Image via twitchcraft
A couple of days ago, an intriguing suggestion came through via Twitter… “Notebooks with discreet page numbers.”
Do you like the idea? Should we try it?
Posts Tagged ‘organization’
Taming your RSS reader
Posted August 19, 2010 by Leah Hoffmannin Editorial | 6 comments »
I’ve got technology on the brain this week, it seems… my latest source of reflection: my RSS reader. It’s a godsend, of course, when it comes to keeping track of all the blogs I like to read. But, like my email inbox, it has to be managed daily or it quickly gets out of hand. When I go to a specific website, I don’t feel compelled to read everything that’s on it. When I see a long string of unread articles from, say, the New York Times Books section in my RSS reader, however, I feel like I can’t ignore them — I have to at least scroll through and cast an eye on each piece. If I don’t have time to do that, I let things pile up while I wait for the right moment to go through and take care of it once and for all. Once and for all!
This is madness, of course. Also crazy is my gradual desensitization to logging on and seeing many hundreds of unread items — a coping mechanism, surely, and a temporary one at best. Sure, I could cut back on my subscriptions, but then I might miss something good. I need some sort of personalized Reader’s Digest software… or else I need to get over my aversion to occasionally clicking “Mark all as read” and starting fresh every once in a while.
How do you manage your RSS reader?
Helping hoarders II: Geralin in action
Posted March 25, 2010 by Leah Hoffmannin Videos | 3 comments »
UPDATE: These clips are no longer available on YouTube, though you can still see them on Geralin’s website.
Last week, we interviewed professional organizer Geralin Thomas about her work on A&E’s Hoarders. This week, you can see her in action: Geralin just put up a bunch of clips on her YouTube page that show how she helps hoarders make decisions about the items in their homes. Of the clip above, she writes:
Missy told me she will “never” get to the post office to return a few things she purchased on line that weren’t wanted/needed. She wanted to have the merchandise credited to her account but “couldn’t” get to the post office. She, like many hoarders, use a lot of “all or nothing” language.
Hoarders often think of the worst case scenarios. For example, some “know” how things will turn out. Some think in extremes. Missy’s statement, “I’m never going to get to the post office” was one of many.
She would most likely benefit from accomplishing very small goals, like returning an item or two for a refund. I don’t think she was hanging onto the return items because it was too difficult to let them go. There were many items she was happy to donate/discard. She believed it was too hard to get to the post office.
Helping hoarders: An interview with Geralin Thomas
Posted March 18, 2010 by Leah Hoffmannin Planning Tips | 10 comments »
Geralin Thomas is a North Carolina based professional organizer whose advice we’ve featured here before. Since last fall, she’s also been involved with A&E’s hit show Hoarders. We caught up with Geralin recently to ask her a few questions about the experience.
First of all, please tell us a bit about yourself—where are you from, where do you live, how did you get started as an organizer…
I am based in Cary, North Carolina. I joined NAPO, North Carolina in August of 2003 and consider that my “official” start date. Before that, I was on the ‘friends and family plan’, meaning I helped friends and relatives who knew I loved organizing people’s time, space and stuff. I unofficially started calling myself an organizer a year before that.
How did you come to be involved with A&E’s Hoarders? Had you worked with hoarders before?
Hoarders are a population I enjoy working with tremendously. I find it disappointing that there is such a stigma placed on mental health conditions such as hoarding. I have worked with hoarders for a while, but when I was offered a chance to work with them on film I leapt at the opportunity. I was optimistic that the show would pull the topic of hoarding out of the closet, but it has busted the door right off the hinges!
How does working with hoarders differ from working with your other clients? I imagine there must be psychological problems to confront, in addition to organizational ones…
Helping a hoarder involves more than simply cleaning out the home. Personal, emotional, and even financial issues come into play.
“Outing” a hoarder may ruin a relationship. Sometimes the hoarder will feel angry or hurt and may disconnect themselves from the person trying to help them. In addition, it often divides families, with one half of a family thinking, “Leave the hoarder alone, they aren’t harming anyone except themselves,” and the other half thinking, “I am not going to sit around and be negligent about this; it’s a mental disorder and I’m going to take action.”
Once a private hoarding situation becomes public (outside involvement coming from fire chiefs, social workers, code enforcers, mental health practitioners, etc.), things tend to move more rapidly than the hoarder or the family expects. The hoarder feels a loss of control. So does the family.
Also worth noting, especially for mid-life or elderly hoarders, is that many of them have been homeowners for several years and “home” means they know their neighbours, their community, and the local rhythm of a neighbourhood. They are comfortable getting around town and making appointments. They navigate well in familiar territory. To remove them from their “comforting” piles of clutter and their home may exacerbate feelings of depression, disorientation or helplessness. They may feel anxious, out of control or ashamed.
The show has obviously done a lot to raise awareness about hoarding. Do you think it’s been as successful in helping the individuals who actually participate? In a blog post you wrote this fall, you mentioned that the road to recovery for hoarders extends way beyond the 2-day taping schedule…
How to find lost objects
Posted April 2, 2008 by Leah Hoffmannin Planning Tips | Add your comment »
Amateur professor and self-declared “findologist” Professor Solomon created a simple twelve-step method for finding things you’ve lost. According to him, “There are no missing objects, only unsystematic searchers.” Now Professor Solomon is making his 67-page book, “How to Find Lost Objects,” available online as a free PDF download. It may sound a little wacky, but many of his ideas aren’t far off the mark… I especially like Principle 6:
It is possible to look directly at a missing object and not see it. This is due to the agitated state of mind that often accompanies a misplacement. Go back and look again. It may be staring you in the face.
In college, I once combed through my entire dorm room piece by meticulous piece in search of a missing ID, only to find, when I got back around to my desk, that it was sitting right there in plain view, on top of my computer.
