Druffner Professional Organizing offers tips and services for getting your home under control

One of the most important tasks a person can complete is a home inventory, yet most of us don’t know where to begin with this herculean task. However, when a disaster such as a tornado comes, “you need to prove you own that big screen TV,” says Kathy Druffner, owner of Druffner Professional Organizing, which is based in Dayton.

Druffner started her career in legal investigations; “I’m good at following paper trails,” she says. She noticed the number of people who needed help once they had loved ones who had become ill or passed away. Her career in organizing began with this desire to help someone take over someone’s legal responsibilities, and it grew to helping people organize documents, a desk or an entire home.

“The average home has over 300,000 items in it,” she notes. “You want your kids to know why you kept [something] and the value of what you had.” This is where a home inventory becomes important.

Druffner helps clients organize, then photograph every room and every drawer to catalog possessions. She provides the inventory in a variety of formats, including one accessible through an app that helps protect against loss of paper inventories or thumb drives in the same incident that made it necessary for insurance, estate planning or work with financial planners.

Of course, before one can catalog, one needs to organize, and Druffner shines in this area as well. “People need their spaces to work for them,” she says. She takes a realistic approach to people’s abilities and desires. “Organization is more working with your habits,” she says.

This becomes even more important as people age and enter what Druffner calls “second adolescence,” a time of moving from independence to greater dependence in the reverse of one’s first adolescence. Organization becomes about “remimagining space.” As people move into new homes that better suit their needs or reconfigure existing spaces to do the same, “your new space needs to age with you,” Druffner says. For example, someone using a wheelchair or walker may find out that they “can’t reach the second shelf in the kitchen.” An organizer will help make that space functional for those living in it. For some specific items that the owner wishes to see be given to a specific person, this is a good time to write the history of the item and who will be its future owner.

While Druffner is eager to help anyone wanting to get control of their environment and their possessions, she notes that “every organizer is different.” While her legal background makes her particularly suited to handling home inventories and organization of papers and documents, other organizers may bring different strengths to the job. “You have to feel comfortable” with the person you work with, Druffner advises, including being sure that the organizer will protect your privacy.

Organization and home inventories can be a big job. But, with someone like Kathy Druffner on your side, the task can be much easier.