Shing: “I had Erika help me organize my kitchen before I moved out of my house — it was a place I’d lived in for over ten years and had a lot of attachment to, and a corresponding mental block about packing and moving. I had a lot of shame about how messy and cluttered it had become over the years, and Erika’s gentle and nonjudgmental guidance was instrumental in both making a functional space while I still lived there AND getting me over the overwhelming feeling of “how am I ever going to pack this into boxes?” Yes, the kitchen got a lot tidier and more functional, but more than that, I felt like I could emotionally move on from it after giving it the care and respect it deserved.

Erika had an especially kind approach that was also really helpful in undoing a lot of my long-held guilty (and, quite frankly, rather gendered) ideas about tidiness — and I found that I was delighted and excited to go through the process of making a more usable, more functional (and much prettier) space. I think Erika’s best qualities as a personal organizer (she has many; I am limiting it to the ones most relevant) is how thoughtful and patient she is about it (she is not bossy!), how naturally she guides you towards articulating the things you actually need and want, and how clever and easy her suggestions are to actually implement and maintain.”