Expert Clutter Control
By Solja Nygard
Staff Writer

Published in Triangle East Real Estate Section Aug. 19, 2004.
That section reaches the readers of the Smithfield Herald, the Eastern Wake News and some of The News & Observer's eastern region readers.

If Shannon Pitzer had not lived in New York City, it is unlikely she would have found her calling: organizing other people’s messes. But sharing a 385-square-foot apartment with her husband, Ben, taught the
Morrisville resident to live with less and to keep everything organized. Now Pitzer provides professional organizing and administrative services to businesses and individuals across the Triangle and the state.

Professional organizers provide information, products and assistance to help others get organized, the National Association of Professional Organizers said, adding its members can enhance the lives of their clients by designing systems that use organizing principles. A professional organizer can also educate the public on arranging solutions and the resulting benefits, the Illinois-based association said.

The organizing industry is booming and NAPO’s membership has grown significantly since its founding in 1985. Today, the association says it has more than 2,700 members.

Pitzer began thinking about becoming a professional organizer about three years ago, when a financial analyst she was working with praised her personal filing system. At the time, Pitzer was working for Cisco Systems, and even thinking about switching careers and starting her own business "was a scary thought," she said. "But three people told me right off the bat that they would hire me to organize their offices, and that gave me confidence," Pitzer said. "First I did subcontracting for an established professional organizer, and, because that went pretty well, I decided to give it a go."

Pitzer started her company, Simply-Solved, in March 2002. After her son, Mason, was born, Pitzer got back into business again, redoing her company’s Web site and joining the local chamber of commerce. She also
hired a business coach to help her get her company in full swing again.

Although Pitzer can help her clients become more productive by organizing their desks and file cabinets and installing software that enables them to keep tabs on their files, she said she is not a natural-born organizer. "I learned how to become organized," she said. "My college roommate was a neat freak, and living in that tiny apartment in New York taught me to get by with less stuff. And I believe other people can become organized, too — many of them just need to be showed how to start."

While some professional organizers might do all types of organizing, others specialize in either residential or office organizing. Residential organizers help people get their homes more organized, and work in basements and closets and develop household filing systems. Office specialists help businesses get more organized and work with developing filing systems. They can also do office space planning and paper management.

Based on a 1998 NAPO survey, professional organizers’ fees range from $40 an hour to $200 an hour. The rate depends on the client’s geographic location, the type of organizing services requested, and
the experience of the organizer, the association said. Pitzer focuses on providing "organized solutions" for home office workers, small businesses and executives. Her clientele ranges from a stay-at-home mother who works part time to help her husband’s business to a client who runs a more than $4 million business. Besides helping
people who work from their home offices, Pitzer also acts as a productivity consultant at corporate settings, trying to make the company’s employees more successful in their jobs. While most of her work is done in the clients’ workplace, Pitzer also provides some virtual services, such as Web site organization.

Although many employees spend as many as 150 hours a year looking for missing files and papers, Pitzer said most of her clients do not contact her until they have reached the "pain point. That’s what I call the moment when being disorganized becomes just too much," Pitzer said. "At that point, many people are missing deadlines, spending their time looking for e-mails and documents that they can’t find, and screaming at their computers."

While Pitzer stressed having piles of papers can be OK, she said the stacks should not hurt their owner. "If you have the space for them and you still know where things are, go ahead and pile things up," she
said. "But if the old issues of the National Geographic are taking over, you need to do something about them. Many people are reluctant to throw anything away because they think they might need the stuff later
on, but what good would it do to them to keep all of those things if they couldn’t find what they were looking for anyway?" Pitzer sees some of her clients several times, while others hire her just to perform "The 8-Hour Miracle." That means she goes to a client’s home or office and starts with installing software titled Taming The
Paper Tiger. Then Pitzer organizes the client’s desk. The client describes the papers on top of his or her desk, and Pitzer enters the information on a computer and files the documents. After that, the professional organizer moves to the floor, and, once the piles on the floor have been filed, she tackles the most accessible file cabinet.
"The next day when the client returns to his or her office, he or she will know what to do with every new piece of paper," Pitzer said. "And the client, or anyone else in the office, can find anything I filed in five seconds or less. I will also tell the client what to do with the papers or files I did not handle."

Many clients seem to be happy with the system, saying they are now able to find what they need in just seconds, Pitzer said, adding some of her clients also say their own stress levels plummeted after the "miracle" took place.

Besides reducing stress, a professional organizer can provide ideas, information, structure, solutions and systems, which in turn can increase productivity and create a newfound freedom and sense of being in control, NAPO said.

In selecting a professional organizer, the association said it is important to find someone the client likes and with whom he or she feels comfortable. If possible, clients should interview several professional organizers in their area. Some of the questions clients might want to ask include:

• How long have you been in business?
• What is your background and/or training?
• What is your specialty or particular area of expertise, if any?