Welcome to the Clutter issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! Nearly all organizers are experts in some aspect of clutter, so it’s no surprise that this is our biggest Carnival to date. Make yourself comfortable because there are a lot of new colleagues for you to meet!

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Clare Kumar became a Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Blogger this month with her post, Clear Clothing Clutter and Help Charities. Please join me in congratulating Clare, and remember that you too can become a Star Blogger by participating in 10 or more editions of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival.

Participating for the first time this month are MaryJo Monroe with It’s party time! 8 ways to get rid of clutter by hosting a party, Lurlene Anderson with Organizing Just For YOU!,  Sheri Bruneau with What Type of Clutter Do You Have? and Deanne Kelleher with An Exit Strategy for Clutter. It’s great to have you on board!

Don’t go away just yet, because there are lots more great blog posts for you to read! Always remember that engaging with other bloggers by following them on Twitter and commenting on their blogs is a good way to grow your network and drive traffic to your own blog.

Nancy Borg – The Origin of Clutter and the Simple Steps to Conquer it

Hazel Thornton – Is it Clutter?

Jacquie Ross – 10 Tips for Busy Moms on How to Keep a Clutter-Free Home

Deb Lee – Armadillos Are Dangerous and Ugly, Just Like Clutter

Jonda Beattie – Homeless Items In Your Home

Ellen Delap – Clutter: A Hoarder’s Success Story

Lelah Baker-Rabe – Common clutter areas and what to do about them

Janice Russell – What Does Your Clutter Weigh?

Janine Adams – Standards of Clutter

Leslie Josel – Clutter: Clean and Clear

Elaine Shannon – Clutter = Stuck Energy

Ramona Creel – Is Your Life Too Cluttered?

Linda Samuels – Releasing Mind Clutter

Natalie Conrad – Do You Have Time Clutter?

Lisa Montanaro – What is Clutter?

Julie Bestry – Paper Manners Matter: Cut Card Clutter & Store Social Stationery

Shelley Molitor – Find New Meaning in the Clutter

Sue West – Do Your Surroundings Become You?

Audrey Cupo – Five Rules to Follow to Eliminate the Clutter

Rivka Caroline – Clutter is just a pile of delayed decision making

Lauren Giammarco – Control that Clutter!

Tracy Hoth – What to Keep? What to Purge?

I don’t know about you, but I’m having this incredible urge to declutter all of a sudden!

The December Professional Organizers Blog Carnival will be about 2011 Conference Highlights.  Whether you were at the POC Conference this past weekend, NAPO, ICD, MARCPO, Orvention, or any other conference this year, we’d love to read about it! You have until noon EST on December 12 to submit your post.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for November 2011: Clutter.

Continuing from yesterday’s post about planning a move, packing, and coping with the stress of moving, today we continue this month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival with posts about decluttering before a move, preparing a house for sale, and unpacking in the new home.

We’ll kick off Part 2 of the Carnival by introducing three more new participants:

Nancy Borg – Project Walk-Thru: Assessing the Move

Leslie Josel – The Anatomy of a Virtual Move

Natalie Conrad – Organizing Your Kitchen (as you move in)

Returning this month, we have:

Hellen Buttigieg – 7 Steps to Successfully De-cluttering For a Move

Jeri Dansky – One Person’s Story: Moving and Decluttering

Ramona Creel – Lightening The Load

Audrey Cupo – BEFORE YOU MOVE…

Pauline Wiles – Moving? 3 Ways Your Clutter Costs You

Sue West – Letting Go Questions (You may not have tried before today.)

Kimberly Eagles – Getting Organized to Sell Your House

And last, but certainly not least, I’m thrilled to introduce our newest Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Blogger:

Jacki Hollywood Brown – Moving in 2011

You too can be a Star – just participate in 10 Professional Organizers Blog Carnivals! We’re now accepting submissions for next month, when our topic will be Organizing Memorabilia. Click here to submit your post or to explore our upcoming topics.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival May 2011: Moving, Part 2.

Since this is Stress Awareness Month, I thought I’d tap into my great network of professional organizers and ask them to share what they know about the connection between stress and disorganization. With so many being away at the NAPO Conference last week, I was a bit concerned that I might not get many submissions to this month’s Blog Carnival, but I’m thrilled with the responses, and hope you will be too.

We have two new participants this month, so please join me in welcoming them:

Sue West – Working on the Business Means Putting Myself First

Michelle O’Sullivan – Stress and Disorganization

Here are the rest of this month’s posts:

Pauline Wiles – Sniff Out Your Stress Sources

Elaine Shannon – Why do you want to get organized?

Michelle Panzlaff – Simplify for less stress

Paul H. Burton – Where Stress and Disorganization Collide

Janine Adams – Standards of clutter

Linda Samuels – Family, Friends, Nature & Clutter

Ellen Delap – Distress and Disorganization

Ramona Creel – Getting Organized To Reduce Stress

Janet Baker – Paper Tiger Filing System in the Office Can Prevent Melt Downs and Disasters

Audrey Cupo – Improve Your Memory

Heather Burke – The Craziness is in the Details

Master Cruz – Opportunities are LIMITLESS When Organized

There’s a wealth of wisdom here, so be sure to set aside some time to read all the posts, leave some comments, and get to know the bloggers! You’re sure to pick up some great advice, either for yourself or for your clients.

We are now accepting submissions for next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, when our topic will be Moving. The deadline is Monday, May 9.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for April 2011: Disorganization and Stress.

This month’s Blog Carnival is a belated Mothers Day gift for all the busy moms out there. Come to think of it, is there such a thing as a mom who isn’t busy? I hope you’ll take a few minutes to visit and comment on the posts submitted by my readers. It’s a great way to network with your organizing colleagues while picking up ideas to benefit your clients or yourself!

Angela Esnouf starts us off with 7 ways to get organized in just one minute in her post, Got a Minute?

Jodi Granok shares her strategy for dealing with household clutter in In a Rut? Clean it Up!

In Help for moms to clear their mental clutter, Barbara Tako tells us that:

Clutter isn’t always physical. Sometimes, as busy moms who lead hectic and stressful lives, we struggle with mental clutter–items we need to do, schedules we are holding in our heads, stuff we need to add to a shopping list. The mental clutter goes on and on…Try these tips to clear the mental clutter.

If mealtimes are a challenge, check out Audrey Cupo’s Meal Planning For Busy Moms and Elaine Shannon‘s 3 Steps to Easy Meal Planning.

Ellen Delap helps you prepare for summertime fun with her Six Steps to Summer Success. Unfortunately, summer fun sometimes leads to accidents, and Jacki Hollywood Brown offers a few quick tips to help busy moms to be prepared for unplanned trips to the hospital in Preparing for an Emergency.

There are some really innovative products out there to help busy mothers get organized, and Krista Colvin tells us about one of her favorites, The All-in-one Schoolfolio, while Janet Baker describes The Smartest Filing System For Busy Moms. Janet says:

Happy Mother’s Day! It’s time to give mom a helping hand! Using smart filing system software, she can create one simple way to organize everything that needs filing and storing, no matter where it is in the house, the garage, the shed, or in storage.

Ramona Creel describes a common challenge as follows:

I have a client who is trying to simplify her life, and she would be succeeding at it beautifully, if it weren’t for her family! Sometimes, it can seem like your housemates are hell-bent on making your life more complicated — bringing in tons of unnecessary clutter, expecting you to pick up after them, and creating chaos in your schedule. For a simplicity strategy to really work, the whole team has to be on board…

Read Ramona’s solution to this problem in Getting Your Housemates On Board The Simplification Train.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival!

You are welcome to submit your post on Organizing for Special Events any time up until noon on Wednesday, June 9. Be sure to come back and read the June Blog Carnival, because I have a special surprise in store for you!

July’s theme will be Book Reviews – we’d all love to know what organizing or business book(s) you recommend! Submission for July’s Carnival will not be accepted until after June 10^th, so if you haven’t yet written a review, you’ve got plenty of time to do so! Need some ideas? Visit The Bookstore for Professional Organizers!

If you’ve got an idea for a future Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for May 2010: Organizing Tips for Busy Moms.

Welcome to the April issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the posts which were submitted, and was pleased to pick up many new ideas. Whether you’re looking for eco-friendly ways to help your clients deal with clutter, or trying to implement green practices in your own home or business, you’re sure to learn something here.

Since professional organizers frequently help their clients dispose of things they no longer need or want, they have a tremendous opportunity to help them do so in an environmentally responsible way. Lisa Montanaro does an excellent job of explaining about the connection between living “green” and getting organized in her post, “Green Organizing”: An Earth-Friendly Combination.

“Going green” generally refers to practicing the 3R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, and Elaine Shannon addresses all three in her Green Business: Environmentally friendly Business Organizing Tips.

Ellen Delap continues the theme in Green Organizing: Baby Steps to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, advising that,

Having baby steps helps us commit to recycling.

Some of this month’s contributors blogged about specific aspects of green organizing. Jeri Dansky brings us The Latest on Plastic Food Storage – And Alternatives, Joan Kosmachuk talks about Recycling Baby Carseats, and Julie Bestry shares information about Greening Your Greetings: Recycling and Reusing Greeting Cards. Julie says that,

Digital greetings may reduce your carbon footprint, but nobody’s ever slept with an e-card tucked lovingly under her pillow. These recyclable/reusable greeting cards are eco-friendly while still making a joyous Ta-Da in your loved ones’ mailboxes.

Angela Esnouf submitted a post about fuelling our brains and bodies responsibly, Need more energy?

Several organizers shared their best strategies for reusing or recycling things instead of discarding them. In 5 Ways To Recycle And Donate For Green Organizing, Ramona Creel tells us that,

When you start organizing, the first step is often cleaning out — but this process doesn’t have to create bags of trash for the landfill, if you take the time to make sure that anything usable goes to a better home…

Margarita Ibbott answers the question, Can I recycle stuff instead of throwing it out?, Barbara Tako explains how to Help others and help yourself: Declutter for green living, charity, and yourself, and Eva Wallace says that Kermit Was Wrong – It IS Easy Being Green!

Environmental experts tell us that it’s even more important to reduce our impact on the environment, and Audrey Cupo tells us how in Going Green Without Going Crazy, while Geralin Thomas shares a few of her own Eco-Friendly Organizing Hints.

In honor of Mother’s Day, the theme for the next Professional Organizers Blog Carnival will be Organizing Tips for Busy Moms, and submissions may be made at any time up until noon on Monday, May 10. The topic for June will be Organizing for Special Events.

In the meantime, I’d like to thank all the bloggers who participated in this month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival. Please take the time to read their posts, leave comments, and get to know one another! If you have some ideas about green organizing that haven’t been mentioned here, or if you’d like to suggest a future topic, feel free to leave a comment below.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for April 2010: Green Organizing.

Welcome to the November issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! It’s exciting for me to watch the carnival grow, with new bloggers participating every month. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to connect with and learn from your organizing colleagues! There’s a lot to read here, so if you can’t get through all the links at one sitting, I hope you’ll bookmark this post and come back later.

We’ll kick things off with some posts about Working with Clients.

If you’ve been watching Hoarders, you might be wondering whether you have what it takes to work with clients with hoarding issues. Find out by reading Geralin Thomas‘ post, Cleaning a Hoarder’s Home: Not for the Faint of Heart.

Can you ever combine friendship and business? Lisa Montanaro says “yes” in Mixing Business With Pleasure: Professional Organizer + Disorganized Friend = Valuable Lessons.

Next, we have some Business Strategies in Deb Lee‘s post, The Entrepreneur’s Toolbox:  8 Things You Need to Get.

Effective Time Management is crucial to the success of your business, and this topic is covered by Christine Simiriglia in Thirty Minute Time Management Miracle and Margaret Lukens in The Jump-Start Meeting.

Alex Fayle says:

Many of us, even Professional Organizers, put off doing things because we think there will be plenty of time to do it later.

There won’t be. As author Mignon McLaughlin said: “Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all.”

Read more in his post Someday Doesn’t Last Forever. Procrastination is also addressed by Claire Tompkins in Why I Procrastinate.

Several bloggers share some great Organizing Tips that you can use with your clients or in your own life.

In Decluttering Adventure – the Roadmap, Angela Esnouf explains that

The Roadmap is just the start of a Decluttering Adventure, with more steps in the journey to follow.

Hellen Buttigieg explores the psychological benefits of decluttering in her post, Letting Go.

Preventing clutter is also important, and this topic is covered by Ramona Creel in Ways To Bring Less Paper Into Your Life, and Jeri Dansky in How to Shop So You Don’t Wind Up with Clutter.

In Organizing myth: Organize once and never do it again, Lelah Baker-Rabe explains that

Organization requires maintenance; there is no one-time “organization vaccine.”

Julie Bestry, AKA the Paper Doll, uncovers some eye-opening information in Who Knows Your Secrets? Part 2: Checking Up on Your Checking History.

We’ll close off this month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival with an announcement from Janet Baker about a “Smooth Sailing Document Management” contest drawing for a FREE 7-day Caribbean sailing vacation!

Thanks very much to everyone who participated this month! Please show your support by visiting their blogs and leaving some comments – it’s a great way to get to know one another! If you’ve never taken part in the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, perhaps we’ll see you next month!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival – November 2009 Edition.

There’s lots of buzz right now about A&E’s new documentary series about real people whose compulsive hoarding is leading to serious problems in their everyday lives. If you didn’t catch the premiere on Monday night, be sure to visit the Hoarders website to see what you missed.

I found it heartbreaking to witness the challenges faced by the compulsive hoarders on the show, and by their families. At the same time, I admire them, not only for taking the huge step of making positive changes in their lives, but for exposing themselves to the world in order to educate others. I also have a great deal of admiration and respect for the professional organizers who work with these individuals.

You may never encounter a situation like those shown on Hoarders, but if you offer residential organizing, there’s a chance that you will. I predict that it’s even more likely now, because the show will help reduce the stigma associated with chronic disorganization, empowering viewers facing similar issues to take action.

You can prepare yourself by downloading a free copy of the Clutter Hoarding Scale developed by the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD). The Clutter Hoarding Scale is an assessment that may be used during your initial consultation to determine the degree of household clutter and hoarding, and the level of support needed. In many cases, the client will need to work with a professional organizer with specialized training in chronic disorganization.

If you are interested in this specialty, you should become a member of NSGCD. Before joining, you must first be a member of NAPO or POC, or provide documentation showing that you’ve been in business as a professional organizer for at least one year. NSGCD offers weekly teleclasses to help their members work towards various levels of certification.

In addition, NSGCD also holds an annual conference for organizers and other professionals who work with chronic disorganization clients. This year’s conference will take place from October 1 to 3 in Los Angeles, California. Registration fees go up after August 31, so if you’re thinking of attending, you should register as soon as possible.

If you’re not sure whether chronic disorganization is your thing, you may wish to explore the subject further before investing in membership or the conference. In this case, you’ll be pleased to know that NSGCD also offers a number of inexpensive publications which you may find of value.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Would You Like to Work with Hoarders?.

Welcome to the August issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! This monthly feature is provided to allow you to grow your network and learn something new from some of the other organizing consultants who enjoy reading Your Organizing Business. There’s lots of great information here, some to help you grow your business, and some to help you help your clients.

Home and Family Organization

Jacki Hollywood Brown says “Back-to-school doesn’t have to be a stressful time. Read my top 9 tips for making a smooth transition from summer to school!” Don’t miss her Tips for the New School Year.

Sarah Welch brings us Organizing 911, What To Do If Your Significant Other Is A Slob – a situation that probably comes up often if you work with residential organizing clients.

Julie Bestry shares her post Top 10 Vital Documents–Do You Know Where Your VIPs Are? and its companion, More VIPs–Very Important Papers Beyond The Top 10. (Normally I only allow one submission per person, but since this is really Parts 1 and 2 of the same topic, I thought I’d make an exception!)

Business and Office Organization

Lauren Halagarda reveals how to Eliminate Email Clutter: Stop Using Email to Schedule Meetings.

In Creativity and organization in the workplace: work space, Lelah Baker-Rabe discusses “three things that make up any workplace and how having those parts organized can increase productivity and creativity.”

Getting Things Done

Because “sometimes even Professional Organisers need help getting things done,” Angela Esnouf tells us how to Get It Finished.

Alex Fayle describes The Positive Power of Peer Pressure, explaining that “peer pressure isn’t always a bad thing – we can use it for motivation too!”

Tips for Professional Organizers

“Have some raving fans that want to share what you’ve done for them?”  This month, Tammy Burke shares how to get a testimonial that helps prospects choose you, in her post What’s in a Testimonial?

Krista Colvin answers the question, “What’s Twitter?” by defining Twitter and some of its lingo.

Janine Adams confesses, “I’m Officially Hooked on Working with POs. I worked with fabulous PO Aby Garvey on my own pantry and shared the fun we had and the insights we gained. It was so nice to put myself in my clients’ shoes!”

Thanks for visiting the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! We’ll do it again next month, so don’t forget to get involved by submitting your post. Be sure to come back on September 10^th for the next edition.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival – August 2009 Edition.

Today I have a special treat for you – an interview with Patricia John of Room 2 Room Organizing, who is a professional organizer and certified Feng Shui Consultant. Patricia has been one of my clients since 2006, and has stopped by to explain what Feng Shui is all about and to help you decide whether it would be useful to you in your organizing business.

What exactly is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui is about bringing balance and harmony into your environment.  There are many ways you can do this… an example is by applying Feng Shui cures.  When you apply Feng Shui cures, among other things, you will help create an environment that feels and looks better.

It will make you want to come home at night because of the feeling that you get when you walk through the door.

What do you mean by “Feng Shui cures?” What are they and how do they work? Can you describe one?

An example of some Feng Shui cures are:

• Furniture placement to help the energy in a room flow easier
• Mirrors, water, or fountains
• Color – either by using paint or color in objects

When you use Feng Shui cures and one or all of the 5 elements together (water, wood, metal, fire, earth) you will create a balanced and harmonized room.  Of course, you have to apply the cures and elements with “intention” for Feng Shui to work.

Is Feng Shui just for homes?

Feng Shui can be used in your home, garden, property, schools and your office.

Why did you decide to study Feng Shui?

I have been interested in Feng Shui for many years now and decided it was time for me to take a course on it to fully understand the power of it and how I could use it to help myself as well as possibly my clients.

What did you have to do to become certified, and how long did it take?

I took the Feng Shui Practitioner Program with Katherine & Russ Loader of Power of Place, located in Oshawa. My course was every Sunday for 8-10 classes and each class was 6-8 hours in length.

After you completed your classes, did you have to write an exam?

Yes, I had to write an exam… It was several hours and very intense!

What impact has being a certified Feng Shui Consultant had on your business?

To be honest, it really hasn’t had an impact on my business… Feng Shui is still very new in the Durham area, and I think it may take a while for it to be accepted and understood here… but I can wait! I loved learning more about Feng Shui and I love teaching other people about it and how it can help in all different areas of their lives. I took the course for my own benefit as well as my clients.

Are there any books or other resources you would recommend to professional organizers who would like to learn more about Feng Shui?

My course was on Professor Lin Yun “Black Sect” Feng Shui and there are many books out there on this type of Feng Shui, but the one I think would be best for Professional Organizers is Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston, because it deals with clutter and Feng Shui.

Do you have any advice for your organizing colleagues?

Decide what type of Feng Shui you want to learn about and then read as many books as you can about it first. The three different types of Feng Shui Schools are “Low Pan ” – Compass, “Chi School” – Energy/Chi and “Black Sect School” which is what I took.

Once you’ve read a few books and understand the basic principles, then you should consider taking a small course. After that, if your interest is still there, then you could take a course like the one I took. To find a program in your area, or to learn more about the three types of schools, just go onto the internet and type in Feng Shui.

Trish, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to share this valuable information with my blog readers!

If there’s something else you’d like to know, feel free to post your question either in the Comment section below or using the Contact form, and I’m sure Trish will be happy to answer it!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on An Interview with Feng Shui Consultant Patricia John.