This is an ad and should be labeled as such. A better approach wold have been advice from each featured company, say the most common problem a client faces. The ad still gets out. An alternate approach would be what to look for when considering a professional organizer or maybe what has been your experience with professional organizers.

My son and his wife spent a ridiculous amount of money for professionals to set up storage in their home but they're still inundated with messiness because they haven't managed to train themselves to deal with things regularly. I could have come up with the same arrangements using off the shelf big box store components for 1/4 of the price. Hiring professionals because you don't have time is one thing, doing it when you aren't ready to keep up the good work is a waste of money. Being organized is an ongoing process, not a one time fix.

I want that closet. That is all.

I love apartmenttherapy, but I have to agree. This is an ad, not an article. I am a professional organizer myself, and I would have loved to see what else could have been said about organizing. Tips and suggestions? Testimony? Before/Afters? Tips on how to find a good organizer?

Echoing the sentiments about wanting some actual advice rather than an ad. Although if I had that closet I don't think I'd need much help in the organizing department!

When I see big closets like that, I always think, " Why didn't they just throw it all away ?" ( or give to charity or whatever.) I think Professional Organizers are great. I just don't see spending so much money on a closet system when the problem is that you have to much stuff. In a way, people are showing off when they do this.

I have mixed feelings about professional organizers. On one hand, it is a symptom of our over consuming society that there is a need for them at all. I don't even know if they exist outside the US. On the other hand, a lot of people have serious issues hoarding and accumulation too much stuff. My husband's family is that way, grandparents, parents, children, they all accumulate things most of us would throw away. Their homes are full of clutter and it clearly affects their life. But even if they asked for help, it would be hard for someone in the family to go through each room and tell them that 95% of its contents are garbage, old, useless, broken, ugly, or redundant. An outsider trained to do this would do a much better job. And they may help get to the root of the problem, and avoid further accumulation and purchase of useless objects, saving money in the long run.

Organizing tip: sorting sox. I wear black (to match my shoes) pants sox daily at work. Sadly, every pair is really slightly different, so it's not like athletic sox where all are alike, so any two in wearable condition make a pair.

When I wore multi color sox, the first step was dumping the laundry on the bed, with all the sox in one pile. Start with the most conspicuously unique pair, match them up, roll down the cuff to attach them to each other, move to the next most conspicuous pair, repeat. (Conspicuousness may be by color, length, texture, whatever. If they grab your eye, go for it.)

Eventually you get to the ones that are pretty similar, like my all black sox problem. Sort them by size (length of sock), by pattern (smooth vs. chevrons), or any other distinguishing characteristic. Remember you could have lost one in the hamper, closet, or dryer, so don't beat yourself up if things remain un-paired. Set them aside (or put them in the sock drawer) for later evaluation, in case you find the mate.

Working from most unique to least saves a lot of time from the "pick one up and locate it's mate" approach, since you can be eyeballing the pile while cuffing the ones you already found together.

Oh my, really?

Just get Susan Pinsky's book "Fast and Furious 5-Step Organizing Solution". I'm not completely organized, but this simple book truly has changed my life. And honestly, if I had a closet that size, I'd use it as a spare bedroom. ;)

The first time someone told me they were a professional organizer, I thought that they were referring to the labor union kind of organizer. Luckily I realized my mistake before I said anything too moronic.

I have a friend who is a professional organizer, and she told me that one of her client bases is people who have recently lost a spouse or parent and weren't able (for a variety of reasons) to do the necessary cleaning and organizing of the deceased's house or apartment. She saw it as providing an important service at a very difficult time in people's lives.

Obviously, these things cost money and as such are something available to a privileged few, but I wouldn't discount the profession altogether.

Sherry a tip to help you sort your sox. Keep each pair together by pinning it with a cloths pin before you put them in the hamper. Wash and dry them with the pin and you will never sort or lose a sock again

First on the house tour and now on this post, why is everyone so annoyed by this closet? If someone had a whole room filled with their book collection, that wouldn't irritate most people. Or if, say, a chef or food blogger had a large kitchen with more gadgets than most people would own, that would be fine. Or if someone who builds furniture had a garage full of expensive tools. Yet somehow it's wrong for a girl (who happens to actually work in fashion!) to use her extra bedroom as a closet because apparently collecting clothes automatically makes you shallow and extravagant.

@Anna Lisa
I really think it's because someone like me (who owns a week's worth of clothes) cannot fathom when someone would wear all this! For the cook, it's easy to see how they would use that big kitchen and their gadgets to create great food, it's easy to imagine a person who has read every single book in that huge collection and garnered some knowledge from all of them, it's easy to see how the furniture maker uses all these tools to make wonderful furniture.

It's a creation culture - the academic uses books to create new ideas, the carpenter uses tools to create furniture, the chef uses gadgets to create food, the artist uses paint to create a work of art. Clothes don't really create anything - at least in the views of our culture.

Is that the right or wrong way of looking at it? I don't know. But I think that's why people tend to get so up in arms.

Kess, I completely agree! Nicely put.

I like the theory- interesting. I think it's a leap to say that any collector- books, records, etc.- will use their room's work, but the aspect of creation is a good point. I myself am not a clothes hound, but I can appreciate that clothing, to some, is an art form and their chosen outlet for personal aesthetic, just as someone's home can be. Maybe it would make more sense for your theory if it were a sewing room- creating the clothing- but I think clothes can create beauty just as books can create ideas. But you're right, either way, in that that's probably why people get worked up about it.

Ditto

I am a professional organizer and a mental health clinician and am frequently moved by the underlying problems people's clutter springs from--a neglectful upbringing leaving a client completely clueless about how to take care of her own first apartment; ADHD making it hard for a client to be able to follow-through and complete any task around her house; a struggle to come to terms with alcoholism making all other decision-making processes paralyzed. It can be very heart-breaking to see these little symptoms of major dysfunctions, like opening up a cupboard to find a tremendous pile-up of empty toilet paper rolls and realizing, "oh, this person has just completely given up on her own ability to make any kind of decision at all." And then on top of all that is frequently a big layer of shame over the unaddressed clutter as well as underlying issue(s). There is nothing more rewarding than helping someone feel safe about starting to tackle the problem, and then empowering them to take control of their own space and make their home what they need and want it to be. Powerful powerful change!, wonderful work!

My fiance is an interior redecorator who also helps with organization. Though, I have to admit, it might be more accurate to say that she helps with "re-organization". She's taken some time out to update herself on some classes and redesign her website, but she has reorganized my closet and pantry to amazing effect. I don't know that I would have paid for those services before seeing what she can do, but now, having seen the effect it can have on my life, I know for certain that it's worth paying a professional organizer to help in many situations.
I know she's going to start taking clients again in a month or two, after we move in together, and she'll be writing articles for her website, http://www.organizingdecorator.com/ which I'm sure will include organization tips.

I am not a professional organizer nor have I used one, but I am following the January Cure thread. I highly recommend the book on Hoarding by Dr. Robyn Zasio - it was reviewed in the New York Times highly, and is very interesting - gets at the root of some the possession issues, and helps each reader place themselves along the hoarding spectrum. Also, obsession with neatness is a problem in itself, and most of us just want to find a happy medium.

I never thought I would use a professional organizer. But when I moved into a 500 square foot apartment I needed to re-evaluate the "necessary stuff" in my life. Thankfully, I came to my senses and found the help I needed through http://spaceandserenity.com/

Tiffany really helped me to understand why I hold on to stuff and how to separate myself from it. It was surprisingly the boost I needed, and now I comb through my closet easily getting rid of things on a quarterly basis. It's a really great idea and I highly recommend Tiffany if you are in the DC area!!