on television called ‘Mission organization,’ and it was only then that I realized people got paid for what I was doing for free.”
Braly went through the process of sending out referrals, mostly through family and friends, and by early 2000, she started getting business as an organizer.
   “Since I started the business, I’ve worked with anywhere between 75 and 100 clients for different periods of time,” she said. “How long I spend is up to each client, and I can spend as little as two hours with a client or meet with the client on a consistent basis over time.”
   Today, Braly works with clients in Houston, Austin, Dallas, Tomball, Spring, The
Woodlands and Huntsville, and she also works out-of- state on special occasions.
   “My brother hires me in Colorado from time to time, and I’ve even had a friend fly me out to Washington to help her with her garage,” she said.
   Braly follows a specific process with her
clients, whether they choose to have their home or office organized, which begins with a 30- minute phone consultation.
   “Once we decide to meet, I do an assess-ment on you which helps me see where your problem areas may be,” she said. “Then, it’s a matter of sorting and purging through all of the items in your individual space. We try to recycle or donate any items we can, and once that’s done, we see what you have left and start setting up different zones in the room.”
   While Braly generally tries to get areas for
incoming mail, items which need immediate attention and items that need to be filed, she said there is no definite way to organize a space.
   “Every client is different,” she said. “Some people just want their business or home to be organized, and others want the room they choose to work on to look like the front of a magazine.
   “I always just tell my clients, ‘You tell me what you want, and I’ll make it happen.’ There is definitely no cookie-cutter solution to organizing a space.”

Misconceptions
   In Braly’s experience, there’s a lot more that goes into organizing a home or office than most people realize.
   “If you have an office that is organized, it’s proven that it makes you more productive,”
she said. “It allows you to think clearer and make better decisions, so for me, this is
really a metaphysical thing I do for people.”
   In addition to organizing, Braly also integrates other strategies to make the most of
a person’s space.
   “I do some Feng Shui, and I may do it without telling people or without even realiz-
ing I’m doing it,” she said. “Organizing is not all about fancy boxes — though you can use them. The bottom lines is it provides a better
quality of life.”
   Braly said professional organization is very much about a process of behavioral
adaptation, even after the mess is gone.
   “Organization is a process, not a one-hour television show,” she said. “We’re perceived as someone who can go ‘poof’ and organize your whole life, but real organization is not an overnight fix.
   “You have to have some kind of behavior modification, and once we have a system set up, you have to change your behavior in order for it to keep working.”
   While the work of organizing can be grueling, Braly said there is a very real reason
she sticks with it as her career.
   “I had one client write me a testimony of her time with me, and it really made me realize why I do this,” Braly said. “The client said, ‘I asked you to come in and organize my desk, and you ended up changing my life.’
   “To see it all come together for someone is the best feeling in the world to me, and I feel it is my gift to truly help people find a better quality of life.”