'Twas the day after Christmas
and all through the houses,
not a creature was stirring,
especially the spouses.
The paper, the boxes, the ribbons galore,
Somewhere underneath all that mess was a floor.
But where, oh where to begin, you mutter,
What do I do with all this cra-, I mean, clutter?
OK, that's enough with the bad rhymes. They're hurting my head. So is the day-after-Christmas letdown, the feeling that it will take months to recuperate from all the running around, and even longer to get life in some semblance of order again.
That's why those organization stores – and gyms and time management seminars – are so crowded in January. After all the chaos of December, we want not only peace in our days, but also color-coordinated file folders and matching boxes to hold all our magazines and office supplies.
Tell the truth, aren't you secretly considering buying a label maker this month?
Dana Korey, whose Del Mar company, Away With Clutter, www.awaywithclutter.com, makes sense out of the muddle that is her clients' lives, says go ahead and buy that label maker – "it makes life easier" – but don't, whatever you do, rush out and buy 20 plastic boxes to store all your junk.
Korey charges her clients to clean up their homes and offices, but as a public service to this column, she's passing some of her best secrets on to us.
"You buy so many of these random containers because they're on sale," she says. "But you don't have an idea of what you should put in them. If you haven't pared down and edited what you already have, you end up with multiple categories in one big container that really doesn't work. So what you're really doing is buying more clutter."
That is not organizing, according to Korey. That is just making nice, neat piles that will turn into big, messy piles in a few days because there is no method to your madness.
"I advise clients to edit as much as they can by putting things in categories, then making a determination about what you are going to keep, toss or donate. Then RIGHT AWAY, call up the charity of your choice and have it picked up to get it out of the house."
Clutter usually stops people from seeing what they own, so they go out and buy multiples of the same item that isn't where it should be, or they're afraid to put something away because they don't believe they'll ever be able to find it again.
"If you're thirsty, 99 percent of the people in the world would go into a kitchen cabinet, grab a glass and fill it with water," she says. "While it may vacation on a TV set or a nightstand, ultimately and without having to think about it, you know where that glass goes back. What we do is architect systems that create a knee-jerk response for any item in a client's home or office. If you don't have a system that integrates with an individual's or a family's lifestyle, if you don't understand how they think and function, then the piles will grow."
Although some organizers suggest taking small steps, like cleaning out the junk drawer one day and the hall closet the next, Korey is more in favor of the guerrilla tactic of getting a team of people to tackle an entire house in a day or two. That way, the transformation will be far more dramatic than the slower approach.
But there are as many theories as there are organizers out there, and if you're going to get professional help instead of making this a do-it-yourself project, you've got a lot of choices – tapes, books, seminars and Web sites such as www.onlineorganizing.com that will give you an overview of the entire process.
The different approaches, though, are trying to achieve the same goal, and a goal that speaks to us this time of year.
"It's all about the peace, we don't get that much of it anymore," says Korey says. "We don't have a chance to fill our souls and do the proverbial stopping to smell the roses. To me, 'smelling the roses' is clean counter tops."
Mary Curran-Downey can be reached at mary_currandowney@hotmail.com.
