The following are just a sampling of So Organized! success stories:


SO Success Story #1


The Organizing Challenge:

Although his business was growing steadily, small business owner Max*, sensed that things internally weren’t working as well as they could. Max employed 10-15 people, and some were required to do more than one job. Because Max was so involved with the day-to-day tasks he had trouble actually seeing the bigger picture. He wasn’t really sure what a professional organizer could do for his business, but he knew something had to change and he was open to it.

The Organizing Process:

So Organized! was initially called in by the office manager and told that the company wanted to re-work the organization chart and job descriptions. When Max sat in on the second meeting he became aware that the organization did need re-working, but not according to the office manager’s agenda! So Organized! spent many sessions both observing and implementing hands-on organizing, and here’s what Max discovered:

• Max had an office manager who delegated all tasks and virtually did no work himself.
• Max held meetings without any agendas and concluded them without definitive action plans or deadlines.
• Some of his inside salespeople were good “schmoozers” who maintained accounts but did not have the skill set to increase sales.
• Some of his account services people appeared overburdened until work areas were organized and internal communications were streamlined.
• As an owner who was formerly an employee of the company, Max tended to either perform tasks or micromanage them instead of delegating and managing them.
• The existing location of his family-owned business was not crucial to its success.
• He could align his personal goal of spending more time with his family, with his business goals and take real steps to attain them.

The Organized Results:

• Max fired the office manager.
• He cut down the number of meetings and made sure that each one had a specific agenda.
• He also made sure that employees had specific “To Do’s” with due dates, not only after meetings but with any of the work he began to delegate. This allowed him to hold them accountable instead of doing the work himself.
• He learned how to better communicate job expectations to all his employees to be able to tie performance to results.

The Final Result: Within 3 years of our working together, Max met one of his biggest goals by moving his business to his hometown. Instead of commuting, he was able to spend more quality time with his young children.


SO Success Story #2


The Organizing Challenge:

Kelly* does a lot of things and she does them all well. She’s a wife, a mom, a karate black belt, a photographer, a dog trainer….Kelly thought she was organized until she just couldn’t keep up any more. The clutter in her house was building and whatever systems she had set up were now falling apart.

Kelly’s kitchen was the starting point. This area bothered her the most because it served as the nerve center of the family. Initial appearances looked as if there were a system in place; however, one look at a kitchen storage closet told the story-- over organization! Kelly had categories for her categories and when an item didn’t fit into her finite system, the system broke down, leaving things with no place to go except the nearest flat surface!

The Organizing Process/Results:

• Create broader categories for items, including Kelly’s already categorized items. For example, she had a box of flat head screws, a box of round head screws, a box of carpet nails….we placed these boxes into one large,clear container labeled “Hardware”. Now if a random nail or screw appeared she had a place for it without having to first create one.
  
• Categorize shelves according to her hobbies and everyday needs. She had dog supplies, martial art accessories, photography supplies/accessories, her daughter’s hair supplies…..Asking Kelly to determine how accessible each category needed to be dictated the type of container used and which shelf to assign to each category. For example, placing all of her daughter’s hair things in one large container (Kelly had individual containers with different types of accessories) including the accessories themselves, the brushes and the hair sprays and placing this container where it could be reached by them both, satisfied each of their needs. She and her daughter knew where everything was and while her daughter may not put all the accessories in their individual places, she could put them in the larger container which Kelly could then sort at a later time if desired.
• Create a recipe binder for Kelly, to accommodate the many ways Kelly collects recipes. This allows for recipes written on different sized papers and from various sources to reside in one place, instead of remaining in a pile on a shelf with the cookbooks. And of course the binder has an index with Kelly’s food categories!

The Final Result:

So Organized! worked with Kelly’s tendency to over categorize and didn’t try to completely change the system with which she felt the most comfortable. Broadening her categories allowed her to have a place for things and maintain her system.
 

SO Success Story #3

The Organizing Challenge:

Lisa* lost her sister in the Sept. 11th attacks. Her sister had been living full-time with their elderly, ailing mother and she had handled all of the household and medical responsibilities. Lisa was overwhelmed facing the loss of her sister coupled with assuming her sister’s responsibilities.

The Organizing Process:

This job entailed detailed paperwork regarding 9-11 and the many requirements of the 9-11 families, Lisa’s sister’s estate, and the household paperwork. Lisa was not only overwhelmed by the amount of paper and keeping her own life straight, but at the same time she was mourning the loss of her sister. Together we defined three main objectives: identify and categorize all official 9-11 paperwork and make it portable; identify and categorize Lisa’s sister’s financial and banking accounts; identify and categorize all the household bills and her mother’s medical bills. Her sister did have a filing cabinet (in her bedroom), but she did not have a discernible system. In addition to these goals, Lisa wanted to preserve her sister’s memory by saving many of her “things”.

The organizing process required multiple phases. The circumstances surrounding 9-11 made this situation particularly sensitive and complicated in terms of documentation. In the first phase we identified, categorized and saved everything, not knowing what documents might be needed in the future. We even did this with the household and medical paperwork, since Lisa was unfamiliar with the running of the house and which medical papers were relevant to her mother’s health. In addition to this, Lisa initially preserved the space her sister lived in which consisted of two rooms, a bedroom and a home office, in the upstairs of their mother’s house. Lisa had her own apartment and a full-time job and felt it important that her own separate life be preserved as well.

However, the reality proved to be very different. Lisa’s mother’s medical needs required more of Lisa than she had realized in addition to the help of a full-time aide. Lisa was spending more time in her sister’s space than she had intended.

The next phase of the organizing process involved making her sister’s space her own space. Physically transforming the rooms to accommodate Lisa’s needs was a huge emotional and psychological shift for her. It meant not only accepting the loss of her sister, but also accepting the new reality that her own life had changed forever.

Organized Results:

Once Lisa recognized that it made sense for her to live in her sister’s space and she accepted this, she was eager to make the space her own. We moved the file cabinet from the bedroom into the home office. This allowed Lisa to begin to find the bedroom a relaxing place. We overhauled her closets and her drawers and the storage space that was behind the walls. Lisa was now ready to donate things of her sister’s that she and her mother did not need. She was able to see what they needed for the house and what was old and could be discarded. She put the things of her sister’s that she wanted to keep into storage containers. Therefore, she now had room for her own things.

We set up a file drawer in the desk just for her own personal files and designated drawers in a tall file cabinet for her sister and 9-11, her mother and the household. We made room in additional storage areas for much of the 9-11 material that was in containers and had been out in the office as a constant reminder. Instead, we made sure happier memories/pictures of her sister were on display. Lisa was a nurse by trade and was accustomed to taking care of others and through the organizing process she finally learned how to take care of herself.

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* Names changed, original information