Breaking the Curse of Disorganization

I am cursed. When my parents were bringing me home from the hospital for the first time, they met an old woman who sprinkled some water on my forehead and mumbled some words my parents thought to be wishes of good luck. When they got home and looked up some of the strange words they had heard, they realized the mysterious woman was a shamen sent by an arch enemy to put the curse of chaos on their first born child.

Ok, ok, I made all that up. But sometimes that’s how I feel — cursed! I am much more comfortable in a calm, organized environment, but I am lacking in the skills that produce such a scenario. My mother — whom I wholly blame for my deficiencies — definitely has a clear system of organization in her own world.  But she somehow forgot to pass her secrets along to me.  So while I have her need to have everything in its place, I don’t have the know-how to get it there!

Thankfully, we live in the 21st century, where apparently I am not the only one to have this problem. Indicative of others like me is the growing numbers of professional organizers. Women (mostly) who have turned their type-A personalities into a lucrative business are available to come into your home and bring chaos to order in your household.

According to the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) which has nearly 4,000 members in the U.S. and 8 other countries, a professional organizer “enhances the lives of clients by designing systems and processes using organizing principles and by transferring organizing skills.”

Since not everyone can afford to pay a professional organizer to come reign in the chaos, I talked with Jessica Williams, self avowed Clutter Doctor who owns a business by the same name. I asked her a few questions that I think many of us organizationally challenged folks might want to know about.

VV: What are the most common organizational problems your clients bring to you? (i.e. home office, play area, garage, old files, etc.)

Clutter Doctor: I have worked in literally every room in the house and no two jobs are the same!  However, I’d say that all of my clients struggle with an overload of paper.  We are all victims of the massive influx of mail and paperwork that enters our home each week.  But there IS a way to get a handle on it all.  A professional organizer can help you develop systems for incoming papers and educate you about what to hold onto and for how long.

VV: Do you have some quick universal tips that you can offer for the worst of us disorganized people?

Clutter Doctor: When trying to decide whether or not to hold into an item, ask yourself some of these basic questions:

• Is this information current and/or can I can get somewhere else in the future?
• Do I love this item – does it bring me joy (or do these too-small jeans make me feel bad about myself)?
• Will this item make or save me money?
• Am I only saving this item because I’d feel guilty if I got rid of it (hint: bad feelings are not a good reason to hold onto something!)
• Do I “want” it or “need” it…or neither?
• Am I truly honoring this item (i.e. is it stuffed in a box where no one can see it, or am I properly displaying it so that I can enjoy it?)
• If it needs repair, am I ever actually going to repair it?
• Have I used this item in the past 12 months?
• Is there a legal reason to keep this item (check with your tax advisor or attorney)
• If I took a picture of it to keep, could I more easily part with it?
• What’s the worst that could happen if I got rid of it…and could I live with the consequences?

VV: How often do you go in homes simply to do all the organizing work for your clients, vs. teaching them organizational skills that will continue using?

Clutter Doctor: I never do all of the organizing work for my clients.  It is a collaborative process.  Other than things that are obviously trash (gum wrappers), I would not be able to make decisions for that person about what to keep or toss because the value they have placed on that item is not going to be the same as mine.  They need to be involved in the process of weeding through their belongings.  My role is to help them answer some of the questions I’ve listed above and to help them feel comfortable with their answers.  I try to transfer organizing skills to them while we are sorting through their items.

Williams also added that people’s inability to get organized is not necessarily genetic, nor is it because they’re dumb, lazy or crazy (as many blame themselves for being!).    And many people suffer from issues such as ADD/ADHD, Chronic Disorganization (see National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization’s website), anxiety, depression or other circumstances which make getting organized on their own too difficult.  But being organized is a skill that many people can learn with help from a properly trained professional organizer.

Another great resource Williams suggested is a widely-accepted book in the industry Organizing from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life by Julie Morgenstern.  It’s a step-by-step and room-by-room guide on how to get organized.

In addition to talking to Jessica Williams, I asked around and got a few more tips from some of my more organized friends. My favorite suggestion, since I have a mountain of artwork from my kids, is to keep a large portfolio case for each child’s artwork. All artwork (at least all flat artwork) can go in the portfolio, and then twice a year, once over the summer, and once during winter break, you (with or without the kids) can go through the portfolio and keep the stuff that really stands out.

Another tip was to tear out articles and recipes in magazines that you want to keep, and put them in a binder, and then recycle what’s left. Since I have stacks and stacks of cooking magazines, the tip was particularly helpful for me. For paperwork, I really love the Reminder Binder Clips that Staples carries. They don’t seem to have them online, but I did find binder clips that you can write on. At least if you can’t file your papers right away, you can separate them by action required and keep them organized.

One of my own personal tips is to use hanging shoe organizers liberally! It’s amazing how many functions they can fill in your house, from spice rack to mitten organizer.

Hopefully some of these tips can help get you started in putting some order back in your life. When you have order, you have productivity, and when you are feeling productive, you will feel ten times better about yourself.