PRO Founder
My name is Shirley M. Green, and my humble little abode is in Arvada, Colorado; which is in the Denver metro area. I was born and raised in Denver, one of the few “true natives” in the area.
I have always been a very organized person, and have assisted family, friends and organizations with various organizing feats for most of my adult life. For some 18 years I was privileged to don another hat “primary caregiver” to my Mother, who I affectionately called “the little woman.”
The last few years of my Father’s life, I assisted Mom a great deal with his needs. Then she and I became almost “inseparable” for the next 18 years. While she was still living independently, we traveled a great deal around the U.S. and Canada.
“The little woman’s” health started to decline in 1991. About this time I developed a one page emergency medical sheet that became known as “The Pink Sheet.”
Finally, in the Spring of 1999 Mom chose to move into an Assisted Living Facility. Shortly after this move, I took over most of her paperwork and arrangement of Dr. appointments, transportation, shopping, medication, interfacing with medical personal, home health care, etc. The health continued to deteriorate, in Sept. 2000 it was evident the next step was needed….the move to a nursing home…unfortunately this needed to be done rather hurriedly. A niece and I spent one whole day previewing nursing home facilities in the area of town we hoped to move “the little woman” Once we narrowed it down, we gathered other family members to take a look at what we had found. Two days later, the BIG MOVE occurred.
The organizational skills came in extremely handy and continued to help in so many facets during the next 23 months of nursing home living.
After 23 months…it was time for another step….the Hospice. “The little woman” became an angel early one Sunday morning..the first Sunday after that fateful September 11. My brother (the executor) was locked inside a secure military location that morning. Here again, those organizational skills went into full swing. By the time he arrived home that evening, I had everything organized, scheduled and most of the family/friends notified…all he had to do was “cross those t’s and dot those i’s.”
If we had not gone through the previous 3 years in such an organized manner, the family would have been in a state of “oh gosh, what the heck do we do now, what do we do first, how do we do this, how do we do that.”
Why do I tell you this? It all leads up to WHY I decided to turn my organizational skills around and become a Professional Organizer. As I cared for Mom and her needs through the above stages, on numerous occasions people would say “you are good at this, there is great need for what you are doing, you obviously enjoy what you are doing, why don’t you do this professionally?”
I pushed this to the back of my mind for many years then came the NOW all familiar “corporate layoff.” I truly enjoyed doing what I did for Mom…sort of like a personal liaison between anyone in the medical field, Medicare, administration at the different facilities she was in, etc. So, I said to myself “Self, why not turn this into a business? Help others with what you did for “the little woman” and what you have done for other relatives and friends” To become Professional, I joined the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and the Colorado Professional Organizers (CoPO).
At this point you are probably asking, so Shirley, what is a Professional Organizer?
A Professional Organizer provides information, products and assistance to help others organize to meet their personal needs. A professional organizer guides, encourages and educates clients about basic principles of organizing by offering support, focus and direction. They can provide ideas, information, structure, solutions, or systems which can increase productivity (such as in the workplace), reduce stress, and create new found freedom and sense of being in control (doesn’t that sound heavenly?)
