Paid to Organize a Sewing Room!

**Ceashels** · 04-28-2011, 09:41 AM

Woohoo!

My belly dance teacher hired me to clean the main floor of her home once a month and I've done that twice so far. She just called me to ask if I would be interested in organizing her sewing room!!!

She makes costumes for herself and her troop but has items in multiple placed throughout her 3-4 story house. I'm so excited. I'll be checking out the area to be addressed tomorrow after class.

Since I'm not a professional and she would be purchasing any materials, I'm thinking of keeping my fee at the same rate that I use for cleaning with her.

Has anyone here organized on a "professional" level or for someone else? I would love to hear thoughts or inputs for making this work for her.

**frugalfranny** · 04-28-2011, 01:55 PM

Opps..........hadn't read this post when I posted in the other thread...........

Didn't know she was a costume designer....but some ideas posted might apply.

**monkeywrangler71** · 04-28-2011, 03:36 PM

That's great news, a nice natural expansion for your current business. Since it's your first job of this type I think it's a good idea to stick with your usual cleaning rate. If you get some more experience and start to feel comfortable, then come up with a higher rate for organizing jobs. A lot of times these types of jobs would be done with a flat rate for the whole project, but you wouldn't want to start out that way because you won't know at first how much time it will take and how much is appropriate.

Don't say you aren't a professional organizer, because as soon as you do this job for money - presto! - you are. Although there is a certification program available, it is not required and the industry is not regulated. If however, you do decide to keep going in this direction and want to get certified down the road, keep detailed records of how many hours you spend during the different phases of each project - ie. client consultation, planning, implementing, etc. - as you need a certain number of hours to be certified, and only some activities count (NAPO is the organization, details are on their site).

Can you tell I've been doing a lot of reading on this topic lately?

**Ali Lee** · 04-28-2011, 07:17 PM

"my belly dance teacher"... WOW! I didn't get past the belly dancing! I would love to do that...way to go!!! (& congrats on a super new career!!)

**Ceashels** · 04-29-2011, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by Ali Lee

"my belly dance teacher"... WOW! I didn't get past the belly dancing! I would love to do that...way to go!!! (& congrats on a super new career!!)

LOL! I love it. My instructor is really physically expressive and that is something I am so... NOT. But since taking lessons, my thumbs no longer get numb, my back pain is decreased and I feel better.

**MaryCarney** · 04-30-2011, 08:02 PM

I think the most important thing in organizing for others (which I have done) is to find out how 'visual' they are. I mean - do they forget they have stuff if it's not in sight? If so, I stick with clear bins and drawers and LARGE labels on everything.

**Ceashels** · 04-30-2011, 08:17 PM

Well, she has a nice size room. One small closet with a door. Windows on two walls. An old sewing table she doesn't use, 2 stacked file drawers that needn't be in the room. Corner shelves.

There is a chest of drawers that can be placed in the room and a three cupboard wardrobe. She is all about re-purposing the furniture that she has. I think it may just need some way to organize her items in what she already has available.

She was easily overwhelmed when we were talking ideas and I think she is going to lean toward paying me to assist her the cleaning and organizing the room with her. Which is the best way to do it as she has more involvement in the keeping, pitching, and separating of her items.

She sorts fabrics by material and trims by color.

I think having an assortment of drawer dividers or light weight boxes that can make drawer space functional would be a good place to start. I think it is going to be a big project seeing how much costuming materials she has.

I'm quite excited about this project.