Decluttering coach/organizer

[Anonymous]

Did you ever use a professional organizer or decluttering coach? How much did you pay and how long do they work with you? Ideally
I would have someone come for a weekend to clean out junk from 2br townhouse. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You do know you're going to have to be working right alongside them, right? Just start, and either go top to bottom or left to right in a room. Once you have a trunk full of stuff to throw out or donate, it's time to chug some water and then get in the car. Then get home and keep decluttering.

[Anonymous]

$80/hour and yes, you work with them, they don’t do it all for you.

Usually I schedule for 2 hours per visit (3 hours at a time max).

I tend to get a lot done on my own right before the visit and save more difficult (due to executive function and/or emotions) tasks for the visit itself. It helps if you have a clear plan or goal in mind prior to/at the start of the visit because otherwise a bunch of time can be wasted due to discussion.

The cost motivates me to get as much done on my own as possible and I just use the occasional visits to kick-start the process when I haven’t been able to start again on my own.

[Anonymous]

Yes I am aware that you work them. I think the cost will motivate me also. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Once you’ve done one huge purge it will be easier to tackle organizing what you have left. Don’t try to organize before decluttering/tossing/donating.

[Anonymous]

I used one very recently. It was $1500 for her to come with two additional helpers for 7 hours to organize my kitchen. Here's the rub -- she's shilling for The Container Store on top of it and although she did a great job of organizing my kitchen, it is now full of almost countless container store "storage solutions" that are slightly helpful at best, an illogical problem taking up space at worst. Oh, and it's all kinds of plastic, which I really didn't want. She had told me she would bring things that would help me with organization, things to buy. But she didn't tell me she would shove literally everything she could into plasitc containers and charge me for all of them. Which I'm still confused about because when she was about to leave I asked her about how to pay her and she said "Well, you have already paid for the session" and then mumbled something about "doing an inventory and I'll give you $100 off if you write a Google review." So I did, just because I was freaked out about hundreds of dollars in Container Store costs on top of the $1500 I'd already paid. She has never given me "an inventory," or a bill or anything -- I bet she just charged my card. We'll see. I don't have the heart to go look. It's annoying, because it's all such nonsense -- for example, my two cutting boards are in a plastic container marked "cutting boards." All my baking supplies are in a lower cabinet in a big plastic bucket that I have to pull out of the cabinet and go through anytime I want to find flour or sugar or whatever. She labeled all of the plastic things -- probably so she can claim you can't return it. I don't know. She did a really great job organizing my stuff. But I'm irritated by the unnecessary plastic bins that are likely costing me hundreds.

[Anonymous]

You need three staging areas: keep, sell, donate. Then work clockwise or room by room. Throw out as much as you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used one very recently. It was $1500 for her to come with two additional helpers for 7 hours to organize my kitchen. Here's the rub -- she's shilling for The Container Store on top of it and although she did a great job of organizing my kitchen, it is now full of almost countless container store "storage solutions" that are slightly helpful at best, an illogical problem taking up space at worst. Oh, and it's all kinds of plastic, which I really didn't want. She had told me she would bring things that would help me with organization, things to buy. But she didn't tell me she would shove literally everything she could into plasitc containers and charge me for all of them. Which I'm still confused about because when she was about to leave I asked her about how to pay her and she said "Well, you have already paid for the session" and then mumbled something about "doing an inventory and I'll give you $100 off if you write a Google review." So I did, just because I was freaked out about hundreds of dollars in Container Store costs on top of the $1500 I'd already paid. She has never given me "an inventory," or a bill or anything -- I bet she just charged my card. We'll see. I don't have the heart to go look. It's annoying, because it's all such nonsense -- for example, my two cutting boards are in a plastic container marked "cutting boards." All my baking supplies are in a lower cabinet in a big plastic bucket that I have to pull out of the cabinet and go through anytime I want to find flour or sugar or whatever. She labeled all of the plastic things -- probably so she can claim you can't return it. I don't know. She did a really great job organizing my stuff. But I'm irritated by the unnecessary plastic bins that are likely costing me hundreds.

Update: Got the bill for the container store stuff this morning. It was over $500. That was with the $100 discount for writing the review. I really don’t think I’d mind this so much if all of the stuff she’d sold me made sense for my space. But it was more like she made the space fit as many container store items as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used one very recently. It was $1500 for her to come with two additional helpers for 7 hours to organize my kitchen. Here's the rub -- she's shilling for The Container Store on top of it and although she did a great job of organizing my kitchen, it is now full of almost countless container store "storage solutions" that are slightly helpful at best, an illogical problem taking up space at worst. Oh, and it's all kinds of plastic, which I really didn't want. She had told me she would bring things that would help me with organization, things to buy. But she didn't tell me she would shove literally everything she could into plasitc containers and charge me for all of them. Which I'm still confused about because when she was about to leave I asked her about how to pay her and she said "Well, you have already paid for the session" and then mumbled something about "doing an inventory and I'll give you $100 off if you write a Google review." So I did, just because I was freaked out about hundreds of dollars in Container Store costs on top of the $1500 I'd already paid. She has never given me "an inventory," or a bill or anything -- I bet she just charged my card. We'll see. I don't have the heart to go look. It's annoying, because it's all such nonsense -- for example, my two cutting boards are in a plastic container marked "cutting boards." All my baking supplies are in a lower cabinet in a big plastic bucket that I have to pull out of the cabinet and go through anytime I want to find flour or sugar or whatever. She labeled all of the plastic things -- probably so she can claim you can't return it. I don't know. She did a really great job organizing my stuff. But I'm irritated by the unnecessary plastic bins that are likely costing me hundreds.

How is that doing a “great job” organizing? It doesn’t sound like baking supplies are easily reached.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used one very recently. It was $1500 for her to come with two additional helpers for 7 hours to organize my kitchen. Here's the rub -- she's shilling for The Container Store on top of it and although she did a great job of organizing my kitchen, it is now full of almost countless container store "storage solutions" that are slightly helpful at best, an illogical problem taking up space at worst. Oh, and it's all kinds of plastic, which I really didn't want. She had told me she would bring things that would help me with organization, things to buy. But she didn't tell me she would shove literally everything she could into plasitc containers and charge me for all of them. Which I'm still confused about because when she was about to leave I asked her about how to pay her and she said "Well, you have already paid for the session" and then mumbled something about "doing an inventory and I'll give you $100 off if you write a Google review." So I did, just because I was freaked out about hundreds of dollars in Container Store costs on top of the $1500 I'd already paid. She has never given me "an inventory," or a bill or anything -- I bet she just charged my card. We'll see. I don't have the heart to go look. It's annoying, because it's all such nonsense -- for example, my two cutting boards are in a plastic container marked "cutting boards." All my baking supplies are in a lower cabinet in a big plastic bucket that I have to pull out of the cabinet and go through anytime I want to find flour or sugar or whatever. She labeled all of the plastic things -- probably so she can claim you can't return it. I don't know. She did a really great job organizing my stuff. But I'm irritated by the unnecessary plastic bins that are likely costing me hundreds.

How is that doing a “great job” organizing? It doesn’t sound like baking supplies are easily reached.

I had way too much stuff, and it was all a bit of a mess. (Picture a relatively nice kitchen, but it has the open-the-cabinet-door-and-a-tower-of-tupperware-falls-out situation). I didn't have to do anything much at all, she and her team pulled everything out of the cupboards and all I had to do was point at things to get rid of. And the stuff I got rid of was thrown out or hauled away by them to donate. I do not have the executive functioning to deal with this kind of thing, and never would have gotten it done, at least not to the extent they did. And it needed doing. So all of that is done. But yeah, I need to change up where stuff is, and the plastic holders and what not that she sold me (see my post above -- the final bill came in for over $500!!!) are more in the way than anything else. So I need to fix it a bit, but couldn't have gotten to this point on my own. That's what I mean by a "great job at organizing" -- it's all relative.

[Anonymous]

Plastic holders aren’t always bad even if they seem unnecessary. I really struggle with organizing and maintaining and a labeled clear bin is actually really good for me. It means I can see stuff, and it “holds” the space when the items are out so I don’t put something else there. But obviously you can do that a lot of different, free ways. E.g. Child’s pegboard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need three staging areas: keep, sell, donate. Then work clockwise or room by room. Throw out as much as you can.

This don't pay anyone for help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need three staging areas: keep, sell, donate. Then work clockwise or room by room. Throw out as much as you can.

This don't pay anyone for help.

NP. I'm good at going through stuff (e.g., my kids clothes and toys, the kitchen and pantry, etc.), but I cannot handle paperwork. I have a trunk (!) filled with kids schoolwork, coupons, catalogs, etc., and even when I set aside time to go through it all and purge it, it fills up again. I already handle all the low-hanging fruit (junk mail and school fliers immediately in trash or recycling, handle all mail once, etc.). I have files for important papers (insurance, taxes, etc.). I don't know why I have so much paper in between important and junk. Is there an organizer who could help with that? It makes our otherwise neat home look horribly cluttered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plastic holders aren’t always bad even if they seem unnecessary. I really struggle with organizing and maintaining and a labeled clear bin is actually really good for me. It means I can see stuff, and it “holds” the space when the items are out so I don’t put something else there. But obviously you can do that a lot of different, free ways. E.g. Child’s pegboard.

PP with the organizer in cahoots with the container store. I agree, but I assure you that you would be shocked at the number of them in my kitchen, and at how some of them actually get in the way of using the cabinet space in any decent way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need three staging areas: keep, sell, donate. Then work clockwise or room by room. Throw out as much as you can.

This don't pay anyone for help.

NP. I'm good at going through stuff (e.g., my kids clothes and toys, the kitchen and pantry, etc.), but I cannot handle paperwork. I have a trunk (!) filled with kids schoolwork, coupons, catalogs, etc., and even when I set aside time to go through it all and purge it, it fills up again. I already handle all the low-hanging fruit (junk mail and school fliers immediately in trash or recycling, handle all mail once, etc.). I have files for important papers (insurance, taxes, etc.). I don't know why I have so much paper in between important and junk. Is there an organizer who could help with that? It makes our otherwise neat home look horribly cluttered.

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