Professional Organizers Get You Organized Around The Home

Website: http://www.asenseoforder.com/

It happens everyday: Homeowners everywhere spend many thousands of dollars to remodel and expand their homes because they believe they have "run out of space. " Bringing in a professional organizer as a prelude to, or as a part of, home improvement, may not be the first thing that crosses someone's mind, but it's definitely worth considering, since it could potentially save thousands of dollars in remodeling costs. Since the primary purpose of getting organized is to increase space, it makes sense to evaluate the maximum amount of space available prior to doing any remodeling, and to establish the actual remodeling needs. The best way to do this is to bring in a professional organizer.

By purging clutter and setting up organized storage systems, most people are amazed at the amount of space that seems to magically open up in their homes. Once this process is complete, you may find that remodeling or expanding is less imperative or less extensive than you once thought it would be. This can potentially translate into thousands of dollars of savings.

Let's look at a hypothetical example: Greg and Gina live in a two-bedroom house with their son Brad. The house has a living room, a small kitchen with a breakfast nook, a separate dining area, a large family room that doubles as an office for the parents, and a garage that houses the laundry machines. Greg wants to build a workshop, Gina wants to expand her small kitchen, they want to add a new room as a dedicated home-office, and to build a service porch for the laundry.

Prior to planning the remodel, they bring in a professional organizer, who helps them to purge and organize the kitchen, the family room and the garage. By cleaning out and reorganizing the garage, they are able to set up a laundry area that satisfies all of Gina's laundry requirements, eliminating the need for a service porch. This saves them about $10,000. By re-working the large family room, they are able to set up a new system that includes roomy workstations for both Greg and Gina, and a study area for Brad, while still leaving ample room for lounging, television and family gatherings. By eliminating the separate office room, they've saved roughly another $25,000.

Unfortunately, there is no getting around the tiny kitchen. They expand the kitchen into the breakfast nook and eat exclusively in dining room. Also, there was not enough room to put Greg's workshop in the garage, even after organizing, so they proceeded with that build as well. For an investment of roughly $2000, they've saved around $35,000 in remodeling expenses. Sometime in the future, they might still choose to expand further, but for now they can take that extra $33,000 and put it to better use.

Each homeowner's situation will be different, in terms of how much money they can save and how the overall remodeling project will be affected. There will also be differences in how much of an investment will be made into the professional organizer, since rates vary.

Here are some tips on preparing for a visit from an organizer:

1. Identify the problem areas or rooms of your home.
   
2. Be able to explain generally why you want to remodel or add on to your home.
   
3. If you feel you can, identify the particular problems the area or room is giving you, and/or what particular solutions the remodel or addition will bring. Try to be as specific as possible. For example, instead of saying "I just can't work in here, there's no room," try to identify specific frustrations like, "I don't have the room to put a filing cabinet next to my desk, so all my files get piled on my desk. I feel like making the room bigger will allow me to have room for a filing cabinet. "
   
4. Understand that although you may have had a vision that involved a remodel or expansion, if you are calling in an organizer to minimize those costs, that you will need to remain open to suggestions and arrangements you might not have previously thought of.
   
5. Accept that a major part of effectively using the space you have is regulating the number of items you collect. Too many people fill their homes to capacity and then wonder why they run out of room. If you expand without purging, and then continue to collect belongings, you are essentially paying for storage space. When you feel yourself resisting the process of purging, ask yourself how much you'd be willing to pay to store it all. Are you spending tens of thousands of dollars just to accommodate more stuff, or are you willing to let go of a few items to save that money?

Copyright © 2004 A Sense of Order

Editors Note: A Sense of Order offers organization services for the home and office including moving, yard sales, financial records, and time management coaching services. Specializes in closet design, custom filing systems, archive and preservation. Serving homeowners, small business, and commercial industries.

Note: This article was submitted by a second party and the contents are subject to our disclaimer.