Simply Organized With Nina

3 stars means A-​OK according to Unilocal and that’s what Nina’s services were.
Earlier this summer, we moved from Pleasanton to Alamo and needed help unpacking/​organizing and found Nina via Unilocal.
We utilized her services for 3 full days (around 6 hours a day). She organized his home office, both our closets, and helped unpack a lot of knick knacks. She actually did a lot of heavy lifting and even put a printer in the office. I can’t gauge if it was overwhelming for her to work on a house over 5,000 square feet full of boxes or not but she did attack each problem area and had a game plan.
The point is that she wasn’t horrible and got the job done but we weren’t blown away. It was like this ugly person goes under the knife for an extreme makeover and you’re expecting a super hot chick and out comes the girl next door. Does she look good? Yes, but are you blown away? No.
I was so busy (with an infant under 1) and running errands that I didn’t have much time to tell Nina exactly what I wanted since the house was a mess and we had barely just moved in. I expected everything to be handled perfectly. After she was done, I noticed the little details that weren’t up to expectations and that is what annoyed me. Tiny little things like my shoes facing in, instead of out, in the closet (minor preference thing) or all the shoes not being organized in a better way on one side. Those things that I was too busy to notice or else I would have said something, so I guess it was my fault for having high expectations that she would get everything perfect.
A major disappointment was the pantry. I’ll post pictures of it. We have a decent size walk in pantry. Her suggestion? Bins. Big plastic bins with labels on them. Idea seems reasonable at first, but then when in use, you kinda stock pile the bags of cookies in the «cookies» bin and never remember what you had in there. For someone who said she goes to professional organizer conventions, I expected more than clear plastic bins with labels. We didn’t mind at first until we went to the actual container store and there were so many better manageable solutions!!! Irony is that she even went to the container store for an hour to buy bins. She didn’t even buy the hanging bins that slide out which would have been perfect for such a big space. So now we have bulky bins that are heavy to take off the shelf every time we want a cookie.
I also didn’t like that she asked to be paid before the job was complete (at the end of day 2) and we both knew she was coming back the following Monday. I just found that a little unprofessional.
However, the things I did appreciate was that Nina provided us with a list of furniture stores and referrals to interior decorators. This was very nice and she went out of her way to help us find furniture since our house was so barren.

WOW! What a transformation to my house! I have my own business and have to be very organized as I live in a small house. Everything was a total mess and took me a lot of time to find what I needed in my business. Nina came in and completely transformed my home & my business space. I cannot believe how much easier it is to find things. She didn’t just organize, but she taught me a wonderful organization philosophy as we sorted through all my stuff. She even used her wonderful sense of humor to get me to laugh my way through the mess. She and her team are amazing! Nina receives the highest recommendation I can give. I definitely will need her again on other areas of my home & business. She has saved me so much time with her organization of my business materials. Now every time I need something — it takes me seconds to get it instead of 30 to 45 minutes searching through things to find it. Nina is incredible!!!

After 11 years of living in my current home, I was feeling suffocated by all my stuff, and the lack of organization thereof. I couldn’t find things when I needed them, and was doing that horrible thing of buying stuff, then finding out I already owned the item– I had just hidden it from myself. I thought about clearing things out myself, but was overwhelmed by the project. I decided to give myself some personal organizing sessions as a birthday gift. I contacted several personal organizers and interviewed them on the phone. Nina Johnson immediately struck me as down-​to-​earth, friendly and efficient. Nina came over my house and met with me for a half an hour to discuss my goals and to take a look at my house. We set a date for my sessions. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks before the scheduled sessions, I had a freak accident and was on crutches (and pain meds that made me kind of stupid). Nina assured me this wouldn’t be a problem, told me that she worked with other clients with disabilities, and suggested that she bring her colleague, Julie, with her– between the two of them I wouldn’t have to lift anything. With some trepidation, I agreed. I was also concerned about letting a stranger into my house. The thought of having folks I didn’t know look through all my belongings worried me. In the end, my experience was positive beyond what I could have imagined.
Nina and Julie spent five days (about five hours a day) spread out over a number of weeks. We organized my study, kitchen, laundry area, living room, two bedrooms, and the bathroom. Nina took care of disposing of the mountain of resulting trash and recycling, and even took my donations to various charities (I ended up making a book donation worth over $ 1700 to the Friends of the Oakland Public Library!). She also took all my shredding to a professional shredder. The transformation is unbelievable. For the first time in years, I know where everything is! I no longer have cabinets full of expired medicine, shampoo I bought and never used, clothes that don’t fit me, expired cans of soup, dishes that I don’t use… everything in my house is something I want or need, and it is in a place that makes sense. Nina and Julie helped me sort through all my paper, and they set up files for everything I wanted to keep. I feel much more relaxed knowing I can get my hands on important paperwork in the space of a few minutes.
I really can’t say enough positive things about Nina and Julie. I never felt pressured to get rid of anything– I felt they were there to support me in achieving my organizational goals. If I wasn’t sure whether it made sense to keep something, I talked it through with Nina, which was very helpful. I never felt judged for how much crap I have, or for my sentimental attachment to strange objects. The icing on the cake is that both these women are smart, fun and funny… I really enjoyed hanging out with them and getting to know them. The time flew by, because I felt like I was working with friends.
Nina’s suggestion about having two people doing the work was a great one– things went much more quickly than if it had been just Nina and I, and I know it saved me money in the long run. If you are lucky enough to be able to hire Nina to get you organized, do it!

As a local East Bay Realtor, I am often asked to refer reliable service providers to clients overwhelmed with the process of selling their homes and moving forward. Nina is both attentive to their physical and their emotional needs (purging can be difficult!). Thanks Nina for your professionalism and your attention to detail. BTW — Nina also writes an extremely helpful weekly newsletter! Julie Gardner, The GRUBB Co.

I teach at an elementary school in MontClair and we were fortunate enough to have Nina come in to organize our supplies. She gathered a group of parent volunteers together to clean, empty, and organize a shed that had a combination of materials, supplies, and miscellaneous odds and ends dating back 30 years. She separated out all of the useful items and beautifully organized them into sensible categories in our teacher supply room. Who would have known we had a 3 year supply of glue sticks, crayons, pens, and paper clips? Thank you, Nina! Your hard work is greatly appreciated!

We had moved in to our new home and in the process placed tons of stuff in the garage. Over the next 6 months we organized and re-​organized, sloooowly making progress in getting command of the situation. I thought we had maximized the space. Nina came in, and literally in 3 hours seemingly doubled our capacity: She rearranged shelving, organized items logically, gave us doses of reality (ie helped us throw a lot away), and generally came up with ideas and space saving solutions we never thought of. If you are crowded, and even if you think you have done all you can, give Nina a call.