Palais Professional Organizer

Archive for May, 2010

I think the most daunting thing about getting most organizing tasks started, let alone done, is that feeling of “I have to do this all by myself!” I hear many of my clients say this – that the overwhelm comes from feeling alone with a project and not even knowing where to start in order to solve it.

Some say the mind that created the problem can’t solve it so maybe there is some truth to that. You must bring in outside resources to help with some problems. Not that you/we don’t know how to do these things we get stuck on. I know how to run but I’m not going to do it unless I have a trainer running with me! Or I’m being chased.

I think there is expertise involved in my job…now of course I’m going to say that!  I do have years of “best practices” stored up. But a lot of the magic in the mix is that people feel they have a partner in the process when they bring me in to work with them.  This is no little thing either. I say magic purposefully.

Suddenly the piles and the clutter don’t seem quite so menacing. Organization doesn’t seem so far away. The scene is set for success. They start to have my eyes. Because I see it all done, how it can be, the potential. Ahh. Partnership.

Hi, I’m Jennifer Palais, I’m a professional organizer and I’m here to get you and your office in shape for the summer. It’s almost June so its time! I have three tips today to get you started. They are very easy and this is all in preparation for you to go paperless. Because I believe that is the easiest and the most slimming way to go. So the first thing to do to get started is to get an external drive. And I like Iomega, you can Google that or you can go to amazon.com you can use it for a PC or a Mac but there are many others. You don’t have to go anywhere, you can just go online and order one and back up all of your computers that way. The second thing you want to do, and this is do be redundant, to get a back up of your backup, is to do an offsite back up and I like mozy.com for that – its very inexpensive just about $5 a month or so and that way you can get an offsite back up in case of an emergency in case of a natural disaster, we don’t like to talk about that we hope it doesn’t happen but just in case you will have that peace of mind in case you even just lose your external drive. All of this we try and keep very reasonably priced. The external drive, the first thing I talked about about $100-$250 depending on how much information you have or if you are talking about a home office or a business office, mozy.com which is your offsite back up that’s the second thing I talked about is about 5-6 a month. Now the third thing I’m talking about is to keep the essential paper materials that sometimes you have to keep. We’re going to try to go entirely paperless. But there are a few items we will talk about in the next installment that you will have to keep and we will want a fireproof save for those – that’s the third thing I’m talking about today that you will need to get. And that’s anywhere from $50-$100. Depending on how many items you will need. That’s again in case of some sort of disaster you will want to that peace of mind to know that you have a place for those few items. So three things we want an external drive, we want offsite back and we want a fireproof safe. And that will get you started for trimming your office down for the summer we’re going to get you and your office in shape are you with me? I hope so! I’ll see you for the next installment! Bye everybody!

“The best cure for loneliness is solitude.” – Marianne Morre

I think about this quote and I think that the thing we (who we?) are most missing is something on the inside. It seems we are internally underdeveloped and externally overdeveloped: cluttered, distracted. The show Hoarders has captured the nation’s attention in such an uncanny way. Why? Is there something to wanting so much stuff around us to hold us up?  If it is all gone do we just fall apart? That is an extreme of course. There is a continuum.  Now don’t get me wrong. I love my stuff. I love my iPhone and MacBook and all the applications that whirl and buzz within. I also think if they aren’t balanced out with a little old fashioned space (aka peace and quiet) a lot of different kinds of build up can happen. I can see it in my temperament (cranky) and I see it in client’s homes (clutter). You can have the space to put something but still not make the time to do so.

I think there is always something behind disorganization just like anything else. And it doesn’t have to be pathological or neurotic. But it does have to do with being willing to slow down. It does have to do with being willing to let go of some of the distractions in favor of some solitude. It is about spending some time with you and the choices you’ve been making. (Some time, not time judging.)

This week a friend said something to me that was meant to be a me a compliment but that didn’t really sit well with me.  This wasn’t a backhanded compliment – she was well-intentioned.  It just got me thinking about my intentions.  She said that I’m an expert at helping people compartmentalize their lives – essentially separating things and putting them in order so they make sense. So she was surprised I couldn’t compartmentalize my projects the way I seemed to with people’s space. What brought this on is that I had just told her I was greatly relieved after dropping a personal project and had felt I needed to do so in order to regain my balance and focus. It was a hard decision but a good one, I was again feeling the flow.  But it got me thinking, why wasn’t I able to separate the personal and professional this time? Why wasn’t it fitting?  Here’s why. It isn’t about separating things to fit them in – it is about making them all flow together. Our lives are not compartments, they flow into each other and if something isn’t fitting in then there is clutter, a stopping up, and nothing can flow – all production shuts down because of the excess. Then you have to sit down and access what part is the excess, what part don’t I need, want or love?  (Or just doesn’t fit right now…this client? that Spanish class?)  I don’t see my work with clients as helping them to separate their things and lives into compartments. I see it as quite the opposite. I want to work with people to focus in on the essence, the core of what it is that they really, truly love and love to do. What makes their lives and businesses flow both in a literal, spacial sense and in a philosophical sense. Because there isn’t much of a difference. Then we get rid of the rest. Anything you don’t love is clutter in your space. Anything you don’t love to do is cluttering up your schedule and your energy. As a professional organizer I see getting rid of clutter as bringing in a wholeness and engaging a flow into a space, a business, a life. Not really as separating things out and saying – this part of me is over there – that part of me is over here and ne’er the twain shall meet. That is a difficult way to live. If every single thing you own is something you have taken a bit of time to consider in terms of its usefulness and its beauty then you will bring this kind of consideration to bare in other areas of your life too. Relationships (of all kinds) will blossom, money flows in (because it thrives on this kind of respect), and your energy rises (finally). That is the flow. Yes…the pens belong in the pen holder, and the spoons with the spoons…and there is a kind of poetic flow in that kind of separateness – all together under the same roof.

Getting and being organized is all about making decisions. If you meditate on this you’ll find that most of your clutter and disorganization is the result of putting off decisions. Storage units are essentially stores and piles of unmade decisions.

This kind of thinking is what gets us into trouble:

“Oh, I’ll figure out what to do with that stuff later…I’ll decide what to do what that table Aunt Sally gave me….uh..hmhehrph…soon.”

“And… I can’t stop to think about what to do with that piece of paper right now – I’ll figure it out later.”

I  think that the bane of our existence is all the decisions we have to make. Every blessing comes with a curse. The more options the more to decide. Career or kids? Or both with a nanny? Cereal or smoothie? Or eggs? Or egg whites? Um. Is it too early in the day to start drinking?  If you can narrow down those decisions you have to make all the better. Make them and make them quickly and you will know where you stand. Others will too. The fence is expensive, frustrating and the decisions will get made for you. That is no way to live. Take the consequences for the decisions you make and be at peace with them. You will find there are more rewards than downsides for a straight and narrow path. Rather than trying to have everything and gaining nothing at all – you will gain the things you want the most and let the unimportant fall by the wayside.  That is the kind of organization I hope for you.

What does parking have to do with organization? I would wonder the same thing…until I saw someone take two spots in a very small lot tonight. That did not look very organized. That’s when I realized:  Parking and organization have something in common. It takes generosity to be organized and the person who hogs two parking spots is showing their messy drawers for all to see. You could fit more cars in if they had taken just one spot. But really, that was not what I was thinking. I was not thinking – this parking lot is so disorganized! I was thinking, “This person is selfish weenie!” I would use another expletive but I’m feeling rather politically correct at the moment. Don’t worry, it won’t last.

Then I thought more about this and the thing is that being organized is actually about generosity at its core. If you are taking the time to keep your desk in order so you know where things are – that is being generous to yourself. It reduces stress, it saves time and it can save money in all kinds of ways. Therefore, all the acts that add up to being organized for yourself are acts of kindness and generosity for oneself. But these are also benefits for others. Because when you are less stressed you offer that state of being to those around you, you can be more present, show up on time and guess what – you probably take only one parking spot when you get where you are going. Being organized shows a general respect for yourself and the objects and space around you. The space around your desk, the space in your home and yes, the space (singular!) around your car.