Packrats' Panacea // Burgeoning Firms Target Organizationally Impaired

`I'm a paper person," says Linda Pollak, president of her ownmarketing, public relations and corporate events firm.

"I hang onto paper. I shuffle paper. I clip articles out ofthe newspaper. I have lots of copies of things I'm working on. Ithink it's important to get things in writing, and then I keepeverything. I have piles in every quarter of my desk."

But every so often, Pollak "freaks," both at the office and athome, she says. Then she calls Monica Thompson, president of Chaosto Order, one of a burgeoning group of firms that help other peopleget organized.

"Monica puts everything in one pile, which makes me nervous,because all those papers are in piles for a reason. Monica says theyshouldn't be in piles, they should be in files. So we go throughthem; when Monica is here, they are easily handled. Once the systemis established, it works OK," Pollak says.

If the system breaks down, though, Pollak says, papers get outof hand.

This is supposed to be the electronic age, but faxes, junk mail,photocopies and records are flooding into all our lives at an everaccelerating rate.

"We're all drowning in paper; we're inundated with it. Most ofus are not clear on what to keep, or for how long," says JonnaeOstrum, a clinical social worker and founder of PackratsInternational, an Orange, Calif.-based group for people who have anespecially hard time staying organized. It is the rare soul who just naturally tosses out every bit oftoday's junk mail with the evening's trash, writes checks for billsas they come in and puts records away in a file drawer under entriessuch as "utilities" and "medical."

Most of us fall somewhere along the continuum that begins withthe truly organized and ends with people who have their bathtubs tiedup storing pre-World War I copies of National Geographic.

"How someone handles paper tells a lot about that individual,"says Washington, D.C.-based organizer Barbara Hemphill, author ofTaming The Paper Tiger (Kiplinger Books, $11.95).

"All the various papers in our lives represent hopes, fears,failures, successes, dreams. The reason clutter piles up is becausedecisions haven't been made. . . . Our job as organizers is to helppeople make those decisions."

What it comes down to is that papers must be handled on aregular basis. A filing system must be kept and used. Sadly, it'slikely that some things must be thrown away.

The National Association of Professional Organizers has 500members nationwide.

About 20 of those are in Chicago, says Thompson, who started herbusiness 2 1/2 years ago and now has "hundreds" of clients. About 75percent call for repeat services, not necessarily the same ones.Thompson designs and installs storage spaces and will evenorchestrate moves.

It's possible to bring a cluttered desk under control in acouple of hours, says Thompson, who charges $40 to $50 an hour. Butshe has "clients who are still trying to clear off their desks after10 sessions."

The average person who appeals to Packrats may have "one or tworooms full of stuff, perhaps can't get the car into the garage," saysOstrum.

One univeral source of paper problems is a lack of space. SaysHemphill, "There's nothing wrong with keeping everything if you havespace and it doesn't hamper your life."

Stephanie Culp, an organizer in Oconomowoc, Wis., who publishes"Streamlined Living," a newsletter on organization and timemanagement, says she has noticed "a certain logic to being organizedthat escapes people who aren't organized."

Many of her clients are perfectionists, Culp says. "They're sodarned busy, things have got away from them - sometimes two or threeyears ago."

It seems contradictory that perfectionists need help stayingorganized, but Hemphill says such folks may simply clutch withanxiety when they contemplate the job at hand.

"The chronically disorganized in some ways are like thechronically overweight; they are constantly looking for magicanswers," says Culp. "They have to adopt a new way of living."

Some professionals are beginning to consider the possibilitythat poor organizational skills may chemically related.

Based on her reading about some possibly related behavioralproblems (such as obsessive-compulsive disorder), Ostrum believesthere may be a chemical imbalance in the brains of the chronicallydisorganized.

When disorganized people do decide to tackle their paper, Ostrumsays, "if they are moderately motivated, they can make majorchanges."

For information on Packrats International, write 146 S. MainSt., L271, Orange, Calif. 92668.

For a free sample copy of Streamlined Living, write P.O. Box108, Oconomowoc, Wis., 53066.