Are Your Clients “Collectors”?
As a professional organizer, I have seen many variations of collections. Some are proudly displayed, some are scattered around the house, and some are piled under other collections at the back of a garage or closet.
When is enough, enough?
If your clients love their things and do not have a museum-sized home (and even if they do), they have 3 choices:
Honor it: We tell clients to find a space where they can have all their “pretties” in one place so they can truly enjoy them and feel they are properly displayed. This should not mean every inch of wall space is to be covered by said collection, editing is a must in this case.
Store it: If there is nowhere to adequately display certain collectors items, we tell clients to store their precious things properly. (We worked with a young man who spent hours organizing his baseball card collection only to let it sit on a garage shelf collecting dust, next to tools and gardening equipment, potentially ruining them.)
Let it give joy: If your clients cannot honor or store their collection properly, we advise them to let it go and let it give joy to someone else. Donations to schools, museums, or specific non-profits are a great place to start. Family members also are a great way to pay your interests forward.
My grandma had a wonderful collection of china that had been handed down to my mother, and my mother has expanded on this collection, which will be handed down to me.
But what if I don’t want it…?
Don’t tell your mom. Take it anyway and see either #2 or #3 :-)
Anyone who is considering selling their home will need to get their collections under control.
While these may have wonderful memories for them, we all know that when selling a home, one wants to create a blank canvas with all personality packed away so that buyers can picture themselves in the home.
We always tell our clients that they can get much more money for their house if they can remove their “personality” from it, and allow the house to speak for itself.