ClutterClarity at Home

Only a few close friends had been to my house recently, and they accepted me as the packrat I was. You couldn?t see the floor at all in two bedrooms and the other two were only marginally better. The living room and kitchen had stuff against all the walls. Laura Moore is fantastic! I found her through her ClutterClarity workshop, and after attending, felt inspired and safe enough to call her. She first walked through my house, asked me what was most important to me, and thought about my situation carefully. She told me that there wasn?t enough time for everything to be done before the wedding, but working together, we could bring order and comfort to the rooms, and stash away my remaining clutter so that it wasn?t very visible. We would tackle that after everyone had left. Meanwhile, I would feel at ease having house guests. I was so lucky to have found Laura. She did far more than she promised. She only had ½ day a week available to come to my house. It?s amazing what one can get done in four hours with her help. She always came on time, had great energy, physical strength, and humor. She was supportive and sensitive to my needs, inviting my input, setting priorities and strategy. Before she came each week, Laura thought about what we could tackle and gave me options to choose from. We quickly focused on the most important areas and actually had fun doing this work together. It was a real collaboration! We consolidated my clothes into one closet, putting out bags and bags for charity. I had some dresses from the 1960?s which went to a fiber artist to be incorporated into a tapestry. Laura packed and rearranged the closets to get stuff off the floors, making ample room in the closets for the guests to use. The bedrooms became inviting and comfortable once again. As we worked from room to room, the house unfolded back into my lovely home. Laura showed me how to decide what was clutter, what wasn?t, and how to better store my papers. It was ? and still is - somewhat hard for me to "throw" away something of "potential use," but with Laura?s coaching, I have a whole new framework that makes letting go be easier. Laura gave me lots of organizing tips for my home and home office. She helped me to sort out what to keep, throw away, sell, or donate, and to distinguish real use from "potential use." Every week, she scooped up items for charity, took them to where she thought they would be appreciated, and brought me back tax receipts, when appropriate, saving me so much time and effort. Laura arranged for a truck to take away big or heavy items- a broken easy chair, two broken exercise machines, computers and hard drives that were inoperable, rolls of old carpeting, a piano which couldn't be tuned, two old metal desks, one of which they had to dismantle to bring down stairs, and tons of other stuff, filling a good sized truck. Both Laura and I are environmentally sensitive, so it was important to me that everything be disposed of properly. The house must have risen 1/4 inch from the ground when they removed all that stuff! Every time Laura left the house, she made sure the area we worked in was left in excellent shape, and that we had a plan for next week. Laura knows how to use time amazingly; there was never a last minute rush to finish up. By the time the guests arrived, both my house and I were smiling. After my guests left, I continued working with her. My cluttered house is now mostly full of only what I love and use. Getting rid of clutter with Laura feels good. Laura is a great role model and a superb professional organizer. If you are lucky enough to hire her - she is quite busy - you will be as pleased and grateful as I am.