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Getting organized is fun after all
by Jan Tormay

OK, I admit it. I have piles of paper, dirty dishes in the sink and clutter everywhere. But like most people I don't know where to begin to organize it all and I have two children - 11 and 17 - as well as a dog and two cat to add to the mix - or the mess. Oh yes, I also do most of my work for home so my home office ... well you don't want to know what that's like.

Imagine a team of professional organizers coming to your door to organize your home. Well, that's exactly what I did. I invited Liz Talbot, owner of HomeWorks professional organizers to send a team to my 108-year-old home to experience firsthand what it feels like to go through the process and what I could learn.

By the morning of the team's arrival, I couldn't believe how nervous I was. After all, they were going to be looking at my less-than-perfect home and suddenly I was feeling very uncomfortable with this whole idea that I suggested to my editor. Too late now.

Donna Finocchiaro, team manager from Marlborough arrived first. This trim, attractive woman was dressed in black pants and a long-sleeved white shirt layered under a pink short-sleeved shirt with the HomeWorks green logo on it. After some chitchat, Amie Caplan and Jennifer Bowden cheerfully arrived in matching uniforms and a readiness to assess my house, unfazed by piles of papers, dirty dishes and laundry.

I admitted to them that I was nervous about their seeing the piles. "What happens is time gets away from you and things just kind of get put there. And when there isn't a place for everything, there's a place for nothing and it just spirals out of control. It happens," Ms. Finocchiaro said. Even though it's a cliché, it's true, that "The key to organization is a place for everything and everything in its place ... In order to get there, you have to work within your space limitations."

"That means purging, which can be painful," I said hesitantly. Even a pack rat like me knows this is true but knowing it and doing it are very different things. "But we're right here with you," Ms. Bowden and Ms. Caplan chimed in. Their job, said Ms. Finocchiaro, is to teach clients basic organizational principles, "so that after we've left, you can implement and maintain it." The team's energy, frankness and smiles melted my anxiety - sort of. We then began walking through all the rooms of my home to assess the "big picture," before focusing on my bedroom/office.

In the living room, Ms. Finocchiaro asked how the room was used. I told her my family likes to eat popcorn and watch movies on Friday nights. She suggested more seating. Also, because the long couch extends into the doorframe, Ms. Finocchiaro suggested angling it slightly. Another idea was to add artwork above the couch to make the room look larger. "You've also got three wonderful windows on this side of the room. If you put a large mirror over there (above couch), you're going to get twice the light in this room, especially without having overhead light."

She also liked my blue Oriental rug, because it warms the floor and is large enough. "As long as one leg is touching the carpet, it pulls the pieces together." Some of this may sound like something an interior decorator or designer would say. Ms. Finocchiaro stressed they are neither. As professional organizers, their focus is on functionality based on their clients' needs, which is different each time. No cookie-cutter approach here.

In an adjoining smaller room, she suggested "a very easy, very comfortable pull-out type of a bed that acts as a sofa," with tables on one or both sides. "You have no overhead light, so in this case, I would put a taller light, maybe something a little bit more modern, like a big arm like you see at IKEA, with all the different things that point in different directions. Then you could project the light in different areas of the room." She'd also add a patterned bolster to the back wall of a built-in couch on one side of the room and cover the seat cushions with a solid color to update them. Above this area, is a big wall with two pictures - Ms. Finocchiaro suggested adding one or two large shelves here. "Now, you've got a unit, because right now, you have 75 percent of the area in this room underutilized." Another idea was to place square baskets on the shelf, which I could use to store clothes or other items.

Hmm ... maybe this isn't so bad after all. These are good ideas and they haven't told me I have terrible taste or anything.

In the kitchen, the team noticed a lack of cabinet space and too much furniture. Ms. Finocchiaro liked my family's color-coded calendar (one color for each person's appointments). See, I do have some organization skills I thought. She suggested taking out the baker's rack and installing narrow shelves on the wall instead.

In the mud room off the kitchen is an open closet. It was made too narrow, so doors don't work on this closet. Solution: Install café hooks that extend two inches. Hang a rod and curtains. Also, she challenged me to purge my closet and store off-season coats in a clear container. Oh dear, there's that purging again. Above the closet, where hats and scarves do not stay organized, containers were the answer again.

Upstairs, all the bedroom closets are packed with spare comforters and mattress covers taking up space needed for off-season clothes. Solution: special storage bags that allow you to suck the air out of them, so they're only about two inches high. And the best thing about it is if you need to take something out of the bag, such as a sweater or shirt, it's not wrinkled. To make it small again, you need only to use the vacuum.

As for my son's toys and old stuffed animals, you've probably guessed it - put them in labeled see-through containers. Also, give away anything he is too old for or at least store them in the attic if he still wants to keep them. Keepsake stuffed animals on a small shelf in the child's room.

Finally, we head to my bedroom/office, where the goal is to make it as efficient as possible. "It's sectioned off really well ... The "L" shape is what we typically recommend for a work station," Ms. Finocchiaro said. To close in the open backside of my desk, the team suggested mounting a corkboard to it, so I could pin cards, my children's artwork or story ideas to it. Above my computer monitor, they agreed a corkboard/whiteboard would create a unit, in which I could tack my calendar, layout and children's schedules to it and move them around if I need to.

At this point, if I were a client, I would have to make some decisions on how to proceed. What do I want to accomplish? What is my budget? This is where Ms. Finocchiaro said her financial background from a previous career, comes into play. Once she knows clients' budgets, she said she'll figure out how to give them the most amount of service for their dollars.

Prices vary depending on how many professional organizers are involved in an organizing project. Two or three are on a sliding scale rate. For the assessment - which costs $35 - often only one staff member comes.

To tackle my room, the team huddles to make a plan and then they're off - Ms. Caplan to my hallway closet and Ms. Bowden to my work station. Ms. Finocchiaro recommended different-sized textured containers that could help me organize my files. One of the keys is to label them. Ah yes, knowing the contents would help, wouldn't it. In about 20 minutes, Ms. Bowden, who is known as the master office/software streamliner, did a great job organizing my work area and finding nooks and crannies on lower shelves of my desks to organize stationery, CDs and recorders. Moving my file organizer to the other side also freed up more space.

My closet was also more organized, thanks to Ms. Caplan, office manager and organizer-in-training. Starting at the far end, she put "like with like." She began with my bathrobes and dresses, which leaves room to store items underneath, where I already have a double dresser. Next, scarves, skirts, pants, jackets, sweaters, vests and long and short-sleeved blouses were all separated and placed in order by color. This will allow me to see, for example, if I have 10 black skirts, making it easier to purge outdated ones - in theory. Having hangars in all one color also makes a dramatic difference, she said.

For clothes that are a size too small that I plan to wear again, "Put them in the bottom drawer," suggested Ms. Caplan, who formerly owned a business helping people shop for clothes.

"These clothes could be put in a box on a shelf and labeled 'This is my goal,'" suggested Ms. Finocchiaro.

"Do you wear these?" asked Ms. Caplan, holding up my favorite black-and-one jacket and a striped blouse that I bought and never wore.

"The blouse doesn't go with anything in my wardrobe and I don't like the way I feel in it," I said.

"If it makes you feel shlumpy. Is that a word? Or fat, get rid of it," she said. Well, what do you know? Maybe I can get rid of some stuff.

Now they have gotten me started maybe I can take it from here.

For a real client's perspective, I contacted Terry Standish of "Heaven Sent" in Colchester. She said Ms. Finocchiaro did a great job helping her organize her home office, where she operates a custom gift business for individuals and corporations. "She kind of took my thought process and simplified it ... She came in and did it with me ... It was a lot of realization as we were going through things that I was discovering about myself and my habits." Now, Ms. Standish said she feels more relaxed, organized and confident that she is in control of her space.

That certainly sounded good to me. For me, this experience was a lot of fun. I felt empowered as I thought about everything I had figured out on my own and realized how much more I could accomplish. The difference is now I have some fresh ideas and different products to keep in mind while organizing. Now if I can just handle the purging.