Clearing the Clutter: Home Organizer Helps People Simplify Their Lives

When Carrie Delgado enters a home, she paints a picture in her mind of a tidy, more orderly living space.

Everyone has their fair share of stuff stashed around the house, she says, in a closet or in the corner of the basement.

Simplifying one’s life is the endgame, Delgado says.

And she’s become an expert at it.

As a teenager, she offered her babysitting clients an extra service: de-cluttering their homes. While studying business administration at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee she started and ran a small cleaning and organization business.

Over the years, Delgado has helped friends and family part with “the stuff” and organize and arrange their homes.

It has all led Delgado to recently launching her own business, Milwaukee Home Organizer, aimed at helping clients ease the burden of a cluttered house. 

“I’ve been doing this my entire life,” she said. “I’ve always been drawn to organizing and arranging and design.

“I think I have a good eye for space, and have a knack for helping people who are overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin."

Delgado has worked from her Shorewood home for several years in the business development and biotechnology fields, developing strong time-management and organizational skills, she says. 

“All of this laid a strong foundation for me getting to the point that I wanted to start my own business,” she said.

Delgado won't work with extreme hoarders, but caters her services to business professionals looking to make the most out of their home offices. That's not to say she won't work with a mother of four children, or someone new to the area looking to unpack boxes and decorate after a move. 

Along with the home organizing piece, Delgado also provides home staging services (setting up a home to be presented to prospective buyers), help unpacking and setting up a place following a move, decorating, shopping for practical items and helping clients find avenues to sell their items, among other services. 

“I want to make the most out of their living or work space,” she said of her business. 

She starts each consultation by asking the client to complete a statement: If I were more organized, I could...

“Organization isn’t the goal," she said. "It’s a means to obtaining a goal."

Purging is the next step. When Delgado actually gets to work on “a client’s stuff,” she pulls out items and asks the client how it fits in their life. 

“I have them identify ‘What is the vision I want for my life and how is it I am living now,’” she said. “Is (the item) contributing to that vision or is it impeding that vision?

“It helps them move past the emotion involved with the stuff we all keep.”

If you go in and just organize for someone, it's not going to last very long, Delgado says. Sharing techniques and skills to organize their lives is the key. For people who require the services of a home organizer — it’s not a luxury, but rather a necessity.

“You have to purge before you can arrange, and that’s the hardest thing for people — to make those decisions on what to get rid of,” she said.

"It affects people's relationships, it affects their sense of self-worth, and their careers, living with clutter.

“The bottom line is people only have so much space."

Delgado will serve the metro Milwaukee area and surrounding communities. Rates are $50 an hour, with half-day, one-day and 5-day discount packages.

For a full list of services, or information on Milwaukee Home Organizer, visit Delgado's website at http://www.milwaukeehomeorganizer.com.