This week on Sunbound Asks we sat down with Kate Bosch, Certified Professional Organizer and owner of Kate Bosch Professional Organizing based in Providence, Rhode Island, which serves clients throughout Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts, and Connecticut. We had an amazing time talking with Kate, covering a wide range of topics from how she found professional organizing in the first place, to her favorite ways to keep her own life organized, to what she would be doing if she wasn’t a professional organizer. To learn more about Kate and her business, check out her website here, follow her Instagram (@kateboschorganizing), or read our interview below.

Q: How long have you been a professional organizer?

A: Over 6 years, almost 6.5 years in business.

Q: How’d you get into professional organizing?

A: It’s something that was on my radar and something that I wanted to do for a long time. I probably started thinking about it when I would watch Clean Sweep with Peter Walsh on HGTV almost 20 years ago. There was also another professional organizer in my area, Lisa Griffith, who spoke at the Mothers of Preschoolers group that I belonged to and then mentored me as I got my own professional organizing business started.

Q: What’s your favorite type of project to work on?

A: My favorite type of project is working with people to help them sort through a backlog of stuff, and really get a handle on their home. I love to help them streamline the systems of their home and make it the type of place that reflects their values. It’s really exciting when I can help a client get unstuck from a place where they thought they couldn’t dig out of. I don’t exactly work with people with hoarding disorders, but we all have that scary room or closet that we just can’t figure out how to organize and make work for our family, where we just can’t find the time to set it up. I love when I can help a client get unstuck and find that confidence and competence to be able to manage their home. Older adults have gone through raising a family and running a successful household, and now they’re at the point of their life where they’re paring down. It’s great when I can help them figure out how to get into that next phase of life, while honoring their past too. The organizing work becomes about helping them hold on to the things that reflect their lives, and honoring both their past and the life they’re living now.

Q: What’s your favorite memory as a professional organizer?

A: It’s hard to pick out just one. One memory that I thought was really sweet was when I worked with a client, and then worked with her daughter on the daughter’s room. At the end of the organizing session, the daughter said “I kind of think you’re like an aunt to me now,” and it was just really sweet to help her learn how to get organized at such a young age. Another great memory was one time when I went to a client’s house to help organize her paperwork. When I got to her house for the first time I saw just how much paperwork there was – her entire bedroom and office were carpeted with paper. We then had to dig in and figure out how to set up a system for all of her papers. It was a lot of fun being able to look at the big mess at the beginning and say “Wow, we can make so much progress here.”

Q: What’s your most unconventional professional organizing tip or trick?

A: I don’t know that I have anything particularly unique, but I have tried to arm myself by having a lot of different tricks up my sleeve. I like to tailor the organization solutions to every individual client so that it’s customized to their needs. I’m not the type of professional organizer that’s going to come in with the same bins and containers for every client and then impose my signature style on them. It’s really more about building a custom solution for someone and helping them feel comfortable in their own home. But there’s an organizer for everyone, some people want someone to come in and do it one way, others want a customized solution. As for tips or tricks, one great tip I just told two clients is to use those small, bin-shaped shelves and place them on the top shelf of a closet, particularly a walk-in. If you turn these on their side they can act asa bookend or cubbies for purses or other things in your closet.  

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Q: What professional organizing practice do you use most in your own life?

A: I make sure there’s a home for everything. If things don’t have a home, then no one in the family knows where they belong and where to put them. But as long as the whole family knows where the scissors live, for example, they’ll go back there. That and just less is more. We try to practice streamlining and not taking in too much, and in particular donating. My family has a really good hand-me-down network, which made it easy for our kids to learn to get in the good habit of letting go of stuff.

Q: What’s your favorite new professional organizing trend?

A: In addition to in-person organizing, I do virtual organizing which is a relatively new trend, and it has been really effective with some clients. I think one promising trend is that in general during the pandemic, people realized that they need help organizing their homes. People have definitely been reaching out more. There also seems to be more awareness of the profession. This has been great not only because it help my business, but I just love that it also means more people are being helped to live comfortably in their homes.

Q: What’s one thing you wish more people knew about professional organizing?

A: I wish that more people knew that we’re not just going to come in and tell you to throw out your stuff. Instead, we’re going to work with you to determine what you want to keep. It’s about giving you the expertise and the outside perspective to make sure that you make those decisions in the best possible way. I wish more people knew that there’s a coaching aspect to professional organizing that is a reflection of your goals and needs.

Q: If you weren’t a professional organizer, what else would you be doing?

A: I would probably be a milliner, which is a hat maker. I studied fashion design after college and started working with a milliner who taught me the trade. 

Q: What professional organizing resources would you suggest for our readers?

A: NAPO is a really great resource, in particular their Stand Out podcast. Laurie Palau’s ThisOrganized Life Podcast, on which I had the honor to be a recent guest, is another excellent podcast. The one celebrity organizer I love to follow is Peter Walsh. I follow him on social media and he just always has amazing quotes and ideas and thoughts about organizing. He’s also really compassionate, which I like. 

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