Home Organization

The Sparkle Method

In-Person Home Organization
Carlsbad, NM 

No two home organization clients look the same, nor will their living spaces after we’re done. The work we’ll do together depends upon the situation you’re in; the life events, habits, and underlying medical or psychological conditions that play a role in your relationship to organization skills; and your goals to move forward. We approach this work with an open mind, kindness, compassion, a toolbox of proven skills, and a schedule that is built around you.

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Does all of your clutter gravitate toward one drawer? One room of the house? An out of the way space like a basement or garage? Or do piles seem to gather all around the house? 

The first thing we’ll do is take a look around and set some goals about what these spaces could look like when we’re done.

Next, we’ll explore your schedule and living situation. 

Do you live with roommates, a partner, kids, or elders? Who are the neat ones and who tend to be messy? Who are the ones constantly cleaning? What are your schedules like? What type of things tend to pile up? Is anyone in the house a collector of something in particular?

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After we discuss all of this, we can divide and conquer. 

Once we identify your needs as Situational Disorganization or Chronic Disorganization, we can divide a long journey into daily goals, things we can accomplish one session at a time, and you can keep moving forward between sessions. It’s common to feel defeated when you put a lot of work in, fill lots of bags, and the house still feels like a mess. This is common, and we can plan for milestones.

What are you going to keep? Where should this stuff go so you can easily find it and use it? Home organization products can be a lot of fun to shop for and put into use. With a label-maker in hand, we can customize anything to best suit your working style, design preferences, and color palate.

What are you going to move forward? Giving to friends, family, charity, your local BuyNothing group, or selling at a yard sale, consignment store, or eBay.

What goes in the trash? You can plan on filling one curbside bin per week, or we can plan a trip to the disposal center. Another very satisfying option is to schedule a truck service to cart it all off in an instant.

  • Do you like to organize with colors, printed labels, and a system based on dates, alphabetization, or situational needs?
  • Or would you prefer to organize by emotion, urgency, or how often you need something? There is no one set way to organize things.
  • We can build a system that aligns to the way you think and like to work! 

For the stuff we’re going to let go, we need to come to peace with it so you don’t immediately go out and replace it. Thank it for serving you, and then release it to be properly disposed of.

We can work in person or virtually online. We can create a package estimate that best suits your timing, needs, and budget.

Situational Home Organizing

A change to your living situation can throw what once was a tidy and organized house into chaos – temporarily. This is where a home organizer can help you navigate the change and modify your environment to handle what’s new. 

  • Planned situational life events include moving in with a love interest, living with a new roommate, starting a new job in a new city, renting a new apartment, or welcoming a baby into the family. 
  • Unplanned life events include recovering from an injury, caring for aging loved ones, or housing a neighbor while their home is repaired. 

We can discuss what your house looked like before, your new situation and needs, and what your house should look like once the new plan is in place. This can include:

  • Kitchen organization (fridge, pantry, cabinets) to minimize food waste, pests, mold and mildew, and trash/recycling imbalance.
  • Paperwork organization to ensure mail gets separated, bills get paid, and critical papers get filed before everything else is recycled or shredded to minimize clutter.
  • Nursery set-up – so that everything you need is exactly where you need it, and that inventory remains stocked – but not overstocked.   

Chronic Disorganization

Some people are hard-wired for organizational skills, and some aren’t – there’s nothing to be ashamed of, and solutions are within reach for just about everyone. Sparkle founder, Jean Prominski is well-trained to offer compassionate coaching to clients in need of custom-built strategies, delivered at their preferred pace. 

Well-organized people are typically “left-brain dominant” linear and logical thinkers. They manage clutter, keep a clear desk, and are pretty good at breaking up large projects into small tasks that can be executed sequentially. “Right-brain dominant” thinkers are typically very creative, artistic, and like to see things in front of them; they think holistically and are great at brainstorming, but often find it difficult to keep their homes and workspace organized. 

Judith Kolberg  coined the term “Chronic Disorganization” (CD) to describe people with long-standing, deep-rooted organizational challenges. They may have trouble finding what they need, are often late, and usually ashamed of their situation or abilities. 

To meet the criteria for CD, disorganization must have been a factor in a person’s life for many years, interfering with quality of life, negatively affecting relationships with others, and persisting despite self-help attempts. 

Neurologically based conditions such as ADHD, traumatic brain injury, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis may result in Chronic Disorganization. Mental health issues such as depression, compulsive hoarding, anxiety, and avoidance disorder may contribute, as can addictive tendencies such as compulsive acquisition, compulsive saving, drug/alcohol, addiction. 

People with ADHD often have trouble with using the part of the brain that is required for executive functions (working memory, motivation, focus, planning, organizing, emotional regulation, etc). These skills are required for being organized, so if that part of the brain is offline, or not firing as well as it could, it’s going to be really difficult to get organized. 

This is where we come in. Working 1:1–under the supervision of a therapist or on our own–we can explore your story and discuss your needs with compassion and grace, working at a pace that best suits you. We can present proven techniques that work in similar situations, or explore different options with a positive spirit to see what works, what doesn’t, and what might with some modifications. Some clients may organize things using dates, the alphabet, or specific categories – others may organize by mood, energetic frequency, project size, urgency, or simply by their desire to deal with it. There’s no right or wrong, only what works for you. 

How Do You Get Started?

To schedule a 1-hour consultation call with Jean please visit our schedule page.

For current pricing, please click here.