Virtual Home Organizing Sessions

April 28, 2024

4 years ago, I became a Certified Virtual Professional Organizer, and along with many other professionals, started offering virtual appointment for my clients. These appointments are now even more popular now than they were back in 2020. In this post, I’ll talk about why virtual organizing appointments are so popular (especially for ADHD folks) and why they’re so effective.

What are virtual organizing appointments like?

During an initial 1 hour virtual consultation, we will discuss your goals and challenges, and what’s worked before (if anything). We will dive deeper into goal setting and talk about what motivates you.

We will then do a virtual tour of all the spaces you want help with. As we’re doing the tour, I will be taking notes about ideas I have for specific spaces, and I’ll ask clarifying questions to help get to know you better.

Once we’ve finished the tour, if there’s time, we can talk about coming up with a timeline (if that’s important to you), strategies for accomplishing your goals, or we can dive right into a virtual organizing project (organizing work done while on Zoom together).

After the initial consultation, virtual organizing sessions are usually either:

strictly work sessions: I guide you through organizing something specific while we’re online together
strategy sessions: following up about homework and then planning what needs to get done next and when that will happen
a combination of a & b (following up about previous commitments, doing organizing work together, and planning next steps)

Virtual organizing sessions are usually done on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop that can easily be moved around. It’s important that the device you pick has a good working microphone and video capability, and has up-to-date software. It’s also important to have a good Wi-Fi connection. The device must need to hold a charge so the battery doesn’t get depleted during our session. I have also done virtual organizing sessions on desktop computers or just though audio calls (no video), and that works too.

Why they’re so popular

Less of a financial commitment: Since these sessions only one hour instead of my regular three hour in-home minimum, they are the third of the price of an in-home visit.
Easier to schedule: It’s much easier to carve an hour out of your day to fit in a virtual appointment versus having to block out 3+ hours for an in-home visit. You can schedule these appointments at the frequency that is right for you. Some clients want to schedule multiple sessions per week. Others space them out weekly, monthly, or even several months apart. Or you’re welcome to just do a single session.
Body doubling: Many people prefer to work on something when someone else is there with them. This helps them stay more engaged and interested in what they’re working on.
Someone to talk to: Emotions arise when decluttering, and decisions need to be made. Having someone to tell the story about why you have something can help you process whether or not you’re ready to let it go yet, or how accessible it needs to be stored if you decide to keep it. I certainly will never make you get rid of something, but I will reflect back what I’m hearing you say so that you can make that decision. (I’m always happy to give you my advice though!)
Privacy: You may not want to have strangers in your house, or you may want to get to know me better before you invite me in. You have full control of the spaces you want to share with me and the ones you want to keep private. I promise there is no judgment on my end, I just want to be of service to you.
Convenience: If you have an internet connection, you can work with me wherever you live in the world!

Why they’re so effective

I have been trained to do virtual organizing sessions by Sheila Delson, co-founder for the Institute of Challenging Disorganization (ICD). ICD specializes in education for chronic disorganization, ADHD, and hoarding. She is a long-time veteran in our industry, and has developed the concept of Virtual Organizing. The way I structure my virtual organizing sessions are especially good for people who struggle with ADHD, chronic disorganization, or hoarding. Here’s why:

Working in bite sized chunks of time: Shorter focus time helps you gain the executive functioning skills to be able to focus for longer periods of time for other projects.
Less distractions: When you’re on a Zoom call, you’re less likely to get distracted by other phone calls, other people in the home, going into another room and forgetting why, and any number of other things that can drag you down a rabbit hole. There is something about the connection to the Zoom screen that will help you stay connected to what you’re working on.
More responsibility: Deepens skills transferred. There are many times when I want to just jump through the screen to organize your stuff for you, just because I have so much fun sorting and organizing. And I want to help you! But because of the virtual boundary, I’m forced to let you do it on your own. This is of great benefit to you, because you’ll learn how to do it on your own. This is the best way to make lasting change.
Accountability: Not everyone does well with being accountable to someone else. Gretchen Rubin’s book, The Four Tendencies, describes this really well. But there are LOTS of people who really do well being accountable to someone else. I can help you come up with tasks that are achievable so that you build your ability to become accountable to yourself as well. If you know you do really well with having to be accountable to someone else, virtual organizing will work well for you. If you’re NOT good at being accountable to someone else (you’re more of the Rebel type that she describes in her book), you may want to consider my hypnotherapy sessions.
Emotional Processing: As much as I love decluttering my own stuff and getting rid of anything I don’t need, there are still some weird things that I get hung up on (like an old pair of worn out shoes, an old hairbrush, good pieces of cardboard and cardboard boxes, and even plaster-of-paris that I know has absorbed too much moisture to function properly.) Most things I can declutter without any problems or regrets, but once in a while, I need to get my partner to tell me “good job” for throwing out this crap! Lol. I get it! It really does help to have someone else witness you in the decluttering process.
Shared Ideas: I love brainstorming organizing ideas, and I know many of my clients have lots of great ideas too! It’s fun to collaborate on how things should get stored (drawers, shelves, bins, cabinets, etc). This is always unique for each individual depending on if you’re someone who prefers to see everything out or if you want things to be behind doors.
Builds Confidence: Not only does organizing build your confidence that you “know how to organize”, but virtual sessions also build tech skills. You might be thinking that you’re “not techy”, but the joy I see in my clients faces when they realize they can actually get Zoom to work helps them gain the confidence to do other things on the computer. It’s pretty cool! And even some of my clients that work in the tech industry are able to pick up some new tech skills as well.
Frequency: Because of the ease of convenience, shorter session times, and smaller financial commitment, clients can schedule these appointments at a more frequent basis, or can do them in-between in-person sessions. Time and repetition are the best way to build new habits. As taught in the book Atomic Habits, and by many other productivity coaches, to create lasting change, it’s far more effective to repeat a short task more frequently than to have longer work sessions less frequently.

Neuroplasticity

Everything I just explained above helps create neuroplasticity in your brain so that new neural networks can be formed. Neural networks are essentially habits. For example, your brain might be wired to come home and throw your bag on the floor. This is because you’ve done this so many times over time, you’ve created that neural network in your brain. If you want to create the new habit of first throwing out the trash in your bag and then hanging it on a hook, you’ll just have to create the new neural network. Virtual organizing sessions are uniquely geared towards helping you create new neural networks because of the short focused attention time, the repetition of sessions (if you decide to do more than one), the conscious identification of the habits you want to break and create, and the safe atmosphere I create to talk about all of this.

If you want to try a virtual organizing session, send me a message. Let’s do it!