Meg and Steve live in a beautiful house nestled in the woods. Her office and crafts area for decoupage work are combined in one room. She wasn’t “getting to it,” meaning that she was wasn’t clearing the area. “Looking at her brain,” she was staring at works in progress. It was bothering her. Could I help?
I arrived on a dreary, rainy and cold afternoon in the early fall. We toured around the house, including the basement, discussing how to organize her extensive decoupage materials, and also how to reduce the number of holiday decorations stored there. Where to start? I suggested that we start upstairs in the office/crafts room. Once that was in better shape, we might descend back to the basement.
In my experience as a professional organizer, it’s been useful to start in one corner of a room, then to work our way around it. We organize shelves from top to bottom, with the “most valuable real estate” – the area closest to our vision – reserved for the things we use most. The holiday platter? Up top. The big pot for steaming lobsters? On the bottom. We agreed, then went back upstairs.
To start, I suggested that we clear her big work surface next to the windows. We removed lamps, discussing where they might eventually “live,” to be easily chosen for decoupage work when the time is right. For the moment, we placed them on the floor near to, but not blocking built-in drawers, which might benefit from some attention, too.
Meg returned some books to their shelves, and placed some little paper pieces where they won’t get lost. She also showed me some of the pieces she’s done, which are lovely. Since I have no artistic talent, they are even more impressive than they might be otherwise. If I only (could do so much as) draw a straight line with a ruler!
A couple of times, Meg said variations on the statement heard most from clients – “I was looking for that!” When we were done, she looked relieved, smiled, and we scheduled our next session together, in several weeks.
About De-clutter Me!
De-clutter Me! offers non-judgmental, competitively-priced and confidential assistance to help clear clutter in your home and/or business. We’ve been “bringing calm to chaos” since 2013.