- [Chantel] Okay Fred, what are we doing here today?
- What are we doing here today?
(dramatic music)
I knew I had a lot of T-shirts, but,
like, I feel crazy.
(chatter)
(tape stretching)
This is the day that I've been dreading the most.
(sighs)
We're moving. I'm moving.
(upbeat music)
So a friend of mine was living in this really cool apartment
and I went to her housewarming
and I was like, "Oh my gosh,
if another unit opens up, please let me know."
About a month and a half, two months ago,
she hit me up and she was like,
"Hey girl, I'm moving out of my apartment, do you want it?"
And I was like.
And so I said yes.
I do love my current apartment.
My bedroom is really nice, I like it a lot,
especially since we remade it in a Buzzfeed video last year.
(classy music)
For me, moving is at the top of the list
when it comes to stressful events.
This will also be my first time moving with Roberta.
(cat meows)
I'm gonna try to make it as seamless as possible
because I really want to, you know, plant my feet
and plant my life in this new apartment.
- [Chantel] This is your seventh move!
- This is my seventh move.
I'm going to bring in an organizational maven
named Elsa.
She is going to help me just try to have
the best move possible.
- My name's Elsa Elbert.
I'm the owner of Composed Living.
We're a professional organizing company
based out of Los Angeles.
My personal feeling is when you're moving is the
absolute best time to hire an organizer.
Everything's empty, and so you can just go in
and make everything perfect.
And then you just have to make sure it stays that way.
The three biggest mistakes that people make when
they're moving. One, not leaving enough time for yourself.
- I would say I underestimated my last move.
I kind of did it, like, the day before...
(cat meows)
...slash the day of.
- From the moment you know that you're going to be moving,
that is the best time
to start going through your belongings.
The second mistake people make is not dealing
with the decluttering before they move.
- I didn't pack with any kind of organization.
I literally just threw a bunch of crap in boxes,
and then I was like, "I'll figure it out later!"
- It is such a shame to move from one part of your life
into a new part of your life
without taking the time to really evaluate
if all of the things that you previously owned
are still in line with what you want
the next chapter of your life to be.
- It probably took me a good month and a half,
to fully unpack because I think I just felt overwhelmed,
and like, I don't know what's in any of these boxes!
- Third mistake, I think is in not asking for help.
- So I usually just take on a whole bunch
of things by myself.
That usually garners a lot of stress for me.
- That's the best time to either recruit friends
or hire professionals, but somebody who can
just help you take over a little piece
of that off of your plate.
- Having a bunch of people over at my apartment,
to actually help me pack
is just going to a struggle for me.
It'll be so many dust bunnies.
- [Chantel] We all have dust bunnies, Fred!
(Freddie laughs)
- Physical and metaphorical!
- It should be very exciting to move
in to a new space,
it truly is a new chapter in your life.
- This is kind of an exercise,
to help me to let go of the notion
that people absolutely will not help me
or don't want to.
And I'm gonna sort of lean on my friends,
mostly LadyLike to help me make
this experience a little bit less stressful.
Tomorrow is day one, I'm excited,
I'm ready to go, luckily I have my friends
who can keep me in check.
- Hey!
(Alex squeals)
- Time to move.
- Time to move!
(both laugh)
(curious music)
- This is the day that I've been dreading the most.
Probably 1/8th of the stress from this day,
was coming from not knowing
where I was gonna put my cat,
but I handled that last minute.
And so, she's off at the sitter
and now I'm here with my girls
and we can really get down to business.
It could go either way,
but I'm putting my trust in Elsa
and the team and I think we can get it done.
Stress level is probably at about,
an 8 and a half.
(knocking on door)
- Hi!
- Hi Elsa.
- Good morning.
- Welcome to my home.
- Wow, how are you feeling?
- Um, you know. I'm happier here, where we can start.
- Yeah.
- Well, I mean I think that's a very common feeling,
it's easy to look around and be like,
"Oh my gosh, there's so much stuff,
we're never gonna get this done."
I really wanna maximize the helping hands
that you do have, here today.
So we're gonna have them pack up
the stuff that you don't really need
to be a part of.
And then while they're working on that,
we can kind of go through some of the rooms
of the house, that way as we're decluttering
you have your kind of like, packing helpers
coming up behind us.
And hopefully, we'll knock all of this out today.
- The ladies got a plan!
- Yes!
- I'm ready.
- Let's do this.
- All right.
- So my plan to help Freddie,
not feel as stressed out throughout this move,
is to work with her in the packing process,
to go through all of the belongings.
This is a great space to start
clearing out stuff.
- I wanna just like throw away all this stuff,
you know?
So it's very, actually a two-fold
that I have people around helping,
that would actually like benefit from
some of the stuff that I don't want.
- So this is all gonna be a pile of stuff
that she doesn't want, so, feel free
to just take stuff out.
I think right now we can head to the bathroom.
- Yes.
- Keeping the nightlight?
- Yes.
- Okay, anything in here we're not keeping?
- Yeah, gonna be a lot.
- My philosophy on knowing whether or not
you should keep something is if you love it, keep it.
If you already know that you don't love it,
then it has no business being a part of your life.
This is fascinating footage. - So we feel good about this?
- Yes.
- Great.
- Don't need this, so this is give-away.
- I don't wear, or use any of this.
- Okay.
- So, give-away.
- Broken.
- Look at you, that's amazing.
- Feels good!
- So having someone who's there
to just constantly reassure you like,
this is normal, everyone goes through this,
you're doing fine and we're going
to get through this together.
I think, really helps to alleviate
some of that stress.
- That's the problem with not giving
things room to breathe.
- Right.
- You just won't ever use anything
because everything is so overcrowded,
that it becomes very visually overwhelming.
When we feel overwhelmed in any part
of our lives, the first instinct is to be
like, "Whoop, just gonna ignore that."
- Yeah.
- Just walk away, and don't even use it.
- Mhmm.
- So Freddie and Elsa are still packing
up the bathroom, because they're going
through everything in there.
But in the meantime,
we've been tasked with packing up
everything in the kitchen.
- So far I'm not seeing a lot of spices,
I don't think she's doing a lot of
(yells) cooking from home!
I'm not seeing the Instant Pot,
that we've talked about her getting.
- [Freddie] Instant Pot is in my car, ready to go!
- Okay!
- Oh, these have been here for a very long time, Fred.
Yeah, I'm gonna toss these for you.
- [Freddie] Nuh-uh.
- I'm gonna taste these for you.
- [Freddie] Okay.
- You just always need more boxes,
than you think you're going to need.
(tape stretching)
- With this one, I like to a little bit
of a thigh squeeze action, like squeeze
the thighs to keep the flaps shut.
There we go.
And then, you just make sure to place
the tape well and (grunts) yeah.
It's not supposed to be sexual,
but if you find yourself having feelings
that's okay.
- I prefer to pack things,
based on where they're going to go
in your new home.
So if you have a linen closet in
your new space and all of your sheets
and towels and blankets are going to go there,
then pack all of the like,
items together in that way.
- I'm feeling really pleased with
how everything is going so far.
I feel like we're moving.
- I feel like we are pretty far ahead
of schedule, actually.
The kitchen looks like it's mostly done,
the bathrooms done, the hallway closet is done
and a good chunk of the living room is already packed.
Then we'll spend the afternoon,
doing clothes, accessories, and shoes.
And that's it, you're going to be ready to go.
- I'm gonna be ready to go.
- What was your stress level,
when we started the day?
- Eight and a half, I think.
- [Elsa] Where do you feel like you're at right now?
- I think I'm at like a six and a half now.
- [Elsa] All right!
That's pretty good.
- Yeah, slowly moving down.
- We might be making margaritas later, just to uh.
- Just to like. (laughs)
- We found tiny tequilas!
(laughs)
- I think the biggest pinpoint
is going to be, in helping her
to get her wardrobe to a place
where she feels good about it
and also to a place where everything has a home.
- I might get touch-and-go with the clothing.
- So I think we'll probably focus
the majority of our time on closet organization.
(sighs)
- You're gonna crush this.
So here's what we're going to do.
The first part, you can just help me categorize,
we're not making any decisions.
You always start by taking absolutely everything out
and putting like items in to giant piles.
Psychologically, it helps you to understand
like, "Oh, I had no idea that I have 725 T-shirts."
- How about I give you a pile in the middle-
- Yeah.
- And you just kind of sort them.
- [Freddie] Yes
- In to how they belong.
- There are five shirts on one hanger.
One, two, three, four, five, yeah.
So I'm gonna try to avoid this
from happening in the future.
(Freddie laughs)
- Is this a skirt or?
It's your hair?
- [Freddie] That's my uh, my Good Burger wig.
- [Elsa] Oh my god!
(Freddie laughs)
- [Elsa] Okay, I'm going to put this with the hats for now.
We'll just call it like, "headgear."
(both laughing)
- Now, it's time to clean off this couch
because everything on this couch,
is stuff that Freddie is giving away.
We're gonna have a little auction
with no dollars and we will be taking things.
- Sunglasses.
- Oh!
- Oh my gosh, I've been looking for these for months.
- [Elsa] Amazing.
- Shall we begin?
- I can be the auction master.
Wait, Erica do you have those bags
from the kitchen? I feel like everybody should get bags.
- Yes.
- This does need to happen, immediately.
(Freddie laughs)
- [Elsa] Yes.
(laughing)
- Pillowcases!
- [Man] Yeah, I'll have one, I'll take it, yeah.
- [Freddie] Yay, Erica!
- Freddie has told me on the phone,
that she had stuff that was stored underneath
her bed, and that is an absolute, no.
- The flow of energy underneath your bed,
is what's supposed to sweep out all the negativity
and all the restless thoughts,
so that you can have a really,
good night of sleep.
We want to have like this sense
of like, openness and free-flowing energy.
And so that is my personal goal for this project.
There is no room for your dreams!
Is there more than one bin under your bed?
Okay, there's more than one bin.
(Freddie laughs)
What is there?
- A little I.T. Cosmetics bag.
- [Freddie] Britney!
Britney, yay!
(clapping)
(sighs)
- I feel crazy.
- [Elsa] We're like so close to
the fun part, you guys, girls.
- What's the fun part, again?
- Face mask, these are really nice.
Yes girl.
(clapping)
- Okay, we can finally do this, almost.
There we go.
Let's see what else is under here.
Are you ready for the fun part?
Are you excited?
- [Freddie] Yes, I'm ready.
- That's not an 'I'm excited' face.
- No, I'm ready, I'm ready,
I'm a little nervous but I'm ready.
- Well, this is going to be amazing.
Without spending any time thinking about it,
just your first instinct, yes I want to keep it;
No, I have no idea why I own it.
Maybe, we'll revisit all the maybes together
at the end.
So as you look at the stuff
that's around you, keep in mind
that you're new closet space,
with all of these things hanging
can accommodate like a third of what's here.
(racing music)
- Yes.
No. That's a no because it makes me sweat.
- Okay.
- Over here, look how cute these brushes are.
They look clean.
- [Freddie] Never been used before.
- [Woman] Can I see that red one?
- [Freddie] Keep.
- Maybe? - Maybe, it's a part of a set.
Yes.
Oh, I've been looking for those.
I'm gonna keep them for the beach.
- Are they crooked on my face,
tell me honestly, don't lie to me.
- [Freddie] No.
- Don't lie to me.
- [Erica] They look cute!
- Do I look cute?
- [Freddie] Yeah!
Those are cool.
- Don't lie to me.
- [Freddie] Those are classic.
- (singing) Yes!
- All right, we found the winners. (Freddie laughs)
- I love these.
Va Va Voom.
I could get rid of those.
- Can I claim this?
- [All] Yes!
- [Freddie] Yeah.
Yes.
Yep, those too. Look at all of these jeans in
the same exact wash.
I like them, haven't worn them,
haven't for over a year.
Wear the greens one all the time.
I could probably get rid of this black one.
I like them, don't need them.
(band music)
- The only thing in the maybe pile.
- Oh, I only put one pair of pants
in the maybe pile.
(dramatic music)
Okay, let's get rid of them.
(cheering sound effect)
(band music)
- So, we have already gone through
so much stuff, right?
We did all of your pants,
all of the jumpsuits, all of the dresses,
all of the jackets.
Let's finish with these three categories
and then we're like, almost done.
Your whole place is basically packed in one day.
(band music finale)
- Oh my gosh, we did it.
Thank you so much for helping me out,
because I was-
- No, this was amazing, you did such a good job.
- Now comes the even more fun part.
- [Elsa] Yes.
- Unpacking and reorganizing the new apartment.
- Yes!
But now it's gonna be so easy,
because you know that everything
that we're taking over there,
is stuff that you love.
And so it's just going to be a matter
of putting the closet together
and giving everything like,
the space that it deserves, it's gonna be amazing.
So I wanted to check with you
and see if there are any causes,
that you feel strongly about
or like where you would feel the best,
knowing that your belongings are
gonna go to help people.
- Yes, so I actually love that idea
of taking them to the foster kids,
a women's shelter, and then like
an LGBTQ center.
- [Elsa] Awesome.
All right, so your bed is clear.
- My bed is clear, it was a mountain
of insanity before.
Yeah, I mean it's feeling real empty.
Like, it's now, getting real,
it's feeling very real.
Next, is uh, moving out.
- I've been living in chaos.
The floors not even, and the door jam
is just a little too tight.
This is like my first experience like this, ever.
I can feel some trapped energies
from the previous person that resided in this place.
I want it to be done!
(dance music)