What to Do With All That Stuff

Written By Mary Spiro

Forget the “I might need it someday” excuse…Get Organized!

Temperatures outside are the lowest of the year and you are stuck inside with all your stuff, suffering from cabin fever. Perhaps the feeling that the walls are closing in has less to do with not being able to go outside and more to do with the piles of stuff around you.

Americans have a lot of stuff. We shop for it, collect it, receive it, inherit it and even hunt for it at yard sales to make someone else’s trash our treasure. We are attached to our stuff emotionally and psychologically. The more stuff we own, the more time we need to manage it. And if time is money, your cluttered closet and junky garage is costing you a wad of cash. Most of us need help.

The National Association of Professional Organizers’ (NAPO) and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers’ (MAPO) Web sites contain directories of hundreds of professional organizers specializing in everything from closet design to estate sale planning. Along with the professionals are scores of desk arrangers, filing system gurus, office space consultants and purveyors of storage containers of all kinds (plastic to baskets) waiting to take your hand and guide you through every stage of reordering your belongings, for a fee. The goal of this industry is to help us make order out of chaos and enhance the quality of our lives.

There are myriad ways to sort, purge, organize, store and otherwise rid oneself of overwhelming stuff. Here you will discover quick and easy ways to prioritize your possessions – from your household clutter to your paper files. You will also learn where to find help when you need it, from a single closet redo to help in creating a whole new pattern of behavior. We even provided you with an extensive resource list to help you find just the right service to suit your particular situation.

Getting Started

Take on the task of organizing your stuff and you will quickly realize it is no small feat. “It took you years to accumulate all your stuff,” says Jo Israelson, a.k.a. Jo the Clutter Buster, of Union Bridge. “You won’t get everything accomplished in 48 hours like they do on television.” She advises to start small with one closet, one chest of drawers or one small room so that you don’t become overwhelmed and discouraged.

Next, take stock of your possessions. We won’t attempt to analyze how or where you ended up with all that stuff. You know where it came from, and you can even provide a reason for keeping it: “I might need it someday.”

“Items you Ômight’ need will fill up your home in no time and there is no Ôsomeday’ on your calendar,” said Tara Donohue of Organize It! and current president of MAPO.

With every organizing project, Tara recommends that you ask yourself three basic questions: When did I use it last? Do I love it? Where will it go? “If you can’t remember when you used (or wore) it last, if you don’t love it and if you have no room for it, it goes,” Tara said, “And don’t keep something just because you paid for it.”

Then, sort your items by what you plan to keep, toss, sell, or donate. Jo prefers donating to charity for the tax-deduction. “Donation is a much better use of your time than spending all day with a yard sale,” she said. If you do choose to sell, either through a yard sale or with an auction service, make sure that there is no chance items will find their way back into your home. Store the stuff elsewhere or put in the trunk of your car so that you can easily take it to the thrift shop.

Enlisting the help of an objective friend is useful when purging possessions. He or she won’t let you stroll down memory lane with each new item unearthed. At the end of such a purge, both Tara and Jo say that their clients are usually shocked by the amount they can do without, particularly with regard to clothing. “Most people only wear 20 percent of what they own.” Jo said.

Moving Ahead

After you have thoroughly purged your belongings, the phrase, “a place for everything and everything in its place” should now become your mantra. “If there is no space for things, things go everywhere,” said Jo.

“A row of hooks instead of a coat closet with hangers may be a more successful way you to store coats,” Jo said. If you’ve cleared out the kitchen, racks and drawer dividers may a better way to make sure that dishes are easily reached and put away. Think carefully about how you live and how you behave when choosing storage solutions or prefabricated closet systems, according to the organizers.

“Organization also involves retraining. A system must be put in place so that things will stay neat and organized,” Tara said. If you have pared down your shoe collection, don’t go out and buy five new pairs. If you have spent all weekend cleaning out your desk files, take the few extra moments a day that you need to file, trash or recycle new paper that comes in.

Paper clutter is among the most troubling issue, the organizers agreed. Taming a paper tiger takes discipline. Kid’s schoolwork, art, unpaid bills and junk mail will cover countertops and dining tables like kudzu.

Establishing a communication center with a calendar, mail bins and a simple filing system will help control the chaos. Jo recommends placing the communication center in an central location and using one reference folder for things like maps or vacation brochures and one folder for mail that requires immediate action. “Dead files” such as tax records and needed receipts should not be stored in active living areas, but elsewhere in the basement or attic. Important documents, such as car titles and home deeds, should not be stored at home but in a safety deposit box to protect them from theft and fire.

Keeping it Together

Ongoing maintenance is the only way for any organizational system to be successful. Setting up basic ground rules and enlisting the help of everyone involved will help you win the battle against entropy. Tara Donohue and Jo Israelson were emphatic in their advice to the newly de-cluttered: Don’t bring in more than you send out.
“Maintaining a neat home takes time and the more stuff you have the more time it takes,” Jo said. For some clients she imposes the “no new things for six months” rule, not including necessities like food or toilet paper. That means no new clothes, toys, sports gear – whatever – until you are the master of your newfound, de-cluttered space. Clients who follow this advice reach their goals faster and save money.

If shopping with your buddies was your favorite pre-purge hobby, just replace it with power walking the mall with your friends without your credit cards. If something new must come into the home, there must be a designated place for it. Recite your mantra. Shop all stores with a list.

When to Seek Help

If you have done everything in your power to conquer your clutter and are still under its dominance, it may be time to seek the assistance of professionals. “Anyone who is too embarrassed to have friends over for dinner or is dealing with a medical or psychological issue,” said Jo, “should get the help they deserve to improve their lives.”

A search for “professional organizer” on the Internet yields many possibilities, but one Web site stands out. OnlineOrganizing.com was founded by professional organizer Ramona Creel in 2000. Ramona wanted to establish a single online source where professional organizers, potential clients and vendors could network with one another. “The site grows bigger every year,” she said, “to accommodate the requests of its visitors.”

“It is not unusual for the site to have 50,000 hits in a month,” she said. “Visitors sign up for e-newsletters, post on the message boards, research organizers and seek training for a professional organizing career.”

It is important to note that no official certification process for professional organizers exists. That’s because, Ramona explained, the profession is so diverse. Her site, for example, lists no less than 20 different subspecialties within the practice. “It is difficult to identify all the common methods and philosophies professional organizers use,” she said. “But NAPO is working on developing a certification process and something could be in place by 2007.”

OnlineOrganizing.com lists professionals by location and specialty. When selecting a professional organizer, Tara believes taht you need to ask yourself a few basic questions:

First, does this person have experience with my situation?

A common theme with most of Jo’s stuff-challenged clients is change. “When people marry, divorce, relocate, downsize or experience the death of a spouse or parent, they undergo a great deal of change,” Jo said. With change, she explained, comes the realization that there is stuff to be dealt with. Some organizers keep portfolios of before and after photographs to give potential clients an idea of their level of expertise.

Second, can I work with this person?

The bigger the mess, the more it will take to contain it. Both Jo and Tara spend several hours interviewing their clients. One organizer may be a compassionate counselor who will walk you through the process in baby steps. Another may be like a drill sergeant. Only you know what will work for you. Trust is a necessary component of the relationship.

Last, how much will it cost? Cost varies greatly depending on experience,location and specialty. The range is from $20 to $175 an hour. “In New York City, they charge $1,500 to organize a desk,” Jo said. Clients should ask whether the cost includes onsite visits, labor and research, or design services off site? They should also consider materials and miles driven. Clients need to find out exactly what to expect for their money.

Achieving Harmony

Okay, you have de-cluttered, sorted, tossed out, and sold your stuff, but for some reason your rooms lack flow and just aren’t working. Patty Keener, owner of Sidetracked: Antiques and Design and Rooms to Go and her assistant, designer Jackie Stone, can help you put things right.

“We can help by arranging the furniture and redesigning the space so that it is functional and inviting,” Patty said.

Her skill comes from more than 22 years in the antiques business, where she had to go through the process every time new items were bought and sold in her store; an almost daily exercise. During a Rooms to Go evaluation, Patty and Jackie may spend as much as three hours working

with clients in their homes to create the right arrangement of furniture. They will also make suggestions about other design elements to add, such as framed pictures, to make the room reach its potential.

“Many times, everything we need is already there,” she said.

The Bottom Line: A Better Life

You may decide to purge and organize, or you may decide to store your many prizes possessions. But then you may ask yourself a deeper, more philosophical question: Do I possess my possessions or do they possess me?

“After de-cluttering you will begin to look at things differently and ask why you have such an attachment to them,” Tara said. “You will begin to think about things in terms of their use rather than their ownership,” Jo concurred.