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I always envisioned nesting as that final stage of pregnancy when the expectant mother camps out in the nursery, cleaning with OCD fever and meticulously folding onesies across the surface of her swollen belly. This is not what happened to me.
I opened my eyes one Saturday morning somewhere in the middle of my second trimester, and before I even lifted my head off the pillow, I startled my husband awake by declaring, "I hate this room." It had begun. Making over the bedroom was the first in a series of nesting home improvements I had to make before I could get to the blissful newborn-clothing-folding step of making room for baby.
With its easy-to-close door, the bedroom had become a hideout for all our crap – clothing poured out of the closet, and shirts and jeans without drawer space sat in homeless piles on the floor – but there was no way to shut the door on the fact that the room would not work once baby arrived. The plan was to have baby sleep in our bedroom for the first few months, but there weren't enough clutter-free feet of floor space to place a basinet. The situation felt hopeless, and as the day wore on, I became inconsolable.
It was my mother who, during a hormonal and tearful conversation, convinced me to look into hiring a professional home organiser. At first I resisted; what kind of home editor would I be if I couldn't even find storage solutions for my own apartment? Pride, however, was not going to fix the situation. I needed outside help. The next day, my mum emailed me a list of local home organisers. I looked through their websites and contacted Deb Ghiglieri of Get Organized by Deb. From our first phone conversation, it was clear that we had great chemistry.
We scheduled an initial session, and while I had high expectations, nothing could have prepared me for how effective Deb would be. Over the course of three three-hour sessions, Deb helped us fall back in love with our bedroom and freed me to get on with my nesting.
Here are the six shockingly simple yet effective ways a professional organiser helped me regain control of my bedroom clutter:
Used her fresh eyes to see new storage opportunities in the wardrobe
Where we saw the same old clutter, Deb saw space for a second rod to be installed, effectively doubling our hanging storage space.
Refolded all the clothing in my dresser to create more space
The first thing Deb did was also the simplest. She unfolded and refolded everything in my dressers using a narrow-profile folding technique and then arranging the pieces using a vertical stacking method. The result was magical; newfound drawer space appeared seemingly out of thin air!
With all of the clutter gone, we actually started liking our bedroom again. Photo: Grace Hitchcock
Knew exactly what storage products to use where and for what
Deb measured the space under my bed, strategised which pieces would fit the best and then picked out the specific plastic rolling containers she knew from first-hand experience would work the best. There was no guesswork or frustrating trial and error. Just a problem solved.
Provided a supportive presence that increased productivity
There's something about having an outsider bearing witness to your clean-out efforts that makes them more effective. Not only was I more willing to toss old pieces, I was also able to focus more effectively with supervision. Plus, her encouragement made parting with things more fun than sad.
Customised storage solutions to our individual lifestyle and needs
Deb wasn't just concerned with hiding the mess. Her goal was to help us find long-term storage solutions. She worked with us to tailor the organisation efforts to our lifestyle, and then, based on how things were going, she worked with us to tweak them during her second and third visits.
Got us past our overwhelmed clutter paralysis
Having Deb get us started and through the worst of the mess got us to a place where we actually started liking our bedroom again. After just her first visit, we started taking more pride in the space, and it showed in the way we worked to maintain the changes she made. We even found ourselves inspired to take on other organisation projects around the house!
If your looking for a pro organiser to de-clutter your life and restore some order, start with the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers. Yep, that's really a thing.
This story appeared on Domain.