10 Questions With: Mrg Simon, Marie Kondo-style organizing pro

10 Questions With is a new series featuring people of interest in the 605. Have someone you’d like to see featured? Email [email protected]. 

With the traditional ritual of spring cleaning fast approaching, it’s a good time to hear from a professional. Mrg Simon is a professional organizer and a non-practicing lawyer who helps people reduce their stress and increase their productivity through organizing.

What exactly does a professional organizer do?

I’d have to say that the primary thing that I do is help people visualize what kind of lifestyle they want to live. I do both homes and offices. When I’m doing an office, I try to help people rekindle a passion for their work, what brought them to this job to begin with and why they want to continue to do that. I help them figure out how to let go of things that aren’t going to support them. So I do both decluttering and organizing. The focus is on finding the things that bring you joy and meaning, whether it’s in your closet or on your bookshelf.

Does what you do vary from home to office?

There are entirely different ways to approach them. It’s a way of looking at a much different universe. In a home, it’s more physical items. In an office, it’s some physical, a lot of electronic and digital items, and also time management and network management.

You mentioned joy. Are you best buddies with Marie Kondo?

We aren’t best buddies, but we have met. I am a certified KonMari consultant. I’ve gone through her course. I went through practice hours in addition to classroom hours. I’ve practiced on real people.

You strike me as always being organized. What led you to this?

It is kind of in my DNA, but that’s because I’m also a very messy person. I can make messes like nobody’s business. There’s nothing I like more than a good mess to clean up. I just enjoy tidying. The thing was you never stayed organized for very long. I’ve tried to figure out every trick in the book. I’ve done the 30-30-30 challenge, reverse your hangers in your closet, the in-and-out rule, when was the last time you used it. Nothing gave me a lasting solution until I tried the KonMari method. I tried it on my own after watching Marie Kondo’s Netflix series when we were about to move to Tampa, Florida, and were selling our vacation home too. So I needed to downsize quickly. The further along I went, the easier it got. I found there was this inexplicable point of time where I had this “aha” moment when everything clicked and I knew what Marie Kondo meant when she said does an item spark joy. I felt this burden, this weight lift off my shoulders.

Don’t you have another business too?

I run two businesses under the same business name, Designed2Stick, just for convenience sake. My other business started as a sticker business because I love stickers. I love the Mickelson Trail, so I designed a Mickelson Trail sticker. I figured out how to get that made in large quantities and from there got the image on T-shirts and sweatshirts. And it’s my favorite thing that I’ve done. I do other stickers. I’ve done stickers representing all of the dams on the Missouri River, dams and reservoirs, so Lewis & Clark, Oahe, Pickstown, Fort Thompson. The back of my car is pretty much plastered with stickers. I designed hunting stickers because I was so embarrassed going into the gift shop at the airport and the only stickers you could find about hunting in South Dakota were “I got this big cock in South Dakota,” really blue humor kind of stuff. I did a series more family-centered about pheasant hunting. I did a whole series of postcards and stickers of all the airports in South Dakota that have a three-letter code as their FAA identifier. A Black Hills series of postcards are the only ones that are printed.

Your Facebook page gives examples of another kind of creativity. What do you call those designs?

I call them doodles, and I do that just to relax. I’ve always got one going. I can just sit down and doodle and get lost in that. I have one that I’ve done in color, but the others are all black and white.

How did years of being a lawyer fit into your creativity?

My practice of law was using my left brain and my right brain. I’ve always been able to do that. I’ve always used my creative side. The older I got, the more I felt the need for my own creative venture. As a lawyer, I knew how to set up a business, and it gave me the confidence to know that I could.

What don’t people understand about organizing?

They think decluttering and the Marie Kondo method in particular is about minimalism. It’s not minimalism at all. I just help people decide what brings meaning and joy to them — to identify that so they’re surrounded by things that they love. This is supposed to be an activity that fills you up, that helps you realize your goal. It’s not tearing stuff out of your hands.

Tell the truth: Do you have a junk drawer?

Yes. And it’s about time for a good cleaning and reorganizing. It’s in the kitchen, and that’s where I store batteries, scissors, tape, a tape measure, pens and pencils. That’s about it. A later check revealed the drawer also has glue, Post-it notes, a plumbing tool of some sort, Kinesio Tape, a flashlight and a Wonder Woman Pez dispenser.

OK, final question. You get a shameless plug for anything you want in town.

It would be for organizing, for investing in yourself. One of my organizing friends says an organized life is the new self-care. It’s really something you can do on your own, but a lot of people need to find the motivation and to find the time and to find a method that is systematic and is easy to do. And Marie Kondo has a very specific way of approaching tidying, and it’s designed to take you from the easiest to the hardest rather than jumping into the middle of things. She doesn’t go room by room; she goes category by category. I’m happy to work with someone just to do their kitchen if that’s what they’d like. We can spend an afternoon going through your kitchen. That can really help kick-start your own individual efforts, so it doesn’t have to be a whole housecleaning festival. I’m available for small sessions or multiple sessions. It’s all based on what the client needs, what the client wants and what their objectives are.