Ayelet Gingold, Realtor – CRE DRE 01385315, had the opportunity to interview Hagit Koren about Home Organizing. This is especially important for those who need to organize their belongings who have an expectation of moving out of their current home, have sold their home or are even looking to sell their home. Hagit Koren, Professional Organizer, is the Founder of Rediscover Your Home in Los Gatos, CA.
Ayelet: Hello there, Hagit Koren is joining us today. And we wanted to share with our audience the importance of home organizing. Hagit is a professional organizer and has her own company, Rediscover Your Home. Her website has some great ideas and you can learn more about what Hagit is doing. I think that there is really kind of almost a magic in organizing your home, because it can make small spaces more functional, and large spaces warmer. You can actually fall in love with your old home without spending a fortune.
When you Sell Your Home
Today, we want to really focus more on what happens to our sellers, when they sell their home. What we are going to talk about is how to save time, which is actually a way to save money. We are really trying to avoid putting everything they have in boxes, moving it to the new home and dealing with it later on. Before the Fall season, you told me the magic is in sorting out the things that they are not using, right?
Hagit: Yes, yes, certainly. I have had clients living in homes, from five years up to 35 years. So, imagine somebody grows the whole family, his whole life in one house, and you know, the kids are out of the house, things naturally become irrelevant. They sometimes have toys from when the kids were younger. It turns out nobody took care of that. So, when selling the home or renting, there’s no sense in just putting everything in boxes and let the movers charge you more. You are just creating more work when you move to the new house. So just pay other pro’s money. My main goal is to work with those people. We just go slow.
As soon as they know that the house is going to go on the market, we start going through spaces for the kitchen, the bedroom, the office, and the garage. We just throw out stuff that is irrelevant, donate things or even sell things. I help with all of these activities. I can manage the donation. I can help sell. We try to save the earth and make use of anything that is intact and in good shape. If it’s not, I tell them directly to get rid of it. I also pack and label the things. For example, let’s say we go over clothes, let’s say it’s summer now and we go over the clothes for the winter, which we can pack because there is no need to keep it in the closet anymore.
Or the same with books or anything else in kitchen junk drawers. People tell me, “I hate this area. You do it.” That’s what I’m there for. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of stress for people. And my role is to flow with every client and just help them go through this as calmly as possible. Once the movers come and give them a quote, it’s going to be a lower cost.
Now You are an Empty Nester
Ayelet: Interesting. Especially with people like me, you know, empty nesters. When they move out, they usually downsize. Right? So now they have less room. And if they take the same amount of stuff, it’s probably not going to fit or it’s going to create a very crowded, very stuffy home. So, this is one aspect on why your services are needed.
Hagit: …and usually it will likely create maybe another storage that you have to pay for. I’ve seen that which does not make sense at all.
Ayelet: So, the other side of it is for those people that are first time buyers. I know they come to me with a very long wish list. They want the house to be this and the one that has to be that and often when they have to compromise on something, it ends up being on house size. So, they buy a smaller home, even though they wish otherwise. It fits their budget.
Your work always becomes very useful, because you are able to make the home more useful, more practical, more effective. Right?
Hagit: That’s totally right. And people underestimate the amount of space that they have. I think it’s more about creating the right storage space, because the houses here around, especially in the Bay Area, are not small. This is especially true if you are looking at it from an international perspective. There is no reason for a family not to have enough space, it’s just a matter of the right planning and, not going to Target and buying little boxes, little containers. You need to have a plan for the whole house. I always tell my clients never go and buy anything before. If you want a right closet, you need the right closet, so you need time, I can help you decide what is best. If California Closet is giving a good deal this week, it’s fine. We’ll go with them. If they’re expensive, we’ll go with another solution. I’m in contact with pro’s that can help. If, of course, I feel comfortable recommending them.
TIPS for Organizing the Kitchen
It’s just a matter of how you look at it. A lot of times people tell me I don’t have enough space in my kitchen. While they do just a little, it might look silly. But the example with spices is that people put them in a shelf, they take the whole shelf of a cabinet while they take all the space for nothing, because it’s little containers. I put them in a drawer, I lay them down and they can see it and they have a whole shelf open now. It’s all about the manner of keeping it simple. It’s not rocket science. I really have the eyes for it. That’s why I like to do that. I like to help people. Even if they remodel their kitchen, I had a client that moved into a new home and I helped them. They did a new kitchen and I helped them with the functionality of it. They had the designer and we worked together, and they made it all with functional drawers. And when we put things in the client said, “wow!” I have so much space. I’m not used to all these drawers. He was so happy. So for anything people need I have that experience too. I built functionality into the past two houses for myself. I am using that same knowledge just to help my clients.
Ayelet: Again, this is Hagit Korin, Professional Organizer with Rediscover Your Home. She’s a great professional to invite to your home when you’re either considering moving out or buying a new home. Hagit is very known in our community of real estate professionals. And so I would love to thank you so much for joining me today. We need to grab a coffee one day,
Hagit: Great!
Ayelet: Thanks again and I look forward to seeing you soon.
