Hoarding on the local news
The Fox News affiliate here in St. Louis, KTVI Channel 2, aired a story two nights ago about hoarding and chronic disorganization. I was interviewed for the piece, along with one of my chronically disorganized clients, LuAnn, who was brave and generous enough to let the cameras into her home in an effort to help others.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, hoarding, television
Standards of clutter
Since I specialize in working with chronically disorganized people, I’ve seen a lot of clutter. I’ve worked in homes so full of stuff they were inhabitable (literally).
But I’ve also been hired to do consultations for people for whom there was no visible clutter, at least at first glance. Yet those folks made the effort to schedule an appointment and paid me to advise them on how to deal with stuff that was bothering them. To my eye, it was small, easily addressable stuff. But to them it was a problem. (I always have to remind myself never to trivialize someone’s problem.)
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, disorder, napo st. louis, order, perfectionism, unclutterer
Some great resources on hoarding
I’m back from Los Angeles, where I earned my Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization® credential from the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization — more on the significance of that in a post later this week. As usual after a trip, I’m struggling to get back into the swing of my routines. (I’m happy to report that I have managed to clear my desk each evening.)
Filed under: Resources || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, geralin thomas, hoarders, hoarding, yvonne trostli
Take the poll: Emotional barriers to decluttering
On Friday, I posted about emotional barriers to getting organized. Jim Dietzel from Rubbermaid’s blog suggested in a comment that I do a poll on the various emotional blocks folks have when it comes to decluttering.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, decluttering, emotions, fear, obstacles
Emotional barriers to getting organized
Earlier this week, I wrote about unhelpful beliefs that can stop you from being able to let go of stuff. Today I want to talk about emotional barriers that can come up when you’re trying to get organized (or even just thinking about it).
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, decluttering, emotions, fear, obstacles
Question your beliefs
Most of the people I work with are dealing with clutter. As we work through the stuff and I help the client make decisions about whether to keep items, I’m often amazed at the different ways people feel about letting stuff go.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, david tolin, decluttering, disorganization resources, hoarders, hoarding, obstacles, perfectionism
Organizing and the creative person
I work with a lot of chronically disorganized clients and many of them are creative people.
Creative people have a lot going for them. They tend to be fun, full of life, and see the possibility in everything. When it comes to organization, however, they often have a few strikes against them:
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, creative people, hiring a po
Book recommendation: It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys
I just finished reading and analyzing a great book, It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys: The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, marilyn paul, nsgcd
Sometimes you can't do it alone
Organizing is an activity that many people find difficult to do on their own. In the study of chronic disorganization, it is recognized that a chronically disorganized client needs to work with others. It’s called “social organizing.” Indeed, some clients simply can’t go through the process of sorting and weeding and organizing if they’re by themselves.
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: body doubling, chronic disorganization, focus, judith kolberg, social organizing
