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W AIVA M MIt e
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DEBBIE L. SKLAR SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
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PHOTOS BY GLENN TRIEST
TH E DE T RO IT J E W IS H N E WS
N
Nancy Kalef says she's
laughed and cried with
her clients.
ancy Kalef, the president of Let's Get Organized!,
a business she's been running for nearly
two years, says she does more than help her
clients get a handle on their material
goods.
"I help people organize their cupboards, clos-
ets, drawers, and therefore their lives," said Ms.
Kalef, a Southfield resident.
"I've really gotten to know many of my clients
while I've worked
with them," she said.
"I've- laughed and
cried with them be-
cause I listen. We talk
about family prob-
lems, life and death
situations, illnesses,
hurts and pains.
"I find it very easy
to do that because
I've gone through
just about everything
they've gone through.
I'm also non-judg-
mental. I believe be-
ing 61 is another
plus because I've
lived longer than
most of my clients
and I can talk from
experience.
"My mother used
to say I reminded
her of Lucy, the 5-
cents psychiatrist in
the Peanuts comic
strip. Maybe I should
have been a psychia-
trist."
Ms. Kalef didn't
choose that career
path, but she's not
complaining. Let's
Get Organized! is
keeping her busy.
She's working 4-5
days per week, an av-
erage of six hours
per day, charging
$25 per hour. Most
times, she and her
client will work hard over a four-hour stretch before taking a
break.
Over the past 18 months; Ms. Kalef has worked with 32
clients. Many of her clients are from the Birmingham-Bloom-
field area, she says, and she has also done reorganization work
for Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield.
Ms. Kalef has reorganized a kosher kitchen and gone through
a client's deceased husband's drawers and closets.
"I've always had a good eye for proportions, space and uti-
lization. I can walk into a place and visualize what could be done
to make it more visually interesting," said Ms. Kalef, who helped
family and friends organize their homes for years before be-
ginning her business.
"There is no construction involved in my work," she said.
"Usually, the people I see already have all the organizational
devices known to man. People think these devices will organize,
but they aren't the final answer."
Part of-Ms. Kale? s job is getting rid of items which no
longer are needed, "but I don't make any decisions about
that without the client b e ing there," she said. "I donate
unwanted clothing and other household items to the Jewish Re-
settlement Service, ORT and agencies which help Russian im-
migrants."
Ms. Kalef says her work is helping make this the happiest
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time in her life.
"I've found my niche," she said. "I'm content. I feel very
good about what I'm doing.
The need isn't for me to
support myself; the need is
to make people feel better.
I know that may sound
kind of hokey, but it's true.
"I want to help people re-
trieve what they're looking
for. I got a call the other
night from a woman who
said she went out on a Sat-
urday night and wasn't late
for a change because she
knew where to find things.
That really made me feel
good.
— Nancy Kalef
"Sometimes I sit back
and can't believe I'm get-
ting paid for doing this."
The attitude is a far cry
from Ms. Kalefs reaction to her first day on the job.
"I was at a home in Bloomfield Hills reorganizing a woman's
bedroom," she said. "It was half the size of my condo. I said,
`Nancy Kalef, what in the world are you doing here? "
Before she began Let's Get Organized!, Ms. Kalef held a va-
riety of jabs. She was a secretary, a manufacturers rep and Kel-
ly temporary worker and she ran her own corporate recruiting
firm.
A native Detroiter, Ms. Kalef graduated from Mackenzie High
School. She was married when she was 18 and moved to Al-
abama, where she had a daughter, Judy. The family moved to
Detroit in 1959 because Ms. Kalef wanted her daughter raised
in a Jewish environment.
After a divorce, Ms. Kalef married Manny Kalef in 1979. Mr.
Kalef is the vice president of finances for Domestic Uniform
Rental. ❑
"I want to
help people
retrieve what
they're
looking for."
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