Professional organizing companies vary widely in terms of project type, clientele served, project niche, level of service, and many other factors. Whether you found Simplify Studio online, through social media, or were referred to us by one of our past clients, this post will tell you what it is like to get started with our team of professional organizers, our client process and approach, and what sets us apart from other home and business organizing companies in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.

WHO WE WORK WITH

We help a wide range of clients struggling to simplify their life and our tailored approach to organizing meets our clients where they are. We don’t believe that there is one size fits all when it comes to home organizing and one of our strengths is to customize our professional organizing service to each and every one of our clients.

Some of our past clients and hands on organizing projects have been:

• Busy families with young children struggling with too many toys and clothing that were encroaching on the adult spaces in the home.

• Young working professional couples who relocated from out of state and needed to get unpacked and organized quickly so that they could focus on their new career opportunities right away.

• Retirees moving into assisted living and needed to downsize and simplify their belongings.

• Newly empty nesters getting ready to downsize and transform their home now that they no longer had children living at home.

• Families getting ready to move and needed to edit their belongings, get organized and style their spaces to list their home for sale.

• Families and individuals who relocated to the Charlotte or Raleigh metro areas and needed help unpacking, getting organized and styling their new home after moving.

• Women and men struggling with their closets and needed help editing their clothing to only what fits and makes them look and feel amazing.

• Garages that had become dumping grounds and needed room made for cars to park inside.

• Craft rooms in chaos that needed to be organized, transformed and simplified to free up creativity.

• Setting up nursery spaces to bring new babies home to a calm and peaceful environment.

If you are looking to streamline your life and transform your space, we will meet you where you are and modify our approach to prioritize your unique situation and needs. Our clients value and aspire to the idea that an organized home will simplify their lives, save them time, and create more space for what matters most.

WHAT SETS US APART

Professional organizing has become very popular and mainstream so there are a lot of different options when it comes to selecting a professional organizer to work with.

• We provide an all inclusive service - Selecting and shopping for organizing supplies, in home professional organizing services and haul away of donations and discarded items are all included in your organizing quote. You don’t have to worry about extra added on costs for additional services.

• We focus on both the function and the aesthetics of the space - We want your space to both be streamlined and easy to maintain, as well as look amazing and feel good. Our focus and expertise on styling and maximizing spaces ensures that your home will be organized and look beautiful too.

• We work as a team - We believe that having at least 2 professional organizers working in your home makes the process more efficient, more enjoyable and we complete your project in less time so you can get on with what matters most in your life.

• We do it all for you - Our goal is to take the stress of getting organized off your plate. We take care of all the sorting, categorizing, cleaning, organizing and styling of your spaces. The only thing we need you for is the editing process and to make decisions on what items you would like to keep or let go of. Our clients are free to work, run their kids around to activities or even go get a massage or facial while we are working!

• We want you to enjoy the process - Our team is focused on creating a kind, friendly, confidential, non-judgmental environment and we make sure to add laughter whenever we can. We truly enjoy what we do and our clients frequently tell us that they were dreading the process but were surprised that they actually enjoyed it!

WHERE TO START

Chances are the clutter consuming your home has been nagging at you for awhile, or you are relocating to Raleigh or Charlotte and need help unpacking, or you have a big transition happening in your life - like bringing home a new baby or getting married or divorced. Your online research or asking your friends or family for recommendations have led you to the Simplify Studio website - and we are SO GLAD you’re here! THE FIRST STEP in getting organized with us is to go to our CONTACT page. You can either call or text me, Lisa Smith, the founder and owner of Simplify Studio, directly at 949-903-3112 or fill out a short form asking for your name, phone number, email address, if your project is located in Raleigh, Charlotte or other location, and to tell us about your project in a few words. Once you click submit, an email will be sent to me. I will reply back to your message right away to make arrangements to set up a brief, free phone consultation. Sometimes my email messages end up in spam, so I also send a text and give you a call and then you can respond in whichever way is most convenient for you so that we can coordinate a time for our call.

FREE PHONE CONSULTATION

The purpose of our free phone consultation is so I can learn more about your project and make sure we would be a good fit for your project. I also tell you how we can help and about our professional organizing process. Typically we only need to talk for 15 minutes or so during this initial call.

Some questions I will ask during our phone consult are:

• What spaces are you struggling to keep organized in your home?

• How long have you lived in your home?

• Have you ever worked with a professional organizer before?

• How do you want to feel in your home?

• How many live in your home - including pets?

• When are you hoping to get started?

IN-HOME CONSULTATION

Next we will set up an in-home consultation. If you are located in Charlotte, your consultation will be with our lead organizer, Ashlee Johnson. If you are located in Raleigh, it will be with me. Typically our in person consultations last between 30-45 minutes. We ask you to walk us through your home, tell us your pain points regarding organizing challenges and styling aspirations and to share with us what spaces are your biggest priorities.

Some questions and comments that our potential clients sometimes share with us before their consultations are:

• “Should I clean up my house? It is such a mess!” - No, please do not clean up! We want to see how you are currently living so that we make sure to address your specific situation.

• “I am so embarrassed at the state of my home and not sure I am comfortable having you come over!” - We have seen the messiest of messes, so don’t waste a minute worrying about what we will think. We approach every project with an open heart and mind and create a judgment free zone. We also adhere to a strict code of confidentiality.

CUSTOM QUOTE

Once we complete your in-home professional organizing consultation in Raleigh or Charlotte, we create a custom quote for your project. After assessing how long we think it will take to edit, organize and style your spaces and how many organizers we will need to do the organizing, we break your project down into three options for you to choose from. The first option is for your biggest priority spaces and will be the most affordable option. The second option includes your priority spaces plus additional secondary spaces that you would like to have our team of professional organizers sort out and style. The third option will either list all the spaces in the home that need organizational attention or it will include our maintenance package. Our maintenance package offers a quarterly reset of all spaces previously organized by Simplify Studio.

Our time is billed by the hour, so we estimate how many days it will take to get the spaces that you would like organized and styled complete. We will list your quote options as ONE DAY PACKAGE, FOUR DAY PACKAGE, 3 DAY PACKAGE + MAINTENANCE, etc. Our quotes are just estimates, as there are many factors that go into organizing a home, but we are very accurate with our quotes and do our very best to get as much organized for you as possible in the time allotted. 

After you review the quote, you will select the option that best fits your needs. This will take you to our contract page and you will be prompted to sign the document. Lastly you will be taken to your invoice where you will make payment for 50% of your professional organizing service to be able to be scheduled on our calendar.

SCHEDULING

After you have signed our professional organizing contract and paid your 50% deposit for our service, we will send you our availability and get you scheduled on our calendar. We try to schedule home organization projects on consecutive days, as this allows us to get your home organized and transformed more quickly. We typically schedule sessions from 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM and we take ½ hour for lunch mid-day. We strive to schedule projects at least 2 weeks in advance to allow for product orders and to plan for professional organizer team availability.

ORGANIZING PRODUCT QUIZ

Once you are scheduled, we send an email confirming dates and times, contact information for your lead organizer, and questions regarding parking, COVID protocol and our fun product quiz. The quiz is broken down by areas of focus in your home, such as kitchen, pantry, garage, etc. If we are doing a whole home organization of your space, we ask that you complete the entire product quiz. If you are only doing one space, like your primary closet, we ask that you complete that section, but encourage you to complete the quiz in its entirety so that we have your preferences on hand in case you decide to have Simplify Studio organize additional spaces. 

PRODUCT PROPOSAL

Upon reviewing your organizing product quiz, we will have a really good idea of whether you like acrylic or bamboo drawer dividers, opaque or translucent bins, modern black baskets or natural for a more traditional look. Next we send you a list of examples of products for your review and approval. We don’t send you every single bin size and accessory that we will be using - just an overview so that we make sure that we got the right impression from the quiz of the organizational products and look for your space that you are envisioning. During this part of the process we also want to make sure we have a clear understanding of any budget guidelines so that we can take those into consideration.

PRODUCT DEPOSIT

After receiving confirmation that you approve the design and style of the organizing products that we have proposed, we get ready to place product orders. We send an organizing supply deposit invoice for a portion of organizing supplies that we plan to purchase. We take care of all the shopping, sourcing and ordering for you for no additional shopping fee.  You might see other professional organizers in the Raleigh and Charlotte areas charging a separate shopping fee, but we like to keep things simple. We also take care of paying for all the supplies with our Simplify Studio account. We like to over buy so we have lots of options to try in your space and don’t like to fill up our clients credit cards with organizing supply totals. On the first day of your project we bring your organizing supplies with us so that we can judiciously place organizational products as needed while sorting your home. After the project is complete, we also take care of returning any supplies that we didn’t incorporate into the organization and styling of your home. We take care of it all for you!

CONFIRMATION

A day or two before your project is to begin, we will contact you to confirm that we are all set for your project and can’t wait to get started. After that, the real magic, transformation and simplification begins when we start organizing your space.

If you have been contemplating getting your spaces professionally organized and styled, I hope that this post has helped give you a good idea of what it looks like to get started working with us. If you would like to learn more about Simplify Studio, checkout our FAQ and Professional Organizing Services pages. Our next blog post will outline what it is like to work with us, layout our process to organize and style your space and what you can expect from the process. Until then, follow along on Instagram @simplifystudio to see our past and current projects!

We can’t wait to meet you and simplify your life!