Last week, I had the chance to work with a local professional organizer to re-do two of the closets in my Virginia Beach apartment. I can't wait to show document the before/after photos and share more about the process with you! I worked with the NEAT Method Virginia Beach, and local owner Alayna, and had such a positive experience all-around.
I feel like the popularity of professional organizers has skyrocketed in the past few years. With the success of Netflix shows like Marie Kondo and The Home Edit, and popular stores like The Container Store, home organization is trendier than ever. However- my apartment for the past couple of years made in Charlottesville made it tough for me to implement a lot of organizing tips, as there was just no proper storage space to do so.
My most recent Charlottesville apartment was a two bedroom, two bathroom that I lived in with my roommate Abigail. The apartment was designed in an interesting way. It had a generous amount of common living space- we had the biggest living room of any apartment I've been in, and also a lot of space for a dining room area. But the storage space in the apartment was next to nothing. I would often tell Abigail how I would've rather had our living room be smaller and have more shared and individual closet space instead. We didn't have a pantry, linen closet or bathroom closets. There was a small shared coat closet for both of us near the front door, and then each of our bedroom closets (which weren't walk-ins and weren't very big). That's it! I had to store stuff in kind of untraditional methods, like using suitcases, setting up an extra closet rack, and using the built-in desk in my room for storage instead of using it as an actual desk. I always felt overwhelmed by having stuff out everywhere, but I didn't really have a choice.
When I moved to Virginia beach last summer, I was thrilled to see that my new apartment had really generous storage closets! In addition to a good sized bedroom closet, I finally had a bathroom closet and kitchen pantry. And best of all, there was a generous sized coat closet, and a really large living room storage closet. Not bad for a one-bedroom apartment!
The problem? After living without normal amounts of closet storage for so long, I had no idea how to properly organize my new storage closets. My living room storage closet quickly became an absolute mess. It was really stressful for me at Christmastime to try to dig out my fake tree and bins of decor and ornaments out of there. And my coat closet wasn't in that much better shape. I was able to keep the coats semi-organized, but the top shelf and bottom of the closet were also messy and not properly utilized. I am pretty good at following an organization method once I have one. They key for me is finding that method in the first place!
It's a little embarrassing for me to share this, but here are some before pictures of my living room storage closet and hallway coat closet:
Back in the fall, I first started considering looking into local organizers in Virginia Beach. I knew that I was really struggling space-wise with figuring out my storage closets, and I thought that a new set of eyes and a professional's perspective could be helpful. Coincidentally, this is right around the same time that I connected with Alayna Hermans from NEAT Method Virginia Beach on Instagram! NEAT Method is is a luxury home organizing company with 95+ local locations throughout the country. Alayna started the Virginia Beach location in 2021, and they've already gotten to work on lots of home organizing projects both big and small in Hampton Roads.
NEAT Method Virginia Beach is a full service organizing company. Not only do Alayna and her team come into your home to organize the rooms or areas that you've requested, but they also take care of ordering and bringing any and all products needed for your space. Alayna and her team get everything done as quickly as possible! Working with NEAT Method Virginia Beach begins with a consultation with Alayna. She will come over and look at the spaces that you'd like worked on, and take measurements and photos. The measurements are especially important, and it will help her to find perfectly sized products and tools for your space. The consultation is also when she will discuss an estimated rate for the project.
The next step is paying a deposit, and then your date for services is scheduled! Mine was done on a Thursday afternoon after I got out of work. It took four hours from start to finish for both closets.
Here are some during pictures of the NEAT Method Virginia Beach team starting things off:
It took about four hours for them to do both of my closets. Alayna and her team started by taking everything out of both closets and putting it all in my living room floor, but before I knew it items were already going back into the closets in a much more organized fashion. I chose to hang out in my room while they were working to stay out of their way (small apartment!), but Alayna and her team can also work when residents aren't home, if that's better for someone's schedule.
And here are a few snaps of my two closets starting to take shape again in their newly organized fashion:
I'm so excited to share pictures of the grand reveal! I can't even tell you how HAPPY I was with the finished results in both closets.
For the coat closet, the biggest difference was how Alayna added door storage. I previously had my aprons hanging on Command hook on the door. She removed the Command hooks, and instead put in a great over-the-door storage option. It has built in hooks for my gym bag and other bag, and some small bins at the bottom. Now my aprons are folded in one of the bins, and the other ones hold my flip-flops / beach shoes, beach blanket and an umbrella. The NEAT Method team also decided to hang my coats all by color, instead of divided by spring and winter as I had them before. Here's the after for the hallway coat closet:
And here's the amazing finished product for my living room storage closet. I told Alayna that one of my goals was to have Delilah's cat stroller fit comfortably in the closet to be easily wheeled in and out for walks (so I didn't have to keep taking it apart after each time I used it). I am amazed that they were able to organized this closet in a way that does allow me to wheel the cat stroller in and out!! And they were able to accomplish this without having me purge anything. The shelf that Alayna put in fits perfectly (this is thanks to the careful measurements she took during my consultation). I also love how my broom and mop are now hanging on the side wall!
I also love the labels on the plastic storage bins on the shelf- everything looks so professional and perfect!
As you can see, I am beyond pleased with the NEAT Method Virginia Beach results on both of my storage closets! This turned out better than I imagined. Alayna and her team are incredibly skilled at what they do, and the results that they can create are amazing. If you don't living in Hampton Roads, there are NEAT Method franchises across the entire country that you can work with! There's a high chance there's one in your city.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any additional questions about how this process worked! And be sure to also check out NEAT Method Virginia Beach here on Instagram. 😊
God Bless,
xoxo Annaliese