Even organizing pros can use a hand

A couple of months ago, my friend Danielle, a former professional organizer, asked for help going through her clothes. By the time we were done, we cleared enough space in her closet that she could easily see her entire collection, and had “found” some cute outfits she’d forgotten about and was excited to wear again.

Danielle is one of the most organized individuals I know. Makes you wonder why she would hire me, right? As a former pro herself, Danielle knew that organizing is much easier with someone who doesn’t have an emotional attachment to the stuff. She could count on me to ask why she was holding on to a particular pair of pants that she hadn’t worn in two years, for example. Having an extra pair of hands can speed up the process during the sorting and clean up. Organizing can be a lonely task, but with the two of us working together, it was fun and got done at once. Finally, even an expert can sometimes learn a new trick. Here’s one I shared with Danielle to give her speedy access to shirts stored in a deep dresser drawer. She loved the result!

She had been stacking her folded shirts on top of each other in a neat pile in the drawer. It looked great, but every morning she’d have to unpack the drawer until she found the particular shirt she wanted to wear, and then put the rest of the shirts back in. So I suggested she stack her shirts in the drawer to resemble a sandwich standing up. Imagine a BLT sandwich on its edge so you can see everything in between the bread: fake bacon (I’m vegetarian), lettuce and tomato. If you stand up a sandwich and look along its edge, you can see what’s in the sandwich and what (if anything) you want to take out before eating it. That set-up applies to a stack of shirts or other clothing items in a drawer, too: it lets you identify the item you need and pull it out without disturbing everything else.