I spent all of yesterday (and I mean all… 12 hours pretty much on the dot and that’s not including travel time) helping my buddy Paul pack his belongings ready for his forthcoming relocation to Google-land.
57 boxes of all sizes (mostly quite large) were made up, packed, lugged and stored ready for the freight company to come and pick them up today.
Happily, nay VERY happily, Paul had had the good sense to employ the services of Sophie March, a professional declutterer, to organise the packing. I’ve moved more times than I can remember (for the first 8 years of my adult life, I moved on average every 6 months as I pottered around Europe) and I can safely say that without Sophie, who organised proceedings herself, we would have been at it through the night and it still wouldn’t be finished.
The de-cluttering business is nascent and just beginning to organise itself (Sophie is a member of the Association of Professional Declutterer and Organisers UK) but I can see it has huge potential. Paul's case is an example.
Paul has eclectic talents/interests and consequently it’s not surprising that he has so many belongings that need moving (in comparison, I once shifted a similar number of boxes from Paris to Stockholm – but that included all of my then girlfriend’s gear too!). Largely thanks to Sophie, he has a lot less now than he did two days ago!
From what I saw of Sophie yesterday, her greatest strengths are: an ability to get on with the task; lots of charm when it comes to helping clients decide what to keep or what to let go and (most importantly?) bundles of common sense. The combined effect was a huge reduction in hassle.
The upshots of yesterday for me are threefold: firstly I got to meet Sophie, who is lovely, secondly, despite my having pigged out this winter (what do you mean I was supposed to be getting fit?), today I can hardly notice that I have been doing lots of lifting and finally, on my way home I was finally able to try a pie from the ‘Gourmet Pie Company’ in Waterloo Station (verdict: average).
I guess it’s time for me to kick off my Spring Fitness Campaign, isn’t it?
Posted by dompannell at February 19, 2006 1:52 PM | TrackBackWell,here's someone who has activated the Winter/Spring Fitness Campaign. Lots of humus, sallad and limited chocolate consumption(hmmmm...)Daily walks are great - so bl...y cold though! Trying to focus my gluttony on Griottines, which I buy at the local bookstore here in M-fred (French owner who imports for both of us!)
Sounds like Sophie could be of use! My sis does a lot of that when she does homestaging. She brought home great treasures from San Francisco that people who were selling just left for her to decide what to keep and what to throw. I guess a lot was "thrown"...
Posted by: filippa at March 13, 2006 5:56 PMGosh, I don't keep up with friends' blogs too well.. still better late than never - thank you again so much! You were a tremendous help, I think equally without you it would have been an all-nighter.
My stuff's still on the Irish Sea somewhere so far as I know.. Haven't checked since I barely even have anywhere to stay right now, thanks to Bon Jovi being in town :-)
Posted by: Paul Makepeace at May 16, 2006 11:53 AM