Sherwood organizing expert shows how to reclaim surroundings

[This article originally appeared in the Sherwood Gazette]

GAZETTE PHOTO: RAY PITZ — KPTV Fox 12 cameraman James Sparks film Vicki Norris, Devon Adams and Jessica Adams at the couple’s Sherwood home, which doubles as the office for their business, Sherwood Plumbing Company.

With cameras rolling, Jessica and Devon Adams tell Vicki Norris how the invoices and bills for their Sherwood-based business were out of control, piled high in their son’s nursery, which they had turned into an office.

That quickly changed once Norris, an organizing expert and entrepreneur who owns Sherwood’s Restoring Order, had one of her employees come up with the most effective and efficient way for the Adams’ to organize their paperwork.

Within two days, Norris and her team had come up with a solution for the couple, who own Sherwood Plumbing Co., for a segment that will air on KPTV’s Fox 12’s “More Good Day Oregon.”

Adams, the mother of two young children, said the organizing effort paid off so well, she was able to spend more time with her children.

“That is awesome,” Norris told viewers during the Sept. 10 taping at the Adams’ Sherwood home. “I love to hear that.”

After a brief time away from television — Norris was KATU’s “AM Northwest” organizing expert for seven years and was frequently a guest on HGTV’s “Mission: Organization” — she’s back doing what she loves best, helping people organize their lives.

GAZETTE PHOTO: RAY PITZ –Vicki Norris, center, who co–owns Sherwood’s Restoring Order, explains how a filing system her company installed, works as KPTV Fox 12 news photographer/editor James Sparks films the scene as homeowners Jessica and Devon Adams look on.

“To me, organizing is a means to an end,” she said, adding that the goal is to show how people take back their lives.

Norris said she’s really enjoying the new program because it allows her to take clients through their organizing journeys in an effort to “take back their households” and other aspects of their lives. Each segment features homeowners or business people who have reclaimed their homes.

“Working with the ‘More Good Day Oregon’ team is a great fit for Restoring Order, and through television I love inspiring everyday people to take back their businesses and homes,” said Norris.

Norris, who has been operating Restoring Order since 1999, said she likes the fact she gets to tell everyone’s special story while engaging the audience at the same time.

“I get to interview the client and sort of get to direct the segment,” she said. “We get to enter into the middle of people’s movie.”

That at times means going into homes piled high with paper (containing everything from collection notices to divorce papers), observing firsthand the general disorder of a client’s life.

Norris points to “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (the ABC series that featured Ty Pennington) as an example of a television series that moved audiences because viewers got so involved and saw how people’s lives were changed.

“People would weep because of the human interest,” she pointed out.

For her first “More Good Day Oregon” segment, Norris worked with a Beaverton resident who had been involved in a terrible motorcycle accident and needed help sorting through his clutter, especially in his kitchen area.

The taping showed the man’s kitchen table, which included motorcycle gear, outdoor gear and the medical supplie sneeded for his recovery.

“So this is a common problem that people have, they have a dining room table or a kitchen table, and it becomes a landing strip where stuff lands, but it doesn’t take off,” Norris told viewers.

Back at the Sept. 10 taping with the Adams’, Norris and KPTV news photographer/editor James Sparks planned what she would discuss in the next take: paperwork piling.

“The No. 1 requested issue is (dealing with) paperwork,” Norris explained. “Paper is such a huge issue for everybody.”

TOP: SHERWOOD GAZETTE: RAY PITZ — This is what a nursery bedroom looked like before Vicki Norris and her team from Restoring Order came up with an organizing solution.
BOTTOM: GAZETTE PHOTO — Jessica Adams stands in front of a now organized room that serves as an office for Sherwood Plumbing Company, owned by Adams and her husband Devon.

Norris said that in the organizing process, Restoring Order consultants often will empty out a client’s home office if it requires a paper overhaul and then set up a five-part sorting process.

At the end of that process, several customized systems will organically emerge: incoming paper system, projects system, filing system, reference system and communications system.

Trevor Adams, Sherwood Plumbing Company co-owner, said while his company does many things electronically, having something down on paper where he can locate it immediately is a necessity.

But they needed something or someone to get them organized.

“We’ve tried a bunch of different things but this one actually worked,” Jessica Adams said of Norris’ solutions.

Trevor Adams said having a professional come out and help organize their business made perfect sense, pointing out that if he can’t return a call because he’s involved in organizing paperwork, he loses money.

“It was a pleasure working with the Adams’ to optimize their family business,” Norris said after filming the KPTV segment. “They’ve been empowered with an ordered office and complete billing process. Now they can spend their spare time enjoying their family and their priorities.”

Meanwhile, Restoring Order, which Norris owns along with her husband Trevor on their Dream Acres farm just outsideof Sherwood city limits, has just expanded into the state of Washington. The company employs nine people.

-By Ray Pitz