The 12 Step Program for the Surface Abuser

I love this desk, family work center. But what a desk CAN look like

The 12 Step Program for the Surface Abuser.

1) Admit that you have a problem.

2) Ask for help with your Surface Abuse problem. (Professional organizers are everywhere!)

3) Remove ALL surfaces in your home.  (Only kidding!)

4) Realize that this will take on going maintenance to maintain.

5) Visualize what you would LIKE this space to look like.

6) Start the process with one surface.

7) Get a black trash bag for trash and a White trash bag for donate.

8) Begin the Sorting process. Clear everything off your counter and clean it first.

9) Realize that clearing your counter will lead to some organizing in other areas of your house. (this is a Good thing)

10) Decide what to do with all the papers and clutter.

11) Plan daily to clear  off anything that might have accumulated in this “hot spot” zone and place it in the folders or cubbies you created.

12) Be sure to take before and after pictures so help remind yourself how you want to keep your new clear counter.

Disclosure: The above picture is not from my home (I WISH!) It was from a Parade of Homes model that boasted like the best family organizing center ever!!  But you can find these products at The Pottery Barn.

Five Simple Steps to Help Organize Your Christmas Morning Craziness

Paper everywhere….boxes with pieces and parts laying half opened…dog’s wearing bows that got stuck to their fur? Sound like a typical Christmas morning at your house?
So how many Christmas days have you NOT had to try and find something in the trash that probably got thrown out?
Either that card with money from Aunt Ethel or the back of the new toy that Jimmy got. You KNOW it here somewhere but, now it is gone.

There are a few things that might help you cut down on some of the craziness Christmas morning.

1) Get several black trash bags. Station them around the room so that everyone has access to one for their trash. Immediately after opening their gift, have them throw just the paper away.

2) Have one place each person places their opened gifts near them.

3) If you know that your family members are getting gift cards or cash, then have a large colored envelop that they can place their gift cards or money in that has their name on it. You can pass those out after they receive their first one.

4) Have one central bag if you keep the ribbons and bows to recycle. The kids can have fun tossing the bows your way.

5) You can also use white trash bags and have them out in case someone wants to open a new toy that has many pieces and parts. They can put the extra pieces in the bag if the box gets torn apart too much to use. Then make sure that all trash throwing adults KNOW that white trash bags DO NOT go in the trash.

Try these methods and see if your Christmas morning can go a little smoother with clean up being much quicker.

Unpacking the Christmas decorations – Scary or not?

Does your decorations look anything like this?  So many things, just a mess!   It makes you think …..”It is just too much to get out and put away, I don’t really need to decorate.”  Those are the years that you may either have too much clutter, too many commitments going on or you know what a mess it was last year when you put it away and you don’t want to open that box!

Just like you can have too much clutter in the rest of your house – you have have clutter in your decoration supplies too.

Think about it:
Do all your lights work?
Do you use everything that is packed up?
Are there things each year that you don’t really want to put up anymore?
Do you have broken or ragged looking ornaments or decorations that you just can’t throw out?

The solution is simple (but not so easy) You need to sort through and declutter your holiday decorations.
Follow the same steps for any sorting. As you unpack your supplies evaluate (quickly) each item.

1) Keep – You love it, you use and decorate with it, it works and is not broken
2) Donate - It works and looks good, you just don’t like it, or can’t use it now.
3) Pitch – It’s broken or not fit to donate. (recycle if possible)

Remember, if there is something you haven’t used or can’t use….why keep it in a box all the time?  That isn’t honoring the memory. You can take a picture of it to have, then give that space it takes up to one of your other decorations.

Hoarders

Hoarding….What is it all About?

Did any of you watch the new show on A&E (Mondays at 10pm est).  It is called appropriately enough…”Hoarders”.
It gives the real life picture of what a hoarding house looks like….the thought process that the hoarders go through and their reasoning in why they “need” to keep their “stuff” and how they get rid of it…or do not get rid of it.  This is real life (from what I can tell) and shows the real emotions of these people. They get very anxious when people try to throw their things away if they have not made the decision themselves.

Hoarding. This is an Emotional Problem

This is an emotional problem.  There needs to be a psych. Dr. involved and helping to treat the person for the changes to stay in effect.

The picture above is a garage.  If you will notice that the boxes almost touch the garage door hardware on the ceiling….yes that is the ceiling! This is a woman I worked with last year. She is a hoarder…and knows it. She has books on organizing and is determined to get out of the mess she is in.  She has a very limited budget ….a disabled husband, and no real help.  She wants to move into a 600 sq ft house that her son (deceased) used to live in. Her house is a 4 bedroom home with basement and garage full. It would be cool for her to be on a show like that and get the physical help she needs.

But I love hearing what these people are saying….because I feel like I have heard most of it out of the mouth of my client.  They have a reason for each thing they have and have a hard time giving it up.

Hoarding is a serious emotional issue…it is not just lazy people.  Would love for you to see the Chaotic Kitten of Dehoarding Diary.  She is a hoarder who is decluttering her house and blogging on it. She has before and after photos. Love her and so proud of her.

You also might be interested in these pasts posts of mine:

What if I’m a Hoarder? What do I do?

Hoarding

Dehoarding Diary Works it Out

Office Make Over

Office Before and After

The dreaded “before” pictures of an office.

Then looking the other direction in this room you finally see the desk.

This client is a home builder and his business took off so fast several years ago that when he took over a bedroom in their home, they did not have time to clean it out first. Things just kept accumulating. He brought in pieces from a home (2 pantries and kitchen counter unit) thinking it would help him…but there was no organization in their use.

The AFTER Pictures:

This is the same space as in the very top photo. We took out all the kitchen counters and pantries. He still was going to frame the photos of the houses he built, he just put them up for an idea.
They painted the room once we got it cleared out. Looks wonderful.

This client built the table that sides up to his desk. He needed something to lay out house plans and be able to bring clients up to the other side to go over them with him. He had to use his dining room table before because he wouldn’t take anyone up to his office.

He wanted something for his house plans. He wanted to be able to lay out the house plans and not have them rolled up for the ones he was working on presently. This was kind of an unconventional use of these cubby units, but the actual house plan units were very expensive. I gave him the options and he loves this plan.

We also used the closet for storage. He needed house plans archived. We came up with the inexpensive idea to stack these boxes on top of one another to make up an economical solution to that problem.

Would love to see your “before” and “after” pictures of your offices.
Having problems with it? I am doing my live show tonight on office organization.

Hoarding

Are You A Hoarder?

Hoarding is more than just a messy house. It is a real psychological problem. There are usually a few things that help define hoarding.

1) Buying or picking up free items and refusal to part with them or even move them. Many times they are of useless or have limited value and usually aren’t being used for what they are intended.
2)The person’s home is so cluttered that you can use the spaces as they are intended.
3) significant limitations in functioning and distress over their situation they are in because of the hoarding.

I recently saw a show on TV called “How Clean is Your House”. They had a contest looking for the messiest house. Most of the pictures if not all of the pictures they showed for contestants were that of hoarders. Not one time during the show (unless I missed it) did they mention hoarding. The “winners” of the contest were a mother and her two daughters that had a terrible hoarding problem. The entire house was packed full of junk. The mother was the worse and they showed many times her refusal to part with something and her stress over the situation. I am hoping that they also got them all some counseling along with their new house make over so that they will not fall back into their same patterns,but they never mentioned anything like that. It was very disturbing to me that they never mentioned hoarding on the show at all or talked about these people needing some real treatment.

Treatment

Treatment is key to making a change for these people. Counseling should be for sure and many times medication is also used in therapy. That along with help from a professional organizer can make dramatic changes in a hoarders life.
Hoarders want to change (most of the time)and many times try on their own and fail and then they fall into deeper depressions and give up even more and their situations can become life threatening.
When we work with clients who are hoarders we need to assess to what level their hoarding is. Is there a place to sit in their house? Are there pathways in the rooms to get to things? Are doorways blocked? Are there pets in the house and if there is, is there animal urine and feces? (Many times animals can’t get to a door to be let out)

Hoarding is a very big problem and should not be looked at as just a “messy house”.
If you think you are a hoarder you can go to this web site and look at the “clutter hoarding scale” and evaluate yourself. www.nsgcd.org (National Study Group for Chronic Disorganization)
Just as there is help for other problems, there is help for hoarders and they should be no means ever feel like their situation is hopeless.

Disclosure: I am not an expert on hoarding, nor do I claim to be. Please follow up with the NSGCD if you feel you have a problem or know someone who does.