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Homes

Front Porch: Organize, clutter costs time

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published May 13, 2005

When Shannon Carlton left investment banking to stay home with her first child, she couldn't sit still for long.

The Bloomingdale mom, now 30, longed to put her uber organizing skills to good use, mainly for overworked clients too harried to do it themselves.

"I wanted people to have more time to spend with their families, instead of having to fool with all the little stuff," she says.

Rather than helping the organizationally impaired clean their closets, she thought it made more sense to help them squeeze more from their precious at-home time by stocking fridges, addressing party invitations, paying bills, returning DVDs to Blockbuster or books to the library.

In 2002, she launched Time Flies, a personal concierge service that she runs out of her house, mainly from her garnet-and-gold Ford Explorer as she battles the Brandon traffic for a roster of working parents who don't have much time for themselves.

Her motto? "We'll get your "to do' list done."

Carlton has been organized since birth.

Well, at least since her sorority days at Florida State University, where she created order from chaos in the closets of the Alpha Delta Pi house.

"I've always been very organized and hated clutter," she admits. "Clutter impedes you from doing what you need to do, it keeps you from finding things."

Her business is all about details.

Back when she was working full time "organizing my boss' life" she realized that most people don't have the time or energy to run errands or cruise Publix at 8 p.m. with a long list.

If the little details were left to someone else, she reasoned, her clients would be able to better concentrate on work and family.

She also frequently shops for last-minute gift givers and maintains a reminder list of important holidays for forgetful spouses.

Her business is confined mainly to the Brandon area, thanks to traffic and the cost of gas.

Carlton doesn't advertise "because when people let you into their homes, it's a word of mouth business."

Her own home is as crisp as a stack of laundered shirts, everything in its place, carpets vacuumed, a week of menus planned and shopped for.

It's so clean, a visitor looks around, whiffs scented candles and tries to figure out how she does it.

Her advice?

Clean 20 minutes every day.

Write out a grocery list once a week with recipes in hand.

Lately, Carlton has found a niche in home-office organizing, something she's seeing a lot of demand for as more people are working from home.

The biggest challenge she's observed is that a home office is typically used by two, three or four people, including kids who might need it for homework.

Her own office serves as an example worth copying: no lingering unpaid bills, junk mail, out-of-date magazines.

Wayward office supplies are neatly organized in desk drawers, paid bills and signed greeting cards await postage in cubby holes. The desktop remains clear and a ribbon-and-fabric bulletin board holds the day's reminders.

Juggling three calendars? Throw them out, she admonishes. Use one: the calendar on the computer and print it out as necessary.

Carlton says that most American women spend about an hour a day just looking for stuff they can't find. She wants you to be organized, too.

Here's how.

Keep things in three piles: "throw away," "immediate attention" and "file."

"The problem is that people see so much stuff that they can't get over the hump," she explains. "It's psychological. Once you start throwing stuff away, it just gets easier."

[Last modified May 12, 2005, 00:28:09]