Montco professional organizer Cristina Hostetter shares some tips for clearing the clutter and putting effective organization systems in place. (Credit: Katalinas Communications)
Growing up, Cristina Hostetter didn’t play with her dollhouse in the traditional way.
“I wanted their little houses to be perfectly set up and perfectly organized,” said Hostetter, of Pottstown. “I love when things are in their place.”
A seemingly born organizer, Hostetter, a Spring-Ford High School graduate and former sixth-grade teacher in the Boyertown School District, three years ago began working as a professional organizer.
“This is what I was meant to do,” she said of a business she worked for while living in Florida. “I’m so passionate about it.”
Montco professional organizer Cristina Hostetter shares some tips for clearing the clutter and putting effective organization systems in place. (Credit: Katalinas Communications)After relocating to southeastern Pennsylvania in March 2024, Hostetter established her home organization business, The Simplified Home by Cristina, which serves portions of Chester, Montgomery, and Berks counties.
She reached out to SCORE TriCounty mentors Susan Shenberger and Stefan Laessig for guidance on setting up her business.
“Having their support and their guidance gives you as the business owner a sense of confidence that I don’t think you’d be able to have unless you have a mentor showing you the right way to do things,” Hostetter said. “They saved me so much time and so many guesses.”
Since then, Hostetter’s services have been in such high demand that she has added two assistants to help handle the company’s decluttering, downsizing, rightsizing, home staging, moving and home organizing requests.
“There’s a need for it,” Hostetter said. “Everyone could use someone to come alongside them and help with their homes and help dealing with clutter.
By the same token, Laessig came alongside Hostetter to pull together a projection spreadsheet used to gauge the impact of hiring assistants.
“She’s pretty on the ball,” said Laessig, a former business owner and SCORE mentor since 2015.
“I was able to look at (the projections) and realize that my goals were even closer than I had anticipated,” she said. “I was able to jump so many extra steps.”
When it comes to providing service to her clients, she doesn’t miss a step.
Montco professional organizer Cristina Hostetter shares some tips for clearing the clutter and putting effective organization systems in place. (Credit: Katalinas Communications)“I love walking my clients through the whole process,” she said, adding that she assists with sorting, labeling, recycling and donating items.
The services that Hostetter provides can be replicated by homeowners or those looking to declutter a space by following a few tips.
“It sounds so simple, but truly taking everything out of the space that you’re working on and actually handling each item is going to help you make a decision on whether to keep something or not,” she said of decluttering, adding that consolidating items such as clothes or shoes into one place can help too. “Bring them all together.”
In terms of organizing, the perhaps golden rule is “it doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be costly.”
“Don’t go out and spend money on products at the very beginning,” she said. “Organizing and decluttering can be absolutely free.”
Still, many people have difficulty sorting through an accumulation of stuff – gathered over a lifetime – on their own and instead prefer to hire an expert.
“It can get really deep and really challenging for them,” Hostetter said. “How do you take a lifetime of collected items and beautiful memories and decide what to bring with you?”
About SCORE
Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 17 million aspiring entrepreneurs. Each year, SCORE provides small business mentoring and workshops to more than 375,000 new and growing small businesses. SCORE TriCounty serves business owners and entrepreneurs in western Montgomery, northern Chester, and eastern Berks counties. For more information, visit https://www.score.org/tricounty.
