Professional Organizer offering help downsizing

[Travlyn]

Hi Bob! I've enjoyed all the videos I've watched. Thank you for voicing what I have been feeling inside! I am a professional organizer whose goal is to live out of my van. I would like to travel across the US helping people organize and downsize to this way of life. First I have to do this myself! My question is: Do you think there is a need for this service? It would be my way of supporting myself on the road. Thanks!!

 

[akrvbob]

Hi, glad you are here! Yes, I think there will be a market for that service. I regularly hear from people who want to hire someone to do their conversion and solar. They probably don't realize that the hardest part is getting rid of stuff and when they find out how hard it is they may want help with it.

The question is how many people will have the money for that service, and I just don't know the answer to that.

 

[AbuelaLoca]

Affordability would be my concern as well, however, if you marketed to the expensive class A or airstream type "RV" communities, you might find that is a better market. If you got enough business that way, you could always offer a "budget friendly" option because you're already in the area! Also, giving out your card at the big tent event in Quartsite could be a good place to start!

 

[rvpopeye]

Welcome aboard !
Your idea may just be a winner!
I've seen a lot of posts about being overwhelmed by downsizing.
Only one way to find out.
Offer your help/service and see what happens....

Actually , I guess you just did !

 

[BradKW]

How much do you see yourself charging per hour? I could use you tomorrow if you're around Key West...

 

[CautionToTheWind]

^^^ BAM, that didn't take long. LOL 

 

[GotSmart]

We have something like that in Missouri.

You pick what you need, and an auction service sells everything else.  

They have three main forms of entertainment here.  Auctions, BBQ, and mowing the lawn.  

 

[SoulRaven]

My question is: Do you think there is a need for this service? It would be my way of supporting myself on the road. Thanks!!

Speaking for myself, I absolutely have a need for this service.  I think my nickname at this year's RTR  was "yard sale", because of all the junk that was laying around my trailer.   And the stuff I still have here in Colorado; well, it's simply insane.  And I've been downsizing for more than 10 years.  

So, not sure of how the logistics would work, or how much you plan on charging, but there's no question at least one of us NEEDS help!  (go ahead Jim... you've earned it)   ... 

Regards,

Pat

 

[MrNoodly]

I've jokingly offered my downsizing service. It works like this. We'd put everything you think you might ever need in a utility trailer. We lock it and I hold the key. I follow you around, towing the trailer. When you need something from the trailer, I get it for you. After a year, I take the trailer to a charity of your choice and give everything that's still in the trailer to them.

 

[GotSmart]

 I am a professional organizer whose goal is to live out of my van. I would like to travel across the US helping people organize and downsize to this way of life. First I have to do this myself! My question is: Do you think there is a need for this service? It would be my way of supporting myself on the road. Thanks!!

I am remembering my father having the storage door open, and yelling "Save it, your'e gonna need it"  as he threw everything outside.  

Someone to be firm about what should be kept, and what should not, would be a great help.  Txjaybird should be so lucky   

 

[Stretch]

I would either be really good at that job, or really bad, depending on your perspective. I hate "stuff" and I'm almost entirely unsentimental about it, so my answer to "should I keep this?" would always be "no."

 

[SoulRaven]

I've jokingly offered my downsizing service. It works like this. We'd put everything you think you might ever need in a utility trailer. We lock it and I hold the key. I follow you around, towing the trailer. When you need something from the trailer, I get it for you. After a year, I take the trailer to a charity of your choice and give everything that's still in the trailer to them.

I've actually started working on something very much like this.  I'm holding on to one storage unit.  Everything that I don't need after a year, except for family memorabilialia , is going away.  

I like the idea, MrNoodly!

 

[CityWoman]

Working with the pro organizer I've used in NYC has always been a great experience for me. To give people an idea of cost, she charges $85/hour and has a 3-hour minimum per session. In NYC, her rates are on the low end of the scale, but I'm sure organizers charge less than that elsewhere. They usually require a minimum amount of time per session, but many offer free consultations. I haven't done it in a while, but I would usually hire her for one afternoon, either for 3 or 4 hours at a time, once a month. I didn't hire her every month, of course, but her services were enormously helpful to me. She helped me organize, de-clutter, clean, and most important of all, make decisions. Plus she was never judgemental and is someone I feel I could be friends with. I felt that working with her was money well-spent, and more practical than sinking funds into a storage unit - what a waste!

You can find organizers here: http://www.napo.net/

 

[bigsallysmom]

Sounds like a great chance to get rid of all that sentimental stuff that we just can't seem to part with. Compared to paying for rental storage it might actually save us money.

 

[XFILE36]

Travlyn, I was planning on being a Professional Organizer as a new profession several years ago. I was extremely organized and LOVE organizing. I also purchased a home course on starting a professional organization business to learn everything I needed to know from soup to nuts on starting a business to all the different ins and outs to help either businesses or individuals in need of organizing. I was skeptical on paying all I did for the course, but don't regret it at all, as it taught me a lot. The problem was, I had some major tragedies in my own life and had to put everything on hold. I am now getting rid of MY stuff so I can leave permanently. I will be better prepared after this if I ever decided to do it professionally to help others. Where do you plan on doing it and what would you charge? Where is your base? Do you already have a business doing this? Are you certified? Asking because I am seeing if you could possibly use a business partner. TY

 

[SoulRaven]

....  and more practical than sinking funds into a storage unit - what a waste

Not all of the time, not for everybody.  Especially when you DON'T have a sticks and bricks home and are using it as a tool to help you actually decide what you need and what you don't. 
One thing about this community .. one size does NOT fit all.  Everyone has a unique situation.

 

[eDJ_]

I've spoken with some Homeless Vets organizations and to some who operate homeless shelters about this kind of life.   Shown them this website/Forum.   I've suggested that they use a buddy system and hit the road to find a better employment climate so that they could get bankrolled once there.   It would give them a chance to see the country and get a new perspective on life.

The feed back I get is that for it to work these people undertaking it may need to have a network of places around the country that they can check in with and find support and good council.  (otherwise giving them a Van of some kind and setting the loose would be like throwing them to the Wolves.

Some people could benefit from the point of this thread,  while others may need support beyond the instrumentality showing them how to downsize, fit out a Rig, and "go getem Tiger". 

Still,  I think this concept has much going for it and will likely evolve slowly.  (the best growth often being the slower growth)

Where I live in Southern Ohio,  it's pretty much Drugs,  Crime (theft, robbery. prostitution),  and Pawn Stores. 
Anything that would get those who want better out of here would be welcome.

 

[CityWoman]

Not all of the time, not for everybody.  Especially when you DON'T have a sticks and bricks home and are using it as a tool to help you actually decide what you need and what you don't. 
One thing about this community .. one size does NOT fit all.  Everyone has a unique situation.

I guess it wasn't clear that I was saying MY money was well-spent on an organizer, and FOR ME putting stuff in storage would be a waste.  Other people can do whatever floats their boat, but... I do happen to know people who have more than one storage unit and aren't even sure what's in them - they hold onto them out of FEAR that they'd be letting go of something valuable or that they will miss terribly, or simply because they've spent money on those things and don't want to "lose" what they've spent by getting rid of it.  I found working with a professional organizer very beneficial because she helped me face some of those irrational fears I have around letting go of the things I've accumulated.

Mainly, for ME, it's about... "Sunk Cost Fallacy," a principle in Economics that says when you've paid for something, you've already sunk money into it, and so there isn't much money you can get back.  You either use the item or not. Either way, the costs are already "sunk."  Sunk costs = costs that have been incurred in the past and cannot be recovered.  Basically, although you've already spent the money, if the item is no longer useful to you, or is sitting around collecting dust until it can be used, you might as well let it go.  It's a FALLACY to think that a needless item must be kept JUST BECAUSE you've sunk costs into it.  That seems very much related to SCARCITY THINKING to me.  

Okay, so maybe it isn't a totally useless item, because I could use it SOMEDAY.  I just can't use it YET or while traveling around.  But does that really mean it is useful to me?  Is it really worth it to hang onto it for months or years, paying someone to hold it for me, adding to the money I've sunk into it?  How is it earning its keep?  How am I benefiting from squirreling away physical possessions that I am not using?  These are good questions each person can ask themselves to figure out what they should do.

Storing things at a facility might be a fine and sensible thing to do for some people who, like you say, need to have some stuff to return to while figuring out what exactly they need.  I guess what you're describing would be like going on test runs, discarding what wasn't used on trips, and going back to the storage unit to pick up what they wished they had.  Cool.  That sounds like a more practical plan for the future than a wistful one - but might not seem so practical if those belongings wind up languishing in storage for years!  

$255 -$340 a month will rent one heck of a storage unit!

Well, storage in NYC ain't cheap, but anyway, I did not spend that amount every month!  Just in spurts, maybe two or three months in a row when I could budget it in, and then maybe six to ten months went by before I hired her again.  It was a process and it was always a good, productive, life-affirming experience - very akin to therapy.  Letting go of my emotional attachment to THINGS is a challenge and not easy, just as much as getting rid of some things can be physically challenging as well (living in a walk-up apartment building).  We worked hard and intensely whenever she came over.  I am not sure stashing my crap in a big warehouse-like building would have felt as positive in the same way as it did to face those attachments and fears about letting stuff go.  FOR ME.  Besides, even if I found a unit for $100/month, but was gone a year, that's $1200/year for my stuff to just sit there, unused.  FOR ME, I'd rather pay someone to help me let go rather than hold things for me.


Related to the concept of Sunk Cost Fallacy... I think that, also, for most people who need to downsize out of a stationary home in order to start over somewhere else (whether on the road or just moving to a smaller place), it may be, PERHAPS, better to exercise the Bygones Principle, a theory which is about not looking backwards.  Economists argue that sunk costs should not be taken into account when making rational decisions.  The Bygones Principle demands that a person calculate with a VERY CLEAR eye the extra costs and benefits one will incur in the future when weighing decisions to be made now, and lets "bygones be bygones," basically by NOT looking back at what was spent in the past and NOT letting that influence the decision-making process.  

It's sort of like... you can't move forward by ONLY looking in the rear view mirror - you need to see what's around you and in front of you in order to get where you're going safely.  So, basically, you would set aside what you paid for things and/or how much emotional energy you've attached to things, and forget about that.  Then, see what the costs and benefits are for storing things.  If you decide to remove a useless item from your home, and NOT store it, you are thereby freeing up more space to be yourself, live your life, incubate new ideas, etc., and not letting SUNK COST control you. That's the concept, anyway.  But storing it ties you to it and, therefore, you are not totally free of it.

Just my two cents - not telling anyone what to do.

Personally, FOR MYSELF, I am adamantly opposed to paying for storage.  IMO, the cost of storage doesn't always make sense for stashing items that rapidly depreciate in value or could be better put to use by someone in need, or someone who could use and enjoy it.  There really isn't much of anything I own that I feel is worth paying for storage - and there is always the chance that the storage company could go out of business without notice and I would lose my possessions.  When I do finally get going, give up my apartment, and head down the road, there may be a small amount of things I might wish to ask a relative to hold for me.  I will rethink that, though.  

I am heavily leaning toward selling as much of my crap as I can, donating some of it, and ultimately letting go of everything.  I will probably work with my organizer again to get me toward that goal.

I also have the option of subletting my apartment while not living in it, which would mean that someone else is living here and paying the rent on my lease and it would still be in my name when I come back.  I am legally allowed to charge 10% above my rent if I leave furniture for the sublettor to use.  My apartment is in Manhattan, and very cheap because I've lived here for eons - but I already decided to leave it altogether and not sublet, so I will end my lease.  The landlord will gut-renovate it after I leave and raise the rent ridiculously high, and I may never be able to afford Manhattan again - it's been my home for over a quarter-century but I realized that holding onto this apartment won't bring me joy.  It just isn't worth holding onto anymore, and it's been very freeing to say, "I'm done."  Now, THAT was a big decision for me.

Anyway, to stay more on topic, if anyone is thinking about hiring an organizer for help with downsizing, it could be the best thing you ever did.  It's been very rewarding for me.  Check out www.napo.net (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals), call around for rates in your area and ask organizers about their approach.  

Another type of professional is the kind of person who helps arrange estate sales or garage sales.
There are professional associations that can direct you to experienced companies that can manage selling the contents of your home: check out http://www.nesa-usa.com and https://www.aselonline.com .

 

[BradKW]

$255 -$340 a month will rent one heck of a storage unit!

Guy

Not so much down here in KW...that'd barely get you a small rollup door unit. If it's bigger than that, somebody is living in it...

 

[frater secessus]

Do you think there is a need for this service? It would be my way of supporting myself on the road.

Maybe a multi-pronged approach:

1. ebook with the basic plan and examples,
2. supported by youtube (tutorials) and blog (schedule of upcoming locations), both driving traffic to 
3. your personal service

Steps 1 & 2 could be "mailbox money" (ie, it keeps coming in) and you could work as much as you wanted in step 3. 

I think folks with electrical/mechanical/carpentry skills could make a go of it in the same way.