This past weekend I along with two of my colleagues, Jonda Beattie and Judith Kolberg, participated as vendors at the Decatur Book Festival. The three of us have run a booth every year for the past several years. It’s called the “Get Organized” booth. We were very lucky this year – there was no rain. So, we had lots of people in and out of the booth.
Some people were there to browse, others were there to look at our books, and still others wanted to talk to us to see if we could give them a little organizing inspiration. I know, because my voice is still a little hoarse, that we listened and gave as much inspiration as we could under the circumstances. It’s a little hard sometimes to concentrate on one person when there are others also wanting your attention. We did our best.
If you’re reading this and were one of the wonderful people who stopped by our booth – Thanks for stopping in. I loved meeting everyone!
Some people stopped in to ask us questions about organizing in general. They questions were very interesting so I thought I’d put some of them here along with the answers.
- How do you go about helping a neighbor, friend, relative who I think is a packrat or hoarder?
- First of all, how thoughtful of you to think of helping this person! We, as professional organizers, do not ever just appear at someone’s house to help them get organized. You, as the friend, neighbor or relative can ask this person if they would like to meet with a professional organizer to get some objective help and advice. Then you can search for a professional organizer in your area who is qualified (experienced and trained) to work with someone challenged by over-collecting. Go to www.napo.net or www.challengingdisorganization.org to find qualified professional organizers.
- I’m really organized but my spouse is not. Please will you come over and figure out how to get my spouse to be more organized?
- Sure! If your spouse is open to meeting with us. In fact, organizing services for a spouse can be a great gift – if they are ready to get organized. You can purchase a gift certificate for organizing services for the holidays!
- What do you do – how do you go about get someone organized?
- I can only answer for myself. I work closely with my clients first to find out what the challenge is – what in the home is causing you to feel disorganized? Then, I present a few different organizing strategies and solutions to my client. Together we tweak the solution until it truly resonates with my client. He/she is the one who will be following this strategy so he needs to be willing to practice it until it becomes a habit.
I hope you found these questions and answers helpful.