ORGANIZING, PART TWO: When the Professional Organizer Leaves

Taking Life One Drawer at a Time

On the heels of the meteor crashing in Russia and Downton Abbey’s devastating season 3 finale, I probably have very little to complain about. I mean, my room is messy with piles of items that have nowhere to live but, my house and my husband are still here and there are no crater-shaped holes in the neighborhood. 

Be that as it may, I have been experiencing my own fallout in dealing with the aftermath of what happens after the organizer goes home. I now know that organizing isn’t for sissies. I have agita. And my son Zeut just called my blog “stupid!” He's grounded. And where is my sister Lorijo when I need her?!

I am not good at this. I think I made that clear in my last post. Posting a “part two” is really just an exercise in masochism. Can’t I just go shopping and forget about it?! Or take a nap?! This is my idea of hell! I think I was happier before I took this plunge. But at this point freaking out isn’t solving anything and turning back doesn’t seem to be an option.

Since organizer extraordinaire Teresa Nicola of Collected Spaces left to go back home to Portland I have been sorting through my stuff. Stuff that has taken me years to accumulate. I am talking a lot of stuff. 

Where has all of this stuff come from?! It’s not just the clothing and shoes and purses. I have costumes and props from past shows and murder mystery parties! And there are the endless hatboxes filled with photographs and old letters and cards. Now that is a rabbit hole of its own. And down it I went. While I was supposed to be organizing drawers and throwing things away I took a long journey down memory lane. Oh Alice, have I learned nothing from you?!

Luckily, I had someone to pull me out of that hole: Teresa, who has been advising me remotely. And thank God for that. When she checked in with me I started whining about my feelings of overwhelm and the tornado remains of my room and my mood swings. She calmly advised me from a distance. 

She said: “Book hour increments to work on the undecided piles and the drawers that need organizing. Book two hours to make the returns and drop off the discards for donations. The key is to schedule it. Small steps, tiny actions to stay on top of it all. Even one drawer a day. And be realistic about the things you need and wear. Just because something was a good deal or conversely if it was expensive, is not a good enough reason to keep it.”

Okay, I can do this. Take a deep breath and get it together. I began sorting through my drawers and creating more bags of items to donate. 

Then back to the Container Store I went to return my unused items and purchase a few others. On this trip I met Tree, a very helpful employee who led me to these particular items. A 32-compartment drawer organizer, a back-of-the-door, 10-hook rack and another box for my purses. 

                                  Me and Tree at the Container Store

This translucent honeycomb-like drawer organizer is helping me keep my yoga tops and  T-shirts organized. It is an assembly required puzzle piece made to accommodate your particular drawer size. Scissors are needed. I like the way that everything is separated in little coils. 

                                    compartmentalized drawer organizer

This darling 10-hook, over-the-door bird hanger was great in theory to hang up clothes, but it wouldn’t allow me to close the door. The 7-day rule applies so back it goes and back I go in search of a replacement. 

                                         back-of-door bird hooks

On separate excursions to Home Goods and Urban Outfitters, I found this cute bird hook hanger for my belts and these darling owl jewelry hangers for my necklaces and bracelets. 

                                             belt hanger

                                              jewelry organizer

                                                              coordinating hangers inside my closet 

I am loving the new closet system and all of my coordinated hangers. I can find everything so easily and have been wearing combinations of things I hadn’t thought about before.

My husband even got in on the action and brought home two 35-pack boxes of the black no-slip hangers from Costco for $9.99 a box. As well as  couple of bamboo shoe/storage racks for $24.99 a piece. Score!

                                                     bamboo shoe organizer

Teresa also introduced me to a file folding system that not only saves room but allows you to see your items more clearly. What a concept. T-shirts and lightweight sweaters are folded into envelope sized shapes and then filed, one against the other in an upright position.

                                            file folding system

Perhaps this post will make those of you who haven’t managed to get organized this year feel a bit better. The rest of you may just be taking pity on me and my missing organizing gene. But I am actually starting to feel more organized, sophisticated and grown-up. I really am.  For now, I am taking it one drawer at a time.

If any of you have any organizing tips, please feel free to share.

I'm going to take a nap now. I hope this was helpful! 

Organize Your Closet

I believe we all have our roles in life. For years my sister Lorijo’s was to make sure that my side of the room stayed clean. I was perfectly happy to co-exist with my messy side, but she wasn’t. She dreamed of being a Cleaning Lady when she grew up and I did everything in my power to give her the practical experience she needed. This came in very handy for the entire childhood we spent sharing a room.

                                                         Me and Lorijo in 9th and 7th grade

But old habits die hard and after leaving the Midwest and moving to both coasts and Atlanta, twice, she was a little sick of flying out to unpack my stuff and set me up at my new locations.

Many years and four kids between us later I can no longer  take advantage of my sister and her career aspirations. P.S. She cleaned houses to get through college but is now a successful yoga teacher and photographer in Portland, Oregon.

One of my roles has always been being masterful at functioning in the midst of chaos. Not only functioning but existing quite happily. It’s a special skill, I’m convinced. I can find anything for anyone at any given time. I have radar on all of my stuff and everyone else’s, and although it might not seem orderly or systematic, up until now I have been perfectly happy to exist in this semi-disorganized state.

Although this is probably a great trait for responding to natural disasters or family crises, I am fairly certain that maintaining a war-zone-like environment in closet, car and purse, is hell on the adrenals. 

Since I like to keep my adrenals in good working order I decided to hire an organizer to help me smooth out the rough edges of my life.

Enter Collected Spaces professional organizer extraordinaire, Teresa Nicola, who is Lorijo’s friend from Portland. Are you detecting a pattern here?! Our first agreement was to dig in-deep.

                                                                Teresa doin her thing

One look at my closet and it’s a wonder I can put any outfits together. I’ve got my talents but honestly, organizing isn’t one of them.

Not one to judge,Teresa wasted no time and before I knew it had the entire contents of my closet emptied onto my bed, or what she referred to as the staging area. 

We began with an acronym she uses for successful organizing.

SPACE: S=Sort; P=Purge; A=A home; C=Container; and E=Equalize.

We powered through at a crazy pace. Forty minutes into it I hit a hypoglycemic wall. I was starving. I have a crazy fast metabolism or as my friend Amy once said, “Your metabolism is on crack”. Seeing all of my stuff piled up before my eyes was making me break out into a cold sweat. I believe it is part of my fight or flight. I chose flight and retreated to the kitchen.

While I took a nutrition break she continued to sort my clothes by what she referred to as “like with like.”  Similar items sorted by color and a system called “Cap the Rainbow.” The good old Roy G Biv capped on both ends with neutrals. White, cream and brown on one end and gray and black on the other. Prints are worked into the like-with-like mix with the predominant color determining the placement.

Well three hours later the results were pretty impressive.I had purged about two trash bags of items and I could make out every piece of clothing individually. I had the habit of collecting more than one item on each hanger, with the logic that I was already predetermining outfits I would need, for auditions and life’s other roles. Teresa quickly disabused me of this system and I was rapidly running out of hangers. 

We made some major headway, but, I still had some homework to do.

The next day I found myself feeling quite cranky, with a lengthy to-do list and a pile of undetermined items that still needed sorting and hanging. I was off to the Container Store for the first time ever. How could this be?! How have I have lived and shopped for this long and never set foot in this Oz-like place! Within minutes of my walking in, employees Brett and Dawn were leading me around and helping me fill my two carts with anti-slip hangers, flat wire stacking shelves, linen storage boxes and a box made especially for my handbags! What?!

Once I was back home, these items transformed my closet into a kinder gentler place, a place where finding a pair of matching shoes was no longer an all-day affair.

This new way of life may take some getting used to, but I am beginning to have some respect for the system. 

I still have some work to do. Teresa and I will be attacking my desk soon and then I will team up with each of my kids to get their closets in order. God help me!

I encourage you to find a partner and dig in. Check out Teresa’s site for some tips and ask her questions on her blog. 

Good luck and happy organizing!