Starting high school is stressful enough: bigger challenges, higher expectations, demanding schedules. Fighting chaos and clutter at home doesn’t help.
Ask Maureen Zimmerman, of Olney, Md., who will be starting as a freshman at Academy of the Holy Cross in a few weeks. Maureen, 13, was about to take a big step, with her room stuck in childhood gear. It still held her toy chest, Dr. Seuss books, old Halloween costumes and more than 100 stuffed animals. Two large closets were bulging. Shopping bags piled in one corner contained a jumble of graduation presents, earrings, CDs and used notebooks.
Eileen Zimmerman said she and her daughter had talked about tackling the mess for months, but swim practices and lacrosse games always got in the way. “We just never took the time to go through her room and update it.”
So we brought in a professional organizer to help straighten things out. Scott Roewer of Solutions by Scott paid a visit to Maureen’s room, then returned days later with an arsenal of organizing tools and a can-do attitude. He and Maureen spent five hours sorting through almost everything in the room into piles labeled keep, toss and donate. “Okay, when was the last time you looked at this?” Roewer asked, holding up a large SpongeBob doll. Into the donate pile.
Roewer guided Maureen through the process of making decisions, putting like items together, adding baskets and bins to hold hair ribbons and craft supplies and making sure daily necessities were front and center, with once-in-a-while stuff elsewhere.
“We don’t expect her room to look like the Pottery Barn Teen catalog,” he says. “Of course she will kick her flip-flops off when she walks in, and she might leave them there for days. But we can help her set up systems to hopefully have a place for all her stuff if she wants to put it there.”
Eileen Zimmerman watched in delight as stuff moved out and rescued a few treasures from the discard pile: “You can’t get rid of that sweater. Your grandmother made it.” And the American Girl dolls went into storage. “I am going to keep some of them for her pass on to her children.”
Mother and daughter also made a trip to Macy’s to buy a Tommy Hilfiger pink, green and blue comforter and pillow shams. They plan to look for curtains and a cozy reading chair.
“I’m glad I got rid of my little kid’s stuff and cleaned up my room,” Maureen says. “I got to experience changing it and making it better. Now if I keep it organized, stuff will be easier to find.”
Sources
Target, Container Store, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Staples are among the reliable places to find organizing essentials. Check out some of Roewer’s favorite online sources:
www.seejanework.com
www.russellandhazel.com
www.organize.com
www.theelegantoffice.com
www.themacbethcollection.com
www.exposuresonline.com
www.designpublic.com
www.sohospices.com
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