Renovations

A couple of weeks ago we talked about why you need a professional organizer if you’re moving, but today we’re gonna talk about something that is just as stressful. Renovations.

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Perhaps you aren’t moving to a new location. Maybe you are renovating your current space. Many of us know families who had to rebuild after the floods in Baton Rouge and a year later in Houston. What an overwhelming experience! Martha-Carol and Lisa both flooded and know first-hand the trials and tribulations associated with these types of events.

Other renovations are not as involved as rebuilding an entire house or the first floor of a home but even renovating one room can be stressful. Regardless of the scope of your project, renovations are exhausting.

Example 1:

Your kitchen has lost its glam and function. You don’t know where to start but something must be done. Before heading to a kitchen show room, it would be wise to consider consulting a professional organizer. This professional can potentially save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars by helping you understand what is and most importantly is not working for your situation. A professional organizer can offer suggestions that you can then take to the kitchen show room to assist with your space planning.

Example 2:

You have done all the planning involved for your renovation and it is now time for the work to begin but before that can happen you need to empty the space and you do not have time to pack up. Before you start throwing items into an empty box think about hiring a professional organizer to pack your space. This professional will establish a plan that will make unpacking a pleasant and productive experience. You might even find you don’t need as much space as you initially thought to store your items as they can help you purge the unwanted items before the renovation even begins.

Example 3:

You have saved money and spent time collecting ideas for your renovation, you picked out new finishes and appliances, dealt with your contractor and subcontractors, eaten out for a month and now it is complete. It is everything you have dreamt it to be and you are too tired to even think about moving back into the space or where to put your things. You just want to prepare a homecooked meal for your family. This is a great example of when an organized person can feel unorganized. Much like moving, you long for normal and are too worn out to achieve it effectively. A professional organizer can help you plan your space making sure it is organized in the most functional way.

Have we convinced you of our organizational super powers yet?! Give us a ring for a consultation!

The Dreaded 3 D's

What are the dreaded 3 D’s you ask? Our guest blogger, Amber, is back to tell us why a professional organizer is the best person to help!

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Although it is difficult to discuss there are three situations that immediately bring consideration for hiring a professional organizer.  Downsizing, divorce, and death. All of these words stir up some serious emotions and rightly so. Moving is such a stressful time to begin with but moving tied to a life altering event can be devastating, overwhelming and paralyzing.

Many of us find ourselves wanting to help family and friends during these times and that help might best be found in a professional organizer. The right professional can help you help your loved ones. When someone has been in the same house for many years the process of sorting through the treasures, we feel define all we have done and who we are is quite frankly mind-boggling. Tie this to the loss of the person who shared this with us and it can become impossible to even begin to sort into simple categories. Even if you are incredibly organized, this is a time your super powers could use a sidekick. 

As we discussed previously with children’s rooms anytime you are dealing with someone else’s belongings it is incredibly helpful to have someone who can help you separate the emotions.

Call the professional organizers at Chaos Organizing today for a consultation!

Moving

Amber is back again with some very insightful reasons on why a professional organizer is KEY to a successful and stress-free move!

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A move. Yes, just typing the word MOVE makes me shudder…you, too right?

Last June we were informed we were being transferred from Houston to Taiwan and that transfer was happening in July! YES, JULY!!

This required dividing all of our things into categories. Now mind you we are a typical family of four with many things to divide. We had things that would go into climate controlled storage for three years, things we would give to family, subdivided into piles according to which family member, things we would bring with us in our luggage, things that would come to us in Taiwan via airfreight three weeks after our arrival, things we would sell, things we would donate and last but not least trash anyone? Is your head spinning yet? Mine did for weeks.

I realized being super organized is hard because you tend to overthink the categories. We may have had a few more piles than the average person moving but a local move can also send your mind into overload.

Oftentimes this packing event happens while your house is simultaneously on the market with showings happening at a moment’s notice. This requires an additional level of organization as potential buyers are checking out all of your private areas like your closets. That’s right, buyers will be looking in your cabinets and closets! No more throwing things behind closed doors.

Looking for a way to calm this chaos? A professional organizer is the solution. These experts understand the challenges you face with a move and pending sale. A professional organizer can help you develop solutions to quickly sort, donate, and pack your belongings. They will also teach you tricks for getting your family out of the door efficiently leaving your property in model home status within a moment’s notice. Most importantly, they will do it in the most gentle and comforting way.

What is worse than packing? Unpacking. Put simply, moving is exhausting.

Moving into a new home presents its own challenges. Now you have a new place with new storage and a new flow. How are you going to use this new space? Consider how amazing it could be if you could have someone come in and help you create your most functional house from the very beginning. A professional organizer can do just that!

While you are overwhelmed and tired and charged with duties like getting your family settled into a new job, school, routine, a professional organizer can unpack your belongings and help you get the most use of your new space.

Sounds like a dream doesn’t it?

The College Kids are Coming Home for Summer Break

The college kids are coming home for summer break! Did I forget to mention, they are coming back with all of their stuff. Now what?

Sending your kids off to college is the topic of many discussions. There are check lists complete with enough items to furnish a small home. We painstakingly shop for the perfect comforter and sheet set complete with matching accessories. We purchase mattress toppers that once out of their original packing barely fit in a midsize sedan. We research how to hang pictures that leave no marks on dorm walls. We worry about food sending a dorm fridge, microwave oven, and coffee maker. Our children insist on bringing ALL of their clothes to school then throughout the year they add sorority and fraternity t-shirts and formal attire to this clothing collection as well as game day attire.

Yes, all of this is coming back home and if you have several kids in college you can multiply this scenario. (By the way, this is why so many parents quickly agree to the off-campus apartment or house!)

The question is where do you store these items until the next semester. I must admit, one summer I rented a small storage unit. This particular year, my oldest daughter graduated from her undergraduate program in May and had plans to work as a sorority house director during her first year of grad school. She basically needed the same items she needed when moving into her freshman dorm room. My son lived on campus at the university he was attending and my youngest daughter was feverishly collecting items for her first college dorm room. It quickly became apparent that we had a problem as the items collected in our formal dining room.

I used plastic bins labeled for each kid to store their college items. I placed linens in one or two bins, coffee pots, mugs, etc. in a bin, accessories and décor in yet another. Then I took everything to an off-site storage unit. The storage unit might seem extreme but you can rent these by the month. They typically cost around $100 a month for a climate-controlled unit. The sense of calm we all receive from the two hundred dollars spent was well worth it in my book!!

If you have the space, you can store these bins in your kid’s closet, bedroom, or even in the garage. It is important to have your kids go through the stuff they bring home, sort items, and label everything. A lot of unwanted things get packed away in the mass exit after exams, like half eaten pop tarts, dirty coffee mugs, etc. Don’t judge. You know you raised these kids well but when the stress of exam week falls so do the cleaning standards!

HAPPY SUMMER! Enjoy these days as they pass way too quickly.

Getting Ready for the Big Move

Dear Ms. Chaos,

I just found out from my husband that we are being transferred to Houston.  Please help!!  We have been living in this home for over ten years and have accumulated way too much stuff.  I need to have this house ready to put on the market in a month.  Where should I start?

Anxiety ridden and Terribly Overwhelmed,

Ms. Thibodeaux

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Dear Ms. Thibodeaux,

Congratulations on your upcoming move to Houston.  It’s a very nice city with lots to do and plenty of Cajun people so you will fit right in!  Also, spring is the perfect time to put your home on the market as families will be planning where they want to live come the end of the school year.

I recently helped a friend get her house ready for the Houston real estate market and thought perhaps I should share some of the tips we discussed.

1. Fix anything that is broken and complete unfinished home projects.

Prospective buyers are getting a sense of how much care and maintenance you have put into your home.  Neglected maintenance and unfinished projects that are easily spotted will leave them asking what else needs tending.  

2.  Keep everything neutral to appeal to more buyers. 

You want your home to appeal to the largest number of people.  If time allows, consider a fresh coat of paint in a neutral color but for heaven’s sake, let that paint dry before shutting any doors.  I just looked at a potential rental house that was freshly painted and several cabinets could not be opened because they were painted shut!  Needless to say, we passed on that house.  

3.  Remove any holiday décor before the real estate photos are taken!!!

Holiday décor is a huge part of Southern homes and I am NOT advocating for you to stop decorating while your house is on the market. (Well, maybe I kind of am…LOL).  We want your house to sell and sell fast but in the event it does not, you DO NOT want your Mardi Gras or Easter decorations in the real estate photos being shown in August.  That will give prospective buyers the idea you have a lot of room for negotiation in the selling price.  

4.  Remove personal collections and photos.

This is widely spread advice that I cautiously buy into because you want your house to have a soul and if you strip all indication of life from the house you are in essence stripping its soul away and oftentimes that is what sells the house.  However, that being said…

5.  Declutter.

I cannot stress this last point enough!!!!!!!

We have bought and sold many homes and our homes sell fast.  I am not boasting it’s simply a fact that I pray I have not jinxed myself in exposing.  Our homes have oftentimes sold for asking price and they have all sold FAST.  We have sold a house with a teal wall and personal pictures.  We have sold houses with things that needed fixing on the inspection report.  What we have NEVER done is sold a cluttered home!

I feel the number one thing you can do to sell your home is to declutter it.  Buying a house is very different from taking a home tour.  It requires diving into the bones of a home.  How many closets are there?  How big are the closets?  Does the home have a pantry?  If not, are there enough cabinets to make up for the lack of pantry or can you add a shelving unit to suffice as a food pantry?  How many shelves do the cabinets have and are they adjustable?  Does the house have a coat closet and a linen closet?  Buying a house requires investigating the bones of the house.  Potential buyers will be confirming whether your home will work for their needs.  

Potential buyers will be looking at and in your private spaces…your cabinets, closets, garages, storage buildings, attics…and for many people these are the areas that have experienced the greatest neglect over the years.    

Let’s face it family life gets really busy and sometimes all we can do is stuff our stuff into a drawer, closet, garage, or attic to get to the next thing.  

You need to go through these areas.  Purge anything you do not plan to keep.  Quite simply stated, there is no sense in paying to move things you don’t need or use.  

That being said, you may not wish to get rid of some of your belongings that are at the moment translating as clutter as you may be planning to purchase a larger home.  For this reason, you may want to consider temporarily renting an offsite climate-controlled storage unit.  

For our last move, I took all of our holiday decorations and moved them to an offsite storage unit.  This freed up space in our attic and garage and was an easy decluttering move.  I also packed and moved to said storage unit our table linens, many of the bed linens in our linen closet and just about anything else we were not using on a daily basis.  I moved anything that did not add to the design appeal of our home.  I put my numerous scrapbooks into plastic bins and moved those to the storage unit along with scrapbooking tools and supplies.  I certainly would not be scrapbooking in the middle of showing our home. 

Basically, anything you will not be using and anything that contributes to the look of clutter should be moved.  If you have a spot in your home for these items and they do not look like clutter then by all means keep your stuff in that spot.  What you are trying to avoid is the avalanche when someone opens a closet or cabinet door.  I was recently searching for a home and was looking at a very beautiful home…beautiful on the surface.  I opened an upstairs closet and almost suffered injury from a potential avalanche.  Needless to say, I did not open another closet or cabinet and I did not buy that house!

I have found developing a plan and going room by room is the best way to get to all of my spaces in an efficient manner.  Get ready, this is a process and it will get messy before it gets better.  

I imagine I am the buyer as I go through each area. 

 What do I love about this home?

Why would I buy this home?

Then I try to think of ways to showcase what prompted us to buy our home.  As I finish cleaning, decluttering, and staging each room, I take a moment to snap a few photos and I study those photos.  Similar views will be the first impression a prospective buyer will have of your home.  Oftentimes, “less is more” is a good mantra when preparing your home for the market.

Finally, sit down with your family once your home is ready for the real estate market.  Explain the importance of your move and the difficulty of living in a home that is for sale.  Express the need to minimize the length of this process by getting the house sold sooner rather than later so you can all get back to normal.  It is critical to get everyone on board with this notion.  

Ms. Thibodeaux, I wish you the best of luck with your move.  Please let us know if we can help with the decluttering phase in Baton Rouge or the unpacking in  Houston.  

Warmest regards,

Lisa Clement

Chaos Organizing

Pro Tips:  

• Get a few empty laundry baskets.  When you get those last minute calls, simply throw all the clutter into these baskets and put them in your car.

• Keep extra  trash bags on hand so you can empty all of the trash cans before buyers arrive.  Put the trash out.

• Take family members and pets with you when you leave and by ALL means LEAVE.  Nothing is worse than trying to view a home when the homeowner is present.

• Be game ready at all times!!

Need more tips or help in preparing for the big move?

Give us a call!