 Why
they did it
01/01/04
In their own words:
 "I'm not really good at organizing," says Jill Stecher. "If you're
not a natural, it can be overwhelming."
Stecher called Restoring Order to help her gain control over her
household of three children, a husband and a busy business. "I had way
too much to do and needed to find out where things were in my house so I
could stop buying five of the same things," she says. "I could never
find what I needed."
Stecher has used Restoring Order twice.
"I can't do it by myself because," Stecher says, searching for the
reason, "I can't do it. . . . Experts help to A) give me ideas when I
don't have any, and B) set up systems to help me complete projects. . .
. They guide you through the process."
JILL STECHER
SHERWOOD
"All five of us are accumulators," Monica Nyman says of her husband
and three children. "And with a fourth on the way," she says, "I
couldn't face having another child in this mess."
Curiously, it was Nyman's pregnancy that indirectly led her to call
an organizing expert. Because of some complications, the family vacation
had to be canceled and Nyman got the idea to "invest" the vacation
allowance and get her house in order -- one room at a time.
"It cost us plenty, but it will last longer than two or three
weeks in Hawaii," she says. Restoring Order began with
an assessment of the Nymans' 100-year-old farmhouse.
"We worked on the worst room first. The mudroom," Nyman says,
explaining that it is more a multipurpose room with washer and dryer, but had become a junk depository.
Restoring Order® works with
Monica Nyman
Although it took a while to whip the room into order, Nyman learned
skills that she uses in every room.
It comes down to defining what goes where and sticking to it. Nothing
goes in a space that doesn't belong. "In the past, if we had something
we didn't know what to do with," she said, "well, it went on the back
porch."
Nyman -- and her husband and children -- now sort, label and group
like things together.
"We had to get better about not doing the what-if-we-need-it thing,"
she says.
The children, 10, 6 and 2 years old, got on board, too. Their toy
boxes and clothing drawers are all clearly labeled. Even the 2-year-old
knows where his toys go: trains in one place, matchbox cars in another.
They know the system.
They also helped pare down the abundance of toys, going through
everything with their mother and making the decision to keep or give to
another child who would love it.
"We live in Marion County, a fairly needy population with high
unemployment and a huge Goodwill Center," Nyman said. She explained to
her children that not all families shop at Costco for the holidays.
"We had a lot of fun" with the project of giving toys to other kids,
she says.
Overall, Nyman is thrilled with the process and happy she spent the
money on it.
"I used to think, 'I just want to live in a hotel where I don't have
to struggle with our junk.'. . . I have that here now. . . . and I've
learned the skills," says the woman who admits to not being a natural
organizer.
"A professional organizer is the way to go. It cost plenty of money,
but 10 years of New Year's resolutions . . . we weren't getting it done.
Sometimes you need a boot in the fanny and a paycheck on the line."
MONICA NYMAN
AURORA
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