Cindie Graham, a personal organizer from Gilford, sends a mothballed toy airplane to the scrap heap. She's helping Gerrie McKenna organize a closet at Gilford Community Church. (Mike Colclough/Citizen photo)

GILFORD — Autumn is upon us, and for those who missed this year's initial opportunity to get their lives, businesses and homes in order, a personal organizer is standing by to lend a hand.

Last month, several members of the New Hampshire/Maine chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers met at the Gilford Community Church where they were hosted by Cindie Graham, wife of the church's pastor Michael Graham, and owner of Clutter Control.

Graham was joined by Pat Sangillo of The Clutter Whisperer of Contoocook; Helene Parenteau of Organizing Specialists of Salem; Avis Jones of Mission Accomplished of Kittery, Maine; Lisa Brylczyk of Organizing Czyk of Fremont; Carolyn and Ted Lockhart of Moving Matters of New London; and Gwen Erley of Erley Solutions of Barrington.

Over soft drinks, sandwiches and an assortment of homemade cookies, the ladies and gentleman discussed their industry, their passion for organizing and the fact that as we all lead increasingly busy and cluttered lives, there will always be a demand for some one who can help find "a place for everything" and who can put "everything in its place."

Personal organizers offer a wide array of services ranging from running errands, organizing wardrobes, closets, garages, basements and doing bookkeeping to teaching the simple, but profound skill of time management.

Erley, whose business slogan is "It's never too late for an Erley solution," specializes in straightening out home and business offices and considers herself a "domestic archaeologist," who digs through "the layers of clutter to get to the civilization below."

Brylczyk, the name is pronounced "Bril-chik," was in retail sales management for 15 years. She promises she can organize and design "highly efficient spaces" anywhere in the home and will not only organize your closet, but she will physically build the closet organizer system for you.

Jones points out that "folks know they're disorganized" but don't fully appreciate that being disorganized is costing them money due to lost time and productivity in searching for items in their homes or offices.

Some people, when they misplace or lose something, simply go out and buy more of that thing, said Parenteau who recalled that she once found 27 flashlights in a hose she was helping organize, while Brylczyk went one better, saying a client in his garage had "enough nails to do about five houses."

That kind of accumulation is typical of the "you might need it some day" mindset and also of Yankee frugality, said Jones.

But there are and should be limits, the organizers agreed, to how much you have in a home or office. For instance, except for seasonal items, if you don't use something more than once a year, you might consider pitching it.

And that is another characteristic of professional organizers: that the client, not the organizer decides what to throw away and what to keep, although the organizers might gently recommend that instead of going to the dump, some of those items might go to the Goodwill or Salvation Army.

Most of the organizers shared the common experience of having moved frequently, something that taught them to be efficient in managing their homes and lives.

Carolyn Lockhart drew gasps from her colleagues when she said she and her husband moved 25 times during his career in the U.S. Navy. The Lockharts specialize in helping senior citizens move, with Carolyn Lockhart explaining that their first experience with that came when Ted's mother had to transition from her home to a care facility.

The idea of moving, whether due to retirement or downsizing is a daunting task for anyone, but especially seniors, said Lockhart, some of whom are "immobilized" by it.

Part of that immobilization is due, said Parenteau, because of the emotional attachments people develop to things. She told the story of a client who had extreme difficulty parting with a book because the loved one who gave it to her had written a greeting within it.

Parenteau's advice to anyone thinking of giving a book as a gift: sign your name on a bookmark, not inside the tome itself.

Graham, like her fellow organizers, will also assist clients in clearing away the detritus of a lifetime, but will also re-arrange work- and living spaces to make them more functional.

There are some "simple rules" as to how to make a workspace sing, Graham said, among them placing a desk so that it faces a window and not surrounding yourself with large, imposing furniture.

Parenteau, who by virtue of being in the organizing business since 1982 has sometimes been referred to as the "grande dame" of the profession, organized college dormitory rooms to pay her way toward earning a master's degree in marketing.

She offered an economic insight into why Americans have so much stuff.

According to the National Association of Professional Organizers, the average three-bedroom home in the U.S. contains some 350,000 items.

"Organizers gets to see firsthand the U.S.-China trade imbalance," said Parenteau, as the relative inexpensiveness of Chinese-made goods and the relative strength of the dollar, combine to fill American households with items marked "Made in China."

Many of those items are clothes, she said, adding that "I have a client who never wears a pair of socks more than once." Parenteau persuaded the lady to donate her castoffs to charities for resale.

Organizers, Graham has said, function a little like priests and doctors, bound to the association's code of ethics in that they don't and won't break a client's confidence.

They also won't prejudge, berate, intimidate or force a client to do anything that he or she does not want to do. Organizers do not believe that all clutter is bad, with the rule of thumb being that if a client can quickly find what they need, even if it's in a seemingly messy pile, then no problem. They do believe, however, that you can be too organized and that the pursuit for perfection can turn into an unhealthy obsession.

Before she comes into a home or business for the first time, Graham tells her perspective clients "don't clean up. I've seen everything. Nothing will surprise me."

But Parenteau, while maybe not surprising them, got a reaction out of Graham and her fellow organizers when she recounted that her largest organization effort involved the estate of a former engineering professor whose collected paperwork, and other items, filled five, 30-foot long Dumpsters.

Sangillo, who in 1991 helped set up New Hampshire's motor vehicle "Lemon Law" office, has been an organizer for two and a half years. She said she got her organizing skills from her mother who had "moving down to a science. I learned from that."

Having seen some clients try and fail to get organized by themselves, Sangillo determined that they were trying "to organize by the book" — and there are many books in print about how to get organized, she noted — "rather than by how they operated."

When she does organize some one's home or business, Sangillo reminds them that "this is not etched in stone" and can be adapted as the client's needs change.

"People are so busy now" and don't always have the time or energy to stay on top of all that is required to run an efficient home or office, said Sangillo. "We are a nation of accumulators," she said.

The remark prompted Parenteau to interject, with a knowing smile, that the problem is the U.S. is "graduating way too many marketing MBA's."

It's the success of those marketers with slogans like "don't you just love a bargain?" that keeps filling American homes and businesses with things both needed and not and that ensures that personal organizing will continue to be a growth industry, said Parenteau.

So at what point should some one call in an organizer?

When "you're sick and tired of being sick and tired," over how much stuff you have and how it's negatively effecting your life, said Jones, while other indicators include not inviting company to your home, or closing off overflowing rooms to visitors.

It's also when your credit rating begins to suffer because the phone, electric or other bills don't get paid, not because you don't have the money to pay them, but because you can't find the bills themselves.

Ultimately, added Sangillo, the time to call in an organizer is when a person says to him or herself that "I'm not at peace here."

Clutter breeds stress, Graham said, while order contributes to harmony and peace of mind.

Organizing, the organizers all said, is a great business to be in because, as Graham summed up, "You're really helping people and that's a wonderful feeling."

For more information about professional organizers, go to www.napo.net and to learn about local organizers, go to www.napo-newengland.com.



John Koziol can be reached at 524-3800 ext. 5940 or at jkoziolcitizen.com.