Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep # 122 Finding Order in Chaos: Home Organization with Cheryl Bock
What happens when psychology, project management expertise, and a knack for organization come together? The answer lies in the transformative work of Cheryl Bock, founder of CBOrganizing, who joins us to reveal how professional organizing extends far beyond tidying up spaces—it's about creating peace of mind and emotional wellbeing.
Cheryl unpacks the fascinating intersection between our physical spaces and mental health, explaining why she views organizing as a therapeutic tool rather than just an aesthetic pursuit. "You can attain a sense of peace or order in your life when sometimes everything else is going crazy," she shares, detailing how taking control of even one small area can significantly impact overall wellbeing.
Throughout our conversation, we explore the range of services professional organizing encompasses—from preparing homes for sale to helping clients navigate major life transitions. Particularly moving is Cheryl's work with individuals experiencing trauma or loss, where she becomes not just an organizer but "a shoulder to cry on" while helping clients make difficult decisions about possessions carrying deep emotional attachments.
Drawing from her own entrepreneurial journey, Cheryl offers valuable insights about transitioning from corporate life to building a successful business. Despite pandemic challenges and personal life changes, she credits her passion for helping others as the driving force behind her persistence. "You need to keep your passion strong and be true to yourself," she advises, emphasizing the importance of grit and consistent effort.
Whether you're drowning in clutter, preparing for a major life change, or simply curious about the psychological benefits of organization, Cheryl's perspective will transform how you think about your relationship with your spaces and possessions. Tune in to discover how the right organizational systems—tailored to your unique needs and thinking style—might be the key to unlocking greater calm and control in your life.
CBOrganizing
Cheryl Bock
Bergen County, NJ Allendale, NJ 07401.
(551) 579–7491
cbockorg@gmail.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey, good afternoon everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. Today we are joined by Cheryl Bach of CBO Organizing. Cheryl is a professional home organizer serving northern New Jersey, which is where I am. She's not originally from Jersey, let's see if you can pick up the accent. There's a couple of words that give it away. When somebody says about or organization, that's how I can tell where they're from if they say that pronounce about like that. But anyway, cheryl, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so CBO organizing, you're a professional home organizer. How did you, you know, start a business like this, like why?
Speaker 3:Well, a few different reasons. So my background, my education, is in psychology, and so I've always been very interested in human behavior and what motivates people. I have a professional background in project management and policy development and organizing people, and I think there's one other piece, which is, you know, I was raised by somebody who's a very organized person, in a small space.
Speaker 3:She was just like a MacGyver, I would say so I grew up with a MacGyver and when you sort of put all those interests together, that's where the foundation or the interest came from. I, that's where the foundation or the interest came from. And at the time I was consulting, about 10 years ago, I had the opportunity, I finished a contract and I was like what? This is an opportunity for me to do what I love, and and I, you know, was working with a realtor a friend who was a realtor at the time and I said I'm here to help Anytime. You need to get a house on the market. And she just said I've got a house for you, let's go. I need to get this thing on the market. And that's how I began my career and it's morphed into a lot of different services.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so you have different services. So obviously somebody's selling their home, You're going to help them. I guess you know what do you say? Stage it, or is that what you do, or is it something?
Speaker 3:it's not really staging. So there's several services that I they offer. One of them is getting homes ready to sell and that's decluttering a home and staging, or I redesign, so I'll use what people have in their home and maximize the appearance. Sometimes they'll hire an additional stager, but it's really decluttering the home and getting it ready. So that's one of my services.
Speaker 3:Another service is to continue along that line is what do you need to take with you? What does your next place look like? What's your floor plan for that place? And I help with the logistics and the project planning, with the timeline of getting ready to move and the packing materials and the different vendors you'll need and figuring out that whole piece. And then also, if they're within our community, then I would also help them unpack and create systems as soon as they're unpacking so that they're organized.
Speaker 3:So there's sort of that real estate driven part of my business. And then the other part is working with individuals who are going through life transitions, excuse me or families just needing some help with getting organized, and it's working with people one on one to understand what their goals are and come up with systems that help support their lifestyle. Everyone's different and there isn't just one way to organize, and everyone's brain is different, and so it's really important to understand, from a holistic perspective, how the family works together and what their needs are so if you ever had, I can imagine I'm getting my house ready to sell yes, and now you've decluttered it in a way that I'm like, oh man, maybe I don't need to move after all.
Speaker 2:I didn't know, I could really be economical. The way I organize things, the way I store things, it's like wow. Or you stage the home and it's like wow, my house looks so much better now. I wish I wasn't moving.
Speaker 3:It's a facelift.
Speaker 2:Everybody gets um, yes, everybody seems to have a little pang of of regret that they didn't do it sooner yeah, yeah, I mean I, I could see, um, I recently had bought some, um, I guess, uh, you know organizers from my closet to put. I have shelves, but all my sweaters and sweatshirts and other things are just all folded up on these shelves or draping over the sides. It was a big cluttered mess and I bought a few I guess we'll call them containers and my wife's like, well, that looks really good, I should do that. So now our closets look so much better.
Speaker 2:And then I just started to do that with my clothing drawer, although the organizers I bought aren't very, they don't fit the drawers that well, so it's okay. But still, I'm going through everything and I'm like, okay, I need there's about 10 t-shirts I can get rid of because I haven't worn them in like 10 years. But the point I'm getting at is that when everything is organized and it's, you walk into it or you open a drawer and it's like, oh, there's everything I can find easily, it does provide peace of mind and a calmness.
Speaker 3:Yes, definitely. And when you talk about peace of mind and calmness, I actually do a lot of one-on-one work with people who have are in a crisis situation or gone through trauma and traumatic um situations, and it's creating that calm for them and um and I I actually see organizing as a therapeutic um tool yeah I I come at or I come to organizing in a slightly different perspective than maybe some of my colleagues, and that you're right.
Speaker 3:You can attain a sense of peace or order in your life when sometimes everything else is going crazy. Do that to be able to take that step, to take control of a certain space like your closet, and to put everything you know in a way that you know where it is and you can manage it.
Speaker 2:It does have a huge impact on your mental health and well-being. Yeah, my next project is my garage, but right now my son and his friends are building some kind of cardboard basketball game. That's been in there for a couple of weeks. I'm like what are you guys going to finish this thing off? I want my garage back. Yes, look on your website of this guy's tool shelf and I'm like, yeah, it kind of looks familiar. Yes, Maybe not quite as bad, but it is pretty bad, and there's so many things that I have not used. But I'm not going to throw away because you never know when I'm going to need that extension cord or that landline cable. You know for my, for a phone that I haven't plugged in in 10 years, but you never know.
Speaker 3:You know, Doug, it's all about moderation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 3:Because you do need that stuff sometimes, and it's not about getting rid of everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I noticed you also do outdoor, like when you talked about curb appeal. Yes, you also help people outside of their house. So do you work with a landscaper to do that, or how does that work?
Speaker 3:So that would be. It's primarily like you know, when you want to get pictures done and get um things ready to get your house on the market, it's things like a power I'll bring. I have a power washer so I'll power wash the stairs or the front sidewalk or the siding on the house. Um, I'll, I'll arrange for some planters and you know, if something needs to be painted or slightly repaired, it's just to create a fresh look from the front of the house.
Speaker 3:And sometimes I'm the one there shoveling the sidewalk. You know it's sort of you're doing all those things that nobody else has time to do or thinks to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I'd imagine also, you know, a big part of your client group is probably seniors or the children of seniors. So they're finally selling the house. You know, the dad died or the mom died and maybe someone's moving into an assisted living community. It's got to be a very emotional time too, because I remember when my grandfather died and he's he was German descent, his mother was from Germany, his dad was from Switzerland, that's my great grandparents. He lived in Queens and they had like a brownstone which nowadays would be worth millions.
Speaker 2:Back then you then whatever, who knew? But I remember when we had to clean it out and there were so many things that he kept. Maybe he was a hoarder, I don't know. They didn't have that word back then. But my mom is kind of carried on that trait, shall we say, and it's so hard for her to get rid of things. She's going to be 90 years old and you know, when you have a number of kids and it's time to say, okay, let's get rid of this, and oh, no, no, I want to keep that. Oh, what about this?
Speaker 3:you know, I'd imagine it's it's difficult on your part to have people you know depart with things that have such an emotional connection to yes, um, there are situations where I'm actually working with someone say a spouse who just lost somebody, and helping them downsize and get ready to go into an independent living situation. Yeah, and then the other thing is I actually I'm noticing a new trend, which is adult children are hiring me to help their parents while they're still healthy and mobile.
Speaker 3:Yeah, To declutter, so that it's a gift to their parents, so that they can enjoy their space without being, you know, reminded of all their their stuff. But you're right, it's absolutely very emotional and it takes some time. You're jumping into a very, you know, emotional situation and people are very vulnerable at that time. And you need to really work to reassure them and to help them and be a shoulder to cry on along the way too reassure them and to help them and be a shoulder to cry on along the way too.
Speaker 2:So when my parents moved from Long Island to Florida, I thought that was the time they were going to like declutter.
Speaker 2:They basically brought everything with them. I remember when they first moved into their new house, the garage was like the garage I grew up in you could barely park a bicycle. Let it want a car. And I said, so, what's your plan for cleaning out the garage? And they laughed at me. Now they've been in that house 15, maybe 20 years and, yeah, it's always going to be that way. My mom is starting to depart with a few things and saying who gets what, as they, you know, I guess, start to face the inevitable. But yeah, there's so much there that I don't know. A couple of weeks of garage sales, we'll see what we can do.
Speaker 3:It is really helpful to have an organizer help you walk through that process.
Speaker 2:See, there you said process, there's the giveaway. So you are from Canada. Yes, I'm from toronto, canada, so having been a big hockey fan growing up, I always you know that was one little nuance to the, to the accent that I could pick out yes, the hockey players would say about, or you know, the ou, and, and then the organizations, that organization, although you don't say organization, right, um, no, I say organization.
Speaker 3:Oh, you do, no, I say organization.
Speaker 2:Oh, you do Okay. All right, I guess you do Okay. Or we say organization, but whatever, tomato, tomato. So, having worked, you know, in a different career for so many years, and now it's been 10 years since you started your own business, what has that journey been like, going from, you know, working for someone to having to be responsible for everything? And when I say everything, it means driving revenue, marketing, client relationship. I mean you know you were in the people kind of talent management. You know industry, if you will.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:But you did that for someone else, for you know, corporate, but now you have to do it for yourself. Yeah, you know, I'm sure there's ups and downs to it all, especially when you have, you know, children. It's nice to have your own business, but at the same time, there's no guarantees for how much money you're bringing in, right?
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 3:That's true and that is one of the big differences is a constant paycheck, and then you know, when you're self-employed, it's ebbs and flows and you need to plan accordingly for that.
Speaker 3:I think one thing that I love about the work I do now is that I can really sink my teeth into a project and help somebody and see instant change, whereas before I had so many direct reports and, you know, always putting out fires and I never really got to practice my craft, and I think that's one of the things that I really enjoy. I'm very passionate about my work and helping individuals and in terms of you're right having to be, you know, the salesperson, the media person, everything I'm definitely not, you know, 100% in all those areas, I kind of, you know I'm always trying to catch up everywhere Because I am a parent as well and I have those responsibilities, so there's a lot, but I'm fortunate enough that a lot of my business is driven from word of mouth and you know there's always room for attracting more clients and I just I'm enjoying being self-employed. I wouldn't. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I was. I I was kind of forced into self-hunt. I was laid off in 2017. I worked for two big corporations and been laid off twice. So you know there was a. I had a guest on my show who used the difference between financial security of getting a paycheck and having benefits to financial freedom. And yeah, you, you maybe can't predict your, your revenue every month, but when you get better at what you do, you kind of get a sense of what you're. You know how you built your book of business and the word of mouth and the. You know the clients that you're getting. But you know, to what you said, I like the immediate impact of something that I do today will impact. You know the outcome in the next few weeks, if not immediately, whereas you could work for somebody for an entire year and then wait for your review and get a 3% raise and not know if anything really mattered. You know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So there is that, that satisfaction. So would you have any advice for anyone Like it doesn't have to be your space, but say it's. Let's say it's someone who's had a dream. A lot of businesses came around or came about during COVID when people were kind of forced into. Either they were laid off or they, you know, were working at home and had a lot of free time on their hands and saw a need or saw that there was something out there that they loved to do and they decided to give up their comfort of their steady paycheck. But some of them didn't make it. They had a dream, but they really didn't know how to carry it out. Do you have any advice for people that are starting off now of what they need to do to be here five, 10 years later?
Speaker 3:I think you really need to have some grit, and by grit I mean consistency in reaching out and really trying to find the best partnerships and connections in the community to be a vehicle to help people get to know about your product or service. A lot of research. Some resource I used that I found really helpful was SCORE. This is a mentorship program for people getting into business and they were wonderful and I would suggest that reaching out to them as well If you're looking to start something new. But it really is researching, getting to know who your competitors are, understanding the need of the product, targeting your select audience, because within a lot of businesses and services there's generalists and there's niche and it depends on what you want to be where you put your time and effort. But it really is. It's the grind, it's the everyday getting up and just doing it that makes you successful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's Damon Johns from Shark Tank calls it the rise and grind. But when you use the words grit or the word grit, there's a psychologist named Angela Duckworth who wrote a book called grit and it's the power of passion and perseverance, and she was hired by West Point to try to determine, help them determine who out of their candidates will make it past boot camp, because it wasn't always about, you know, iq or intellect. You know there was some intangible that you know meant somebody was going to get through boot camp and others weren't, and you know it's. I guess it's a combination of passion and long-term perseverance. But what determines who's going to have that perseverance? Like, how do you identify that when you interview someone for a job, uh, or you're talking to your kid, who's? You know you want them to clean out the garage or whatever it is, um, you know to have that long-term perseverance.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's innate, if it's learned, but certainly everything that I've seen from successful entrepreneurs is, yeah, is having that grit and that grind and knowing that. You know it's a belief in yourself and a belief in the process, that you know you can, that it'll turn out okay. But you definitely have a lot of ups and downs and a lot of moments of doubt and pain, and I think it was Thomas Edison said the difference between success and failure is success is trying just one more time. I guess you know there are plenty of times in your career where you started off and maybe people thought you were crazy that you're going to start a home organizing business where, to your point, there are a lot of competitors.
Speaker 2:I've interviewed others on this show that are home organizers. So why you? You know why, and you know I know you. You've built up a network with realtors and you have a nice niche with that and also the different services that you provide. That's not just about organizing, but would you agree? I mean, like, did you? Did you look back and say, yeah, I always had that grit, I always had that grind in me, or was it something that you kind of uncovered after you started this journey?
Speaker 3:I think I always had the grit and grind because there was a lot of adversity in my life, and so adversity really creates strength and perseverance, I think. So I do believe I've already. I always had that. The pandemic really pushed me. I had a lot of people saying are you crazy? You got to switch your job, you can't do this anymore. Are you crazy? You got to switch your job, you can't do this anymore. And I also became a single parent at the same time during the pandemic, and so I was really challenged Is this going to carry me through? And I just I just believed in myself and I looked at the people I was helping.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I just I just, you know, seeing them continue to be successful in their lives. It gave me the passion and I just pushed through. And all the naysayers, you know it was from a place of concern. But, you really. You are challenged and people do push back and you need to keep your passion strong and be true to yourself. I think that's a big thing is when other people are questioning it.
Speaker 2:Sure, there's a line by a famous guy. I'll reveal his name if you don't know it but he wrote a song that goes people think I'm crazy doing what I'm doing. Give me all kinds of advice to save me from ruin. Unfortunately, that was the last album that he ever wrote, but that was John Lennon and Watching the Wheels, and I use that quote a lot because you know I well, yeah, I think when he wrote that song he had kind of been out of it.
Speaker 2:You know he was 40, turning 40, and he kind of disappeared to raise his kid, you know, his second son, and that's what people thought. You know, hey, I'm doing fine, just watching Shadows on the Wall. Yes, but the point is that you get a lot of people that say what are you doing? You're crazy. Or maybe they say it behind your back. You, what are you?
Speaker 1:doing You're crazy.
Speaker 2:Remember they say behind your back you do it's. It's really rewarding when you can look back and and not that you have to prove them wrong, but you prove to yourself that you could do it.
Speaker 3:No, I think, I think that, but it pushes you, it helps cement your belief when, when you have pushed back.
Speaker 3:I think yeah, it fortifies you and I think that you know you were mentioning how do you define yourself or how do you become competitive or how do you you know what's unique about your services. I think that diversification for me helped with that. So you know, I have this clientele where I'm just organizing getting houses on the market, but then I've got this health and wellness piece where I'm helping people who are neurodivergent or have issues around depression, anxiety, loss, and that's a very different track than the commercial side of organizing or the residential side of organizing, and I think that is there's a lot of value in teaching people about how to help heal themselves through organizing as well, how to help heal themselves through organizing as well.
Speaker 2:That's great, that's great. So, cheryl, let's go back to how would, how would people find you Like? How would they contact you? What's the best way to reach you?
Speaker 3:Well, you can definitely check out my website at cborganizingcom. So the CB is Cheryl Bach. That's what the CB is organizingcom. So the CV is Cheryl Bach. That's what the CV is and I can be reached on there. You can submit a form and you can also text me or call me at 551-579-7491. And, yeah, I'd love to hear from people and I I do offer free consultation for individuals as well?
Speaker 2:So, yes, okay, that's great. And are you on social media like Instagram or anything like that?
Speaker 3:Yes, facebook and Instagram as well.
Speaker 2:Got it. So if I go on Instagram and I type in CB organizing, I called it CBO organizing, but whatever. And now I can see let's see, hang on a second Some of the projects you worked on.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Which is that garage transformation which is really nice.
Speaker 3:I love garages.
Speaker 2:I have garage envy, I have to admit. When I see a really clean and organized garage, I'm like man someday someday, someday, someday some way. Well, cheryl, thank you so much for being on the show. You know I think we covered everything. Is there anything we didn't talk about that you offer?
Speaker 3:I think we covered everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, this is great. And again, I really you know, it's always interesting to hear how people have adapted and created something out of nothing and it's a I'm sure it's a great. You're a great role model to your kids as well, because there's nothing more, I think you know, more rewarding than to look up and see somebody who's succeeded and try to model yourself after that. And if it's your parent, you know how much you know it's all the better.
Speaker 3:So I think it's great. Yes.
Speaker 2:You and I will be right back. We're just going to have Chuck say goodbye to our audience and hang on for a minute. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show. Go toP Bergen calm. That's GNP Bergen calm, or call 2, 0, 1, 2, 9, 8, 3, 2, 5.