It's a Living: Professional organizer in Okla.

The Christmas Eve snowstorm proved an excellent excuse for Patti Manna to turn her professional attention inward and reorganize her own life for the new year, she said.

"Two years ago you could buy a home organization franchise without a lot of working capital," the consultant said. "But now? No. If you have enough to pay bills without a lot of growth for six months or a year, it will work.""I looked at a sales chart and it was falling like a stone," the entrepreneur said."A lot of people think that organizing is all about being neat and orderly," she said. "But really and truly, it's not. That's only a nice byproduct. Being organized means that you can find the things you need when you need them."These systems look like a solid wood organizer but cost considerably less. You have the option of buying a complete ready-made kit or individual shelves, rods, drawers, and shoe racks to make your own closet organizer. Going the individual pieces route will be a bit more expensive because each piece will cost you. When you buy a kit, it all comes together for one low price.You can buy a wooden closet organizer system in several different kinds of wood. They come in pine, oak, cedar, birch and maple."Sometimes it's as simple as a hobby that gets out of control," she said. "Or we might actually switch rooms in a home because what they're using one space for may actually work better in another area of the house.""Although my personal strength is space planning and the like, I do go into people's homes and help them reorganize so that their homes are more accessible," she said. "I think the main thrust of a professional organizer is that you develop entire systems that work for people on a personal level, because what works for me as a home filing system probably would not work for you.Manna said she sees a job well done not just in the physical space she helps organize, but in the body language of her clients.In the flooring products industry for a quarter century and then spending three years in small market acquisitions, Caemmerer put the money down in October to acquire an already up-and-running Closets by Design franchise in Deer Park.With January as a key month in the organizing business, Caemmerer is leveraging his contacts and experience in the flooring products industry to kick-start the company.With Wall Street pros cashing benefit checks, the Closets by Design franchise has a kiosk set up at a high-end hardware and design store in Manhattan, as well as one in East Hampton.Some numbers might spell success for Caemmerer. According to the Association for Closet and Storage Professionals, the home organization industry totals close to $3 billion annually. And it might get even better.Wooden organizer kits come ready to install but they need to be assembled before you can install them. The kits come with the instructions and are easy to put together. Once assembled you can then install them into your closet.

"You can almost see a load being lifted off their shoulders, almost like they can breathe again," she said. "Our lives can pile up to the point where we feel like we need to take action, and once that happens and you take control again, you feel an actual sigh of relief. It's a very obvious change."

Author: Brian Brus