“Getting organized” may not be among Americans’ most common New Year’s resolutions for 2025, but nearly all of the things that did — from improving job performance to eating healthier and saving money — could benefit from some organization.
Enter: Sonya Weisshappel ’92. As the founder and CEO of Seriatim, a New York City–based professional organization firm, Weisshappel has spent nearly 30 years helping people through major life transitions by keeping their tangible assets in order when everything else feels out of control.
“If I could give one gift to anyone I speak to, it’s to know that this is normal, that it’s uncomfortable to move into a new space and to not beat yourself up for it,” Weisshappel says. “Do the best you can with where you are today.”
Weisshappel is well-versed in navigating upheaval. Her family moved nine times during her childhood because of her father’s job in the U.S. Air Force. Shortly after the family settled into their final home in New York City, her father fell ill and died. Weisshappel was just 13. These events — which Weisshappel calls “life quakes,” borrowing a term from author Bruce Feiler — primed her to become New York City’s “chaos whisperer.”
“I created a company, Seriatim, to take the pain away from people in those times,” she says.
Seriatim isn’t the only organization firm in New York City, but it stands out among its peers thanks to its signature compassionate and client-centric approach, inspired by its founder’s lived experiences.
“[We meet people] where they are without judgment,” Weisshappel says. “If they’ve had enough trust to allow someone into their life, that is a very vulnerable moment.”
These vulnerable moments span everything from sorting through a lifetime of belongings after the death of a loved one, to preparing for a big move, to simply decluttering one’s space.
“There’s really no doctor for the home,” Weisshappel says. “I do think that we’ve always healed the home and thus the person.”
Here, Weisshappel shares some fundamentals that will help you set yourself up for success in your 2025 endeavors.
Decide to start.
[Many people] sit with this stuff in their life that they can’t put in the flow. It’s like the artery: if those systems are clogged in any way, you have a backup. If your life has clutter around you, you have a backup. … Do the best you can with where you are today. It’s just stuff. If you made a mistake and put it in the wrong place, you can move it.
Know what you own.
Knowing what you own and inventorying it is our baseline. When you go to a doctor, they want your blood work to say, “Okay, everything’s good” or “Hey, there’s a problem,” but you can’t bring the blood work from 10 years ago to get the answers you need. It is the same in a financial situation. You need to bring [the inventory of] all of your current assets.
Identify what matters to you and supports your interests.
What one keeps in their life shows you who they are and what they value, but sometimes they haven’t given themselves permission to [live out their values]. That, to me, is the most important gift of organizing: to support [a person] with their stuff.
Create designated spaces for those items.
Whatever makes you feel like you’re [fulfilling your] purpose, that needs to be easy for you to do. If you want to sew, and your sewing machine is at the bottom of your closet underneath 10 piles of stuff, and your fabric is in every room around the house, and you can’t find your needles, and you can’t find your thread, you’re not sewing. You’re thinking about it, but you’re not actually doing it. Our methodology emboldens whoever you are to find comfort, clarity, and a refreshed sense of renewal amid life’s most difficult and disorderly moments.
