What to expect when we work together

We usually agree a window we aim to arrive in, rather than a fixed minute, for example "between 1 and 2 pm". London travel can be unpredictable, and the session or call before yours can run on. Often that's because Kari was giving someone her full care, and stopping halfway would have let them down.

The same goes for you: once Kari arrives, you have her full attention, and she doesn't rush off to be on time for the next person.

If an exact start time matters to you, tell us when you book. Maybe you have work, school pick-up or a carer visiting, or you'd just feel easier knowing. We'll plan the day around it and do our best to be there on time, and if we're running late we aim to let you know as early as we can.

Your hours start when we arrive, so a window doesn't cost you any time.

Often, yes. As part of Sorted for Good, Kari may make small things for your home from what you already have, like labels made to suit you or a box turned into a drawer divider. It's part of the service, and there's nothing extra to pay. If you'd rather she didn't, just tell her, at any time.

Homes can take years to fill, and sorting can take more than a visit or two.

Clutter is a pile of hidden decisions, and finding out what's really in it is the work itself. We expect effort estimates to vary as we progress and we learn how best to work together to accommodate your needs.

What we bring: our best effort to work with you to create a tailored approach prioritising what is most important to you, your loved ones and your home.

If you'd like certainty, give us a budget and we'll do our best to make the most of the time inside it. Any time guess we give is there to help you plan, so please hold it loosely.

Often, yes. More hours, or more of us, and things tend to move quickly. The trade-off: bigger, broader decisions, less fine care, and a higher cost which can be emotional as well as financial. For example, going too fast can leave someone feeling much lower than before we started.

If there's a deadline, tell us and we'll do our best to plan the fastest sensible route and price it before you book.

But organising has a maximum speed we won't normally go beyond: see the maximum useful speed, further down.

Longer sessions also go further for the same hours: the why is on how to get the most out of working with us.

Because sorting means taking things out before they go back in. Halfway through, a room can look worse than when we started.

That's not mess; it's normal progress. Often the room is not finished at the end of a session, in which case, we always aim to leave everything as safe and tidy as possible.

Trying to tackle too much at once often backfires; we've seen it happen many times. This can lead to hours of effort moving things around with no real sense of progress. The most dangerous outcome is reinforcing a sense of overwhelm and helplessness.

Breaking tasks into small manageable chunks will usually maximise chances of a more sustainable momentum. A smaller but visible achievement feeds motivation and can bring a surprising amount of relief, satisfaction and hope, even if it's not perfect and there may still be a lot to do.

So we usually ask which room, and which spot in it, would bring most relief and we'll start there.

That's the one part only you can play: they're your things, and only you know what they mean. We aim to make deciding as easy as we can: anything we're unsure about goes into clearly marked sorting boxes for you to go through in your own time, or you can decide alongside us as we work.

How much deciding you want varies. Some people would happily wave the lot goodbye; for others, almost everything holds a story. Both are fine.

And one more thing: we're human, and in a very full home mistakes can happen. The more involved you are, the better chances of everything landing where it should.

As little or as much as you require and feel comfortable with. Please let us know as early as possible and we'll do our best to structure sessions to your needs.

Most important of all: you can't offend us, if something feels even slightly wrong, please tell us immediately.

We usually take a few photos or short videos of the areas we work on, as we go. They help us track progress, judge the true size of the job, and sometimes can help us find things, or at least point us in the right direction.

If something unexpected turns up, we may photograph that too so we can show you what we found. All photos are private working records: you can see them any time, and they are not shared without your explicit approval.

If photos feel uncomfortable, tell us and we'll see if we can find ways to accommodate or not.

And a word on what photos are: they help us track progress, especially in a very full home, but they can't capture everything, so they're an aid to the work rather than a guaranteed record of every single item.

Our rates are on the pricing page. We confirm your rate before anything is booked, and invoices usually arrive as the work happens, so nothing piles up quietly. Things like a skip or a van are yours to arrange; if we agree to arrange one for you, we agree the cost with you first. If paying in one go would be hard, we can agree a payment plan.

Our 20% community commitment: We are committed to providing 20% of our service capacity at a 20% discount to help those that need help with paying. At time of writing we have a waiting list to join our community slots so this is on a best endeavours basis.

Also please see our help with paying page.

Pets are family. For some people, the dog or the cat is the most important one in the house. The reason to get up, the routine that survives a bad week. The one who is pleased to see you whatever the place looks like. We know this from the inside, because that's Wednesday for us.

Your pet is part of the plan from the start, not something to shut away while we work. If they'd rather be somewhere quiet, that's their choice and we respect it. Their corner is often the easiest place to begin: the food bowl, the bed, the lead by the door. Kari has been known to make a cupboard label with your own pet's face on it.

Wednesday is Kari's dog, a small chug with strong opinions about who she likes. In Kari's words: "my favourite creature, my doggy Wednesday... someone who always improves my mood." She comes along to a session only when a client asks for her. It's for them, not for us: we only suggest it ourselves when we've learned that someone loves dogs and think she might be good company for them, and even then it's their call. Before she first comes, Kari asks about allergies and anyone who would rather not have a dog around. Wednesday isn't a therapy dog, and we don't call her one. What we've seen when someone welcomes her: she settles on a lap, gives doggy kisses, and the person's mood tends to lift.

Decluttering, organising and cleaning are part of it, but the heart is support from someone who's been there. Kari brings four things to your home. Lived experience: she knows from the inside what a full home can feel like, so nothing you show her is met with judgement. Care: she works at your pace, checks in as she goes, and your say comes first. Creativity: she enjoys finding a way that fits how you live, not a system from a magazine. And flexibility: times, the order of the work and how involved you want to be can all bend around you. Tidying became her own way of looking after her mental health, and she has made it her mission to help others do the same.

She spent four years as an NHS Lived Experience Professional and two as a Recovery College peer trainer, supporting people by drawing on what she'd lived through, and that's exactly how she works in your home: not an expert arriving to fix you, someone who gets it, working beside you. It's why we say please don't tidy first, and why what we find is met without judgement.

It's not something we push on you but when it helps, yes: "I wear my heart on my sleeves". Kari isn't afraid to say "I know this one from the inside", because going first makes hard things easier to say out loud, and because she knows that things can change.

For Kari, recovery isn't a finish line, so it's not just "I have been there", sometimes it's literally "I'm here right now".

Please don't. We mean it. There is no state of a home that shocks us; Kari has lived in one she wouldn't have let anyone see, during one of the worst depressions of her life. Seeing your home as it really is helps us help you.

And there's a stranger, truer thing underneath, best said in Kari's own words: "The worse it is, the more I like it: the more satisfying, the more you see the progress. So it's not just that I don't judge. I truly enjoy it. Decluttering and organising a house that's already spotless? For me, that's boring." New clients don't tend to believe this at first. Then they watch how happy she is in the thick of it, the penny drops (one client put it best: "so you really do like this gleaming disgustingness"), and that's usually when people relax.

We're organisers with lived experience, not therapists or clinicians, so we don't give medical, legal or financial advice. And we're not experts in everything: we wouldn't necessarily know how to assess structural damage, or exactly which specialist a situation needs. So if we find something that looks like it needs one (damp, pests, anything unsafe), we may need to pause that area and talk it through with you, and where we can, we do our best to recommend the type of help required. If we ever suggest someone, you choose and deal with them directly; a suggestion is us trying to help, not a guarantee. Saying "that's not us" honestly is part of doing this properly.