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Spring Clean!

The office already had
one desk (that Andrea
Wolf defined for two
with individual blotters)
and shelving, but there

were no drawers or
cabinets. "I did each
person's [bookshelf] as
its own office because

20w-477-1

"--w

each had separate
needs. They're separate
businesses," says Wolf.

"First, we purged. We
started at one side of
the room, in one corner,

and just moved across
the room to make it
less overwhelming."

Wolf used the couple's
dining room as a
"staging" area and

gave her clients
items to took at and
group as garbage,

donations or to keep,
then categorized into
current to-do or set
aside for later. "That

way, I could create a
shopping list and knew
exactly what needed

a permanent home.

Almost everything
I use can be found
inexpensively at
Target."

Inset, above:

A Birmingham
home office gets
easy-to-maintain
makeover
plus tips for
organizing
your own home.

Lynne Konstantin I Design Writer
Jerry Zolynsky I Photographer

C

reating an efficient home office can be a daunting task. Make it a small space,
and add another person to share that space, and for most, it just wouldn't
work.
It definitely wasn't working when a Jewish couple, who each run a separate business
out of their Birmingham home, tried to make the most of their space. So they called
Andrea Wolf, who runs Neat Home & Office Organizing (neatorg.com ) out of her own
Huntington Woods home, which she shares with her husband, three kids and dog.
"I know what it's like to have a lot of stuff coming in from every direction," she says.
'And I know that people look through decorating magazines and feel pressured to make
everything look pretty and organized. But most people aren't Martha Stewart; the most
important part is to feel in control of your space, whether it's the whole house or a play-
room or a closet or even organizing your photos. People want to feel that they are suc-
cessful at running their household. You can make it pretty later, but first it has to work. If
it doesn't work, they've wasted their money on me'
What most, including this couple, find overwhelming and debilitating, Wolf finds fun.
"I went into this space, and where they saw no hope, I could imagine what it could be,
and I hit the ground running. I really love what I do, and I love helping people benefit
from it. I help them take the emotion out, to figure out what they really need, and I try to
set them up for success. I want them to be able to maintain it?'

The "Before" photo: "We took a
really small room, probably 10 x
10 feet, and had to make it work

as the primary space for storage
and business for two people,"
says Andrea Wolf, owner of Neat

Home & Office Organizing. "It
was enormously cluttered."

❑

Do you have a hoMe you'd like to share with the community? Contact Lynne Konstantin at lkonstantin@thejewishnews.com .

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April 12 2012