Okay guys, so if you missed it, I had the chance to work with a professional organizer! I teamed up with Reclaim who is based out of Raleigh and was absolutely blown away. I feel like being organized (on a professional level) isn’t something you think about needing until you actually see what a big difference it makes in either your space or someone else’s and then you’re like why haven’t I done this before?!
Reclaim organized my closet, and then our pantry and kitchen (and now I want them to do the rest of the house too LOL). I’ll be focusing on the closet for this post, but I’ll be covering the pantry and kitchen in another blog coming soon. As far as the closet goes, I’m going to first go through what the day was like and how their service works, and then share the top tips Allison (founder of Reclaim and certified professional organizer) and her team shared in terms of what you can do in your own closet to help keep it organized and visually appealing 🙂
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- Pro Tip: Always put the prettiest items on display!
Obviously I can’t speak for all professional organizing services but with Reclaim they have various packages to choose from depending on what your organization needs are–think you can have 1-2 areas done or you can have your entire house organized. For this project we focused on just the kitchen/pantry and the closet. Regardless, they they do an initial consultation to get a feel for what you need, and then they do a full at-home assessment or just jump right into your first session!
So here is the gist of how the day goes. When Allison first arrived, she had 3 other teammembers with her and they basically split up into two groups–two of them tackled the closet and the others the pantry and kitchen. When they got here I was like, “What do I do to help?” The answer is nothing LOL. I’ll put it this way, you can be as much part of the process as you want but they are there to make your life easier. I will say though that prior to moving I did clean out my closet so I knew that I wanted to keep all the items that they were going through that day. Typically though, they will go through your space with you when they first arrive and sort items into like categories, and then go through each category to decide what stays, gets donated, or tossed to the trash LOL. Because while they are there to organize your space, part of that is also decluttering your space. They want your new space to be functional, efficient, and visually pleasing!
If anyone is thinking of working with Reclaim during this time with COVID, they wore masks the entire time –we just took them off for this photo!
Once they’ve narrowed down the items that are staying, they get to work! At that point you can sit back and relax. They periodically asked me if I had a preference on certain things ie. having jeans hung up or folded to which point I would say well what would you recommend? LOL. And then go off their recommendation. Otherwise though you basically leave it to the professionals. So in a nutshell the day breaks down to this:
At the end of the day (they were at the house from 9:30am-3:30pm), they revealed the closet to me and walked me through the space and how they organized everything–from how items were categorized, displayed, folded, etc. This way you know the how/why behind the organization so you can keep up with it once they leave. I went ahead and uploaded a before picture (I just put my items in there on hangers) so you can see what a difference it made with their skills.
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- Before
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- After
After we walked through the closet, I asked Allison what are 3 main tips she would give someone who wants to organize their closet. This is what she said:
2. Switch out your hangers so they all match. This can be a little investment up front but once it’s done it makes the biggest difference. I’ll admit, I held off getting matching hangers for years because I didn’t want to spend the money but now that they are all the same, it is a total game changer! Everything looks so much more cohesive and aesthetically pleasing; it really elevates the overall appearance of your closet. Plus, the hangers you get actually do make a difference in terms of how much space they take up. We went with these ones from the container store in the linen color. We only used the ones titled “suit hangers” for all the items, and then just purchased pant/skirt hanger clips to hang the shorts, and skirts (scroll down on the site and you’ll see where you can add those to your purchase). Allison recommends using slim ones because they take up less space, and the velvet texture prevents clothes from sliding off. Pro tip: I almost went with the black velvet but the black can fade some over time and show lint, so I went with a lighter color.
3. Organize clothing by style and then by color. For example, in my closet all of the graphic tees are together, then solid tees, crop tops, and then tank tops grouped according to strap width. And then within each style they are organized by color.
I’m honestly a little disappointed I didn’t work with a professional organizer when we were in our old house! Our space was much smaller and I definitely could have benefited from decluttering and being more organized. But, better late then never! It’s a little bit of an upfront investment cost wise, but once they put in the systems and show you what’s best, it’s something you can always keep up with. Some of y’all were asking about exact cost, and as I mentioned above, it really depends on the package you decide to go with. On Reclaim’s site you can view a ballpark of different package prices, and then during the assessment they can narrow it down. However as part of Reclaim’s 10 year anniversary, you can use my name as a referral and currently get 10% off their services! If you’re in the Raleigh/Durham area though, I can’t recommend Reclaim enough. Allison and her team are so warm and welcoming, professional (they wore masks the entire time except for when we took their photo at the end 😉 ) and work so seamlessly together.
Okay, I think that covers everything as far as the closet. Let me know if I missed anything or if you have questions! Hope this helps inspire you to organize your own space 🙂 xxC
Oh and PS. Reclaim does have a newsletter where they share monthly organization tips & tricks. You can sign up for that here!
I am worked with an organizer for my kitchen and it was the best. I love your closet. It is so nice.