By Virginie Dor, Space of Mine
How would you describe an “organized space”?
Some of the answers I hear most often are: “uncluttered”, “neat”, “tidy”, “spare”, “minimalistic” or even “boring”.
Truth is, an organized space has nothing to do with these characteristics.
Some people’s home can on the surface appear straight out of a magazine with clear counters, neatly stacked magazines staged on the coffee table, and family pictures carefully displayed on the fireplace mantel; yet what you may find when opening their kitchen cabinets or hallway closets is no real system in place and out of control chaos.
While on the other hand, others live and work in complete physical clutter; and yet feel comfortable in their environment and are able to find anything in no time. Could they be considered “organized”? Absolutely!
Being organized has less to do with the way an environment looks than how it functions. If a person is able to find what it is they want when they need it, feel unencumbered in achieving their goals and is happy in their space; then that person is well organized.
My mission as professional organizer is to work with my client in creating an environment that enables them to live, work and relax exactly as they want. I help them find ‘their’ personal organizing styles to enable their homes, offices and schedule to reflect and encourage who they are, what they want, and where they are going.
Take for example my client Nancy. A mother of 3 young boys; Nancy lived in a large 5 bedroom house in the country. Each child had their own bedroom and although space was not an issue in her case, she would daily get buried under mountains of laundry and piles of kids clothing to sort and put away.
By understanding the family’s lifestyle, her daily routine, her personality and the layout of her house; we decided to implement a completely different laundry management system and to reorganize the children’s closets.
Here is what we did:
- We assigned one hallway closet per child; centralizing where she would put away and pick out their cloths daily.
- We moved the children’s toys and books in their respective bedroom closet, containing clutter off their bedroom floors.
- We lowered shelving to allow the children better access in order to encourage independence and make them apart of laundry chores.
- We established weekly laundry chore schedules for the children.
- We added some surfaces in the laundry room to facilitate folding so she wouldn’t have to do it on the living room sofa or on her bed.
- We assigned each child a different color laundry basket and opted to do each child’s laundry separately to avoid having to sort out laundry given she had 3 boys ages 4, 6 and 8.
If Nancy’s situation sounds familiar to you, think outside the box, rethink the rules and find your own organizing style to ease your daily life and free up some time to do the things you love to do. And when in doubt, ask a professional organizer!
Author's Bio
Virginie Dor is the founder of Space of Mine, a professional business specializing in residential organizing that provides services through Geneva and Lausanne.
With knowledge, dedication and care, Virginie Dor is committed to helping individuals and families better their lives, take control of their surroundings and time by creating organizing solutions that are individually tailored to each client.
As a proud member of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers), she is an expert in clutter control, work flow, space planning and time management. To learn more about Virginie, visit her profile on LinkedIn.
