Marie Kondo made it official.

She now calls herself a “life coach.”

But if you talk to most home organizers, senior move managers, and downsizers, we all have a lot of life coaching in our practices. 

The New York Times says that Kondo suggests we look at the world from an object’s perspective, to understand how it might feel crushed or smothered in an undifferentiated heap of possessions. But that’s old news. In her new book, she shows photos of pristine rooms “Instagram-worthy” photographs that are serene, minimalist, sleek, and crisp.

The book’s editor says that her goal is to help readers determine what style works for them. 

What’s Your Style?

What do you think your style looks like?

There is no right answer.

That’s where the life coaching comes in.

When I work with my clients, the first thing we do is talk. We delve into how you live now, and what your expectations are for your new place. What things are most important to you, and what you are ready to let go of.

We know it can be an extremely difficult process to part with items that have been part of your life for decades. We’ll listen to the importance and history of your things, and will help you create a plan to determine what you need to part with because it just won’t fit, and what you might be able to keep.  

There are so many factors to consider, namely whether or not you want your smaller quarters to replicate your current home as much as possible, or if you want a fresh new look, even mixing up what you currently have and repurposing your things to serve you in new ways. 

For example, that server in your dining room might be beautiful in your entryway if you no longer have a formal dining area.  

How Move Managers Help You

We will help you:

• Sort items to sell, gift, donate, or recycle

• Organize and downsize your kitchen, bathroom, pantry, and closets

• Sort and organize your basement, attic, and garage

• Sort paperwork

• Coordinate the removal or donation of the unwanted contents of your home

Marie Kondo writes that a big obstacle to having a tidy home is the gap between the way we live our lives and our ideal lifestyles.

Downsizing with A Simpler Life Now helps solve that problem, as we envision what you want your home to look like and what purpose each area should serve.

Reach out to us to begin your transformation.

Until you have experienced firsthand the euphoria of opening your pantry and being able to pull out the crushed oregano; putting your hands on that humidifier receipt from 2017; or finding that photo of Great Aunt Edna your daughter needs for the school ancestry slide show, you can’t imagine how good it feels to be organized.

Cleaning up is nothing new, obviously. I’m sure your mother made you clean your room on a regular basis when you were a child; perhaps you even had family spring cleaning time, when your job was to pare down some of your toys, games, and knick knacks.

Now, thrift stores are being overrun with donated items, and countless magazine articles remind you that your children will not want your “treasures.” It seems that everyone has jumped on the less-is-better bandwagon. 

Paring our things down and organizing the ones we have chosen to keep is liberating. It’s like a fairy tale come true!.

We owe a lot of this liberating minimalist trend to the modern day Mary Poppins — Marie Kondo. 

But unlike Mary Poppins, Marie Kondo didn’t just appear out of thin air to solve the world’s problems.

Or perhaps she did. 

Like Mary, Marie seems “practically perfect” in every way, and, she tells us, once we incorporate her philosophies into our routine, our lives will be vastly improved too. 

While we will never really know where (or when) Mary came from, we do know a bit more about Marie. 

She has been running her tidying up business for many years. So what is it that made her become such an international sensation that Netflix chose to give her a television show? Why has her name become a verb, as in the process that organized-wannabes across the country are using to pare down their items to those that only “spark joy?”

The answer is that she, like Mary, is needed. Right now. Our lives have become overrun with possessions. We are holding onto them for so many different reasons. 

If you have watched a few episodes of Marie Kondo’s hit series, then you realize that Tidying Up is about solving problems. About releasing emotional baggage (and carpet baggage!)  Like Mary, Marie helps you to improve the way you feel about yourself and your immediate world. 

Extrapolate that, and it makes you believe that a neat tee-shirt drawer, folded scarves, and color-coordinated sneakers will not only give you inner peace, but will improve your relationships with those around you. 

Organized people are more in control. They exude happiness. Their moods improve, and that impacts everything around them.

I get it. I really do.

Sounds like a bill of goods, but you know what? It’s true!

You just need to learn the tools that will help you figure out how to do it. Even without magic, you can live A Simpler Life Now.