Testimonials
I have known Ellen T. Cohen for over 15 years. Aside from being an expert in her field, she brings with her a genuine compassion for others. Allowing an individual into one's cluttered, disorganized or chaotic home takes considerable trust. My colleague has demonstrated the ability to enter the most challenging of environments with positive energy...installing hopefulness! I highly recommend Ellen to individuals, families, and businesses.Deborah A. Thomas, PhD
Psychologist
I found Ellen online. The minute I read the information on her website, I felt she had something special to offer. She is a gifted organizer. She has a special ability to see options for how space can be used. She has a designer’s eye and a counselor’s sensitivity and heart.
I so appreciate her expertise and encouragement in helping me get my apartment organized after a very stressful move.
Cynthia L.
Psychotherapist and Life Coach
Whether you are are facing a monumental task or a small project, I highly recommend Ellen. She is easy to work with and offers an sympathetic ear while accomplishing whatever organizational goal at hand.
She helped make a painful process of cleaning out my mother’s items after her passing, very manageable. She understood the emotional aspects involved and was empathetic and non-judgmental. Her work –ethic is phenomenal and she seems to have boundless amount of energy.
I strongly endorse Ellen and would recommend her for any project you are looking to do.
Maria K.
Ellen Cohen is a miracle worker! Although I am a prolific author, sought-after conference speaker, and winner of the 2018 Vattemare Award for Creativity in Libraries, organization has always been a huge challenge for me. From being chastised in elementary school for having a messy desk and constantly losing my homework to a diagnosis of ADD in adulthood and now taking Adderoll on a regular basis, I still struggle with organization. It never takes me less than three hours to pack for a speaking engagement, and no matter how much I try to keep my home office tidy, I always end up with piles of papers and book on the floor, on the desks, on the chairs, and all over.
Today is the second time I've worked with Ellen and the result was miraculous. She started out by reassuring me that I am okay - although my brain works differently from a large majority of the population, she expressed appreciation for my creativity and achievements. Since packing and unpacking is always such a big burden for me, we spent two hours working on that. First, Ellen asked what I need to pack and why. She listened to my answers and then helped me develop a sustainable method that would make things easier.
After that, we went into my home office with the papers everywhere, and little by little we worked our way through everything. I appreciated Ellen's outlook that everyone thinks differently, and that I should use a storage system that works for me (shelves with labelled boxes to dump things in, rather than file cabinets.) With her support, practical suggestions, and elbow grease, I was able to have a tidy office with things actually housed where I can find them rather than piled into a box for me to sort through later.
As Ellen was leaving my home, I told her that she was a miracle worker. I'm writing this recommendation so other people with struggle with disorganization as I do can hire Ellen to help them as she helped me. Thank you, Ellen!
Betsy D.
I wrote a testimonial after I had only worked with Ellen twice. Now I would like to update it by adding this: As a person with ADD, I have struggled with organization my entire life. In 2020, I heard about Ellen Cohen's skill helping people like me and we began working together. Although COVID popped up and quarantining began, Ellen seamlessly switched to time-management and organization by phone. Despite the pandemic, my business did its best financially last year and I am convinced that Ellen's help played a major role in that. Because of her assistance, I am better at keeping track of my time and obligations, lessening the last minute panic from realization that something needs to be done ASAP. Ellen is incredible and I highly recommend her services to anyone and everyone with ADD!
Betsy D.
I trust Ellen implicitly. Even when my home is at its worst, I feel comfortable enough with Ellen to let her help me sort through my things to decide what to keep and what to discard.. I know she is never judging me, even when I am judging myself...
Lee C.
When I first started working with Ellen, I was a disorganized disaster. I was not sure where to begin in getting my life and home put back together. Ellen's expertise, patience, and nurturing allowed me to piece myself and my home back together. I was able to regain the control I so desperately desired. It has been a journey, but I am able to remain confident in myself and my ability to stay organized and in control. I highly recommend Ellen and all she has to offer. She is kind, compassionate, respectful, and judgement-free.
Jennifer Barbo
Ellen is an amazing woman. There is something in her manner that is perfect for me. She is gentle and loving. I can't recommend her highly enough!
Ruth Miller
Miraculous!!
Chris and Jenn
I was really apprehensive about making a call to invite someone into my personal space. My bedroom was so messy and cluttered that it had become a real source of strain on my marriage, so I had to call for help. I'm so glad I called Ellen. Even though I thought my situation was hopeless, she assured me that the problem was surmountable. Bit by bit, we got rid of what I didn't need, and found great solutions for my organizational problem spots.
I was ashamed of my mess, but Ellen helped me see it as an opportunity to discover some of my creativity. I had dozens of handmade origami boxes that became the home for my hair barrettes and makeup! I had previously thought those boxes were just junk I had no use for but didn't want to let go of. Now I actually use them, and they help me stay organized! This how Ellen shines. She finds strengths in what I was ashamed of.
More importantly, Ellen is so kind and non-judgemental. Every dirty, yucky piece of junk that was embarrassing to me, was just part of her job to deal with, and I began to feel comfortable really early on in the process.
Ellen helped my room go from a pigsty to my haven from the world. I didn't think it was possible, but she made it happen. I am truly grateful.
Tess B. Senderowicz
I want to take this opportunity to gratefully endorse the work of Ellen Cohen. I have worked with five different personal organizers over the past ten years at both my home and office. Some were helpful, some were not. Some were enjoyable to work with, some created more confusion and frustration with bewildering organizational systems that were "the only way to go."
Ellen has been a unique and perfect fit for me. Her capacity to listen and observe my personal, individual thought processes and accommodate them is exceptional. Ellen has tailored her organizing tools to meet my particular needs.
As a highly trained professional with visual perceptual dyslexia, what I require for help is significant and specific. Ellen provides me with new ways to think about organization that intuitively make sense to me. She helps me create systems that truly work, so that I can find the book, the file, the piece of paper for which I'm looking. She also helps me think through what I don't need anymore without shame or regret, so the clutter can go.
Most importantly, Ellen does this with great kindness, good humor and generosity of spirit. She respects that she has been invited into my space - in which we are dealing with my belongings - and that only I can say what has value to me.
I feel not only more organized through Ellen's guidance, but personally enriched by the experience of working with her. It doesn't get better than that.
Sincerely,
Jeanne C. Folks, D.Min, LPC
Connecticut Psychotherapeutic Resources
Clinical Director
Dear Ellen,
Thank you very much for all of your help. After my husband died suddenly, I was a ship adrift in the ocean. I had no idea how to interpret his records and thought that I was going to sink. Thank G-D someone gave me your name and you came to my rescue. In a relatively short period of time we had the basics of filing, keeping records and everything else done and organized. I am now the most organized record keeper I know. We still share a long distance support relationship, thank goodness and I am so.. happy that you have been such a good support and friend over these past years.
E.K.W.
Working with Ellen Cohen of Interiors, etc. has been life-changing. For years I had things I needed to organize, I was pretty sure I knew how to organize them but I never had the 'extra' time to get to any of my projects. Finally,tempted by an ad for a free consultation I decided to open my mind to see how a professional organizer might be able to guide me toward my goals. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Boy, was I in for a wonderful surprise! Ellen took an expert look at my house and my life. From the first meeting, I knew this woman could really take me to where I had been dreaming of going. To a place of order, control over my things and my life - ultimately to peace of mind.
An unexpected twist in working with Ellen was how much focus we put on organization of my time, my daily/weekly schedule. It turns out that the way I spent my time, scattered among tasks, was mostly responsible for me not getting many of the important things done daily. Just as she helped me categorize and organize the items in my house, she helped me organize my day into purposeful blocks of time where quality work could be accomplished and important moments of pleasure experienced (fun was never on my schedule and I was suffering because of it).
I had tried to work on my issues in talking with good friends. We even had a group set up around an organizing book to help us help each other. But really there was no one interested in talking with me for an entire hour about how to improve boring systems such as my laundry. I would have been embarrassed to even go on about this with friends but I needed SOLUTIONS for gosh sakes! I spend so many hours with this annoying never-ending task (as well as others).
After strategizing with Ellen, I now have a whole different system for doing most things including, the once irritating laundry. Now I have tricks to keep the flow going and mundane tasks never overwhelm me anymore.
An attentive listener, Ellen really understands where I am coming from and what my needs are. She gets right down to the nitty-gritty of my problems in a very respectful, friendly, supportive manner. If I feel like any suggestion is not right for me, she makes me feel very comfortable to just tell her and she will come up with something else that does fit me, without missing a beat.
I have been amazed how broadly defined 'organizing' can be. She has helped me with important decisions that essentially are related to the organizing of my life.
Every room in my house, actually every shelf and flat surface in my house has been de-cluttered and re-organized in line with what is important to me. My family and I are all benefitting from this remarkable overhaul in more ways than one would imagine. It is amazing how much organizing one's life and belongings can really bring peace of mind. Thanks to Ellen, there is an entirely different mood in my house. It is more of a home, more of a peaceful sanctuary than I had dreamed of.
Thanks so much Ellen!
I learned from Ellen to calmly accept that there will always be more 'to do.' Thanks to my work with her I now have the systems in place to efficiently deal with anything that comes my way.
Sarah Laub
I am pleased to write this reference for Ellen Cohen to help promulgate her services. I know her through work with a client which she has done over the past three years. At the time he was referred, the client, a patient of mine whom I know very well, was living alone in a large house inherited from his deceased father, with whom he had resided for many years. He was having financial difficulty, and was being supervised by a court appointed conservator of finance to help pay bills and manage his affairs. His house was being sold, and he had decades of possessions, furniture, clothing, records and papers to condense and move. After an apartment was secured, Mrs. Cohen helped her client, sort, pack and organize his possessions, and then furnish and move into a more economical apartment. She helped him economically purchase a large number of bookcases which permitted him to preserve most of his collections of records and music, and gradually move, unpack and set up his new residense. She helped him supervise and reimburse necessary homemaker help in the apartment. She helped him pay bills and manage finances, so the services of the court appointed conservator were no longer necessary and the conservatorship was legally terminated. Her client was able to assume full legal independence as a result of her efforts. She collaborates with a financial counselor, a friend of his, to help invest his resources, and helps him pay bills.
In doing this work, Mrs. Cohen worked assiduously to acomplish an enormous amout of work with as little expense as possible. She worked with both me and the client to assess his needs, and worked hard to meet his needs and expectations within the resources available. She both organized his space and his possessions, and intervened when needed to be of assistance, and let the client do what he was able to do independently. They communicated very well and he thinks highly of her and her efforts. Her skills, discretion, and capacity to listen, guide and act were all essential in this difficult move. Her skill in organizing the space and the apartment, her main business task, was invaluable in helping the patient achieve his goals and to function with independence.
I recommend her without hesitation for her intelligence, her honesty, her humanity and empathy. She is organized and energetic and functions well autonomously. She is good at integrating a picture of her client's needs and wishes, the practical and esthetic demands of the situation, and working within the fiscal constraints of available funds.
Sincerely yours,
Lee David Brauer, M.D.
Dear Ellen,
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate how generous you have been to me with your time, energy, and attention to detail. You have been instrumental in my transformation from a well-meaning but disorganized woman into an organized professional. To be honest, I would normally prefer to have dental work over having to face paperwork, but somehow you have made our time together joyful, despite myself. I have even had a good time and now, my space is set up to give me peace and lend itself to productivity for me and my special needs students.
Thank you!
Ally Rourke
Special Education Teacher
Dear Ellen,
I have a HUGE thank you for you!
One of the things I fear and dread the most is packing my kids for summer camp. This year, because of the work we did together in my basement, it was a pleasure! The easiest thing imaginable!
I knew where everything was, it was all together in one area, and it was a breeze to set up a family assembly line...
When my husband asked me "where is the camp stuff?" I just said: downstairs, to the right, ready to go...!
I can't wait to incorporate your brilliant tips about how to maintain a "go bag" for the constant travel the upcoming college years will bring!
Thank you!
Sherri Pliskin
Mother of Twins
The last week of November 2015, I moved from the suburbs to the city in the hopes of making a new start. Little did I know that I would be having an organ transplant within one week. The ensuing few days are a blur; my adult children arrived one by one to provide help to a mother recovering from surgery whose entire condo was filled with boxes. Things got lost, thrown out, and turned upside down.
It must surely have been divine intervention that Ellen Cohen appeared on the scene.
Ellen understood from the start that I needed more than simple organizational help—that I felt a sense of desperation that was fueled by physical weakness and disorientation. What struck me immediately was her rare combination of compassion, intuition, and intelligence. She “got it” in every sense of the word.
My biggest issue was that I didn’t have “my papers” in order. I’m an online professor, and I’d started a new class when I was still in bed recovering. So I had those papers. Then there were all the files that were still sitting in boxes: everyday files, important papers, sentimental stuff that needed to be sorted out. The upshot was that I didn’t know where anything was. Between being unwell and taking anti-rejection meds that were wreaking havoc on my brain, I was in a state of chronic anxiety about papers, to do lists, notes, etc.
Ellen helped me get my papers in order right away, and she worked with me on possible systems to figure out what worked best with me: sticky notes, pads, and loose leaf notebooks. She helped me sort through the kind of family “stuff” that a mother of adult children does not need but also does not know how to part with. She recommended getting ottomans that could double as file cabinets—a brilliant solution for my one-bedroom space. She set up a work area in my living room where we could keep things in between visits. Much to my amazement, the piles of papers started getting lower, and the boxes lining the walls started disappearing.
At the same time, she helped with the psychological issues of feeling spacey from medicine and afraid that I was losing my mind. She went over things with me that I normally wouldn’t need help with without making me feel conspicuously dumb (or senile?). In short, she helped me believe that I would physically recover and make the adjustment to my new space, city, and life.
It is now seven months since my transplant and five months since the day Ellen arrived on the scene. We had not been able to get together for a month, but somehow things had gone well. The foundation had been set, and I was still organized. When Ellen walked through the door, her face lit up. She said the place looked beautiful, and she meant it. She saw that I’d organized my spaces, my refrigerator, my bedroom—everything. There was no conspicuous clutter, nothing abnormal.
We worked contentedly on the papers I’d left to go over before my daughter comes to visit tomorrow. Everything went so smoothly that we both realized I’d developed a system and was finally okay on my own. We decided to switch gears – to use Ellen’s organizational wizardry to help me reestablish my new working life. This is our next project. I’m so glad, because I was just a little bit afraid of how sad it would be if I couldn’t work with Ellen anymore. So I have my checklist of things I have to do before our next appointment. The place is ready for my daughter’s amazed reaction, and I feel great. Who could have done this but Ellen Cohen?
Ellen B.
Hello Ellen,
Just a note to say "thank you" for all of your help today and leading up to today. I am so relieved that you are helping! You are very kind and patient and seem to understand just what needs to be done....The house looks infinitely more showable now!
Dianne Rechel
CT Magazine 5-Star Award Winner Realty Executives
You have been a life-saver! You removed tremendous stress! It was weighing on me unbelievably and I am delighted with the result!
Adrienne