Unfortunately there’s a lot of things that make relocating a stressful process. Choosing where to live can feel like a wild goose chase, and timing and coordinating real estate transactions can often end up being an endless and confusing stream of paperwork. The worst part is that even after coordinating all of these steps you’re still not home free yet as you still need to deal with the actual move itself, figuring out some way to get all of your possessions to your new home, which is often thousands of miles from the original one.  And for those people who have lived in their home for decades, dealing with years of possessions can feel like almost too daunting a task to take on. For people feeling this way, a professional organizer may be the perfect solution.‍

What is a professional organizer?

A professional organizer is exactly what it sounds like - an individual who is trained to help others organize their lives. Professional organizing has grown in popularity recently as people have spent more and more time in their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to the success and popularity of personal organizers like Marie Kondo, of the hit Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Professional organizers also offer a wide suite of services. These include not only the obvious - organizing your physical possessions - but also provide help organizing your paperwork or other less tangible parts of your personal life like scheduling or providing you with organization best practices. You can view professional organizers as providing a trained resource for getting every aspect of your life running smoothly.  

Most relevantly, however, professional organizers will help you declutter your home and prepare for a move, providing decision-making support and guidance as you sort your possessions into those you want to keep and move, and those you want to dispose of through donation, sale, or junk (or some other method!). Professional organizers don’t just move things around your house, though many have contacts with local junk or donation services, they also help provide guidance as you think through what possessions will actually make sense, and most importantly make you happy, in your new home.  

Finally, many professional organizers receive their training from, and are certified by, the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals, also known as NAPO. Through their training, NAPO certified professional organizers are able to provide the highest quality service to their clients, and are the gold-standard for the professional organizing industry.  For this reason, Sunbound is an official NAPO business partner.  

‍‍What are the benefits of using a professional organizer to move?

The most immediate benefit of using a professional organizer to move is, well, that you’re organized! Professional organizers use tried and trusted methods to efficiently sort all of your possessions together. This not only helps you get rid of unwanted clutter, but also makes the process of moving that much more convenient by sorting everything in an organized fashion for boxing and eventual moving. Professional organizers work alongside moving companies to make sure that everything is packed and ready for movers so that moving day is a snap. Plus many professional organizers will also work to unpack you at your new home, laying out all of your possessions in a clean and organized way. When you work with a professional organizer you can step into your new home and start living your life again from day 1.  

But the simplest, and maybe most compelling, reason to organize before a move is the potential for huge cost savings.  As we've covered elsewhere there are two primary variables in calculating the cost of an interstate move: the distance you are moving, and the total weight of the possessions you are shipping.  Therefore the easiest, and sometimes only, way to cut costs from your move is to reduce the number of possessions you’re taking.  In fact it is often a practice in the moving industry that professional organizers are incentivized by clients to dispose of a certain number of possessions in order to reduce the overall moving cost.  Being careful to only take those possessions that you truly love can not only make for a cleaner and fresher new home, it can also reduce the cost of your move by several thousands of dollars.  ‍

What do professional organizers cost?

Of course, professional organizers are not free and generally charge an hourly rate for their services.  Given the amount of time that a professional organizer may need to spend helping declutter decades of possessions for your relocation, a professional organizer may end up charging several hundred to several thousands of dollars for their time.  While this cost will often be made up for (and then some) by the savings spent by simply moving fewer possessions, some people may want to do a majority of the decluttering themselves.  Fortunately, many professional organizers are happy to provide guidance and coaching tips to help get yourself organized, without having to spend hours at your home moving or packing boxes.  Oftentimes, this can be accomplished with a few video-calls at minimal cost.‍

What if I don’t want to use a professional organizer?

Even if you don’t want to hire a professional organizer, it’s important to spend some time organizing your possessions before you start packing up.  We have found that the best practice is to start by going room by room deciding what possessions you want to keep, what you want to throw out, and what you want to sell or donate.  Once you’ve made these decisions, pack like-items together and label the boxes to make it easy to unpack and re-organize your possessions when you get to your new home.  You won’t regret the time you take to organize yourself before your move.  

At the end of the day, whether you hire a professional organizer or do it yourself, your relocation will be much smoother, cheaper, and easier if you spend time organizing yourself pre-move.  While relocation is a stressful process, it also provides a wonderful opportunity to take stock of all the things in your life and organize them for your new life.  After all, when else would you go through a lifetime of possessions other than when you are moving from one home to another.  Making the most of this opportunity can yield countless benefits as you step into the next phase of life. 

If you're looking for help with your move, whether it's organizing your life or selling your home, Sunbound is here to help.

Sunbound is the best way to pay for senior living. If you want to learn more about how Sunbound can help make senior living more affordable for residents and easier to manage for communities, email us at info@sunboundhomes.com or request a demo here. Sunbound is on a mission to make senior living more affordable for everyone.