ABOUT PENNY

I'm a professional organizer located in Princeton, NJ and I've been helping to organize friends and family for as long as I can remember.  I happen to have arrived on this planet with the organizer gene but I understand that this isn't the case for most people.  My college degree is in education so I've rolled that training together with an innate ability and I've found great satisfaction in helping other people learn to be more organized.

I worked at Princeton University for seven years, in a job that sometimes required keeping 4 balls in the air at once.  Good organization and planning kept things running smoothly.  Before that I was an at-home-mom who was involved in organizing school events and helping out in various libraries.  I volunteered at our church, directing Vacation Bible School for 140 children, planning events and helping some of the staff to clear out their corners.  One of my favorite projects was creating a new storage and distribution system for the food pantry that a local church operates.  My family and I also moved a few times, including three times internationally, and I was always the one to make it happen. 

I'm a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and adhere to their code of ethics. 

ORGANIZING

Of course there's more to being a professional organizer than moving your items from one place to another.  It's very important to me that I understand how the space needs to work for you.  I'm a person who likes to have file folders tucked away in a drawer, out of sight.  I have clients who prefer to have a system that allows them to have all of their files in view.  If I insist that they be in a drawer, this system will never work.  So I do a lot of listening.  My goal is to create a system, personalized to you, that helps you to access the things that you need, when you need them.

DECLUTTERING

Sometimes our possessions start to take over our lives.  The closets are spilling out.  The drawers are overflowing.  There are piles everywhere.  It might be time to pare down to regain peace, order and space.  When I'm helping someone to declutter, I never tell them that they have to get rid of anything.  My style is to ask lots of questions about the value of each item.  Not the monetary value, but the value that it holds for my client.  I believe if we keep only the things that we truly love or need we'll generally be in good shape.  Sometimes we need to release some of the things that we "like" or "might need" to gain a better space to live in.  Not everyone is ready to let go of things that have accumulated, but if you are I can help you to ask the right questions to pare down the piles.

DOWNSIZING

We spend a whole life accumulating things, more and more as we move from a tiny apartment to a first house and then maybe on again to another house with more space and more people.  Then the time comes to reverse the process.  Maybe you just want less space to maintain, or maybe failing health means that you need to make a move.  Either way, how do you decide what goes and what doesn't?  I can help you think through what you'll need in your new space and how much is really going to fit.  We'll talk about the most important sentimental items that you'll still want to have, and we'll make sure that they are in the boxes to go to the new place.  In the end, you'll have a new home with familiar things but won't be so crowded that you can't get through. Your new place should be as filled with joy as the current one.