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Links and Resources for the Chronically Disorganized
Merlin Mann | May 6 2008
I’m still in a de-cluttering mode these days (more on that soon), so I was intrigued by this resource, which arrived this morning via Mrs. Folders. While primarily a trade group for “professional organizers,” the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization site has some handy documents and links to help with identifying and solving pathological problems with clutter and hoarding. If you can tolerate the site’s gruesome ardor for PDFs, you’ll find some informative and eye-opening stuff. From their fact sheets page:
I really liked some of the Tips for Overcoming Procrastination for the Chronically Disorganized Individual or Household (excerpted):
Good stuff. The Now Habit, anyone? POSTED IN:
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I love number 16 on the self-assessment
Did you feel deprived as a child, either emotionally or materially?
Because really, who didn't at some point?
Are we really quotes-worthy?
Hi Merlin,
I'm glad you enjoyed the info on the NSGCD website, PDF-ing aside. (Wish I had the power to change that, but alas, no.) The group is an invaluable resource for organizers and others working with the chronically disorganized, and it's also been a great way for people looking for help to find folks in their area who are qualified to lend a hand.
One small bone to pick, though: why put "professional organizers" in quotes? You're a grammatically savvy guy, so I'm guessing the quotes are intentional (and not, say, a mistaken attempt to add emphasis). And that's kind of a bummer, because it makes it seem like perhaps POs aren't quite something you take seriously.
As a Professional Organizer myself, I can tell you that while many people might choose (and be able) to tackle disorganization on their own, as you're doing with the influx of baby goods (more power to you!), for many others, that process can't and won't happen without help. That's where one of the Bay Area's 200+ (or one of North America's 4500+) POs come in.
For some, overcoming what can be a chaotic and detrimental level of disorganization can only happen with careful, considerate, professional help. POs offer this kind of help every day, and I encourage you to recognize us as quotes-unnecessary.
Thanks,
Emily
p.s.--For more information on Professional Organizing in general, check out NAPO (the National Association of Professional Organizers) at www.napo.net and POC (Professional Organizers in Canada) at www.organizersincanada.com.
decaying apples and rotting oranges
I put it in quotes because it’s a funny term to me.
People with hoarding problems aren’t disorganized; as stipulated, most of these folks have a form of OCD. So to me, helping OCD by dispatching a “professional organizer” is like calling someone with schizophrenia “confused,” and then sending them to a “confusion re-arranger.”
“Getting organized” can be a swell thing — but only once you’ve gotten rid of the mountains of crap that you’ve allowed to overrun your life.
And, to me, the bone to pick is with a culture that increasingly encourages us to think that a closet consultant and a trip to The Container Store is a valid substitute for a more profound realignment in thinking — about how we live, how we consume, and how we make our peace with deeply ingrained, emotional habits. That’s where my head is anyhow.
So, I’m sorry if you take exception with the quotes. I’m confident that this is a profession that provides lots of people with excellent value. But I still think it’s kind of funny. So, regrettably, the quotes stay. :-)
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
Quick point of clarification
Here are a few points I ask you to keep in mind.
Far and away the biggest and most important part of “getting organized” is in fact getting rid of those mountains of crap. That’s one of the first steps I take with every client, no matter the situation. Another big part is helping people reconsider their relationships to stuff, and encouraging them to allow into their lives only things (and people, and events) that are truly meaningful to them in some way. About 90% of the work I do revolves around this reducing and reconsidering.
Second, the ranks of the NSGCD include not only organizers, but also mental health professionals, social workers, and others whose input and expertise are critical to the treatment of chronic disorganization, especially in cases of hoarding and severe cluttering. Professional organizers who work with these clients aren’t just going in and making pretty piles; in many cases, we’re collaborating with the client, his/her mental health provider, and related social service agencies. This work is so much more complex than “rearranging.”
Finally, many people (and you may or may not include yourself in this group) build their perceptions of Professional Organizers based on what they’ve seen on TV or read in a magazine. That image is an incomplete one at best. The vast, vast majority of organizers are no more focused on finding pretty homes for clients’ piles of stuff without a serious and dedicated commitment to helping people reconsider why they’re holding on to so many things and how those things impact their lives than productivity consultants are focused on helping their clients find the right calendar, PDA, or piece of time management software without doing anything at all to look at the nature of those clients’ relationships to time and tasks.
The “more profound realignment in thinking” that you mention above is and has been happening in the world of Professional Organizing for many years now. I invite you, in a sincere and snark-free way, to learn more about what we really do and how, in ways both obvious and surprising, it aligns with what you do.
Habits, not gadgets
You might be amazed to learn how many professional organizers are fans of 43folders. I have been one for ages, which is why I feel shocked and stung by your mash-up of misconceptions on this subject!
A professional organizer is someone who transfers organizing skills to a client. After the client has identified a goal, the first and most important organizing skill is learning to get rid of the unnecessary. The first skill plus one is learning to turn off the tap, so that useless junk doesn’t come into the person’s life in the first place. You and all of professional organizing are in agreement on the need for a profound realignment in thinking.
Not all organizers work with the chronically disorganized (some of whom are hoarders, some of whom have OCD) and not all work with closets. But the principle of improving lives by transferring organizing skills spans all the various specialties.
As a professional organizer who specializes in helping business owners and work teams to organize their time, paper and projects, I don’t see many closets. I do sometimes see in-boxes clogged with 6,000 messages, schedules larded with useless activities, and drawers crammed with ancient papers. More often I see pretty organized and effective people who want to get even more organized, because they value the ways in which improved organization can help them achieve their most important goals in work and in life.
I admit I personally geek out at the Container Store, but I seldom send a client there, because organization doesn’t come in a box. It’s about habits, not gadgets.
Praise For Personal Organizers!
As a super satisfied client of a personal organizer I want to put in my two cents here. These folks provide an invaluable service to those of us who have a hell of a time getting our act together. My personal organizer set me up with a system that works for me and she checks in at random times to see how I’m progressing. Personal Organizers deserve capital letters, bold face type and exclamation points, not air quotes. Thanks!
PO's for everyone
I like to save a thing or two (OK I have a lot of junk- but I’m not a hoarder, I swear) BUT I have a very god friend who is a professional organizer and she not only helped me get my life in tip top shape but she also helped my mom- who IS a little OCD -get her life cleaned up (and once the house was organized- so was the mind… I’m just sayin’)
I'm not making this up.
I swear I just returned to this post to ask what a professional organizer was.
And lo, the question was answered.
wow.
thank you emily for helping clear up this “silly” misconception that merlin has. we are absolutely NOT “closet consultant[s] and [i have never thought once that] a trip to The Container Store is a valid substitute for a more profound realignment in thinking.”
beth zeigler professional organizer
i do love a good apple
Woah. Mr. Mann. I thought we were in this together. I’ve been a silent admirer of 43 Folders and will certainly continue to visit your site, but as a Professional Organizer, I’m just a little shocked that you aren’t more informed about what we ACTUALLY do. Emily pretty much said it all, so I piggy-back on her comments. Perhaps it’s just the term “professional organizer” that gives people the wrong idea? You wrote: “the bone to pick is with a culture that increasingly encourages us to think that a closet consultant and a trip to The Container Store is a valid substitute for a more profound realignment in thinking — about how we live, how we consume, and how we make our peace with deeply ingrained, emotional habits.” I’m pickin’ on that same bone, Merlin. It’s like you’ve just written copy for my business model (and most of my colleagues’). Sure, we love The Container Store, but if a trip there is necessary at all when working with clients, it’s the very last stop on the organizing train. Be well. Thanks for the forum.
Fay Wolf NEW ORDER Professional Organizing, Los Angeles
Good occupation, bad title
I totally agree that the title "professional organizer" woefully inadequate. Like Merlin, I thought it was a funny term the first time I heard it. And I certainly had no idea that it was an official title that is earned through training, testing and real world work experience.
"It's not about the stuff" -- Peter Walsh, NAPO 2008 Keynote
Peter Walsh of Clean Sweep said it ever so simply, reiterating the way most Professional Organizers approach organizing challenges (space, time, paper, whatever).
It’s not about the stuff. It’s never about the stuff. It’s about our relationship with the stuff and the mental clutter.
Thanks for bringing up these important nuances about our profession so more people can learn we’re not just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.
— Allison
I concur.....
Merlin-
Love your wisdom and your website….but I agree with the above comments that your devaluation of professional organizers seems fairly uninformed. Maybe you should oversee one of their sessions…and you’ll probably witness how comprehensive, informative and helpful they really are. And realigning their clients’ modes of thinking and organizing is a huge part of what they do. I’m speaking as someone who had his first session a month ago, and I’m still feeling the benefits!
Otherwise…thanks for all your continually helpful info….
Re: Links and Resources for the Chronically Disorganized
"Delay until you have enough information but not all the information. Have the courage to make decisions with less than 80% of the facts."
Where do I go to have this tattooed on the inside of my eyelids?
Ditto
That is a great quote. When you find out where to get the eyelid tattoo done, let me know so I can pass on the info to my dad.
Re: Links and Resources for the Chronically Disorganized
Speaking from personal experience, I can say with great confidence that professional organizers have improved my life dramatically! No need to belittle them with quotes.
drowning in paper
I note that Merlin’s concern about this is seconded by at least one of the POs commenting in here but it do find it slightly amusing that a site which is supported by people who see the first aim as ‘turning off the tap’ of cr@p coming into their world chooses to supply their info in the printer orientated PDF format.
I can see the piles of printed out fact sheets etc being added on top of the mountain as a substitute for actually clearing a path.
While mostly simply (very slightly) amusing (perhaps only to small minds) it is one of those times when we do need to ‘walk that talk’ and have this stuff designed for online use with admonishments AGAINST printing unless there is an extremely good reason. (99% clutter prevention - 1% reduced resource use)
I hope this comment might be of some use to Emily in her efforts to have the NSGCD site changed to better demonstrate the habits its ‘owners’ intend to promote. It is made with good intentions.
A good site which could be the foundation on which to build a great site!
Peace all. Jan
Pot v. Kettle
Merlin, I’m a long time fan of your work and it’ll take more than a pair of quotes for you to shake me, but I do have to weigh in here. I’ve had the great fortune to work with a Professional Organizer. She’s taught me to put into practice so many of the concepts I’ve read on 43F but was too overwhelmed to act on alone. She and her PO cronies are most definitely on your team, whether you knew it or not. Clearly the quotes are not the issue here, but the respect/knowledge deficit they’ve uncovered.
I’m not OCD. I may be ADD, and I’m certainly down with OPP, but I think it’s hilarious to see Professional Organizers have their job titles laughed at by a Personal Productivity Guru / Life Hacker (respectfully written sans quotation)!
If you were an Organizational Psychologist or a Corporate Training Specialist, I wouldn’t care enough to comment. But us alternatively titled professionals have to stick together, or how will we ever survive our battle against the Regional Vice Presidents of Administrative Blah Blah Blah? Surely you know the day of reckoning is near, and I certainly want to be on the side of any dude named Merlin.
Closet Consultant - what you wrote is not what I read
I was wondering when the consultant would come out of the closet, then I realized my context was off.
[no offense intended to anyone either in or out of closets]
Professional Organizers
Hi Merlin! Love your site…also LOVE my professional organizers. At two different times in my life professional organizers helped me get my life where it needed to be. They were both insightful, capable, creative and useful in ways that just reading your site and making my own piles of To Do, To Throw Out, etc., just didn’t manage. There is something really powerful about having someone sit with you at your dining room table and, without any judgment or emotion, hold things up and say, “keep or not?” I also learned so much from the professionals I worked with and used those lessons over and over. It’s not easy to keep on top of the clutter — the women who helped me made a huge difference in my life. They should be proud and you should bow down to them! thanks, mm
Good use of time!
I would of thought that you could all make better use of your time than debating at length the use of quotation marks :-)
I think both sides are right...
Not that it matters to anyone, but I’m going to have to side with both on this one. While I agree with Merlin that calling the doctor to fix the fact that I feel sick after gorging myself is badly missing the real issue, I also know that if a professional organizer can help someone with “re-aligning their beliefs about keeping stuff”, than it’s a good call to make.
It all depends on what they do. If a pro/org only takes crap out and makes it look neat, than you’re basically a maid for hire. However, if you help people address the fear that’s at the root of hanging on to every last piece of paper they come across, than it’s a service that puts you in the realm of Tony Robbins.
Just my “$.02”
I have this image of...
…poor Merlin staring dumbfounded at his monitor as this thread pans out.
Powder keg / storm / teapot [insert your own cliche here]
But wow. This is the most amusing comment stream that I’ve seen for a while - surprised offense from an entire profession that I never even new existed (and I mean no offense by that - I’m just ill informed), initiated because of the use of mere punctuation. (Who ever said that the subtlety of letter writing was dead?)
Nonetheless, people, let’s try not to take ourselves too seriously.
“djol”