Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Meeting MN organizers-and my favorite organizing tool!

I want to become a professional organizer. Well, not really, that sounds so rigid, sterile and Non-Fun to me. I want to be a decluttering consultant--I want to help people declutter their homes. I have experience doing this and have a BLAST when I do it. The thing is, the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) is an industry and association that is recognized, recognizeable and reputable. So this may be the angle I take to get where I want to be.


I went to my first Minnesota NAPO chapter meeting this Monday. It's National Get Organized month, if you didn't know. This meeting was, hmmm. Interesting. That's a good non-committal "Minnesota nice" type of description. It was good in some ways and sort of a let down in others. Definitely more good than bad.


I do have to report--at this meeting, due to it being National Get Organized month, different organizers were showcasing some of their favorite organizing tools (boxes, bins, racks, etc.) I already know what I would promo if I were to do a demo next year.

My favorite organizing tool comes in all sorts of colors, shapes, sizes and materials. It is sometimes called a "circular file". Yep--the good ol' garbage can is my favorite organizer. Why? Because I need to 'Let Go' of a lot of stuff before I can even think about organizing it. I think a lot of people can stand to let go of a portion of their things prior to organizing. (You can also add recycle bins and paper shredders to my top 3 pick of organizing tools.)


Before I was married, once I cleared the crap out of my apartment and just sat with the space, (the lovely, free, energizing gloriously empty space) ideas came to me of how I could organize what remained.


So forgive me. I know that's a cool box, gadget and doodad, but I will still work on letting go of what needs to be gone before I start organizing it. Here's to a Decluttered 2010!

1 comment:

Julie said...

Awesome! I looked into becoming a professional organizer about a year ago. I attended a class on it because it is SO me. However, the amount of time running a business is more than the amount of time actually helping people get organized. Therefore, even if you could charge something like $70/hr, it wouldn't actually amount to half that when you factor in your at-home-business stuff. If I could get someone to run the business while I went into the field, that would be perfect. Besides, I think it's dumb to get the certification just so you can say you're registered. It's like the distinction between interior decorator and interior designer. Same thing, only one has the right credentials. Like everything these days, you have to serve time/money to say you're qualified to be employed. So, for now, I'm helping my sis-in-law with organizing her chaos.

I like your post on the email thing too. I purge my emails every once in a while too. I have a folder in My Documents for emails I keep from family or friends, but that's pretty small. I also have a separate email account for trash -- things that require you to give them an email address to sign up but that you don't want to ever actually get emails from.

P.S. My favorite store is the Container Store. It's like Candy Land for me.