Tag: room makeover

Life In The Organized Zone

April 10, 2020 / The Organizing Lady

Imagine, if you will, walking into your home and getting a sense of calm and serenity and complete delight with your environment. Everything in front of you is pleasing; everything you look at makes you happy.

That zone of comfort and delight is what brings joy. And that zone is The Organized Zone.

Unlike my short-lived TV series, Disorganized Zone (available on Netflix) that made a 1-season debut, the zone I’m talking about here is quite the opposite. Because, in the Organized Zone, the outcome of our day is predictable and doesn’t have the hiccups like that in the Disorganized Zone.

In the Organized Zone, we get more things done, we have more time for ourselves, we are able to keep up with responsibilities and tasks, things like that. Top that off with a uncluttered spaces and you’ve got a happier, more functional person.

For those of you who find yourself in the opposite zone, let me see if I can help you get to the other side.

First, try to envision what you want your area to look and feel like. Picture it it your mind with as much clarity as you can muster. I think it’s best to stand in the non-optimum room you want to fix while doing this and close your eyes as you envision it.

By mentally redecorating your area, you can clearly visualize the ideal look and feel you want that room to have. It actually comes to life in your mind.

Follow this exercise with writing down everything in your vision – every detail that your vision came up with. It could be some new furniture pieces, a room cleared of clutter and debris that doesn’t belong there, a new wall color, maybe even some new accent furnishings.

I did this with someone who wanted a complete makeover in her family room. She was extremely unhappy with the space and asked me to do a makeover. Yet she had no idea what she wanted it to look like after the transformation (except it being clutter-free, of course).

In order to draw out a vision for this room, we first had to determine what kind of atmosphere and surroundings she would like to be in the most. It turned out that it was a medieval castle!

Well, I wasn’t expecting that, needless to say. However, I went with that and dived in further.

I wrote down what she envisioned the room to look like, every detail I could get out of her. I then drew up a room plan and, with her blessing, I went shopping. It was more of a treasure hunt actually, due to some of the pieces I had to find!

I found everything we wanted except for a desk unit, because the ones I saw would not go with the vibe of the room she envisioned. So I designed it myself and had it custom made. Thank goodness this expense fit within her budget!

Clearing out everything in her family room for the makeover was easy – she wasn’t going to keep anything in it except the TV. So I had a clean slate to work with.

Walls were faux-painted, new curtains were hung, the TV was draped in velvet fabric for a theater-styled enclosure, new furniture got placed strategically, and home accent pieces adorned the area, including the wrought iron floor candelabras.

I’d like to claim it was my masterpiece, but it was actually hers – she designed it with her vision and I just carried it out to the specifications of that vision.

I wish I kept the Before-After photos of this project, but it was a long time ago and those pictures got lost in a digital black hole.

My whole point in that scenario is that here was someone who had an area she didn’t like and transformed it. She not only stepped into The Organized Zone by clearing out all clutter from it, she stepped into her little slice of heaven.

Whenever you’re ready to create your own slice of heaven in your spaces, this just might help you to get started. Happy adventures doing so!

5 Day Room Makeover Challenge

April 3, 2020 / The Organizing Lady

As we find ourselves staying more at home during the Covid-19 virus quarantine, I wanted to come up with a 5-Day Room Makeover Challenge to help occupy your time at home.

We’ve been so busy and in a hurry that things at home start accumulating and piling up into what becomes clutter. It gets to the point where sometimes we don’t even notice the mess after it’s been around for awhile.

Now that a lot of us are stuck at home due to the Corona virus, you’re also stuck in the mess we created. So this is my challenge for you to take the time to do something about that.

Start with picking out a room that’s frowning at you. Then look around it. Take photos, even a video of it.

Each day for 5 days, tackle those rooms you’re not happy with. Some rooms may take more than a day and some rooms won’t need your attention at all. If you get this challenge done in a day or two, that’s great! Well done!

Post your before pictures as well as your after pictures in the comments below and let’s do this together!

Note: Also share this Challenge on Facebook and Instagram – follow at:

https://facebook.com/organizinglady

Instagram – @organizinglady2020

5 TIPS FOR 5 DAYS

TIP #1:

Gather up anything that is out of place in a room and put those items away. If you have a lot of things around to gather up, put them in a bin and put away after you’re done gathering.

TIP #2:

Go through any “STUFF” bins that you’ve gathered up from the room you’re organizing and decide if you’re keeping it, if it needs a “home” (because you didn’t have a place for it yet), and categorize the items – clothing, books and magazine, etc. – into other bins or bags.

TIP #3:

Go online and shop for any storage solutions you may need to provide “homes” for items that haven’t had a nice home to live in. If it’s visible storage, make sure it fits in with your decor.

TIP #4:

Donate or toss anything you don’t use, don’t need, don’t like, etc. Try to get rid of all the excess items we tend to keep and streamline your belongings.

TIP #5

Refresh your de-cluttered room with new paint, new throw pillows, new art, whatever will make you happier in that space.

A Nice Space Reflects You, Only Better

August 24, 2015 / The Organizing Lady

When I came across the hashtag #YouOnlyBetter on Twitter, my head flooded with ideas relating to home organizing. Because we are an extension of our spaces in a way, and the way we create our environment reflects on who we are.

Granted, that hashtag mostly brought up smiling faces of women who did some sort of makeup makeover. But I thought, “a beauty makeover is similar to a room makeover in that the room looks better and we feel better about ourselves for making it look nice.”

In my article “What Being Organized Has In Common With Happiness” it says how being clutter-free is synonymous with being happy. And here I’m taking that a step further by saying that being happy is part of who you are.

Have you ever noticed that when you see a happy person it has a positive effect on you in some way? As laughter is contagious, so is a cheerful person. And a cheerful room is contagious – it uplifts you.

So, what’s a cheerful room? How can a room have feeling or emotion?

A room that looks nice to you is essentially capable of making you feel better. The nicer it is to you, the more cheerful it is. It’s portraying a feeling that’s uplifting – whether it’s a tranquil space that makes you feel relaxed or a space with pizazz that just makes you smile.

Either way, a nice space reflects you and the way you feel. And anyone walking into your space is going to see a bit of who you are in that space.

There was this one lady that I met when I went to do an organizing segment of a TV reality show. By appearances, she looked classy. She was dressed in a stylish outfit and wore her makeup perfectly. But when she spoke, she was in despair. There was nothing happy about her and I could tell that her life wasn’t going so well. Then, once I saw the hoarding mess inside her apartment, I saw the real her. And it wasn’t a nice portrayal of her either.

Now, I’m sure she was a very nice lady and possibly even had lots of friends. But, in her own words, those friends never saw the inside of her apartment. She never had anyone in it, so who knew why she lived with such despair?

With hoarders who need a major cleanup as well as therapy to turn their life around, it’s a whole different story, and not the typical story when we talk about average clutter (see my article “A Talk With Matt Paxton of Hoarders“). With average clutter, a simple cleanup is all that’s needed to change a person and make them feel better.

To celebrate your nice space, I want to start a new Twitter hashtag: #MyOrganizedSpace – and include @TheMakeoverLady in your post. Include a picture or video of your organized space or you in your organized space and let’s all celebrate it together! All your photos / videos just might inspire me to write a new article featuring all of you with your photos or videos!

P.S. I’d love for you to follow me on Twitter, too! @TheMakeoverLady

4 Easy Ways To Give Your Cluttered Home A Space Lift On A Dime

July 17, 2015 / The Organizing Lady / 0 Comments

Giving a space-lift to a cluttered home is like a face-lift to your face – you are giving your space new dimensions and a new look that makes it more beautiful.

After all, when we start getting wrinkles on our face, bags under our eyes, or sagging necklines, we want to do all we can to bring back some of the youth we once had.

The same principle applies to a room that’s sprinkled with clutter, sagging with overloaded shelves, or stuffed with too much stuff in cabinets and closets. When it starts happening (or has existed for too long), we should want to make it more beautiful again, or at least more livable.

So, here’s some fast and easy ways to do a space-lift without spending a lot – like you are doing design on a dime!

1. Remove clutter

Gather up all clutter in the area into sorting bins

De-cluttering the living room and family room are good places to start because these are common areas of the home and can accumulate the most stuff which ends up out of place for long periods of time, sometimes indefinitely. So, begin by collecting any items on the loose lying around and put them in receptacles by category / type.

Once that is done, your area will be clutter-free!

2. Give the area more space

Re-arrange furniture and items in room to make it more spacious.

Situate furniture so it’s more functional for the room and get rid of too much furniture for the space. Same for items on table-top surfaces and bookshelves.

The transformation of your space is now even more visible – and that’s without spending a dime on new paint, flooring or new furniture!

3. Streamline your belongings

Sort through each clutter receptacle to determine if you want or need the item in it.

So far you’ve done the easiest part of the easy ways to do a space-life and haven’t spent a dime yet. Don’t stop now! You’re almost there!

This is typically the longest part of the organization process, but a very necessary part. If you end up leaving everything in its sorting bin, you’ll just end up with organized clutter in some area of your home.

The easy way to tackle this step is just to dive right in – one receptacle at a time – and start looking at each thing you pick up from it. Take all the time you need on this and don’t worry – you’ve had this stuff lying around for quite some time so another few days or weeks sorting through the stuff shouldn’t matter much.

4. Give stuff a home

Find the right organizing solution for your stuff.

Now that you’ve sorted through everything and know what you’ll be keeping, you can either a) put it away where it belongs or b) find a new home for it.

That “home” might be in a new container, bin, basket, or some type of holding place or storage containment product. This is where you’re going to end up spending a little of your cash if you don’t already have something to use around the house.

You might think this step isn’t so easy, but it is. Not only that, but it’s the most fun!

Just make a list of the stuff you want to contain and go into a discount department store to walk down the home organization isles. Or, go online to have a look around (and those Pinterest Boards for home organization are fabulous!). You’ll find plenty of organizing solutions, ideas and inspirations doing any of those things.

Now, it’s done! You’ve completed a space-lift and didn’t spend a small fortune doing so! Step back and enjoy the new view of your space.

[Note: All images from DVD clips of “Get Organized With Cyndi Seidler”]

They Got Organized And Guess What Happened Next? You Name It

July 3, 2015 / The Organizing Lady / 0 Comments

When they say bad things happen to good people, I must say I’ve witnessed many instances of this in my line of work over the years (21 years, to be exact). Here are some of those horror stories, but be warned, these are not fiction (just the photos, which depict scenes from fictional movies).

A Bad Shoe Day

I had a new closet system designed and installed in a woman’s closet. It was pretty spectacular and would even make Carrie Bradshaw envious with all the shoes so glamorously on display. There hadn’t been too many opportunities where I could design and organize a closet, so I left quite proud, as if I had just won a World Cup award or something.

After a couple months of enjoyment, the woman called me. At first I thought, “Great! She wants me to do another closet!” But no, she called to tell me she just had a flood in her bathroom that seeped its way under the flooring and into her closet. Some shoes that had been left on the floor were destroyed – her favorites – which she just wore and had not put away yet. The entire closet had to be ripped out to fix the flooring and walls.

Happy ending though … she got a brand new closet system from her insurance company.

Life Changes Not To Look Forward To

I had the great pleasure once of doing a complete room makeover on a couple’s family room. They wanted Old World, Medieval-styled decor and furnishings, which happened to be my favorite period at the time.I spent days shopping for all the perfect items and even custom designed a desk unit for two with shelving for the home office section of the room. It was an elaborate undertaking and one that made all of us smile endlessly as everything fell into place.

Just as I was doing some finishing touches on the room, she informed me she lost her job – one that she had for ten years. Job security not so secure. She had just taken out a second mortgage to pay for home remodeling, so this had put the couple in a very bad situation (since the wife was the major income provider).

Very soon later, their house went into foreclosure, they got a divorce, and both had to move. I found out because she called to ask me if I wanted to buy the Old World candelabra I loved so much when I purchased it for her. I got it at half price, but it was her who had to pay full price on everything that unfolded in front of her life.

The good part of this story … she was happy to get rid of her dead-beat husband.

Robbed of Dignity

I had just finished packing and moving a woman into her new duplex unit. Apparently this was in a neighborhood she had not completely scoped out yet because she was in such a hurry to move.

Then, before everything could get unpacked, she came home from work to discover she got robbed. Neighborhood thugs were seen by neighbors carting stuff out of her place and police were called, but it was too late. They had gotten away with her TV, stereo, some jewelry, and other items (especially those I had unpacked and organized into their new home spaces).

She called the landlord to give a 30-day notice and called me to come back and pack up.

Good thing is, she still had plenty of belongings left to pack up and a lot of it was already still packed.

The Never-ending Boxes

This couple had just moved into their new home and I came to help them settle in and get everything organized into designated places. There were a lot of boxes and I learned that a lot of them had never been unpacked from their previous house (which they only lived in one year). This time they wanted to ensure that everything got out of boxes this time, and they called me to help accomplish this. So I did just that.

It wasn’t more than four months later that the husband got a new job transfer and they had to pack up and move again. Only this time it would be out of state. I thought their biggest disappointment would be the fact that they had to move again, but it wasn’t. Their biggest disappointment was that they got rid of all the packing boxes.

When The Heat Is On

At one time I organized a complete filing system for this small business that occupied three suites in the office building. The business owner kept a tight ship and paid a lot of attention to security, especially when it came to documents and computer files. He was meticulous in the way he liked everything organized, and was especially pleased that I had just established an enterprise-wide filing system for the company so that everyone could find and store documents easily.

Several months later the office building caught fire and almost everything burned in his offices. The document retrieval process was a slow and arduous undertaking, of which most records in the file cabinets were saved and business eventually resumed as normal.Well, as normal as could be given the fact that most of his employees had been used to working at home during the rebuild and then had to come back to the office.

Victim of A Reality Show

Me and my team were hired to organize a woman on a TV reality show who hoarded clutter. I was originally informed that the woman had a lot of clutter, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I arrived.

After doing the dreadful task of sorting through mounds of the cockroach-infested piles, it seemed that the production team then misplaced a lot of her items after the organization when they were moving boxed up things to her storage unit. She may have sued. All I know is the show got canceled (which was no surprise to me since I experienced their field producer being nothing but trouble).

The end.

Now, if you are thinking, “This organizer must be bad luck!” let me remind you, this was happening in their life, not mine. And I want to add that the good luck I’ve brought to people doesn’t make interesting stories because there isn’t any problems. But maybe I’ll offset this and write about that next, who knows.

This just in!

A woman hires me and my organizing assistant to come pack up her condo and do home staging so she could sell it. So I promptly schedule and line up my assistant, blocking out a week of work. Just before we head out, I’m called and told she just sold her condo with all the furnishings in it. This was good luck for her … bad for me and my assistant.

A Room Makeover With A Professional Organizer

June 3, 2015 / The Organizing Lady

Bringing in a professional organizer to help clear the clutter in a home or office is a typical job in this profession. But bringing in a professional organizer who knows interior decorating is a major plus for those who want to change more than their cluttered room.

One of the reasons I like to refer to myself as an Organization Lifestylist is because I do both organizing and decorating to fit a person’s lifestyle, as well as help individuals make lifestyle changes.

There was one client who wanted to change the look of her home to fit her lifestyle and love for medieval times. Her favorite time of year was going to Renaissance Medieval & Pirate Faire and would get all decked out in costume whenever she attended. It was her love for Medieval times that finally drove her to do a home makeover reflecting her taste and lifestyle.

She called the right person when she called me. I happen to love medieval things – from its Gothic chandeliers to the old world furniture. Decorating this place was the most fun I’ve ever had, and I was most pleased to find them an authentic looking Middle Age wood-carved throne fit for a king.

image from thestylesaloniste.com

The only thing I couldn’t find was a desk with hutch shelving, so I designed one myself and had it made for them. After all, it wasn’t going to do them any good if everything fit into the theme except for the office area, now would it?

So I guess what I’m trying to say here is that anyone can decide to change their surrounding to fit their lifestyle or taste. If you don’t know your taste, maybe an eclectic mix of things would make you smile.

The end result should always be that your home surroundings smile at you and make you feel happy in it. If it isn’t doing that right now, it’s time to think about what can be done to make it so.