Baltimore Business Journal

Cleaning Up Clutter

by Joanna Sullivan

A pile here. A few more piles there. Soon there were piles everywhere.

Jim Blanchard dreaded even venturing into his cluttered office.

“I felt like coming into work everyday there was a 100-pound weight on my shoulders,” said Blanchard, who heads business development for Baltimore’s Vangel Paper Inc. “My desk was a mess. I felt like I was running around in circles. It got to the point where it was unbearable.”

Blanchard’s mess is not unusual. Walk around any workplace and you will find a cubicle where last week’s dirty coffee cup competes for space with last year’s financials. Nearby, there is a pristine cube where paper clips are organized by size and color. In most cases, messy or not, the desk typically doesn’t betray whether someone is a good or bad employee.

In fact, organizing experts — and there is a growing number of them out there — say clutter is only a problem if it starts affecting someone’s job performance or life.

For some people, those piles are a filing system. Their seemingly disorganized owner can find the document he needs in a flash. For others, those same piles — and the mess in the desk drawers not visible — become a hindrance to their productivity and sometimes even their sanity.

“You have to be able to find what you want when you need it,” said Amy Rehkemper, president of Simplify Organizing Services in Baltimore. “Being organized is not synonymous with clean or tidy. It means you can be comfortable in your surroundings.”

That comfort level, or lack thereof, is driving more individuals and businesses to seek professional help in getting organized. The Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, or MAPO as it’s called, is booming. In 2003, it had only 16 members. It now boasts 45, a majority of whom are women who wanted a business that provided flexibility. Of course, it also provides an outlet for their gift of organization.

Beth Savitz, MAPO’s outgoing president, said many of her clients have obsessive compulsive disorders or are hoarders who need someone to push them to get rid of clutter. They are often referred to her by psychiatrists. Others just reach a point where they decide they need to be a bit more orderly when it comes to their homes or offices. One woman called her after a bicycle fell onto the roof of her car in her overstuffed garage.

Tom Myers, an Owings Mills bank executive, said a co-worker pointed out that his work was being affected by his messy, disorganized office. That led him to Leslie Shreve, a professional organizer who has owned Just Imagine Organizing for three years. His company, Farmers and Merchants Bank, agreed to pick up the tab. Shreve charges $100 an hour for her services.

Myers said he was famous for carrying around index cards in his shirt pockets with a to-do list on them. Eventually, they would get too full or crumpled and he would start over again.

Shreve came in and got rid of the pocket to-do list and weaned Myers off his Franklin planner. He’s now on a Palm Pilot. The cleanup of his desk included the physical piles, the e-mails and computer files. He now uses computer programs for his to-do lists for both his business and personal life.

Among the personal list items on a recent January day? “Pay my wireless phone bill. Pack my cleaning. Pay soccer referees $10 each.” The work list included his various projects or bank clients.

The self-satisfaction is obvious when talking to Myers about his new ways. “After [Shreve] left, I was pounding my chest saying look at me how neat and tidy I am,” he said. “Every once in a while, I fall off the wagon. I realize I’ve slipped and I spend an afternoon cleaning up.”

But not everyone has a colleague to point out their messy ways. Home offices, often tucked away in a spare bedroom or den, offer the perfect hideaway for the hoarder.

Janet Lord, an international lawyer who works from her Roland Park home, said she hired a professional organizer to sort through the backlog of boxes from several past offices because the mess was making her anxious. She expanded into other parts of the house as the papers and boxes stacked up.

Savitz, who owns Instantly Organized, forced her to go through those boxes and get rid of things. Her most prized possession now is a label maker.

“I’m no longer using my dining room table,” Lord said. “I’m actually using my home office and enjoying it.”

But what if you can’t shell out the $45 to $100-plus an hour to hire a pro to organize your life and things?

There is a growing do-it-yourself industry catering to home and office organization. And self-help books, computer programs and even the old-fashioned daily planners strive to turn anyone into a model of efficiency.

Still, some experts question whether there is too much emphasis on organization these days anyway. They see color-coding files and creating an elaborate e-mail filing system as another way to procrastinate getting the real work done.

Rehkemper, who organizes for a living, knows some people probably can’t change their ways. She grew up with parents who were the consummate packrats. It was a catalyst to her own career. She likes giving people a spark of hope that they can improve their environment, even just a little bit.

But she warns anyone from carrying the concept too far.

“From time to time, I like to throw my coat on the couch,” she said. “If you’re trying to constantly clean up after yourself, then you can’t enjoy the moment.”