Local professional organizer seeing more business following Marie Kondo series

 

MISHAWKA, Ind.—Professional organizer and owner of Say Yes to Less Cathy Fairchild started organizing in 2009 when a co-worker needed help clearing out some of her husband’s belongings after he passed away.

“She had not yet done anything with his things so I said do you want me to come and help you and she said sure so I went and brought some boxes and we donated to Goodwill and it was just a thing she couldn’t do by herself,” Fairchild said.

After helping her co-worker, Fairchild was standing in line at CVS when she decided to pick up a book on organizing. She couldn’t stop reading it.

“And just from word of mouth over the last eight or nine years, I’ve been in people’s homes doing anything from organizing pantries or master closets to moving people to a different state and downsizing,” Fairchild said.

Fairchild’s business saw an uptick in phone calls recently as the Marie Kondo special hit Netflix.

“Last year at this time, possibly, someone would call and say they’re going to get their garage organized so I’d come over and do the initial evaluation and they wouldn’t call but this year they’re seeing Marie Kondo on Netflix and they’re reading more about organizing in the news and it prompts them to call and get serious,” Fairchild said.

One of Fairchild’s clients even told her that they bought a one month Netflix subscription just to watch the show.

Fairchild says that two out of three of her new clients are telling her that they’ve watched “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” and want her help organizing their own lives.

It’s not just physical clutter that needs organizing

While Fairchild spends a lot of time organizing pantries, closets and basements, she’s also noticed another area of her clients’ lives that needs organizing.

Their digital lives.

“I see it a lot. People always have their phones out when I’m there, looking up something and I always see on the inbox, thousands of emails,” Fairchild said. “I look at that and it right away stresses me out and whether they know it or not, it’s stressing them out because what that represents is 1,500 things I need to do.”

Fairchild has a few simple steps for keeping the digital clutter under control:

• Unsubscribe to emails and newsletters. Fairchild says if it’s not adding value to your life, delete it.
• Back up photos and other data you don’t want to lose.
• Turn off your phone for about 12 hours every so often.
• Delete podcasts, photos and videos you don’t need or have already used.
• Keep all folders in your computer’s desktop in one folder to keep it cleaned up.
• Check and delete through emails every day.
• Empty your trash bin on your computer regularly to clear up storage space.

Fairchild recalled a client she had whose digital clutter became so bad that she had to start over.

“I have a client who is not rich, doesn’t have a lot of money, but she had to get a new phone because hers was so slow, a lot of that is because there’s a lot of podcasts, emails, photos, videos, so say yes to less with all of those things. Your computer is going to live longer if you do some deleting,” Fairchild said.

Fairchild services areas all throughout Michiana. To find out more about her professional organizing, click here.