A few frequently asked questions

This Girl Can Organise performs a free consultation before every session whether the job is big or small. We will ask you questions about the work you’d like to have done and we’ll have a proper detailed look around the property. A detailed report with photos will then be available at a charge, and we can then book in the job for you.

This Girl Can Organise will start by having a look at the areas you’d like to work on and talk about what you want to achieve. We will establish how much personal property you’re comfortable having around you, how space is utilised and what you find challenging. We’ll agree what we can achieve in the time available and how involved you want to be in the process.

What comes next depends on the work we’re doing but it might include: setting up a system for categorising items e.g. keep, charity or sell. We will identify groups of items for organising. We will discuss how these can be stored and disposal of in an environmentally responsible way. We will examine the shape of a room and consider its usage and styling to maximise storage and present an appealing look for viewings/clients/ homeowners as appropriate. We’ll make sure that we leave time for putting things back and tidying up.

Making decisions can be hard work and tiring. Emotions can be tied up in decision making and parting with some items can be difficult.

Depending on the length of a session we’ll encourage you to break for a cup of tea or a bite to eat. This can refuel your mind and body. We’ll be encouraging and supportive and help you achieve your goals for the space around you.

This Girl Can Organise will vary but ideally, you’re looking at a minimum of four hours or a full day to see a real improvement. Depending on how much you want us to tackle, a project can take longer. But we don’t want any job to take longer than it needs to.
It’s important for clients to be realistic about timing because things don’t build up into clutter overnight, and so months or years’ worth of clutter isn’t going to be removed in an hour!

If you’re wondering if you can get away with less than four hours or a full day, be honest with yourself about how much you’re willing or able to do by yourself after we’ve gone: will you be motivated or have the time or energy to finish things off?

Unless you know you’ll be able to get on and complete the job soon after we go, it’s probably worth paying for an extra hour or two for us to get things finished. Then you can stand back and admire the change, and all you have to think about is maintaining it!

This Girl Can Organise can do the work alone without you there, or work alongside you. Some people prefer to leave us to it, others want to work with us to see exactly what we’re doing, they also feel they can learn tips and good habits to help them in the future. It’s up to you. Even if you aren’t there, nothing would be thrown away without your agreement.

You don’t need to tidy up for our arrival. People often have storage containers/ boxes and folders around the house that can be re-used, or used differently. Ideally, you wouldn’t buy storage until you’ve de-cluttered and know what’s left to store. But if you think know roughly what will be left afterwards, and what things you’ll need to store, then it makes sense to have considered storage. We can advise the best possible solutions on storage design for your specific requirements.

Before a session it is helpful to have a think about:

What area/s of your home you want to concentrate on.
What you would like to achieve by decluttering / organising that area.
Can you can dispose of the bags/boxes of items that we identify.

People often have containers/ boxes and folders around the house that we can store things in when we get to the organising stage. If This Girl Can Organise can re-use what you’ve already got, we will. If you don’t have enough or don’t want to do this, you can either get some storage in advance of us Alternatively, we can arrange items so that you can go and buy your own storage after a session and then just pop what we’ve organised right into that.

No. It is your decision about what you keep and throw away. If you’re there during a session, you’ll be actively doing this on the spot. If This Girl Can Organise is working alone, we’ll categorise items as we go – you may want to give us some pointers before we start – and keep them for you to check later. Realistically, if you want to see a change in your surroundings, it’s likely you’ll have to part with some items, but you might find this is easier than you expect once you have some company and moral support to do it. Having a clear idea of what you want to achieve can also be a great motivator when you start to waver.

There is likely to be a mess during a session as we may have to move things around and spread things out. This Girl Can Organise will make sure we leave time to tidy up the room at the end of a session so there won’t be a mess left. There will be bags or boxes of categorised things ready for disposal, we are happy to take some of this away but ultimately this is your responsibility.

Please don’t worry about this, and don’t let fear of getting upset put you off booking. It doesn’t put us off and we don’t find it embarrassing. If it happens, we might suggest you take a break. We’re perfectly happy to carry on working until you feel ready to join in again, or even if you don’t. It can be tiring and emotional but the results make it worthwhile.

Yes, This Girl Can Organise can give advice about ways to do this.

This Girl Can Organise can suggest ways to dispose of things such as specialist recycling, or selling. Some things will have to go into the bin or a skip, but we aim to minimise this. We don’t generally remove items from your home – this isn’t included in our prices. We leave this stage to you, but encourage you to do it quickly after our session. Occasionally, by negotiation, we may remove items, but it is a service that we make an additional charge for.

Remember, if everybody’s home or office environment was organised, under control and running smoothly we wouldn’t have a job! We won’t make judgements about you or criticise you or your surroundings. This Girl Can Organise genuinely enjoys sorting things out and organising. We’re focused on helping you to get the most from the space around you.

If you’re willing, This Girl Can Organise may take photos for use on our website, blog or marketing material to show potential clients what can be achieved. All client photos used are anonymous. You might want to take your own photos – before and after shots can be really motivating to maintain what we’ve done, or tackle other parts of your property.

Yes, This Girl Can Organise is covered by Public Liability Insurance & Professional Indemnity Insurance.

Yes! We have clients who would be willing to give you honest feedback about how This Girl Can Organised worked for them. You can also have a look at our testimonials page for added reassurance.

This Girl Can Organise works on a strictly private and confidential basis. This includes confidentiality of our clients’ personal details and circumstances, and confidentiality of clients’ information that we may come across as a result of our work. The nature of our work is such that while filing say, we will need to visually scan documents to categorise them, we do not read or handle documents unnecessarily however, we respect the confidentiality of our clients’ work, personal information and circumstances. We are registered with the Information Comissioner’s Office (Data Protection) and keep your contact details on record but will not disclose them with anyone else.