Demand for professional organizers of clutter grows

Sorting out overstuffed wardrobes and corners packed with shoe boxes, Hu Yuling's job is to help her troubled customers regain peace and comfort at home.

"There are always too many items in urban homes, much more than needed," says Hu.

She had one customer who was obsessed with clothes－owning more than 800 pieces－and another client who was disoriented by her 100 hoodies. She once sorted through dozens of shoes that had been jumbled and piled in the kitchen.

The Beijing-based interior designer has found that her new service as a professional organizer is in demand. The two professions, in her view, are interconnected. Her experience as a professional organizer helps to improve her design capability, and her design background allows her to organize with an aesthetic eye.

"While organizing, we usually come up with beneficial suggestions in home design for our clients," says Hu.

Professional organization is a growing business in big cities. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security officially added the occupation to the category of housekeeping services in January.

"Hospitals and government agencies also employ us to carry out professional organization, not just individual households," says Han Yi'en, 32, a professional organizer who founded 1N Reorganization in 2015.

The service and training agency has nurtured more than 1,000 individuals over the last six years, turning former kindergarten teachers, homemakers, psychologists and designers into professional organizers. They work on general organization, store organization, community environment organization, and solutions for the disabled and the elderly.

Han says the improvement of people's lives has driven up new business. What professional organization does is to balance the relationship among "people, items and space".

"People who feel frustrated when organizing their items are likely to suffer from interpersonal problems," she says.

Han remembers once helping an elderly couple organize a 12-square-meter room in downtown Shanghai. It took 21 of her employees seven days to sort out the items in the messy room and create a little more living space for the couple.

For professional organizer Piao Jinhua, 37, the most challenging part of the job is communicating with clients and guiding them to discard their old items.

The professional organization sector in China is still in its infancy and has not yet established a complete training and industry supervision system. Professional organizers are looking forward to the healthy and sustainable development of this new business.