HOW TO LOSE THE CLUTTER
Pandemic’s a perfect time to lose clutter, get your life in order
During the pandemic, some people have put their homes on the market because they need more space. Why not try to find more space in the home you have?
How many times have you looked in a closet, a room or a drawer and thought, ‘I need to straighten this out?’
If you find it hard to get organized, professional help is here. Ron Shuma spent two decades in New York City before moving to Pittsburgh last year with his company, A Plus Organizing LLC (www.a-plus-organizing.com). He and his team aim to create a chaosfree environment by finding a place for everything and helping you discard the excess, transforming your home into an oasis of calm.
With so many of us essentially homebound last year, the professional organizer had a dilemma: More people were in need of his services, but they were fearful of allowing a stranger into their home.
“The pandemic has been a disaster for business on so many levels. Nobody wants one more person breathing in their house — and rightfully so,” said Mr. Shuma.
However, A Plus Organizing is prepared to take on clutter and COVID-19.
“I am trained in virtual organizing, and a few of my clients have taken
advantage of those services,” he said. “It works quite well, especially when we are working with information or time management. It works as long as the client is motivated and willing to do their homework between sessions.”
Mr. Shuma started his business in New York with condos, apartments and homes of all shapes and sizes. He says he has always been a neatnik.
“I have always kept things ordered. Maybe it’s OCD, but it has worked for me,” he joked.
It apparently works for his clients, too. He has clients who use him once and others who have worked with A Plus Organizing for years. Mr. Shuma recently returned to New York to help a client straighten out everything from medicine cabinets to closets to drawers in a four-story townhouse.
Some potential clients are reluctant to call and expose their mess to a stranger, he said.
“They all want to know, ‘Is this the worst you have seen?’ There is no worst.”
He has clients with multimillion-dollar condos that look pristine, but he has been able to straighten what is unseen — those overstuffed closets and random junk drawers. A Plus Organizing charges an hourly rate that is under $100 an hour, with a four-hour minimum.
“I have had hoarding clients,” said Mr. Shuma, noting he is trained and certified to help.
“I have worked in places where you can’t touch the floor because there is just so
much stuff. There is a skill to it, and there is a lot to understand so you don’t do more harm than good,” he said.
Most people tend to fill empty spaces to capacity, jamming stuff in closets, cabinets, attics and basements. Mr. Shuma’s talent is rearranging for efficiency and breathability. “I can look at a space and see how to make it work for everything.”
The professional organizer has come across many unique items in his career. “The most interesting ones are not for print, but I have found a collection of guns and, in one estate, $7,000 stashed all over the place in all kinds of denominations.”
The other side of his job is deciding what you really need. It’s the Marie Kondo approach: Does it bring you joy?
“Barely a day goes by that I don’t hear dear Marie’s name,” he said, laughing. “She didn’t invent organizing, but she found a way to present it that really spoke to people.”
Mr. Shuma tells his
clients to decide: Do you use it, need it or love it?
“At the end of the day, it’s not really about joy; it is about utility,” he insisted. “Clutter is essentially delayed decisions. It is easier to ignore it than make a decision about it.”
That is why so many of us have things we don’t need, don’t use and don’t even like. The two-week lockdown last March might have been perfect for getting organized, but Netflix beckoned.
Mr. Shuma has this advice for anyone overwhelmed by clutter:
“First, decide to do something and then set a time limit. Do what you can in the time you give yourself. That is often how I start with clients.
“When you accomplish something that you can see, it motivates you to keep going,” he said.