It was an exciting and fun experience working as a Professional Organzier on the show “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” on TLC. “Time to Organize” was filmed in the basement of Jon and Kate Gosselin’s home. The Gosselin kids were adorable! The producers and film crew were awesome. By the end of the filming, I think the crew was in awe of what organizing experts do. This project could not have been completed without the help of my associate, Professional Organizer Paula Davis. Thank you Paula!

Even though Kate Gosselin was already organized and efficiently running her home near Philadelphia and Allentown, PA, she knew she could benefit from working with a Professional Organizer. Organized people do have a need for Professional Organizers, and therefore hire them. My organizing firm and the associates in my organizing store work with organized people all the time. Our clients know we take it one step further and pay attention to the detail, like labeling or researching the best possible products for our clients. These details are what organized people long for but don’t have the time to complete. Kate Gosselin exemplified this best when I introduced her to the label maker, a simple device she didn’t know existed. By her reaction you would have thought she found a box of lost diamonds! Of course we loved Kate’s reaction to the label maker because label makers are near and dear to every Professional Organizer’s heart, maybe the next best thing to diamonds.

Kate also loved the clear card pockets we put on the ends of the storage boxes in the basement enabling Kate to easily read what is stored in the boxes — especially when it comes to storing clothing for her twins and sextuplets. The ability to turn the card around and write on the other side (when the contents in the box change) amazed Kate. We even tucked extra cards in the pockets for Kate so she could change the contents of the box year after year if needed. I, along with our staff of Professional Organizers, want to insure that the organizational systems that we create for our clients last a long time. We also want to make it simple and natural for our clients to maintain it.

We added label holders to her wire shelves that easily snapped around the wire. We established categories (such as electronics, keepsakes, clothing, outdoors, etc.) to provide Kate and the Gosselin household the highest level of organizational retention. We don’t want to just get our clients “stuff” organized. We want our clients to easily and successfully retain the organization we create.

We placed the sextuplets and twin’s baby keepsakes and school memorabilia in acid free and lignin free storage boxes. We selected archival quality boxes to help insure the safe keeping of precious memories. We used a longer box to store and accommodate the children’s art work.

We were selective in the type of wire shelving we installed for Kate. Kate had large heavy tubs of clothing for the twins and sextuplets that she wanted to store on shelving along with a variety of boxes and household items. We knew we couldn’t use free-standing shelving as it isn’t adjustable to fit the height of Kate’s tubs. We also knew that the wire shelving system had to be heavy-duty so it could withstand the weight of the heavy tubs. Lastly it had to be a storage system that could be installed quickly and easily that very same day, a system that a homeowner could install himself. Bottom line, we needed a high quality storage system that is easy to install.

Be sure to visit TLC’s website. They have posted on their site “Diane Albright’s Organizing Tips from “Time to Organize” with Jon & Kate Plus 8. These tips include a few tips that didn’t air but were used during the organizational process. Of course there was much more organizing done than what TLC was able to squeeze into a 30-minute time slot. There also were tips and methods that Kate opted to decline, like the gift wrapping center, which were eliminated during editing. We encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter and blog as we will be posting in detail some of these “never before seen” tips and methods from Jon & Kate Plus 8.

If you missed the episode or would like to see it again, view TLC’s episode guide to find the next airing of “Time to Organize” on Jon & Kate Plus 8 - Season 5, Episode 16.

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