Painless Organizing

05/01/2022

Responsible disposal is a key ethical objective for Painless Organizing. I keep a list of local facilities for recycling troublesome items like styrofoam, batteries, electronics, and household chemicals.

Now, I'm pleased to be able to offer this resource for recycling textiles.

I'm sure you like to donate clothes, bedding, and other soft goods that are in nice condition, but don't work for you. But what about the laundry basket of outgrown, holey jeans your kids burst through in the past school year? Or those shabby blankets that ride around in the back of your car for years, "just in case?" Or those butt-ugly suits you bought for your first "real job" out of college that got sidelined when you realized that everyone else at work wore khakis?

They're not things you'd want to foist upon anyone else, and Goodwill, et alia know that and often throw away such donations. However, ForDays offers textile recycling that promises to keep your old clothes, sheets, curtains, etc. out of the landfills.

Who wants to try it out? I'm offering a Four Hour Targeted Tidy at the usual flat rate of $100 with my Same Day Removal service (value between $50-100) included FREE if you are willing to send at least one bag of recyclable textile to ForDays. Any other items that you want to donate, I will transport to your charity of choice. Including Scraps KC for fabric yardage, trim, scrapbooking materials and other craft supplies.

I provide receipts for all donations for your records.

Shop Now

04/30/2022

A wise woman recently told me that I needed to identify my core audience, suggesting that busy moms might be the folks who need my services.

I done some thinkin' and realistically, my core clientele are folks who have been THROUGH some s**t and are getting themselves back together and need a second set of hands and eyes and a nonjudgmental perspective on how to set things to rights.

If illness, injury, depression, loss, or any other kind of hardship and trauma have turned your life (and house) upside down, I'm here to be a creative and compassionate problem solver to help you pick up so that you can move forward.

04/30/2022

Product recommendation!

These shelving units, available from Menard's, are a pretty hot deal @ $50/ea. Technically they go together without tools, but I found that the moulding is very sloppy and you have to use a pocket knife to shear off the various little nubbins and hanging chads of flash.

But for the price, a little custom fitting is a reasonable tradeoff and they're quite sturdy and stable when put together. They can be linked into banks of units with included clips. They're super nifty and I absolutely recommend these as a budget friendly storage solution, especially in garages, sheds, or basements where dampness might occasionally be an issue, as it won't rust or warp.

04/11/2022

I can help you regain your home sweet home.

"I haven't had friends over in years"

"The clutter is depressing"

"I don't even know where to start"

"I hardly ever have a spare minute and things got out of hand"

"I just couldn't keep up with it after my accident"

Sometimes life gets in the way of living the way you want to. Illness, injury, demanding careers, the pressure of parenting, too many demands and responsibilities can throw you off track and the stuff starts to pile up. I understand. And I will never judge you for what I call "crisis mess."

Life IS messy. That's kind of my mantra. Messes are natural, sometimes even necessary, and they can all be straightened out when you're ready. And when you're ready, I'm happy to help you get stuck in and make your house a haven once again.

P.S. if you like the image, it's available as a poster. It's a kind of fun and vivacious alternative to the shabby-chic farmhouse aesthetic, if you like a little more color in your hortatory home decor. (https://www.posterlounge.com/p/659334.html)

04/08/2022

We're moving into yard sale season! Do you have stuff you want to shift, but you haven't had the time, energy, or focus to get that stuff ready to sell? Why not hit me up?

I can help you pull, display, and label the stuff you want to send on to its next home. And if you don't shift all the stuff you thought you'd sell, I can remove the surplus to your charity of choice for $50/trip (and trust me I can load the truck up so you probably won't need more than one trip)

04/04/2022

I don't know about y'all, but I love Sticky Notes SO MUCH.

You can leave reminders to yourself.

You can identify what's in a box.

You can include a happy message with your kid's lunch.

You can remind yourself where you left off at the end of a shift at work.

AND they come in a range of delightful colors at an agreeable price point.

As a person with ADHD, leaving myself a spoor of reminders may be a bit messy, but I helps me keep my head on straight and "do all the dumb things I gotta do." I keep a couple of pads of sticky notes in my work box that I bring with me to client jobs, to help you and me keep straight what we're working on. Organizing arises from chaos, and sometimes the chaos requires temporary labels while we work through it!

03/30/2022

I don't play games or complete puzzles, but I do play 3-Dimensional Life Tetris.

I couldn't sit and fill in a Crossword, a Wordle, or a Sudoku, but give me a room full random stuff that needs to be put away in a sensible and ergonomic fashion, and I'll get stuck right in.

One person's confusing, overwhelming mess is my stimulating three-dimensional puzzle. Try to stump me!

03/25/2022

Spring is springing up!

It just might be time to think about putting away the heavy sweaters, fleece pyjama bottoms, and heavy coats. Turning your wardrobe in anticipation of spring and summer weather is a great opportunity to do a closet purge!

However; wardrobe purges can be overwhelming, frustrating, stressful, and even depressing. Facing that favorite old dress that hasn't fit in five years. Those cute pink jeans that always felt a bit too conspicuous. That massive pile of shapeless, faded, linty black leggings that have gone sheer at the knees. That blazer that was so expensive, but doesn't quite work with anything.

Trying to decide what to keep and how to make it work can be a tough task. Maybe you need a separate set of eyes to help you re-envision your wardrobe, find ways to make your "problematic faves" work better, and sift the chaff from the grain.

A well organized and well planned closet will never leave you wailing, "OMG I have nothing to wear!!"

Hit me up for a four hour Targeted Tidy and we'll have your wardrobe welcoming you to step out in style

03/25/2022

A common refrain I hear from clients is that clutter built up because they had items that still had plenty of good service left in them, but they weren't sure how to make sure these things would get to people who could use them.

The other roadblock to house-clearing is the desire to recycle items that have reached the end of their serviceability, but being unaware of where to take these things for disposal and recycling.

If this is a problem in your life, I can help you with that. I maintain and am building a list of charities that take donations of all kinds of goods from kitchenware and furniture to children's toys, books, electronics, and more. And if you simply need appropriate recycling or disposal resources I have a list, and so does M.A.R.C.

When I perform a Targeted Tidy, you can arrange with me to deliver culled items to your charity of choice, or have recyclables taken to an appropriate facility. I charge a flat $50 for removals, though there may be additional fees for disposing of certain items like household chemicals, batteries, or tires. Anything that can reasonably be accommodated in the back of a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck can be hauled off at your convenience.

To bin, or not to bin? Now there's no question! This handy flier lists what you can and can’t put in your curbside recycling bin. Available for download in 11 x 17 and  8.5 x 11 sizes.

03/23/2022

Ethical and intentional living is an important component to how I do business and engage with clients. When I am working with clients, sometimes I recommend products that might make their lives easier. Regularly , I recommend Sterilite boxes, totes, drawers, and bins. They're made in the USA, and most of them are recyclable, should you manage to break one (which pretty near takes an Act of Congress to accomplish).

Most Rubbermaid storage containers are made in the USA, as well.

While plastic products are not particularly environmentally friendly or aesthetic, they are affordable, durable, most importantly, translucent allowing you to see what's inside, shortening search times and minimizing the need to "dump-and-rummage" which can seriously undermine maintaining tidiness.

Sterilite's broad line of plastic housewares feature some of the most innovative and distinctive products available on the market today. We help organize life!

03/17/2022

Does visual clutter break your brain, or do you suffer from "out of sight, out of mind"?

These are important factors to consider before purchasing or building your storage solutions. Open shelving? Cupboards with doors? Opaque bins, fabric cubes, clear boxes...or a mix?

03/11/2022

Would you move a beach one grain of sand at a time?

It's natural to feel overwhelmed when you look at a chaotic, jumbled up mess and think, "where even to start?"

My typical approach is to start broadly and make refinements in stages. If I'm organizing a garage, I might first begin by separating gardening tools from woodworking tools, from automotive tools, and from sporting goods. Then I can begin finding appropriate places for the things based on their use, their size, the frequency of recall, and any other preferences you might define.

With strategy, classification, patience, and a little elbow grease, any kind of shuffled up miscellany can be put to rights.