Another New Client Happy!

What a great weekend I had! I met with two clients on Sunday - one for clothing help, and then I met with a new client Sunday afternoon who is having me help her tackle her whole apartment, room by room. She was so nervous about me helping her get organized. It was funny, because the first thing she said to me when I walked into her apartment was, "I am so sorry, it's very messy in here." I laughed and told her not to worry - "That's what I am here for," I told her:-)

I asked her where she wanted to get started, and she said the kitchen, so we could start "small." We started with her pantry which contained 7 shelves. Open, there was just food and stuff piled everywhere. Before we started, I had her grab a garbage bag for items we were going to toss, a large container for items being kept, and a garbage bag for items that didn't need to be tossed, but that she was not going to keep. As clutter expert Peter Walsh would say, "an out the door pile." Once the areas were established, we emptied every single item out of her pantry, and I suggested we start with the "one touch rule" which means try to make a decision as to which pile the item goes into right away. If my client can't decide right away, it goes into the keep pile, until we re-organize those items, and then examine it again to see if she can make a more affirmative decision.

In about an hour, we had put together 3 large garbage bags of tossed items (mostly expired food items), a large bin of keep, and a small bag of "out the door." From the pantry, we moved to the next cabinet over, which was the location she and her husband kept all of the medications, allergy prescriptions, etc. In about half an hour, not only had we completely cleaned it out and re-organized it, but there was one full shelf left over! We then moved to the next cabinet, and in three hours, had organized all but 2 of her kitchen cabinets. Her homework was to sort through all of her silverware and decide what she could keep, and what she wanted to get rid of, and for her to organize 2 drawers we emptied with the silverware she would be keeping.

But alas, before I left, we also moved a small beverage fridge she had off the kitchen counter onto a new cubbyhole cabinet, and then we boxed up all the paperwork she had on a breakfast nook so we could get rid of the breakfast nook and the two benches that accompanied it. On top of the beverage fridge, we took a large empty bowl that had been wasting space on the nook, put it on top of the fridge, and then decorated it with the bananas, apples and oranges that had been sprawled out all over the nook, making a beautiful centerpiece. I then took pictures of the nook and benches, so I could help her Freecycle them since she had already made the decision that she wanted them to go, so she could just get a small round table with 3 chairs for her, her husband and child.

Here is a picture I took of the cleared nook, and we grabbed a random vase of flowers that was sitting in the middle of a pile of videogames in the living room:-) Although I had meant to post the nook and benches on Freecycle, it was also the day of a big football playoff between the NY Giants and SF 49ers, so I got caught up at a bar afterwards watching the game. So from my phone, I posted on Facebook that I had a client who had some items to get rid of (she also had a chair and a boys' bike she no longer needed. Within an hour, I had different friends respond to my Facebook status, saying they were interested, so today, less than 48 hours after posting these items, all have been claimed!

My client was so happy, she already booked me for another three hours for next Sunday so we could start working on her living room/front room!

On a totally different note, I also want to make sure I update this blog with one of my many other favorite passions - dressing for less. So, I went through my photos, and pulled this picture taken on a leisure trip last year - the sweater cardigan was a gift so it was free, the black and white top was from one of my clothing swaps, and the jeans were also from a swap. Can't see my shoes, and don't remember which ones I was wearing at the time this photo was taken, but from these three main items, this outfit was...FREE!:-)

I am going out to a birthday dinner tonight, and will try to make sure I somehow get a picture of me taken so I can post it in a future blog this week.