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- "Our paperwork palaver is costing us money!"
- Empty nesters in large family home
- Shared space - family room - where to start?!
- Shared space - family home - and lack of direction
- Spatially challenged home
- Spare room full to the brim
- Large, two story family home needing to be sold
- Teenage boys = Dumping ground
- Spacious home overflowing with too many memories
- Valuable spare room is a dumping ground and we need a nursery!
- Tiny art studio and unusable dining room
- New home office
- Busy busy professional office
- Information heavy office
"I can't bear it anymore, it's costing us money!"
PROBLEM: Paperwork palaver
Miss Miranda has a system for the paperwork in her life… pop it somewhere… like under the sink! Hubby Nige was struggling not to get cranky about the other paperwork scattered around the rest of the house … nothing was in order and it was causing some conflict between them. Nigel was wondering what the cost to them was.
We custom design a filing system for them. Then, we wrangled all the paperwork: personal, business (Miranda is self employed so there’s the dreaded BAS) and everything in between. We uncovered:
1. unbanked cheques (ker-ching!)
2. receipts for health fund claims (ker-ching!)
3. and all the fiddly bits and pieces in place for last year’s tax return (ker—chhhhing!).
It pay$ to get organised. And the best reward? Miranda confessed she was dreading the whole process – but was delighted to discover that it didn’t hurt a bit!
"You’re my angel in jack boots!" …
PROBLEM: Empty nesters in large family home
Pamela lives in a beautiful home, with lots of space, lots of storage, and lots of memories – it’s the family home where the kids grew up! But the kids have now left home and Pamela decided it was time for a spring clean and some order in the house. We had a fun afternoon (after she confessed she thought it would be pretty dreary!) and she told us what she liked about the process: "Inspiration, gentle coaxing combined with a "firm push" – just what I needed! A very pleasant experience."
We set some achievable tasks for her to complete and Pamela rang back a week later to say: "Wanted to let you know how well I'm doing and how thrilled I am with everything that's happened. I've decided to call you my Angel in Jack Boots I think that describes the experience! Thanks again, looking forward to seeing you again…"
We’re going back soon to tame her paper tiger…
"Definitely having someone to do hands on work was extremely helpful."…
PROBLEM: Shared - family room
"Our sorter was very friendly and helpful, not pushy but encouraging. Discussions of my needs was easy and we got down to the nitty gritty together. Definitely having someone to do hands on work was extremely helpful."
Ah, the family room will never be the same again!
Kicking Goals…
PROBLEM: Shared - family home
Goal-setting played a big part in getting through lots of unfinished business:
"… [SORTED! provided] motivation to continue to prioritise, sort, delegate and just organise our lives more efficiently. TERRIFIC, GREAT, FANTASTIC!" Deanne
It looks like Steve and Deanne will now be able to work through a bunch of unfinished tasks and have some incentive to set future goals.
(have a close look at the Polaroid – it’s the "before"!)
Get your house in order
PROBLEM: Spatially challenged home
Lack of storage, small cupboards, busy professional and social lives… that all meant that Cath & her partner had trouble keeping up with the ‘stuff’ in their home and home office. Without discarding too many possessions, an assessment of their storage, a good clean out and a whole bunch of ideas saw them right!
Cath said: "We love that we can now find what we need – it saves us so much time… It's inspired me to declutter other areas and start making decisions about old stuff that’s been hanging around for years! We’re so grateful."
"Encouraging and non-judgemental. Great result."
PROBLEM: Spare room full to the brim
After seeing Lissanne present an IKEA workshop, dynamic, creative and busy mum Simone just knew it was time tackle the spare room. Her three children were sharing one bedroom – the clutter and junk in the spare room was costing her oldest daughter a space of her own.
Over a number of sessions we’re dealing with the physical clutter… and exploring the emotional baggage that’s in there too. (We are all fine listeners at SORTED!).
When we asked Simone what we got right, she replied "All of it! The right balance of cruel and kind. Encouraging and non-judgemental. Great result." She said there was nothing we could have done better next time. Stay tuned for the happy ending and the ‘after photos’!
Renovations almost done. Gotta get the house on the market!
PROBLEM: Large, two story family home
After nine very full months of complete renovations the house was a mess. Sue and Pete were in their element when it came to structural improvements, but had no idea where to start with the finishing touches or how to make the place look good. We prepared the house for sale, and organised all the cupboards in the process ready for the move. The result? A brilliant price when the house sold and one very happy customer. Smiles all round – nice one.
"I am writing to express my appreciation for the great work done by SORTED! My partner and I had spent thousands of dollars and plenty of hard work renovating our house and needed help to display the house to its best advantage.
Their ability to tame the jungle that was my home office was impressive in itself. She created a functional and aesthetically appealing solution. There is now a place for everything and everything is in its place. They also added the finishing touches to our hard work to make the house more desirable. We achieved a great price for our home and she made what is usually a stressful time so much easier. And all on time and on a budget. What a service. Thank you."
Teenage Boys = care factor zero
PROBLEM: dumping ground
Sass is mum to two teenage boys who’d skilfully "tidied their rooms" into the spare room! Naughty boys! (We fixed it) While we were there, we also tackled the linen press… and the kitchen drawers. All this in three hours!
Can you believe we filled the car for a trip to the op shop? Ah, gotta love a good cull. And we particularly loved what Sass said:
"Got me motivated to start! Encouraged me to face the bombshell and act to let go of things that I never used."
"Can you move in??" heh heh heh
38 years of serious hoarding. Widowed, it’s now time to sell the house and move into the future.
PROBLEM: Spacious home overflowing with too many memories
Jan was clearly overwhelmed with the task at hand and felt confronted with the history of her belongings. She said she was in a "terrible mess. I’m not proud of it". It was clear, things had been moved in circles instead of forward. We’ve just completed our first session together and Jan is working towards the goal of selling off some of her excess belongings. She liked that we
- Focussed on straight-forward tasks
- Provided clear thinking
- Provided direction
Jan wants to "continue on with the same focus" next visit. Team SORTED! are here to help Jan... worry not.
Tick Tock, it’s Baby O’clock
SPACE: Valuable spare room is a dumping ground and we need a nursery!
We sorted Fil & Jim’s junk room to make way for baby number two. Then we organised all the supplies and reference materials Fil needs to run her Weight Watchers classes each week. She was inspired to carry on the organising in other rooms…!
"We’ve had so many people thorough to see our beautiful room. It’s so beautiful, the door is constantly open and I still can’t believe it all happened… I will be eternally grateful to you.
I’ve slowly started sorting out cupboards that need attention. My wardrobe had a huge clean out and I just need to get to Ikea to buy up big! Every nook and cranny will be cleaned out and sorted out !!! No task is too big and "MY" Weight Watchers cupboard, what a joy... it is just so easy. Thank you!!!"
I know it’s a cliche, but it’s really changed out lives…"
PROBLEM: tiny art studio and unusable dining room
Gary & Nicoll are both collectors. With a young family they have little time to devote to making the house look and work better. Nicoll does scrapbooking and calligraphy from a tiny, custom designed space, that is very, very small. The whole area needed a serious work out. We provided clarity in the studio and restored order in the dining room. Nicoll couldn’t speak highly enough.
"Absolutely love our areas, they're fantastic, and working really well. Absolutely happy customers."
"I know it's a cliche, but the [re-organisation] has really changed our lives ... we're so happy with the results and how everything functions so well. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Running a blossoming business from home...
Space: New home office
We sorted Nicola’s new home office and dramatically improved her space, storage and systems. Nicola needed infrastructure to support her company's rapid growth! She was deighted with our ideas, hands-on sorting and motivation.
She said she liked: "Picking up on what I can achieve right now. Giving me great suggestions for what's possible and ideas I hadn't considered. It was very inspiring, energising and productive. You inspired me. Every time I use something or get it out now I assess if it has a home, is it effective and is it labelled? It's really coming together. Thank you so much for the guidance. I'm very excited to have met someone with your experiences and positive energy. I look forward to our next meeting."
New order
PROBLEM: busy busy professional office
Julie, time pressed professional with many commitments on her plate, wanted more order and a sense of spaciousness in her office. We did just that AND made her space more relaxing and enjoyable to work in. Afterwards, she told us we:
- Made it seem possible
- Achieved physical transformation
- provided ideas for future plans and maintenance. Liss is a dynamo!
Office out of control
PROBLEM: Information heavy office
Academic, wife and mother of two teenagers, and very time poor, Catherine admitted she was in a bit of a state. She had no filing systems to speak of and had over 6,000 e-mails in her in-box. She had multiple copies of files on her compter at home and no back up system. With an onslaught of paper Catherine claimed "I will die if I don’t file!". It was all getting too much.
We implemented systems from the ground up, explained how to manage her mail, devised a system for paper and electronic files and set her on the way to being fully organised! We also tackled parts of her office she hadn’t visited in years and helped Catherine feel confident to carry on the work herself.
Catherine said we got it right and she liked:
- sense of do-ability and practical help
- positive and friendly interaction
- decisive physical changes
- tidying up and throwing out and reorganising filing system
- tidying up e-mails, digital and physical files.
- big picture responsibilities / talk
- exploring things clearly and where necessary, [explaining] a few times.
