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Name: The Uncluttered Home

Type of business: Professional organizer

Address: Scotch Plains

Telephone: (908) 358-3460

Web site: www.unclutteredhome.com

Number of employees: 1

Founded: 2001

Top officer: Julie Isaacs, founder and owner

How would you describe your business?

"I provide a professional organizing services for homes and businesses. I help people to better manage their papers, space, and time. People call me who are overwhelmed by clutter and poor organizational systems and want to improve the way they function in their personal and financial lives. I can help plan the office space in your home to maximize storage and efficiency and set up a records retention system. Through the de-cluttering process, I help you to determine what you need to keep, throw away, or donate. I can also help determine the best use of your space and find a home for the remaining possessions.

"I can help your child to get organized. I also organize and 'stage' homes for sales. And set up new rooms for maximum efficiency. I'm also available to give seminars to large groups of students, teachers, and administrators. On May 26 I will be speaking in Scotch Plains to Congregation Beth Israel Sisterhood on 'Lose the Clutter and Gain Control,'"

What makes the business special?

"I truly want to help the people I work with. I want to problem solve with them to achieve the result they want. They call me in when they have problems. They want me to come up with a plan and want me to execute it and we must work together. It's a very difficult and emotional process."

How has your business changed?

"When I first opened my business it was completely different. I worked exclusively with students who were in middle school to get them organized. I was a liaison between the school, the parent, and the child. It was academic organizing. Because I was in the child's home I saw the whole picture and how the home can affect the student, and the work evolved to organizing the parents, too."

What was your most important deal?

"All the homes and people I work with are my most important deals. When you are in someone's home, you are dealing with their belongings and their stress with possessions. The most important deals are those with people going through a major life change such as getting a new job, a divorce, or a death. Those going through a major life change will often need a helping hand organizationally."

What changes do you expect in the next 10 years?

"I expect to move in the direction of specialization. I'd like to specialize in offices. It could be home offices and management of the papers and taxes for overall efficiency anything that revolves around your desk. It has the biggest impact on peoples' lives."

What is the most important thing you've learned in your business?

"You can't force someone to change. No one can force someone to de-clutter. It has to come from them. They must want to de-clutter. And they have to want to maintain it.

"The second most important thing is to realize your life is more important than your stuff. You have to make a choice so your stuff doesn't overrun your life."

What advice would you give to someone considering this line of work?

"This work no in no way resembles what you see on TV. Those makeover programs are fun but not realistic. It's a business. And to do this work you have to know how to run a business and how to market yourself. My service is confidential so you can't rely on referrals.

"The person who does this has to have good organizational skills and business skills and should check out the requirements of the National Association of Professional Organizers and become a member as I have.

"The top thing you need as an organizer is empathy and listening skills. You can't be judgmental about what is going on in someone's house. If you are then you are not the right person who can help them.

"When people call and tell me 'I want to get into this business. I'm a real neat freak and I'll be perfect.' I don't think that is necessarily true. You have to understand how to organize. If you have always been able to organize, you may not be the right person. You have to be very persistent in seeing the client follow through, sometimes it will take months and months, even years."

Is there anything else you would rather be doing?

"This is perfect for me right now while my children are young."