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Please Organize my Life – Part 1

from North Hills Monthly Magazine

By Hilary Danninhirsch

They must have had spies. Perhaps a web-cam? How else did the editor of this magazine know to choose me for this awesome assignment?

Did she see my office desk, with piles of unrelated papers stretching endlessly toward the ceiling?

Did she see the books waiting to be reviewed, stacked haphazardly under said desk?

Did she see my daughter’s art table, smack in the center of my office, with future masterpieces overflowing the sides and dripping down to the floor?

In all fairness, I have two little girls. Clutter comes with the territory. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

But forgetting fairness for now and just applying honesty, I am not a very organized person. Oh, in my head, I am nothing but organized. I don’t need a calendar to tell me where I have to be. I can recite an entire summer’s worth of play dates, camp and vacation schedules with precision that would rival anyone’s Palm Pilot. But give me tangible items such as school papers, notebooks, Sunday school registration forms, and I am at a loss.

Maybe my absence of organizational skills dates back to childhood. When faced with a flaw, blame your mother. My mother has always been the opposite of a pack rat. “Are you done with the Sunday paper?” she’d ask at 9:00 on a Sunday morning, gently extricating the comics from my hands and placing it into the garbage can before I’d had a chance to see what Nancy and Sluggo were up to that day.

The last thing I did in my own home that remotely approached “organized” was when I came up with the brilliant idea to put my daughters’ entire collection of Barbie accessories into a plastic baggie so they wouldn’t get lost in the larger plastic bin containing the dolls and their clothes. I was very proud of the baggie idea. (Postscript – the baggie system lasted for approximately two days; once again, there are Barbie shoes infiltrating all the crevices in the playroom.)

My husband has tried for the last nine years to declutter our lives – he saves and files bills and receipts dating back to the 1860’s. Even so, his battle to turn our office into the orderly Eden of his dreams has been an uphill one.

Enter Jodi Eisner, savior, and owner of Method to the Madness, a North Hills based professional organizing service.

When Jodi walked into my house that comfortable July evening, I steered her directly toward the office. While there were certainly other areas of the house that could have used the services of a professional organizer (recall the failed baggie experiment of the playroom) I wanted the office to feel, well, office-like. Before we renovated our house last summer, the room that I call the office was the dining room. It still has floral wallpaper and does not look much like an office (though we did manage to replace the chandelier), but at least I now have office space. Now if I can only make it feel like one.

Jodi explained at the outset that her role as an organizer was not to make sure my house stayed neat and tidy (darn!) but to help me create a system where I could maintain some semblance of order and to use my space more efficiently. In fact, she said her philosophy is to keep things as simple as possible for her clients.

When she asked me what I wanted out of my office, I said, “A sanctuary, where I can work in silence and in uncluttered surroundings.” Well, currently there are no doors on my office, so there goes the silence delusion, but if I can at least rearrange my surroundings so that I know where everything is at all times, I will be happy.

Jodi, who has a Master’s in Social Work, said that part of her job is changing behavior. She assured me that organization is not about being rigid.

Jodi said that for her clients, she creates “activity zones” where everything has a home. This is especially important to me. For example, I am truly confused as to what to do when my older daughter brings home random papers from school. How long do I keep them, and where do they go until they are ready to be thrown away? What about all of the artwork my children create on a daily basis? Am I a terrible mother if I toss it in the recycling bin moments after it was painstakingly created? Am I creating a fire hazard if I don’t?

Jodi promised to return in a few weeks to help me get organized. She said that most clients have the greatest chance for success when they allow the professional organizer to come into their lives and help them get started so they don’t feel overwhelmed. (I’m all for that.)

In the meantime, she gave me a very simple shopping list: hanging file folders, manila folders, and several plastic bins. She also eyed an unused corner of the office, just beneath a bulletin board, where we currently pile our newspapers for recycling. Could there perhaps be a more effective use of that space?

One thing I know about “stuff” is that it never stops coming, and I need to do something about it before it overtakes my life!

I will keep you posted as to what we accomplish.

Please … Organize My Life – Part 2

from North Hills Monthly Magazine

By Hilary Daninhirsch

When the day arrived, I admit I was dreading it. Maybe there will be an early snowstorm and I can delay everything. This is so against my nature – how can spending the afternoon organizing my office be enjoyable?

Earlier in the summer, Jodi Eisner, a professional organizer and owner of Method to the Madness, came over to give me advice about how I should reorganize my office so that it didn’t take over my life. She marched in confidently, her head swirling with ideas. I tried to make an invisibility potion ala Harry Potter, but she immediately spotted me hiding behind a stack of books. Without delay (despite my best attempts), we got started.

The first thing we did was to remove my daughters’ art desk from the office. My budding artists tends to create at our dinette table anyway, and the only purpose for the desk was to collect piles of artwork, coloring books and other art supplies. In an instant the office looked bigger.

I handed Jodi the file folders that she suggested I buy during her last visit, and we promptly got to work. First, she made me retrieve a large green garbage bag so that we could go through my stacks of paperwork and clean house, literally.

After we purged the contents of my office, Jodi helped me create a filing system. All it took were two file folders, one for my “stuff” and the other for “school.”

Jodi suggested I set aside an hour or so one afternoon per week to go through papers. This idea makes sense, though its obviousness had escaped me for years. I think this will help me immensely, given that my older daughter, now a first-grader, brings home numerous papers from school.

The filing method, Jodi explained, has built-in flexibility. “This idea with the system is not for new items to come in and you have to make them fit into your existing system, but that you can add to the system.”

So, what do I do when a new paper finds its way into my house and I don’t have a folder for it? Create a new folder, of course. As Jodi explained, “It’s a living, breathing system that changes as your needs change.”

Most of what Jodi pointed out to me should have seemed obvious, but it had never occurred to me that there could be a system where everything has a place other than in a stack on the corner of my desk.

One of the most important aspects of my new filing system is the creation of an “action” folder. Rather than filing this away, the action folder sits on my desk and must be dealt with on a daily basis. Some items that go in the action folder would be permission slips, party invitations, or anything that I need to take care of sooner rather than later. This forces me to keep things flowing in and out of the office.

The very next day, I had an opportunity to see if I could actually use my system. We received some information from my daughter’s elementary school. Rather than magnetize it to my refrigerator or toss it carelessly on my desk, I actually opened my brand new filing system and filed it under the category, “Natalie: First Grade.” Simple as that!

I also had placed her birthday party invitations in my “action” folder and lo and behold, I retrieved them and they got out the door and in the mailbox in a timely fashion.

The biggest issue I face is what to do with my daughters’ artwork. Even Jessica, my four-year old, has become a regular Renoir over the past several months. The two of them present me with beautiful pictures (using a variety of mixed media, of course) on an almost daily basis. This is in addition to the art projects they bring home from first grade and preschool. Although I treasure each creation, there are only so many I can keep in the house before the fire marshals are called in to investigate. Plus, the girls have discovered their pictures in the recycling pile one too many times.

Although we did not set it up yet, Jodi suggested that my husband Mike and I create a revolving “Wall of Fame.” Akin to a rotating art gallery, we plan to find a space in the house where artwork can hang proudly, but only for a limited time period. Then, the pictures are disposed of and new artwork will go up. The secret is to have the children get involved in choosing which pieces are displayed. We also have a storage bin where special pictures can be kept on a long-term basis.

The flexible system Jodi created for me is truly something I can live with. It’s not going to change me into Miss Efficiency overnight, but I am now less likely to lose important school forms or other important papers.

We still have grand plans for the office: my husband built me a new desk, and eventually, we are going to replace the floral wallpaper with a rich paint color and we will replace the carpeting.

Could Jodi have changed my life with a few seemingly simple ideas in four short hours? I hope so, though I wonder if she makes follow up visits.

Getting Organized:

A Place for Everything, and Everything in its Place

from North Hills Monthly Magazine

By Beth Buchwach

Well-organized people can find anything in their house in 30 seconds or less. For the rest of us, there are New Year’s resolutions. Although no one is born with a messy gene, the tendency to defer decisions eventually results in mental, physical and calendar clutter.

“We’ve bought the myth that we have to do it all,” says holistic organizing consultant Carol Briney, “and this only makes us feel worse.”

Our ancestors prided themselves on knowing how to prepare for and survive lean times, but as our standard of living skyrockets, Carol notes, “Nobody taught us how to live with too much. This is America – you’re allowed to have stuff. The real question is, how do you feel when you walk into your house? Everything in your house should bring you joy, not stress. If something’s stressing you, it needs to go.”

Carol frequently sees frazzled moms, pampered kids and well-meaning dads who stop trying when they can’t live up to their wives’ unrealistic standards. “Kids and family members will do what you expect them to do if you make it simple and fun,” she says, adding that she taught her toddler grandson how to tidy up by taping digital photos of his toys onto low tubs.

Professional organizer Jodi Eisner says that the kindergarten classroom is an inspirational model for organizing any space” Everything has a place, is easily identifiable and is within reach.

Jodi asks her clients to answer these key questions: What causes me the most stress when I walk into my home – piles, confusion, meal planning, scheduling” How can I simplify these parts of my life? How do I want the different spaces in my home to function?

“Sometimes people aren’t aware of everything that they’re actually doing in each part of the house,” says Jodi. “The kitchen, for example, is usually the hub of the home. It’s not just for cooking. It should be set up to function in a way that fits your lifestyle.”

Typically, we spend ninety percent of our waking hours on repetitive “maintenance” tasks. When clutter constantly interferes with daily routines, Jodi says that means we’re stressed at least 90 percent of the time. We also use only 20 percent of our possessions, either because we don’t really need them or we can’t easily locate the other 80 percent.

“Clutter is when you don’t know what you have,” says Carol. Clutter costs us time, money and even affection. Couples argue about clutter and stop inviting friends to their home because it has become an embarrassment.

If clutter has taken its toll on you, and you’re ready to fight back, Carol and Jodi offer these basic tips for getting started:

• Start in the most troublesome space, and don’t go in there alone. Enlist a friend or hire an organizing professional for moral support and to keep you honest.

• When you’ve zeroed in on your target space, empty it. Don’t invest in storage containers until you see the bare space and decide what should go back into it.

• Pile, stack or shovel everything together and then analyze. It’ll look like a lot of junk, and this will allow you to assess the merits of each piece more objectively.

• Don’t think about what you spent or saved on any item. If it’s still in the bag or you never use it, that bargain was a mistake.

• Sort the items into three categories: keep, discard and donate. Funnel all donations to one place, if possible. Freecycle websites are an alternative to time-consuming yard sales. To learn more about freecycling, visit www.freecycle.org.

• Keep only what you use, have a purpose for or enjoy. There are no “right answers” about what to keep, but unless you live in a castle, you must make choices that will facilitate the wise use of the space you have. If you can’t part with your books, for example, you might choose to lose your tschotkes. You decide what means the most to you. Limit memorabilia to a few select treasures.

• If you use an item daily, it should be at your fingertips. Other items should go into deep, deeper and deepest storage, depending on frequency of use and available space.

• Consider off-site storage only if you literally have no room for an item with a real purpose.

• Display, honor and enjoy your collectibles; don’t pack them away.

If you backslide after your initial effort, take heart! Getting organized is a process, not an event. You’ll find that regularly-scheduled maintenance gets easier.

As an added inspiration, Carol’s clients create one “sacred space” in their homes. “Nothing goes there ever, except one thing that you honor and love,” she says. “When you look at that space, you’ll feel calmed and centered and you know that the rest of your house can look like that, too.”

Pittsburgh Professional Organizers (www.napopittsburgh.org) and area Curves locations have declared January “Get Organized Month.” Get details from your local Curves, where you can attend presentations about getting organized and might even win an organizing makeover.

Carol Briney can be reached at Universal Order, (412) 781-8773 and www.universalor.com.

Contact Jodi Eisner at Method to the Madness, (412) 367-9225 and www.method2themadness.com.