Apologies. Life.

Apologies. Life. I haven’t posted since June 15. Illness off-and-on. The weather. A family member who’s needed support. Some super-special, super-tiring clients. Being part of the team which converted my National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals chapter from a Seattle-based agency to a WA-state-focused body, which we formally celebrated on May 1 (YAY!!!!!).  …

Read More

Spring is Gonna have Sprung

Certified Professional Organizer medallion

I don’t know what it is about March and April but I get dizzy with blossoming conferences and seminars, every year. This year: March 4 – 5, the Online Hoarding Disorder Conference of the International OCD Foundation March 10, the Connecticut Women’s Consortium’s Buried In Treasures: The Nature and Treatment of Hoarding Disorder with David…

Read More

UNBELIEVABLE – NAPO HAS A KNOCKOFF

Certified Professional Organizer medallion

Absolutely unbelievable. NAPO has a knockoff – there’s a for-profit venture calling itself a society that certifies organizers by requiring its “certified” members to take a 12-module course, an 11-module course, fill out a form and get three testimonials. Certification never expires. Absolutely unbelievable.   I don’t dare name it; I can’t afford any lawsuits.…

Read More

Why hire a Professional Organizer?

I belong to numerous behind-the-scenes chat rooms for Organizers. Some are hosted by my professional societies, some are convened for common interests around issues like hoarding, others are hosted by people selling courses they claim are sufficient for getting trained for the profession.   I’m going to quote a thread I’m on at the moment.…

Read More

Volunteering for NAPO

Certified Professional Organizer medallion

I am perplexingly contradictorily humbled and crowingly proud that I’ve been asked to sit in volunteer service to my professional society, the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals, as a BCPO Exam Development Committee Subject Matter Expert. It’s a position with the Board that oversees the qualification process for Certified Professional Organizers. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Read More

Mary Jane Maffini – fiction takes my fancy

Charlotte Adams, the amateur detective in a series of five novels by Mary Jane Maffini, is a highly accomplished Professional Organizer (for real: the tips in the books are, some of them, quite good and she has awesome “technique.”). She even belongs to my professional society NAPO (page 146, The Cluttered Corpse). She is otherwise…

Read More

Cindy Jobs Coaching and Organizing

I’ve had the greatest fortune and pleasure of knowing Cindy Jobs for several years. We’re both members of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals Seattle Area chapter. We’ve served on the Board together. We’ve contributed to chapter Days of Service together. We’ve even just plain relaxed together at chapter holiday parties.   I…

Read More

Sandra Felton, Founder of Messies Anonymous

I may start a shrine to Sandra Felton, a pioneer in the Organizing world. She’s written TWENTY, 20, XX, 普通话, २०   books, founded Messies Anonymous, has been intimately involved in the National Study Group for Chronic Disorganization which became the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, and the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals.   I’d…

Read More

Assistive Technology and Getting Organized

No, I don’t mean robots, although yes, I want a Rosie – and my gratitude for Matt Novak’s delightful November 13, 2012 article Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 08 – Rosey’s Boyfriend for Smithsonian magazine, do follow the link. “Assistive technology” is anything which, while it hasn’t been explicitly designed to help a differently-abled person, might…

Read More

Denise Allan and Vlasta Hillger book Declutter and Thrive

I’m thrilled to write a review of Denise Allan’s and Vlasta Hillger’s book Declutter and Thrive. I know both of them as creative, caring, deeply skillful Organizers through our shared membership, and close community, in the Seattle Area Chapter of our professional society, the National Association of Productivity and Professional Organizers (NAPO).   I loved their comfortable,…

Read More