My First Client Project

I was pretty excited to announce recently that I was starting my own business as a freelance home organizer. It's been in the works for some time now, but it's been slow going as I tried to figure out exactly where to start. Then I saw this post on LinkedIn and figured it was a sign that it was time to take the leap.

And what better way to share this announcement with the world than to present the progress on my very first client project!

About the client: {J}

I met J a few years back when our sons were in sports together. Our paths have crossed from time to time and she's an absolute delight, so I was thrilled when she agreed to be my business model guinea pig. During our initial consultation meeting we discussed a few different options for a first project, but it was clear the job she wanted to tackle the most was her basement. It's a large space her family uses for all kinds of purposes, including storage, kids' stuff, exercise, her husband's work space and, during the winter, storage for their kayaks and outdoor plants. She knew she wanted to rearrange the space into zones specifically for each thing the basement was used for and we walked through a few options before she settled on one she thought would work best. We also determined that she wanted a combination of hands-on working together and smaller jobs that she could do on her own between appointments to keep the project moving forward. We set our first appointment for the start of the organization project and I gave her a little homework to prepare for our next meeting.

Here are some pics of the space before we got started:

(Future workout zone)

(Future kid zone)

(Future storage zone)

(Current view of center of basement)

(Current miscellaneous storage)

As you can see, there's tons of space for storage, but what J needed was usable space for her entire family.

By the time I showed up for our first organization appointment, J had not only completed her homework of clearing out one section of the basement, she had also moved some of the furniture into the its new zone, allowing us to make even more progress working together. During this appointment, we organized all of their board games and moved the larger games into the "kid zone," cleared the space around her husband's "work zone" and cleaned out and reorganized the bookshelf.

(Games in the kid zone)

(Kid zone seating area)

(Designated workout zone)

(Tidied up shelves that now block the hot water tank area from the kid zone)

(Easily accessible games)

At our next visit, J wanted to tackle the "storage zone." I was particularly excited about this part of the project because my spatial relation game is strong (I consider myself a pro when it comes to real-world Tetris situations). Ideally, a too-cramped space can be reorganized by getting rid of things that are no longer needed. The tricky part here, however, was that there wasn't much we could purge to free up space, so this was more about finding better storage solutions for the items she had in order to make room for everything that needed to be stored.

We tackled this space in small sections. We skipped the area where she keeps Christmas decorations (that'll be done after the holidays) and went right to work on some shelves that held all kinds of things from other holiday decorations to old yearbooks to suitcases. My goal in this space was to create designated areas for each type of thing. J is like me and hangs onto things for very specific reasons. She keeps a limited number of mementos and anything that can serve a future purpose, like storage containers and party supplies. She's also a realist when it comes to an item's possible future use and isn't afraid to part with things that didn't get utilized as she once thought they might.

(Before: mostly holiday decorations - the shelves on the left are Christmas decorations to be organized later)

(After: holiday décor & mementos)

Next, was the larger section of shelving for household items. It was mostly a combination of kitchen gadgets and storage containers (for things like Christmas cookies and foods you take to parties), as well as basic household items like paper towels and cleaning supplies. She's also got collections of things for outdoor use and some great containers for gift wrap. In this section, my goal was to rearrange the items into categories so that she could easily find anything she needed without having to do a lot of digging. My goal in organizing a space is rarely about making room for more stuff... it's about organizing the stuff in a way that makes it more manageable and accessible for the user. In this case, I felt the reorganization of these shelves made it possible to not only store more things, but also to more easily find and retrieve the things J and her family might be looking for.

(Before: mostly household items)

(After: household items)

Note the potential avalanche that existed on the top left shelf of the 'before' photo... In the 'after' photo you can see that grabbing one life jacket no longer poses a threat to one's wellbeing. Believe it or not, nothing was purged from this shelf. It's all the same stuff from the first photo, just moved around in a more organized way.

(Progress to date: storage space all neat & tidy)

I'm excited to see J's basement reorganization project coming together. It's already changed so much from our initial consultation meeting and I'm super excited to continue working towards her goal of a more useable space for the entire family. While there are a few sections left to be organized, tackling this project in small sections has made it easier for J to take her time going through things to make decisions about what to keep and what can go. And it's given me an opportunity to work with her multiple times... and more time with J is never a bad thing. Thank you, J, for trusting me to help you with this project!!

Trello: the Ultimate Behind-the-Scenes Organization Tool

First and foremost, it must be said that I do not work for Trello, nor am I getting compensated in any way for what I'm about to share with you. Unlike traditional influencers who make money wearing designer clothes and using new products while they rave about a specific brand, I am a whole new kind of influencer... the kind with approximately 3 followers (all of which I know personally), no advertisers and a whopping $0 coming my way for the information I'm about to share with you. I could tell you that it's because I'm above all that and don't feel the need to be compensated for my opinion, but the truth is that I simply haven't found anyone willing to pay me for my opinion. Yet :) Until I do, the thoughts and feelings expressed here on my blog remain 100% my own.

I digress...

If you're looking for organization tips on closets and pantries and toy rooms, this isn't the post for you. Today we're going to talk about all of the behind-the-scenes stuff that no one else can see: the calendar, appointments, sports schedules, home maintenance... you know... the crap we all wish we had a personal assistant to handle.

I stumbled upon Trello several years ago in my search for a task management tool for work. A few things immediately stood out as beneficial: as a nonprofit organization, the price of zero dollars was incredibly appealing; the ability for multiple staff members to connect in one space to collaborate on projects was particularly useful given my remote work status; and, last but certainly not least, with a never ending opportunity to create checklists, I knew I'd found a tool that would make my heart happy day after day. While there is a cost to their upgraded version, I can assure you from personal experience that their free features are perfect for keeping track of a wide range of household and business tasks.

As you know from my previous post, I love making lists! Trello has provided me with the ultimate tool for keeping all of my lists in one place and, if you like lists even a little bit, I highly recommend giving it a try for yourself.

Today, I thought I'd dive into the basics of Trello for anyone that wants to see what it's all about. Certainly, you can visit their website to learn more, but since I, myself, am a skeptic when it comes to most things on the internet, I thought it might be more effective to share directly from my personal experience rather than telling you it's great and sending you off to their site.

Let's start with the signup - it's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy - I used my google account for simple future sign-ins, but there are several ways to set up an account using minimal information (I hate when creating an account on a new site feels like applying for a mortgage). Once your account is created, you'll name your workspace. I got really creative and used the default "Trello Workspace." Fortunately for me, I can go back and rename this whenever something more original comes to mind (like a good comeback, I'm no good in the moment, but within a few days something witty should come to mind).

Before getting too far ahead of myself, I think it's important to understand the basic structure of Trello. Your WORKSPACE is the overarching umbrella that things fall under. For example, I have a workspace specifically for my work as an employee of a nonprofit organization. I work there part time and that work is completely separate from anything I do personally, so that workspace is kept separate from my personal workspace. My work workspace has several boards (2 of which are mine and another 4 that I share with other members of the staff) and are designed to cover the big picture parts of my job (i.e. marketing, 5K planning, etc.). My personal workspace (for my free account) can have up to 10 boards, although I only use a few. 

Each BOARD can have a theme (color or background image) to suit your needs and/or your mood and can be changed anytime. As you can see from my screenshots below, I went with a calming flower theme for my Home Management board. On that board you'll see several default LISTS, which can (and should) be changed to fit your needs.

You can certainly keep as many lists as you want on a board, but I would caution you against using too many as it creates a need to scroll endlessly to find what you're looking for. If you're going to have so many lists, it might be worth creating additional boards.

Under each list you'll find your CARDS. Think of these like digital post-it notes that can be sorted into lists and moved around freely. There is nothing permanent about how you set up your Trello board, so move things around until you find what you like.

Now that my Home Management board has some lists that I find useful and some cards in each list, I can start playing around with some of the more effective features. Let's start with the Summer 2023 card in my Vacation Planning list. When I click on that card, it opens to provide several different ways to add details about this trip. The description section is a place for open text and the checklist section makes it easy to create and edit your to do list specifically related to this trip. You can also add due dates, attachments & members (more on those later).

You can also add colored labels to cards if you want certain things to stand out. In my Home Projects list you'll see that each card is tagged with a different color label. I've chosen to name those labels so that I don't have to remember them. These labels would also be easy to utilize for my Recurring Appointments list, or I could simply create additional labels for other purposes depending on my needs for each list. Added bonus to using labels: if you click on 'filter' you can filter your entire board by a variety of things, including labels, so if you use them well, they'll come in very handy as your board fills up over time.

Each card can also have its own cover photo which could be used for a wide range of purposes. For this board, I elected to highlight the different sports that I have cards for so they stand out. You can also use your own personal photos as cover photos. For work, we use sponsor logos so that, when scrolling through a list of sponsors, it's easy to find the card for the sponsor we're looking for without having to read each card's name.

As mentioned earlier, one of my favorite things about Trello is how easy it is to move the cards around on the board. They can move from one list to another or be archived completely. Whenever my cards have dates (like doctor appointments for example), I like to reorder them so they're in order by date. My floating Pediatrician card here shows how easy it is to drag and drop the card to a new location, up or down the same list or to another list entirely.

Once I add dates for my next scheduled appointments, it's easy to see what's coming up without having to scroll through my calendar on my phone.

Here I've created another card in my Home Projects list where I can save info about the projects I want to do but am not quite ready to plan. In this example, I've also added a note about how I want to work towards that goal by saving money from each paycheck and I've renamed my Checklist to better describe what this list is. And what's really cool about this is, once I'm ready to move forward with planning for any one of these projects, I can hover over that checklist item and an ellipses appears (you know... those three dots that indicate there's more...). If you click on the ellipses and select "convert to card" it automatically removes this task from this checklist and creates a new card on your Trello board. I've circled the spot where the ellipses appears even though it's not shown here.

A few additional features that make Trello even more awesome:

Due dates: If you're someone that needs to keep track of a whole lot of things, each card can be set to send you reminders at different intervals based off the due date. For example, if you have a dentist appointment, you can set a reminder for 2 days beforehand and you'll receive a notification 48 hours before that due date to remind you of that appointment. The reminder setting can be different for each card, so you can pick and choose what you want to be reminded of.

Attachments: Maybe you want to keep scanned documents handy for some reason (insurance cards, vehicle registration, birth certificates, business cards). You can attach them to cards in Trello so that everything is easily accessed in one place.

Members: If you have other members of your household or colleagues that need to access the same information, all you need to do is add them to your board or your workspace using their email address. Adding them to your workspace gives them access to all of your boards, or you can add them to just one board. They'll have to set up their own Trello account (also free), but your workspace or board will be shared with them so they can view and make edits as well. Updates are made real-time, so if you're both in Trello at the same time, the updates will appear as they're saved. Additionally, you can utilize the feature of adding members to cards so that you can use the filter feature to see only what's important to one person and or be alerted to changes made to your cards.

The app: Possibly one of the very best things about Trello is that it's not only amazing on a computer, but is also extremely user friendly through the app. Everything appears the same in both formats making it easy to switch between the two seamlessly. Using the app means you can also get notifications about upcoming due dates and card changes right on your phone (rather than just email) and you can easily access any card info, checklists and attachments on the go.

I think it's pretty clear that I'm a huge fan of Trello. There are countless ways that it can be used to keep track of things and this example is just one way that Trello can help bring calm to life's chaos. What could you use Trello for in your everyday life? If you're looking for help, I'd be thrilled to assist you in customizing your own workspace to fit your needs!

Happy Trello-ing :)