Actress Becomes Organizational Director of Organization

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Welcome to a brand new week. So glad you're here. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Sidus Will School. Spring cleaning time has arrived.

Not just a new week, but also a new season. Now, I personally tried to declutter and organize on a continual basis. I'm not the best at it. I could certainly be more militant, but I do notice that I feel a lot better when there's a place for everything and everything is in its place. Not only that, but even though I'm not a minimalist per se, I don't keep up with the number of items I own, et cetera, I do try to regularly go through all my stuff and discard anything that's not useful or doesn't otherwise make me happy.

And I think I've been doing this for, I don't know, probably at least 10 years. It's not because I saw a Netflix series about it or because it was, you know, the thing to do. It's honestly something that feels peaceful to me, both the act of doing it and then the outcome as well. So today's story is about a working actress in Los Angeles who becomes the organizational director of organization, or technically she becomes a professional organizer. She does this part-time for a number of years as a side hustle and then eventually goes all in.

Now, as I worked on this episode, I was reminded that Gretchen Rubin's new book comes out tomorrow, very much on the topic of organization and habits and wellbeing. And actually I said it's coming out tomorrow, but if you're listening later, any time in the future, because people go back and listen to our archives all the time, then it's probably already out. That book is called "Outer Order Intercom," and I would encourage you to check it out. Books like this one can make your life better. And of course, if you try not to have extra stuff, there are digital versions and an audio version, if you prefer.

All right, last but not least, this episode includes six organizational tips. We're gonna call them repeatable steps toward organization at the end. So stay tuned, this episode sparks joy. Don't discard it. [Music]

For Regina Leeds, organizing is more than what you do at the start of a reluctant spring clean.

It's a way of life. And it all started with her mother, who she says could have been a US Marine. Everything in the home simply had to be organized. As Regina grew up, she realized she loved organizing just as much as her mother did, but for wildly different reasons. For mom, it was all about what visitors would think when they came to stay.

For Regina, it was an expression of self-love and self-care. A well-organized life in its own way can be a well-lived one. When she left home to pursue a career in acting in the 1980s, she used organizing as a way to better understand herself and improve her skills. It didn't just bring a calming sense to her surroundings, it gave her time and space to explore who she was. With this deeper understanding of herself, Regina started to pick up roles in shows like "Married with Children" and "The Young and the Restless," where she was a recurring actress for three years.

But there were constant ebbs and flows in her work, and some months, she really struggled to pay her bills. She also began to feel some resentment towards the industry and the way they treated people who weren't at the top of the pay scale. Regina decided she needed a second source of income. She needed security, it would give her the money she needed to pay her bills in the slow periods and the freedom to avoid just-for-the-money roles with casting directors who saw her as expendable. She wanted to be the director, producer, and actor in this role, with full control over the job she accepted.

So she set about turning her skills into a freelance service. Now, this was a while back. An organization was a new concept to Western society. There were only a handful of books on the subject, and few people had ever heard of a professional organizer. She offered to organize a friend's house to see if she could really apply her method to other people.

Regina went in, did her thing, and her friend was stunned, so much so that she began to refer her services right away. Regina spent the next 10 years growing this business part-time, earning enough to supplement her acting work. There were no real startup costs, except for a few business cards her clients could pass on. She also developed a name for the business, the Zen Organizer, after one of her clients referred to the process of getting organized as being Zen-like. Eventually, Regina hid an impasse.

She knew her acting career wasn't gonna pan out the way she planned, and she didn't wanna spend another decade having her future dictated to her. She longed for the control, freedom, and creativity the Zen organizer provided. It had become her new passion, and she wanted to pursue it full-time. But you might be wondering, what does a full-time professional organizer do? After all, it seems like a task you could just tackle yourself.

Well, Regina likens it to any other area of life. Yes, you could go to the gym and not hire a personal trainer. You could plant all those bulbs in your garden and not hire a gardener. You could paint your kitchen and not hire a painter. But there are all sorts of areas of life where you're not the best or the most qualified, and it's okay to ask for help.

In fact, it might be wise to ask for help. The work she does feels intimate. Through organization, she experiences some of the most personal parts of a client's life. After all, your best friend doesn't come to your house, fold your underwear, and see your income tax returns. But Regina does.

So let's talk about the business notes. The average length of a project takes four to six hours, but it's not unheard of to be working with people for up to two weeks. Regina currently charges $125 per hour for her services. She initially based this on other experienced organizers in the Los Angeles area, and she's now gonna raise her rates to $150 an hour to match the growing demand for her work. She has also now published a number of books about organization, including a New York Times bestseller called "One Year to an Organized Life." She started out with self-publishing and was eventually picked up by publishers.

Regina says the process of writing and publishing the first book was the hardest project she's ever worked on, but it was also a domino, which gave her the momentum to write the rest. After years of being mostly offline, the Zen organizer has also begun to build an online presence. Regina created a website using Wix and uses Instagram to show the more visual aspects of the organization process. Looking ahead, she wants to focus more on speaking and teaching seminars. Her goal is to spend less time working on projects herself and more time enabling people to organize their own lives.

If her track record is any indication, she'll have no problem organizing that for herself. [Music]

All right, I promised you six organizational tips or what Regina actually calls six repeatable steps, and these are from her, so thanks so much, Regina. We appreciate that. Step number one, whenever you feel overwhelmed, you're trying to figure out how to get organized. Step number one, accept that the task can be overwhelming.

Number two, break it down into small manageable increments. Three, eliminate what you don't need by being brutally honest with yourself. I gotta say, I'm a big fan of this, I do it all the time. Number four, make categories to create order, like different types of clothes or documents. Number five, eliminate within those categories, maybe get rid of some entirely.

And number six, realize that maintenance is part of life and keep on top of your organization. In other words, it's going to be much easier to make this part of your life as opposed to doing that annual spring cleaning or the once in a while, oh my God, I'm just overwhelmed, what do I do? And she says as well that these steps can be used to organize anything, whether it's a five-year-old bedroom or your office's filing cabinet. So take those with you as you go today. We're gonna link up her work, her books, all that kind of stuff on the show notes page, as well as, as I said, the new book from Gretchen Rubin, which I'll probably mention a bit more in the weeks to come, but again, that book is called "Outer Order, Inner Calm." Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Those show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/793. Episode 793 is wrapped. I hope it sparked some joy in you. And now I'm gonna go and get rid of something because for some reason, it's on my mind. All right, thank you so much.

I'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the "Onward Project."