I often get asked the question how I became a Professional Organizer. Was I always organized? The short answer is yes. I started when I was 10 helping other people transform their space. My first customer was only 11 himself. It was my brother, Brad.
When all we could see was a narrow goat path from the door to his bed, I would hear, “Sis, would you help me clean my room?” Together we would roll up our sleeves, and into the fray we would go.
First the sort. What stays, what goes, what lives elsewhere. Well, in his case, there were the usual suspects of clothes to put away, dirty dishes, and lots of things that lived elsewhere.
One repeat item I recall were volumes of the World Book Encyclopedia. My brother actually read the encyclopedia. (Maybe that’s why he is so smart?)The encyclopedias lived on a bookshelf in the sitting room at the top of the stairs. Putting them away was easy. But what about all of the other items? Well some lived in the basement on Dad’s workbench, out in the shed, or belonged in the trash. A few hours later his room looked like new and we both felt great.
This pattern continued over the years. Every once in a while I would get an SOS call from dear brother and off I would go. He would refer to me as the White Tornado (after the Mr. Clean commercial back in the ‘70s). I guess there are worse nicknames, right?
Twenty Five years later I was visiting my brother in his home and he showed me his rock climbing equipment in the basement. It was a thing of beauty. Every item had a place. It was then I realized that Brad is really a perfectionist and clutter had kept him from living up to his own standards all these years.
So thanks to my being blessed with a smart, funny, and talented brother, I got a head start on a great career helping people simplify their lives. No, I didn’t think this when I was 10; then, he was just my brother. However, even at age 11, he was a budding artist, athlete, and mimic. And funny? Oh, yeah. That, too. And now we call him Crazy Uncle Brad.
