THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260094
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY FLACHSENHAAR, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: Long : 216 lines
THEY CAN PRIORITIZE a pile of mail or compartmentalize a closet in the time it takes to say, ``Mess creates stress.''
With ease and authority, and often with joy, they alphabetize spice racks, album-ize photos and demilitarize desktops that resemble war zones.
They are the organizers.
There are the pros, like Florence Feldman of Virginia Beach, a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers. For 13 years, Feldman has resuscitated households and offices strangled by clutter. Her motto is, ``Clutter is postponed decisions.''
And there are the nonprofessionals.
Like Kathy Jublou of Norfolk, who relies on a system of bins, baskets, binders and buzzers to keep her household of four running smoothly. Her pride and joy is her personal organizer, a binder about the size of a purse, which contains, among many other things, phone numbers of the family's doctors and insurance companies.
``I don't go anywhere without it,'' she says.
David Anderson's pride and joy is his garage. A pilot for Federal Express who does woodworking in his spare time, Anderson cannot fall sleep at night unless each of his tools has been returned to its proper place on his garage pegboard, which is organized according to tool function.
``Some of this carries over from my days as a Navy pilot,'' explains Anderson, who lives in Virginia Beach. ``When one tool was missing, all planes were grounded.''
Americans are grounded by clutter.
This wasn't always so. Straightening the little house on the prairie was a quick job for the Ingalls family. They didn't have to hunt for the remote, plow through the junk mail or dust the Chia Pet collection.
The toxic byproduct of a nation that spends weekends at buying clubs and malls is clutter. The Great American Solution has been the creation of an industry - professional clutter counseling - and a line of products - CD towers, sliding baskets, shower caddies, aesthetically pleasing file cabinets, and so much more a cynic might label it ``clutter.''
Home storage is a $1.5-billion industry in this country, according to a November article in The Christian Science Monitor.
Hardware and discount department stores offer chic storage options aplenty, as does the San Francisco-based catalog ``holdeverything.'' In her book, ``Storage Made Easy'' (Reader's Digest Book, 1995), Candace Ord Manroe reassures us, ``Storage is slowly achieving the status of a fully accredited design issue.''
Shelves full of how-to books explain how to use in-and-out bins, under-the-bed boxes, over-the-stove racks. One recent day the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Virginia Beach Boulevard had in stock 18 titles on coping with clutter, among them, ``Clutter's Last Stand'' by Don Aslett (Writer's Digest Books, 1984) and ``File . . . Don't Pile!'' by Pat Dorff (St. Martin's Press, 1986).
For those whose mailboxes aren't already wheezing, there is ``The Get Organized! News,'' a monthly newsletter of tips out of Gotha, Florida. And every month, it seems, at least one magazine cover promises 10, 100 or 1,000 ways to get organized.
The membership of the 10-year-old National Association of Professional Organizers stands at just over 800, double what it was 2 1/2 years ago, according to the trade group's president, Paulette Ensign of Bedford Hills, N.Y. The biggest areas of growth for the professionals are home-based businesses and executives who work at home.
``My prediction is that we will have 2,500 members in the next couple of years,'' said Ensign, who switched careers from a string instrument instructor to a professional organizer 13 years ago.
``Used to be mostly homemakers and secretaries who came into the field,'' Ensign said. ``Now I see a wide range of previous professions - lawyers, oral surgeons, everything.''
And it used to be that clients who contacted clutter busters were almost always in the midst of a traumatic life change, such as death, divorce or a move across country. This is no longer the only type of customer seeking a professional.
Quite often the cry for help comes from an overwhelmed, overworked baby boomer-turning-50, who just wants to downsize, simplify or find out where-in-blazes-did-I-put-that-car-title?
``The baby boomers have a different lifestyle than their parents,'' explained Ensign. ``They have more resources but less time, and many are willing to purchase this special service.'' Most organizers charge by the hour, from $25 to $125 or more, depending on the part of the country and the size of the job.
List-makers by nature, the organizers, both professional and amateur, easily itemize the benefits of decluttering a household.
``My sons and I could never go on a spur-of-the-moment fishing trip if I didn't know where the gear was,'' said pilot Anderson.
``I'm organized because I'm basically lazy and I hate housework,'' Jublou said. Her 8- and 10-year-old sons are in charge of playroom cleanup based on a system their mother read about in a magazine. Toys are grouped by type in open plastic baskets. Each basket is decorated with a picture of the toy drawn by the boys.
Folks who tame their clutter are more productive, efficient, happier and less stressed than pack-rats, contend organizers. And often, instead of looking at piles of unmatched socks, the newly decluttered see dollar signs.
``When an organizer goes into a home, she usually finds money buried away somewhere - cash, a check, a certificate for one thing or another,'' Ensign said.
Barbara Hemphill, a past president of National Association of Professional Organizers and author of ``Taming the Paper Tiger'' (Kiplinger, 1992) and ``Taming the Office Tiger'' (Kiplinger, 1996), recalled a cash payoff that resulted from her household filing system.
``When my mother came to visit, she complained about the mattress she slept on,'' said Hemphill, whose organizing company is in Raleigh, N.C. ``Even though I'd bought the mattress five years earlier, I was able to pull the receipt from my files. The store pro-rated a reimbursement based on the guarantee, and gave me back $213.''
When the catalogs have been tossed and the pantry finally stands at attention and 12 of your 13 umbrellas have been donated to charity, a sense of peace should descend, say those who have been there. Not only will it be easier to find something to wear, it will be easier to move forward in reaching major life goals, say the pros.
``Less is always more,'' said organizer Feldman of Virginia Beach, who always goes gently into the clutter to see what Felix potential exists in the resident Oscar.
``I can't just go in and organize every type of client the same way,'' she said. ``The order has to be relevant to who you are. Your clutter can indicate you're a busy person, or that you have lots of interests, or that you have high tolerance to stimulation. My challenge is to find a style suited to each customer.''
In the recent flurry of media stories on the decluttering trend, some observers have suggested that we are our clutter. Yes, say the pros, in some cases, a cluttered environment can symbolize a cluttered attitude. But clutter doesn't always represent a life in disarray.
You are not necessarily your messy kitchen drawer.
``In the industry, we are professionals, not perfectionists,'' Ensign said. ``And guess what? Most of us even have one of those kitchen drawers.'' ILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTOS BY STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
ABOVE: Racks maximize space and keep dishes handy in the kitchen of
Florence Feldman's Virginia Beach home.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Toys and books for visiting children are
kept on a special ``children's shelf'' in Florence Feldman's home; a
shelving unit utilizes space at the top of Feldman's closet;
dividers keep items neatly organized in the bathroom cabinets.
Feldman, a professional organizer, tries to live by her motto:
``Clutter is postponed decisions.''
Photo
STEVE EARLEY/
The Virginian-Pilot
An organizer in the bedroom closet keeps Florence Feldman's shoes
and socks in order.
Graphics
TIPS TOWARD ORGANIZATION
The clutterbugs among us often crave the idea of an uncluttered
household. The mission just seems so impossible. Here are 10 tips
from the neatniks on how to get started:
1. Think small. That is the first piece of advice given by most
clutter counselors. Break the big jobs into small ones, and all
things become possible.
2. Every home needs a desk for household business. Organizer
Florence Feldman of Virginia Beach maintains that a desk ``almost
can't be too big.'' Hers measures 31-by-62 inches. Feldman's desk
chair is within easy reach of her files and frequently used
supplies.
3. Have a household filing system that works. It's a necessity,
says organizer Barbara Hemphill of Raleigh, N.C. For example, she
says: ``When I bought tickets for the Dec. 16 showing of Phantom of
the Opera in Norfolk, I slipped them into that date in what I call
my pending file. Then I marked the event on my calendar.''
4. Create a system for dealing with paper. ``Practice the art of
wastebasketry,'' Hemphill advises. ``There are four questions to ask
about every piece of paper: What is the worst thing that could
happen if I didn't keep this? Where do I keep it? How long should I
keep it? How can I find it?''
5. Be prepared to get rid of things. Keep a list of potential
recipients for the things you want to give away, and label a box
``Giveaways,'' Hemphill says. Letting go of belongings is easier if
you know someone else will use them. Homeless shelters often need
towels and bedding, preschools might take old magazines and cards
and organizations like Goodwill and Disabled American Veterans take
almost anything.
6. Create a book of ideas and dreams. Kathy Jublou of Norfolk
keeps hers on her kitchen counter, with sections on travel,
furniture, holidays, hairstyles, parenting and more. When she reads
a magazine article with useful information, she files it. ``A
wish-book like this reduces compulsive buying,'' Jublou says.
7. At your low-energy point in the day, do something mechanical
that doesn't require too much brain power. Paulette Ensign,
president of the National Association of Professional Organizers,
suggests tasks such as attacking that tangled kitchen drawer.
8. Make an appointment on your calendar to tackle a big job. For
things like a closet without hope, allow three or four hours to
work, including about half an hour for cleanup, so you don't leave a
greater mess behind, Feldman recommends.
9. Don't buy organizers like files and baskets until you know
what you'll be organizing. ``That's sort of like saying
ready-fire-aim,'' Feldman said.
10. Establish guidelines to evaluate your belongings. Feldman
asks: ``Is this useful, beautiful or meaningful to me?'' If not,
give it away or throw it away, fast.
FOR MORE HELP
The National Association of Professional Organizers helps you
find a professional organizer or become one. It's located at 1033 La
Posada Drive, Suite 220, Austin, Texas 78752-3880. Call (512)
206-0151.
Florence Feldman can be reached at Clearly Organized in Virginia
Beach. Phone 496-6920.
Barbara Hamphill can be reached at Hemphill & Associates Inc. in
Raleigh, N.C. Phone (919) 834-8510.
``The Get Organized! News'' monthly newsletter, P.O. Box 144,
Gotha, Fla. 34734.
by CNB