Sunday 12 February 2017

Before i became a Professional Organizer.


When you hear Professional Organizer what do you think?

1.       Helps Hoarders only

2.       All my stuff will be tossed

3.       Oh I bet her house is perfect.

4.       Oh what if she judges me

5.       I need to organize before they come over

The list can get long but none of it is true. We POs don’t just work with hoarders, we don’t toss ALL your stuff, our homes are not perfect, we do not judge you in any means of life and you do not have to organize before we come over.

The tv I feel has made us out to be only for the severe cases but in reality we are for anyone that need some order.  Some people have adult ADD and that is hard to move though things specially if you were just diagnosed. We help families with kids that are struggling in school and the home is stressing everyone out, kids don’t do well in clutter.

I feel POs need a new name.  We are clutter coaches or productivity coach or a family chore specialist. We can be anything but I feel the name Professional Organizer narrows people’s minds down to a clinical idea like a therapist. But if you needed a Doctor or a plumber you would want a professional.  

Organizers also don’t just put things in beautiful bins and hope that it works.  Yes bins help to contain things but they can also create their own kind of clutter.  When I started out on my own path to a more organized life I was a crazy bin lady, I still am. You know there is a whole store in the USA just for containers. It’s on my bucket list to go there lol, bucket list.  Oh boy see bin crazy lady.  Anyway  I use to have that mentality that if I put it in a bin then it was organized well then I could not remember what bin it was in and have to look though all the bins or give up and go buy the idem again. That is not organized.  
In my growth as a PO I have seen myself grow in my organization journey. My husband found our old hard drives with 1000s of pictures on them and WOW I should have hired me 5 years ago.  I didn’t think it was that bad but yes I was deep into my hoarding creative mind set.  Let’s look back at my organizational journey for a min.
This room was to many things. It was my main office area. It was the hardest room to keep clean.
This was the play room where I think it was just a game of  how many bins can we toss before mom finds out.
 
This in the middle of my attempt at organizing this crazy space. I had the mentality like most the more storage the better, not in this case.
This was my "creative" space. I did not enjoy working in this space at all. I need sunlight.
 
This was our basement landing area it always drove me crazy.

 
Thankfully my home has changed a lot in the past 5 years. I keep things that add value to us and our lifestyle but not everything. I love looking back and seeing how far we have come in making this home ours. I guess I wanted to show you all that even though I am a professional organizer now I totally get where you are coming from when I come into your home. I have been there and I want to help anyone that feels they cant move past the clutter. I hope to be the helping hand you need to reach your true potential.

Till next time, have fun and be a little crazy.

Sunday 5 February 2017

How I have grown up.




As I sit in my wonderful office and write this post. I am in aww of how much I have changed over the years. I feel I am an organized person, to a point. I feel I could be better but I also have a life. I work and have kids and a husband and they all demand my attention. I have given so much to everyone in the past that I am left empty, tired and totally drained. The past few months I have been scheduling ME into my very busy life and I am seeing how I have let the boundaries blur on all aspects of my life. I let people control my calendar, sometimes that is ok. kids get sick, friend need some extra support. That is what I am here for, but I have left ME behind burned out and sick.

Don't get me wrong I love all my family and friends but sometimes I just need me time. It may sound selfish to some but I am finding it very important to take care of myself. My kids are getting older and can make there own lunch and do chores in the house. Its important to show and teach them how this stuff gets done, its not magic or a house fairy, even though I would love one.

All I ever wanted in life was to be a mom and a wife. That is it, nothing else. Then  I found the world of professional organizing and fell deeply in love with the idea that I could live a life of order and less chaos. On my journey to order I found this whole new world of less stress or better yet better stress management. I feel life is always stressful its just how to recognise this stress and how you process it.

In the past I would stress about when the kids would get sick, they where not sick but I would stress over and pre plan what to do if they got sick. My son was sick a lot with GURD and other things. I would stress about what was for dinner, if the food was healthy enough for Red. I would stress going grocery shopping. Then I started to look at myself I was a mess, my kids where anxious a lot and stressing over things as well. I had to stop the cycle and find some balance.

First was gratitude. this small thing changed EVERYTHNG. Anytime I felt stressed I would say "nope I am grateful for money to go buy healthy food for my kids to help them grow". "I am grateful I can stay home with my kids so when they do get under the weather I can stay with them". "I am grateful for takeout for days that I just didn't have time to make dinner".

This little shift in my consciousness is what makes me a better mom, wife and friend. I am more aware of my own needs and how I need to give my business and my personal life boundaries true black and white boundaries. Its hard some days, they get a little grey but that is happening less and less the more trained I get in setting them.

The other thing I feel has made me a better version of me, is that I am more open to other peoples schedules. For example in the past if someone didn't message back right away I would be worried that they were mad at me. I would stew and wonder what I did wrong how can I make it better. I was really self conscious and concerned on what others thought about me and how they saw me. In my growth I have learned, one people have a life and if its a important message to just call them. I have also learned other people have there own boundaries and that is not a bad thing and to respect them.

I have let people say I am not good at things and things have to be perfect and just right but I am learning to live this life I have wanted for a very long time. I am done letting others block my light and say its not good. The world need me, I am the only me and all I can do is be the me God created. So go out and find what you want to do and just do it, if you loose people, they are just the stepping stones in your life.