Home Organization: Tips from Professional Organizers
November 16, 2020
Rocio Espinoza
https://porch.com/advice/home-organization-tips
Do you think you are a compulsive hoarder?
- Do you have an excessive amount of clutter that
limits living space?
- Do you have difficulty categorizing and organizing
items?
- Are you holding onto possessions that seem of little
or no value?
- Have severe anxiety when trying to throw out an
object?
- Have trouble making decisions about possessions?
- Feeling anxious, embarrassed, or depressed because of
clutter.
- Fears about needing items that could be thrown away.
If you answered yes to more than one of the questions, you are a compulsive hoarder and need help from a professional organizer and a therapist to work on the emotional issues. Compulsive hoarding is different than chronic disorganization. Yes, aspects of chronic disorganization also apply to hoarders, but there are also vital distinguishing features. A hoarder’s home totally loses its functionality. A kitchen is no longer a kitchen. A bedroom is no longer a bedroom. The house becomes a jangled mess of storage for an indistinguishable mass of useless and useful stuff. And the disorganization affects the safety and health of the hoarder and their loved ones. Though it can be therapeutic, organizing by itself does not always get to the bottom of things, so to speak, because the issue is not just "the stuff" but the person and their way of thinking.
Cynthia Braun is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO)
