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The Role of a Professional Organizer in Home Transitions

July 2, 2020

Moving is a major event in people’s lives. While it is an exciting event that people look forward to, it also brings up stress and uncertainty.

In this document, I’d like to explain how using professional organization for transitions helps to save time, money and significantly improves the experience for the client.

A client once said to me: “You are like a personal trainer for the home – I didn’t realize how much emotion is involved with order”. This is a very powerful saying, as it expresses how emotional organizing can be. I can testify this saying is true for all of our clients.

There are two sides to a move – a sell or a buy. Let’s look at each one separately.

Selling a home

A person or a family that is about to move out of a home, has lived there for years. It could be 5 years or it could be 30 years. Either way, there is no way this person/family needs all items in the home. This means there is a need to go over all the spaces in the home and sort items. This is a lot of physical work but even more a tough mental work.

As soon as a home will be listed, introduce a professional organizer to the process. What are the benefits?

Starting early & Peace of mind. In many cases, families wait for the last minute, right before photo shooting and staging, to start preparing for the move. Why wait? Have someone experienced with this type of work to go through an exhausting long process with you – saves energy and saves time.
Reduce moving cost and have movers supervision – movers work on an hourly basis. Organizers will reduce the volume to pack significantly. Therefore, the movers bid can be significantly lower. Here’s why:
Home is decluttered to start with – all discarded and donated items are out.
Home looks much more organized – it signals to the movers that there’s less work to be done.
Items, not needed till move, are already packed: books, non season clothing etc.
Organizers pack more efficiently than movers – for example, pots that are stacked together. Movers will probably pack each one separately. They are interested in volume increase to charge more,
Organizer will tell movers to pack some items “as is”, to save time when unpacking and organizing. This is easier packing for the movers.
Organizers will handle items with care, better label boxes, using colors and more details.
Keep the workflow – don’t get stuck
Decision making made easier – the organizer is a third party. Therefore, it’s easier for the home owner to decide quicker and let go of emotional baggage.
Don’t deal with spaces you can’t – the organizer will. I’ve had clients not wanting to work on junk drawers, a shed or a certain closet etc. This usually stops the action and progress.
Help in sorting items into Discard, Donate & Pack and hauling donations. I know where valuable donation centers are located and take pride in making donations the most valuable to others, by delivering them to appropriate destinations.
Reduce later stage packing – pack during the sorting process. For example – when taking books of shelves, some will be donated and the kept ones will be instantly packed. This saves precious time.
Get the house quickly neat and in best shape for photo shooting and staging
Connect with estate salespeople to capture any resale value from the personal belongings

Buying A Home

Experience suggests that if a family does not get fully organized in their new home within the first week, then oftentimes it will never complete the organization process. The temporary becomes permanent. It is very common for us to help families that have been in their home for more than a year and during that whole time they were unable to fully enjoy their new home. They call me when the stress level increases enough to take action.

It is advised for the buyer to have a professional organizer help on the same day of the move into the house. Why?

Start to unpack in parallel to the movers unloading boxes and avoid “mountains of boxes”, which is overwhelming.
Organizer can be an additional supervising to the movers unpacking.
Make sure the house functions from day one, by unpacking the essentials first. Usually it is the master bedroom and kitchen.
Professional organization can help you make the most out of your new space.
Organize in the most functional way, so items are easily accessible.
Guide the buyers on how to create a warm atmosphere, a refuge.
Help decide what to focus on improving under budget restrictions. Example: a client decided, after a discussion with us, to first remodel the kitchen, instead of closets and outdoor improvements. She realized what made sense to fulfil her needs.