De-cluttering coach

I said no. Not that it isn't a good idea, but I feel like I am pretty good at it (in general). The day I retired, I emptied an entire closet worth of clothes. I kept some of the dressier work clothes and a few casual slacks and blouses. Almost everything else work wise went. I think I am pretty good at having space for what I want and when I start to get too tight in an area, I purge.

Good luck with your new business. I can see people needing help. Sometimes people need just a start and some people need their hand held the whole time.

Personally no, but the people I know who would would want this:

Love the quote and best of luck with the business!

I do think there is a market for this type of business having watched a girlfriend downsize from the big family home to a condo in the last month.

Another add-on service would be to help with listing items for sale on FB marketplace and other sell sites. My girlfriend had no interest in figuring it all out. She would send photos to her daughter-in-law across the country who would list them, take care of the sale and let the buyers know when/where to pick up. 

I wouldn't hire a service because after many years of decluttering and organising- reading books, reading blogs, organisedhome forums, watching Clean Sweep...I've got a good handle on decluttering and organising. Plus my disposable income doesn't really lend itself to hiring specialists. (and the person in my house who COULD use the help 'has it under control')

But I definitely think there's a market for it and I wish you all the best! I LOVE your business name!

I had a friend that was a hoarder.  She called me crying one day to relate that her mother was coming for a surprise visit in a week's time.  She said if her mother saw how she and her daughter were living, she would file for custody of the daughter.  She had threatened it in the past and my friend knew her mother would follow through with taking custody of her daughter.

I had previously cleaned and organized the daughter's room before, so she asked me to please help her get ready for the mother's visit.  She was truly unsure of how to sort and get rid of things. I ended up having to take bags of trash home with me each night because she was going out after I had gone home and bringing some of the items that we agreed to throw away back into the house.  I'm talking empty boxes.  

Now, I can understand wanting to temporarily keep a box of an electronic item that was just purchased in case you need to return it.  But she was bringing back in boxes of things like a wooden CD rack that was several years old.  No moving parts.  No opportunity to return.  She couldn't understand why she couldn't keep the box because it was in good condition.  She had two cars and the second car was filled to the ceiling with stuff too. It sat in her driveway because the garage was overflowing with crud just like the apartment was.  

I did my best with her.  I took her shopping for cleaning materials.  She was so interested in the floor wax.  I arrived early the next morning to seeing her so excited because she had just waxed the kitchen floor.  She kept remarking on how wonderful the kitchen smelled.  Unfortunately, she hadn't washed it first.  It was filthy.  I mean I don't think it had ever been washed.  I had to strip the new wax, wash the floor, and then let her wax it again. She was so shocked at the color of the floor without dirt on it.

We went through gallons of Nature's Miracle because she had a pet rat that lived loose in the house. It had chewed the furniture and drapes in addition to pooping and peeing everywhere.  I soaked the carpeting with Nature's miracle overnight before bringing in a rented carpet cleaner the next day.  She ended up buying dozens of big plastic tubs to put things into and stacking them in the little back yard of the apartment.  The yard was a disaster too because she had purchased a couple of rabbits and turned them loose in the yard.  There were holes everywhere and rabbits to fill them.  To feed the rabbits she just bought large bags of feed and cut them open on the patio.  That drew outside rats too.  

And the funny thing to me is she wanted to take me to lunch one day to have a serious conversation.  She told me she felt I had a mental disorder of some type because my Saturdays were reserved for house cleaning. She would want to take our kids to the zoo or the beach and I would have to remind her that we did all of our house chores on Saturdays, but we could probably go Sunday if we had finished them all.  She felt that I had OCD because I was cleaning my house and doing laundry every single week!  And I even vacuumed under the cushions of my family room couch.  She had never seen anyone clean on a normal basis so this was extremely concerning to her.  She truly had no idea that she was the one with the disorder.  But you could never meet a nicer person.  You just couldn't go inside her house.

I personally love organizing things, but I know there are many people out there that do not have a clue on how to keep their belongings in a manner that they can find them again.  People like that would benefit from your service.

I have a friend who has a business like this, but with a twist - she markets her business at helping older people who are downsizing their homes.  She offers whatever help they feel they need, from helping them work out what they need or want in their new smaller home, through helping them dispose of what they don’t want (sell or donate), and organising storage if they need it before they move into their new home.

I wouldn’t because I’m good at doing that on my own but I think it’s a great idea for someone that needs it. I believe there’s probably a lot if people that do need this help.

We need a postscript to this story. What happened when her mother came to visit? Did your friend clean up enough that mom didn't file for the kid? Honestly, the thought of a child living in what you describe...   Well, she might be safer with the grandmother! At least the threat of it might motivate the mom to get some help. 

I could definitely use someone to help me with my craft room. See decluttering thread for a pic! But I would go a step further and want someone to work along side me, question me on what I want to keep, show me how to organize things in a better way.

I have small areas in my house that could use decluttering. My craft room looks like a hoarder lives here. I am not a hoarder in the rest of my house though. So I would just need little tweaks around my house. But I need someone to question me. Like for example in my hall closet I have books that I used for my masters degree. 5 years out and I have never once referenced those books. I need to get rid of them. My front closet has a shelf where I could easily fit 6 bins, it's really deep. But I'm not sure what to put in them although I have other closets busting at the seams. So someone thinking me through lesser used items to put up there would be great. But I need someone too who knows containers/organizing things.

I’m the one who helps her friends and family members declutter so I chose that I wouldn’t on the poll; but I think it’s a wonderful idea and that there is definitely a market for it. Good luck!

I think it's a great idea!! While I don't need the service my husband does. He hangs onto everything and I think a third party could get him to part with some of his crap more easily than I could.

Good luck!!

No, but I'm not a hoarder. I know a woman who does this and has more business than she can handle. Go for it!!

Another point… my friend is moving and downsizing. She took all her extra blankets to the homeless shelter and then realized she needed them to protect furniture in the moving truck. So an “order of operations” might be helpful too.

I have a friend who just finished working with a woman who calls herself a “professional organizer”. My friend’s upstairs level, with kids rooms and a rec room, had really become cluttered and she couldn’t get a handle on it. She paid this organizer quite well and the woman spent almost 2 weeks there working. I don’t know what it all entailed, exactly, but my friend was thrilled with the results.