A new kind of housekeeping service, sorting out wardrobes, is becoming popular among residents and the service providers are earning a lot, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.
Unlike traditional hourly-paid cleaners, family organizers do not sweep the floor, vacuum carpets or wash dishes. They only sort out the disorganized mess in their clients’ wardrobes by providing solutions for how their clients can keep their homes tidy.
Li Ling is a wardrobe organizer. Three years ago, a book about keeping a tidy and organized home written by a Japanese family organizer inspired Li to sort out her own apartment. She then began to do it as a job by providing the service for clients.
“A lot of people think wardrobe organizers only fold clothes and clean the stuff in the wardrobe, but actually, we mainly provide design solutions to help our clients organize their items in a more tidy way,” said Li.
Normally it takes two to three days for Li and her team members to come up with a solution, after measuring the wardrobes in the home and the amount of stuff or clothes needed to be kept in the household.
Another wardrobe organizer identified as Xiaodu said she started doing it professionally two years ago. She used to work in an office, but gave up the job because it was not interesting.
“I found that organizing wardrobes could be a job and I like sorting out wardrobes, so I left my previous job and started to be a wardrobe organizer,” said Xiaodu.
“Designers can’t immediately tailor different wardrobes for their clients because they don’t know how much stuff a client has, but wardrobe organizers can show their clients how to better use the space in their wardrobes based on their specific situation,” according to the organizer.
Fees for the service depend on the width of the wardrobe. Xiaodu normally charges 990 yuan (US$115) per meter. The income is not bad for wardrobe organizers because it costs around 3,000 yuan to purchase a solution plan for an entire family’s wardrobes.
According to Xiaodu, their business improves around the holidays, especially before and after the Chinese New Year.
Li said there are also male wardrobe organizers. “We have two young men in our team. They like sorting out things very much and they are very good at it,” said Li. She also disclosed that there are less than 100 people doing the job in Shenzhen at the moment.
However, according to a person in charge of a housekeeping agency, wardrobe organizers in China do not have State-approved certificates and most of them are trained through agencies. There also is no specific category for wardrobe organizing services on an online classification website.