| April 23, 2001
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Lorri Baker. I own a home-based business
and have struggled for years with clutter in my office interfering
with my productivity.
Lost call backs, leads, and customer orders were commonplace. Stacks
of unopened mail and unfinished projects continually overwhelmed me.
I knew I needed help, but didn’t know where to start. Then to
make matters more complicated, we adopted a baby girl, much to our
joy, but
now my need for an organized office space became critical!
Jana Hartwell of Sensible Organizing Solutions
to the rescue! I had met Jana several months prior to utilizing her
services. I knew I had
a need, but thought I couldn’t “afford” her. Then one
day, my husband and I had out of town business to attend that would keep
us away over night. I asked if Jana could “baby sit” for
us. I also told her that I was moving my office from Katy’s nursery
into our new room addition, but was overwhelmed by the challenge of organizing
it all so I could move it all. If she got a chance, I expected she would
not, would she mind looking at it for me and perhaps giving me a game
plan. When we returned, approximately 24 hours later, my office was completely
moved out of the nursery, my files prioritized and categorized with a
to do list, in order of priority so that I could finish the job on my
own. See before and after pictures attached. This was within 24 hours,
a task I thought would take weeks!
I immediately saw the value of Jana’s services and took advantage
of the opportunity by hiring her to work side by side with me to finish
the job. She helped me label my files, develop systems for call backs
and pending orders as well as accounts receivable and tax information.
She, best of all, developed an anti-clutter system for me that works
for me! Something, again, I had struggled with for years. I now have
a place for everything, so instead of a pile, it goes in its file, I
can easily find things when I need them. My life has been made so simple!
Jana Thank You!
During this office renovation time, Jana was also holding organizing
workshops at the Office Depot and she recommended I attend one. The additional
tools I gained from attending that workshop are invaluable: I now know
how to recognize time wasting problems and to work to solve them. If
I can’t figure it out, I can call Jana and she has the answers!
Her workshop taught me how to store things in groups, in convenient places,
in proper containers. When things are easy to find and get to you are
more likely to put things where they belong (duh!) Finally, her workshop
taught me how to recognize things that waste my space - instead of thinking
I may use that thing some day, and then not being able to find it when
someday comes, I can think through how much space does it take to store
it, how easy can I find it when I need it, how expensive would it be
to replace it if the need ever did arise, etc. I can now get rid of a
lot of cluttering things guilt free! Her workshop was well thought out,
presented in an easy to follow format and the things she taught have
stayed in my memory (that alone is a super feat!).
Finally, we recently moved to a new home. I did not hesitate to call
Jana for her advice on packing and unpacking and how best to set up the
new kitchen and storage areas. My office, was up an running within a
day because everything still has a place and my files are all set up.
Jana helped pack in an organized, “this belongs here so it goes
in this box”, fashion which made unpacking a breeze! Then, on the
last day of the move, my husband hired a guy from the street corner for
$8.00 an hour to move the last of the boxes and the heavy furniture.
He would not let me hire Jana for this job because he said it was “man’s
work.” Boy what a mistake! Only two things were broken, (with Jana’s
help I doubt anything would have broken) but all the boxes were placed
wherever, with no regard to what had so carefully been written on the
outside of the box as to which room it should go in. The entire garage
was stacked full, with the living room furniture unreachable. We spent
the next two weekends pulling boxes back out into the driveway and trying
to sort through to put stuff where it belonged. I still think I’m
missing a couple of boxes somewhere. With Jana’s supervision, the
men could have done their “men’s work” but everything
would have gone where it was supposed to go saving us from moving twice!
We did not save anything by not hiring Jana - it cost us two full weekends
where we could have been relaxing and having fun!
One last note, Garage Sales - Jana is the Queen of organizing garage
and rummage sales! Items are properly priced and placed in an easy to
browse and attractive manner, increasing customer purchases and revenue.
I’ve watched her take in $800 plus in one day at her own private
yard sale and recently she organized a church fund raiser rummage sale
where they raised over $2000. I know she received many words of thanks
and praise for her hard work and organizational ability in that endeavor.
In fact, I have a garage sale planned for next month - you better believe
Jana will be by my side, she is worth her weight and then some in gold.
Sincerely,
Lorri Baker
A devoted client
of Sensible Organizing Solutions & Jana Hartwell
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