At Work With Sort Things Out
By Libby Barsky
Feb. 1, 2008

"I help people remove clutter and get organized," said founder/owner Eva Abreu.

"Right now my focus is on the residential consumer. The customers I have are work-at-home moms and those who stay at home who need a routine or system to get their home in order. I also work with senior citizens who have accumulated items over the years or who've inherited items from other family members and they don't know what to do with it. They may also be considering downsizing to move to another location."

"Because I'm not born organized and I understand what the person is going through, I completely understand what my clients are experiencing. It can cause a lot of stress and family conflict. What I have learned over the years I want to share with others. I work at it everyday. I think that makes me different than other organizers who may be born organized and they naturally want to put things in order. But I find you have to work directly with the client and understand what the client is going through.

"I help to bridge the gap between knowing what to do and actually taking the next step to do it. There is a lot of information out there -- people know what they should be doing, but something is preventing them from actually achieving taking the next step to be organized. I'm there to make the transition and make decisions on their own."

"My goals are to take the business to a national or international level. To hold more seminars and to write a series of books to become published, and do a TV talk show and become a household world and reach as many people as possible to help them."

"I'm working less with clients in their homes and doing more and more seminars in libraries. The trend is less and less of one-on-one and trending toward more seminars and workshops. Recently I've begun setting up three-part programs in local libraries stretching over a six-week period. I see the dynamics between the people in these workshops -- they realize they are not alone. They have the motivation to get started with the first talk. Meeting in workshops and coming to the next one creates an atmosphere of accountability and then they share with each other what they are accomplishing and incentive or if they have experienced a stumbling block I try to help them overcome that.

"My other goal is able to train others to do what I do so they can meet with someone one-on-one. People do need help, so I encourage getting an organizing buddy to help. But finding a non-judgmental person willing to help is difficult."

"During the winter of 2006, I got a call from South Brunswick Adult School who had seen my ad to hold a class on organizing during their winter session. I did a three-week series. Once I finished that I mentioned it to my local library (Edison) and held the sessions there to a large group. From that appearance other organizations and libraries asked me to schedule the same program with them.

"Updating my Web site at the same time also brought unexpected invitations for work. Not long ago I received an email from a satellite TV producer of a daily women's lifestyle show asking me to do a nine-minute segment on packing for travel. I've been on the show and soon I'll post the segment on my Web site."

"I expect to be traveling more. I would like to reach out to a national audience. If my dream of having my books published by a major publishing company comes true, I will be traveling. One of the things publishers expect is for the author to travel around to promote the book the author wrote."

"Every person has a different situation. Even though we all have a common problem of needing to get organized, every person has a very different situation. So no one system will fit all there is no one answer for everyone. Once people learn what is out there and what works for them. That's what I went through myself. I read and I listened and I adapted them to fit my schedule. But organizing got to be worked on every day."

"I'd tell that person to be come an apprentice to an organizer. To go out and start assisting a professional organizer and learn and educate yourself by reading. To understand people and there are many reasons what the people are in the situation they are in. It should be a hands on learning process and learning to understand people."

"No. I'm doing what I love to do with this business and with my free time as well."