What it’s like to work with Alli McVann

 

I want everyone to know what it’s like to work with Alli McVann for 4 days cleaning out the clutter in your house.

 

We’ve lived in a large house in NJ for over 30 years. Before Alli came, every closet, cupboard, chest, shelf, file cabinet was stuffed so that it could not hold any more of anything, which meant that excess stuff sat on all horizontal surfaces. The basement and garage were in complete disarray, as well. YUK.

 

I’ve wanted to clear out the clutter for at least a decade and I chipped away at it a little at a time every year. But all my chipping did was to keep the piles from getting a lot larger…didn’t make a dent in the big picture. So, on the recommendation of my niece, I hired Alli and paid her airfare to come and spend a week in NJ…4 days at my house and 1 day at my son’s house. Best money I have ever spent!

 

Spending consecutive days cleaning out had unexpected benefits: She collected multiples of the same items, scattered throughout the house, and gathered them into one location. Once I saw how many duplicates and copies we had of a given type of item, it was a lot easier to part with the excess. With continuous focus for so many hours, I was able to actually remember where everything belongs. That doesn’t happen when I chip at the clutter – half a day here and half a day there. Alli continually reminded me of how useful some items would be to others. So I didn’t have to feel guilty about tossing out perfectly good stuff. We ended up with a huge ‘donate’ pile.

She segregated items according to their ultimate destination and knew what items would garner a good sum if sold on Craig’s list, and what items could be returned to stores for cash.

 

Here’s an example of how Alli worked: together, we would go through the closet, the desk, under the bed, and all the drawers in a dresser and night stand, plus everything on top. I would indicate what should go to the ‘donate pile’ in the garage, what to designated shelves for my children in the basement, what to be trashed, what belonged in some other location in the house, and what I was undecided about. Then I would leave the room and half an hour or so later Alli would have moved everything to its proper place and then organized all that was left. Presto! The room would be beautiful.

 

Alli works extremely fast. We live on 4 floors – that’s 3 flights of stairs. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so energetic – running up and down the stairs all day long for 4 days! We didn’t need to buy any new containers. As she emptied out stuff, she collected the containers in a central location, so when it came time to organize a room, there were lots to choose from. Plenty of excess labels turned up in the office clean-out.

 

Alli has a great sense of humor and a stupendously positive attitude. She also has patience. She was marvelous with my husband who absolutely did not want to engage in this activity at all. But thanks to her wonderful personality, together they cleaned out his office, dressers and closet and in the end he is thrilled with the result. Had I been working with him, we would have had war.

 

So what’s the result? Every shelf, closet, chest, file cabinet, cupboard that we worked on now has extra space in it…free space. The horizontal surfaces are completely free of clutter. All the rooms look more spacious. The basement and garage are well organized – also with lots of free space. We can find things. We know where to put things away (half the battle for keeping it orderly). Those are the obvious benefits. Additional benefits include a new freedom from lots of ‘shoulds’. I no longer see in every corner of my house something that I ‘should’ be taking care of but am not. Partly this is because we took care of it. Partly it’s because I will be taking care of it easily and soon since now all the necessary information and pieces are collected in one convenient place. And partly it’s because I could finally give the ax to many of the half- finished projects that were hanging around. You know, the ‘someday I’m going to do something with this or that’. Well, when I saw how much was in that category, it became easier to face up to the fact that ‘someday’ was just never going to come along for most of these projects. What a relief it was to ditch them!

 

Now there’s space and room for the present and future – un-bogged down by all I intended to do in the past. I have worked with a professional organizer before…just a few hours at a time, because the hourly rate seemed prohibitive. This is the first time I’ve ever budgeted an amount comparable to a capital expenditure – like getting rooms painted or buying some furniture or replacing a major appliance or the like. Given the supreme pleasure my husband and I both are getting out of our new found space, the money we spent on this effort is the best bargain ever! It’s honestly as much pleasure as we get out of a vacation and you know how much that costs.

 

Furthermore, Alli works extremely fast and gives more value for the hours that she puts in than any professional that I have ever used before. Coming from NC her hourly rate is a third or more less than what’s typically charged in our area. That more than offsets the travel expense, if she’s coming for multiple days. I’ll have her back in a couple months to clean out our self storage rooms and this time I’ll share her with my neighbor and let my son have more of her time. So, so, so worth it!!!

 

Foy Cooley Chatham

New Jersey