Another Large Organizing Project

A rather large project was to organize the procedure and files for a company with self storage units.

First I went for a walk-through with a clipboard and pad of paper. I made a rough visual map of the layout of the storage units, including unit number and size. I also checked to see if each unit had a lock on it, and if it did not, I opened the unit to see if it was empty. If there were items inside, I placed a company lock on it for security purposes.

Next, I audited the rental files -- there should be one for each unit, even if one customer rented more than one. I made a cross-reference note in the file if this was the case. I created an audit label and put one on the cover of each file. The label was a checklist for what paperwork should be inside the file (signed contract, payment terms, etc.).

There were many incomplete files, so I created new standard paperwork to be used moving forward for every rental customer. I mailed these forms to customers with incomplete files (this took some time to hear back from them), and made sure the file matched the rental unit. This took me about 3 months total.

Now the process moving forward is very smooth, and in the event of a problem, all the paperwork is just a file away!

Organizing Project No. One

The first large organizing project I took on was in the Human Resources Department of a company. Their files all contained highly confidential personnel information and were in a variety of places -- filing cabinets that did not lock, random boxes shoved all over the place and stacks of papers that needed to be integrated into the filing system.

The first thing I did was have the filing cabinets relocated closer to the HR Dept. into an orderly fashion. I numbered each cabinet and tried to find a key for each lock on the cabinets. I did find several keys and tagged each one with the matching number of the cabinet; the keys were placed in a locking key box that only the HR Dept had access to.

For the cabinets that I could not find keys for, I had a mechanic rig mechanisms for each one enabling a lock to be secured onto it. Then I tagged those keys and stored them in the key cabinet.

With security now in place,I audited each cabinet's drawers to see what the contents were, and with the HR Vice President, developed a theme for each cabinet and/or drawer. Now I could start organizing and rearranging the contents of the drawers, including merging the files that were in random boxes -- about 20 of them -- into the appropriate drawers.

Themes included:
1.  Departed employee personnel files -- these hold confidential info such as social security numbers, salaries, reviews, etc. These are filed alphabetically.
2.  Workers comp files -- these were filed by year but the HR VP wanted them alphabetically, so a complete re-filing had to be completed.
3.  Applicant flow files.

Once the files were organized all in the same place, the HR Dept could easily maintain their paper flow, as well as locate very easily the files they were looking for.

Certification for Professional Organizer

In order to take the certification exam, you are required to log in 1,500 hours of paid organizing time within three years of taking the test. I have dutifully kept an Excel spreadsheet of every organizing jobs I've done. So if I am ever audited after taking the exam, I have proof of my eligibility.

I have two regular clients that I work with doing organizing on their computers. I have helped them get their files and digital photography organized, and in the process, have taught them how to achieve this organization and how to maintain it.

In the past year I also have taken on three rather large organizing jobs for a company that needed a complete audit of their processes and a complete overhaul on how to proceed in the future.  I will outline these projects in the following posts.

No More Sessions With This Client

I had several more sessions with my client, sorting through paperwork, and then weeks later, when I called my client to set up the next appointment, I got no response from either my phone message or an email.

I didn't want her to think I was hounding her, but I was concerned about my client, because we had been meeting a couple times a week for months now.

A few weeks went by, and I emailed her again, being very careful to let her know I was very concerned about her, hoped she and her family were alright, and that I hoped I hadn't done anything to upset her.

Eventually, she emailed me back, and she said that I had not done anything wrong, it had nothing to do with me, that she had something happen in her life that through her off balance. Her note said we would get back to "clutter-busting" soon. I emailed her back and said that I was here for her if she needed me and wished her well.

I never heard from her again.

Truthfully, this was very upsetting for me. I was so surprised at this sudden turn of events. In time, I let it go, but this was a client that would tell me that she wanted me to work with her for a year and then continue even that. So my mindset, my plan, was to see this job through, and I really enjoyed working with her and seeing our progress.  I know my help was appreciated, and I hope the work we did made a positive impact on her home.

Session Six

Today we spent a few hours in the second floor office, continuing to bring order to the many belongings in that room. Boxes and boxes and boxes of papers, booklets, professional items.

Our focus today was to sort through the paperwork and separate out the papers needed to do taxes.  All other papers could be boxes and brought down to the basement to be sorted at a later date.

Our focus from now on would be to sort papers in this fashion to prepare for tax time. The client had to make all decisions on paperwork, so we would select a box jam-packed with papers and start at the top, handing the paper to me and saying its category, or garbage, or shred it, etc.

This is a very exhausting process that we have to do together, and you don't see too much progress along the way.

Session Five

This day was spent on the master bedroom. As with the rest of the house, there were piles of items everywhere on the floor, on the bed and on the dressers. I noticed that the king-sized bed did not have sheets on it and deduced that my client slept on the bare mattress in the small uncluttered space.

Before we could reach the bed, we had to bring some kind of organization to the clutter on the floor to give us some working space. With a designated spot for sorting, we cleared a pathway around the bed, stacking like items together. Then we removed everything from the top of the bed -- everything. We put fresh sheets on the bed, fresh blankets and pillowcases, and I saw my client's eyes light up with pride at how nice her bed looked.

For religious reasons, we removed all of the books and the bookcase from her bedroom, just leaving one or two books she was reading on her nightstand. We moved them all around the corner to her upstairs office. Then we folded clothing and put them away in her closets, organizing as we went. We continued sorting the items on the floor and bringing them to their proper places.

For this project, the basement has been designated as the catch-all place to hold stuff as we sort. This will be the last room we really deal with.