Harmony for Your Life

It was a bleak and wintery January in 2005 in New York City, and I had a newborn strapped to my chest. I was in the middle of supervising the packing of my family’s life into storage, and taking a few things with us as we moved in with my mom on the Upper West Side. We were moving because my husband and I lived a block away from the World Trade Center, and we had to move out of our both our home and business. That memory is the epitome of the whole “you never know” thing.

Before the packing began, the thought occurred to me that I should take a quick photo inventory of all the belongings that were going into storage…just in case—because you never know, right?

Flash forward to 2010. We were starting over again. Financial crisis behind us and my mom’s downsizing project done, we went to move our lives back out of storage…only to find out that everything was ruined. There wasn’t a flood or a fire. It just happens sometimes—even a little dampness can wreak havoc. Weirdly, we were relieved. We lost some heirlooms, but we mostly lost things that we could replace.

Either way, the insurance company came out and reviewed the wretched state of our things, at which point they offered a check. For 25% of what everything was worth.

They considered the belongings in the state they were in as having “pre-existing damage,” and they weren’t going to pay a cent more. However…I then produced the photo inventory that I had created back in 2005. They ended up paying four times as much as their original offer. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s the value of an inventory for protecting your family and the value of what you own.

Stories like this have taught me the importance of why I do what I do on a daily basis. Since 1999, my team of professional organizers have specialized in creating harmony amidst a variety of transitions, including the birth of a child, death of a loved one, an overseas move, corporate merger, office relocation, and every other life event that can create stress and disorganization.

We understand how difficult transitions and organization can be; our mission is to serve as your support system through the many stages of these processes. Whether we’re implementing a digital inventory, assisting with mergers, creating baby “zones” for new moms, assisting a widow, unpacking a five-bedroom home, or coordinating a cross-country or local move, we help people move forward in a supported, positive direction. Seriatim can handle any project, big or small, with the expertise, sensitivity, and professionalism necessary to get the job done.