More Time For You

Lori has been an invaluable resource for getting organized before our home renovation projects. Her clear, no-​nonsense way of helping is just waht I needed to get over the hump of my emotional ties to items that really, truly needed to go. We worked together three years ago and when I had another project coming up, I knew right away that we needed Lori. My garage is now completely transformed. As we consider space planning for our new home addition, I have also turned to Lori to think about what will happen after the remodel — what will go where and how. Our house is more organized but, more importantly, thanks to Lori, I feel a greater sense of organization overall and peace of mind! And have no doubt we will work together again.

When my sister hired Lori a year ago I witnessed the miracle transformation of her house and my sister urged me to contact Lori to help organize our house and all of the stuff that accumulates when you have a new baby. I resisted saying that first I would go through all of my junk myself and then call Lori to help me come up with a good organization system.
2 years later after never going through any of our things and creating no visible organization system I was in a complete panic, because I was facing an international move on my own and had no idea of where to start. I was sure of two things: 1. I had no idea where to start on this daunting task and 2. I absolutely was not moving with all of the extra stuff and junk, because I didn’t want to recreate the disorder in our next house. Enter Lori!
Lori and I consulted on the phone (basically me pathetically begging for guidance) and it’s not an exaggeration that after 1 call with her I felt 100% better and like I was in good hands. Lori had a recommendation for a moving company who could handle the international move and she set out a plan for us to meet a couple of times where we would tackle the major problem areas in my home.
On our first meeting I was so embarrassed to show her all of the junk and mess, but she never passed any judgement or even hesitated to dive right in. She had a clear plan of how to manage each space, came up with a system so that on the move day things would be in places that made sense, and knew exactly what to do with all of the random stuff (an 8 year old Italian laptop with no power cord?!). She gave me a few manageable tasks but for the most part everything got done in 5 – 6 hour chunks.
Each time Lori left I was amazed by how something that had seemed so overwhelming and unmanageable had been totally managed and it was fairly painless! Lori kept us on task but checked to make sure I was feeling ok and whether I needed breaks. She made the time fly by!
When the moving day came I was totally organized– our movers commented many times how easy the job was because everything was orderly, clearly marked, and labeled.
In addition to our scheduled time Lori emailed me with questions to follow up on with the moving company, ideas she had for me, offers to put me in touch with different service providers (electrician, hauler, furnished housing), and just generally to check in with me about the process and how I was feeling. My only regrets are that I didn’t hire Lori to help me earlier (my house would have been so much more comfortable and functional if I had!!) and that we are moving away from Lori. My husband was so impressed by everything she did that he suggested we fly her to The Netherlands to help us move into our new house!
Some people balked that an organizer seems extravagant, but I assure you that hiring Lori is the smartest thing you can do! She will make your spaces so much more functional and you will enjoy the benefits every single day. Lori is wonderful!

Lori is one of the most profoundly incredible people I have ever had the chance to interface with.
She just spent 6 hours at our home and brought 2 guys with her to help out. They accomplished so much, and Lori consistently checked in with me about how I was feeling about everything through the day. It was overwhelming, yes, but Lori made it manageable. I felt mortified at the amount of junk that I have, yet Lori was not the least bit judgmental. She stayed on task the whole time, and didn’t allow me to distract her from the work with my stories.
As someone who is practicing marriage and family therapy, I can say with clarity that Lori brings tremendous compassion and empathy to the way that she holds the space once she is in a person’s home. There wasn’t one single moment today where I felt criticized or judged, or where I felt like her patience ran thin (and believe me, there were many moments where patience would have been challenging for a lot of people).
I can’t emphasize enough what a gift it is to be working with Lori. Thank you so very much, Unilocalers, for writing reviews about Lori Krolik as that is how I came to know about her. She is a gem!
I highly recommend Lori, whether you are being strangled and weighed down by your belongings (like me), or just have a small project to tackle. She is, by far, THE VERY BEST.

I hired Lori Krolik 5 times in the past 10 years. Each time, Lori came for an initial consultation to listen to me talk through my top «problems» with organization and storage — and afterwards she developed and discussed with me a proposed solution. Most recently, Lori helped me with home office organization and a garage makeover. For my home office, she showed me how to maximize technologies such as on-​line bill pay and scanners, unsubscribe from all paper bills and helped me create an almost paper-​free working space. She also made great suggestions and provided referrals to personal assistants and calendaring systems for my consulting business. In addition, Lori most recently did a terrific garage organization system. She spent time going through and measuring all of the equipment and items I wanted to keep and devised a system by which I could easily access items I need weekly, and put away lower priority (but still necessary items) in less easy-​to-​reach locations. My garage is organized and clean — and you’d never know it is chock full of bicycles, sports equipment, tools, extra furniture, etc. Lori always comes in and makes sense of the situation. She combines her analytical skills with common sense and intense focus on maximizing space, solving problems and keeping costs within pre-​determined budget. I recommend More Time for You highly! Money spent is money saved down the line.

Lori and I spent a lot of time together last year, when I finally decided to get my house in order! We built and moved into our Menlo Park home about 10 years ago but never managed to get a good organizational structure in place. It was feeling out of control, and we kept finding ourselves buying infrequently used items because we just couldn’t find the things we had. Enter Lori and our lives have changed. Our major reorg has been complete for about 5 months now, and during those 5 months we have found ourselves with not only more space, but also more time — — because we’re not spending hours searching for gift wrapping supplies, tax paperwork, appliance manuals, etc. The change has been amazing, and it was well worth the time and money we put into the task. Lori is highly effective, efficient, and she thinks outside the box to solve organizational problems, all qualities we highly appreciated.

Lori helped me unpack & organize my kitchen after a long cross-​country move. Her suggestions for organization have been invaluable and will definitely be applied to other areas of our home as well. After she did such a great job on the kitchen, we had her come and figure out our living room, which was strewn with «stuff». Lori is practical and unemotional, which really helped me when figuring out what should stay and what should go. This move is a process and I envision Lori returning to assist with other rooms as we unpack.

Lori has a solution for everything. And her solutions are always simple, straightforward and sustainable. Lori helped me figure out my own style and level of organizational need. Armed with that knowledge she determined simple and easy organizational solutions that I can realistically maintain. Lori has a sharp eye, is a quick thinker, and has an army of resources at her disposal. She helped me move my two boys from one room into two, brought her team in to move furniture, paint and haul away trash and donations. She simplified a system for storing mementos. She’s unbelievably hands on. All of this on top of being warm, friendly and having a good sense of humor. And I can’t wait for her to come back and help me do more!

I attended a workshop that Lori Krolik of More Time For You gave at Parents Place in Palo Alto. My husband and I attended together and we were both impressed by her thorough knowledge and skill set as an organizer. She shared tons of information about useful apps in addition to providing examples of her top-​notch organizational services. We do a lot of organization in our home and had just invested a lot of time and effort into a large garage re-​org and needed some ideas for a home office re-​org coming up in the next few weeks. We came away from the workshop with many creative and immediately helpful ideas we could implement easily on our own without breaking the bank. Lori is a thorough and confident presenter who knows the world of busy parents well because she is one herself. She tailors her suggestions and entire communication style to be specifically useful and supportive to stressed Silicon Valley professionals and families who really do need more time for themselves.
I can’t recommend her workshops and services highly enough!

Lori and her team did it again! On very short notice, she and her assistant dug in to unpack and organize my mother in law, who recently moved from across the country. They unpacked boxes, hauled away excess belongings that should really not have been moved, put away and organized everything they unpacked — from kitchen utensils to bathroom Q-​tips. My Mother in Law’s new apartment looked simply beautiful when they were through. If you’re recently relocated or helping someone else get settled in a new place, Lori and her team can accomplish wonders and leave you full of relief!

I have used Lori in the past for a move-​in project where she helped us unpack 60+ boxes and organize our garage after we moved here from LA. Her straight-​shooting style helped us get through the task efficiently and effectively. She set up a fantastic, easy, sustainable organization system for us that we continue to use now, many years later!!!
Recently, Lori provided a consult as I was *panicking* about a renovation project and we needed to clear out an entire first floor of stuff in two weekends. She calmly helped me break down the very daunting task into manageable pieces, and helped me find and focus on our top priorities. Post-​renovation, I’m definitely calling Lori again to help us with unpacking and setting up new systems in the new space!!! Lori is the BEST.

I found Lori looking at Unilocal reviews for professional organizers. She was an immense help to me this summer in organizing my home office. Lori was understanding yet firm in guiding me through all the articles, research, paid bills, momentos and other paperwork that I accumulated that had left me in the state of too overwhelmed to act. She had great tips and ideas on how to put it all in order. Now my office is again workable and my storage closet in the office actually makes me smile when I open the door. It looks great and I can actually find things I need. We spent 6 hours together (in three 2 hour sessions) and it was well worth it, stress level is decreased and productivity is up. I plan on using her again soon to help me in my office at work and with organizing electronic information.

Working with Lori (about 5 consultations over the past 3 months so far), I have been inspired to create realistic, attractive plans for our home. I am by nature an organized person — but career and parenthood have thrown me for a real loop in my home territory!
My husband and I both work, and we have 2 kids, a toddler and a kindergartener. Lori has helped us convert our Family room into an enjoyable space, with even a streamlined Mom-​desk (as it became clear I can get nothing done at a Kitchen desk), and no more Laundry hanging everywhere… She has pointed out simple, almost no-​cost solutions to chronic clutter problems, and has helped us get control over our enormous book collection.
Lori knows the best places to donate, and (as space allows) encourages re-​purposing as well as saving anything that may be practical in the future (she helps me curb unintentional waste). She also helps me realize when my improvised solutions need re-​thinking, and has coached me to become more strategic in creating and maintaining systems at home.
Lori has even helped us negotiate (peacefully!) our different opinions about the ways we want to go about using space, serving as an objective, experienced outside voice — this is good for our marriage! The major benefit of all this, besides peace of mind, is that I have much more time for fun, like gardening and really playing with my kids. My advice: Plan on a few 3-​hour sessions with Lori and watch your Time for You grow!

I moved to Los Altos from the East Coast with a whole bunch of clutter. Lori took a look at the clutter and the boxes and quickly helped me to unpack, organize and make my house livable. She is really efficient and works very quickly. She really takes the time to think about how you live in your house which makes it easier to keep things organized after she leaves. She was also very gentle and very effective about getting me to part with things I absolutely did not need. I am definitely going to sign up for her quarterly service.

Lori helped our family make better sense of our kids playroom and bedrooms. She also helped some in de-​cluttering another bedroom and garage. Right off the bat, my kids are using the playroom more effectively and are motivated to help keep it clean! Lori knows her stuff about how best to organize a space. The thing that I liked best about working with Lori is how focused she is, she did not waste a single second after setting foot in our house. She started working right away. We are hoping to get one more session with her in the future, to wrap up the major re-​org she achieved in just three 3-​hour visits. I recommend her without hesitation!

An absolutely fabulous investment. Lori has a gift for organizing even for those of us in the organizing business. Three hours with her helped me address ten years of built up clutter and getting ready for the next level. Onward and upward!

Lori and her team helped me reclaim our garage. She surveyed the job first, and make a supply list, then on the day of the clean out, arrived with two helpers. By 1PM they were done and we had a NEW space!
We’re very pleased with the work. We defined a budget ahead of time, and Lori was good about sticking to it. I really don’t know why I waited so long before asking for her help…

Lori tamed my closet and came up with practical ideas working within constraints. She also knows what’s out there in terms of products, which is really helpful for efficiently picking out what will work best. She gets a lot done in a 3 hour visit!

I always look forward to working with Lori.
I had been wanting and needing help with my house organization when my daughter was a toddler. She’d been a difficult baby and my house suffered terribly. I bought a gift certificate at a local auction and after the first session, I was hooked! Close to five years later, the same filing system works wonderfully well in my office. My time spent in the kitchen is much easier with everything tucked away and easy to access. My garage is a general trouble spot, because it’s so heavily used for a variety of activities and storage, but Lori helps me keep it in check.
I call her every 6 months or so to tackle a new or troublesome area. Kitchen, garage, kids closets, laundry room, linen closet… My family is better for it! Instead of pulling my hair out, I make an appointment with Lori. She’s the ultimate stress reliever!
A bonus– she’ll load up her car with your Goodwill donations, electronic recycling to help complete the project. You can breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy your newly organized space!

Lori is brimming with innovative and helpful ideas, but most importantly, listens to your needs first. She’ll work with your current successful methods, have immediate suggestions, and follows up with even more after meeting.
Lori is a wealth of organization strategies. She listened to who I was and what I needed, helped me come up with wonderful solutions I hadn’t thought of, and reaffirmed that I didn’t have to meet every expectation (from others or myself). She makes you feel very comfortable in her suggestions, not judged, and makes it clear the best solution is the best solution for you, not her!
In a single appointment, Lori came up with a wonderful idea for displaying (containing ;-)) my kids art on my kitchen wall, gave me recommendations for items from water bottles to video conversions to cloud computing solutions to iPhone apps to paper clutter. Within days of Lori leaving, I had my my laundry room, dining room and kitchen all de-​cluttered. And although my office will take more time, I have a plan. Her direction motivated me to implement her perfect suggestions immediately!
Whether you need help getting organized or just more organized, Lori is the best there is!

For many years I didn’t get the power of organizers. Everyone manages to clean up their own stuff, right? But a friend recommended Lori right when my office overwhelm started to bug me and I tried her out.
We spent a morning cleaning out a particularly cluttered corner of my home office. The time went quick and it was amazing how great I felt at the end of it. My family was thrilled too. It’s true that your physical environment has a huge impact on how you feel.
Lori was supportive and friendly and validated my need to keep things with great suggestions about places to put them and stuff to get to make it easier to organize them. And she didn’t add any of those negative comments my family (or my inner voice) tends to make when we do house maintenance/​improvement. Next time I have an organizing project I dread (like cleaning out those */​?! drawers) I’m calling her!