you have a lot of thoughts about your stuff or struggle with indecision.
Many home organizers, including me, offer multi-session packages that enable you to meet with them for a few hours on a weekly or biweekly schedule. Breaking the work up over several days and weeks enables you to focus intensely on the project for a brief time with lots of support and encouragement, get instant results, and then completely leave it alone until your next appointment. Simply having permission to not think about your stuff until your organizer returns relieves an enormous mental burden for some people.
If you’ve put off or struggled to gain traction with downsizing and decluttering, I encourage you to consider a professional home organizer. It’s a strategic investment that makes your life easier and allows you to focus on the things that matter most to you.
Many people are embarrassed about their stuff and assume their “mess” is the worst their organizer has ever seen. This is faulty thinking. Organizers have seen it all, and they enjoy their work. It gives me so much pleasure to help people break up the logjam of clutter and create order and peace where once there was chaos and dismay. It’s exciting to see how people transform when they transform their spaces.
So don’t let your doubts stop you. As I always tell people, our work together occurs in a judgement-free zone, and I promise we will have some fun together.
