What To Do With Messy Co-Worker?

Your Office Coach, Marie G. McIntyre of Tribune News Service responded to a question about an individual with a messy office.  In Otherwise excellent co-worker is too messy appearing yesterday in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, there are actually two questions.

Responding to the first one: there are other options available rather than a group intervention with “Mark”….something that could actually do more harm than good (see second question in this article).  There could be many reasons that “Mark’s” office is messy: perhaps he is overwhelmed with work, perhaps no one ever taught him organizing skills, perhaps the company has not been clear on retention policies, etc.  The first step for the supervisor is to find the reason, and the next step would be to plan how to make improvements.

As Professional Organizers we have helped many individuals in similar situations.  One such person said “”I was chronically disorganized, and it had an adverse affect on my work. After spending a day with Organizing 4 U, I am much more productive, and I proudly leave the office every day with a clean desktop. No more piles!”.

Professional Organizers organize much more than closets.  I hope that “Mark’s” co-workers will be able to offer alternative solutions.

Thanks for reading,

JoEllen

Answers to Questions About Hoarding

Do you have questions about Hoarding?  With all of the shows and articles of late there are often a lot of misconceptions.  Joshua Becker’s interview with Terrence Shulman will answer many of those questions.

For more infomation, or to find  resources or books on the subject, follow this link to a list that we have put together.

JoEllen & Muffy

Hoarders or Slobs?

Are they hoarders or slobs….or neither……?  They could be chronically disorganized; compulsive shoppers; they could be overwhelmed with other things going on in their lives and everything got out of control; they could be depressed and lack the energy for getting much of anything done.  This list could go on and on.

Television shows like Hoarders on A & E, and Hoarding: Buried Alive on TLC have given many of us a glimpse into a condition that affects as many as four to six million people. While those cases are extreme, they do exist.

Here in the Cleveland area, we are members of a local task force on hoarding.  The Hoarding Connection of Cuyahoga County has a mission “to provide support and advice, educate, develop best practices, and assist in identifying needed resources for individuals who hoard and those that work with individuals who hoard.”   This group is actively reaching out to community agencies to educate those who may encounter a hoarding situation.  We want to educate others that hoarders are not slobs, and they are not lazy, and cleaning out the home does not happen in a weekend.  Individuals who are hoarders find value in items that most of us do not. Any changes in behavior and the living conditions  involves a variety of resources, and will take time.

For more information on hoarding, there are many books on the subject.  A couple of recommendations are Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding,  and Digging Out: Helping your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding & Compulsive Acquiring.

If you, or someone you know, wants some assistance contact The National Association of Professional Organizers, the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, or The National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists.  These are all good places to start and will direct you to more local resources.

JoEllen

Has Hoarding Gone Mainstream?

Speed Bump by Dave Coverly

Wow, the topic of hoarding is certainly getting popular!  Now, whenever I mention that I am a Professional Organizer, I almost always get a question about hoarding.  When I started in the business seven years ago, most people did not even know what a Professional Organizer did; and if they did, they thought about messy closets.  Not many knew about hoarding.  A lot of recent media attention has changed all that.

There are now at least two television series which profile individuals who are hoarders.   The first is Hoarders on A&E, and the second is Hoarders, Buried Alive on TLC.   These shows each focus on two different scenarios, bring in a therapist, a Professional Organizer, and a clean out crew to clear the mess…all in the space of one hour.  While these shows are bringing attention to a problem that affects between three and six million people, I am concerned that they portray solutions  which can occur in the space of a two or three days.

This past weekend, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published an article entitled A disturbing mess, and discussed how families become overwhelmed when one person hoards.  They cited resources to use if the person has died or moved into an alternative living arrangement, and the family is left to clean out the accumulation.

And then yesterday, in the comics, was a cartoon by Dave Coverly depicting a hoarder of rocks in a cave.  This is a first for me!  If something like hoarding is now depicted in a comic strip, I guess that means that the topic has gone mainstream.

The fact that more and more information is out there is certainly beneficial to many.  In our business, we have received an increase in calls from  people who want us to help their mother or a spouse or some other family member.  Thanks to the media for educating these family members that they are not alone, and that there is indeed help available.  Unfortunately, we are not able to provide any service until the person who is the hoarder desires help.  We sympathize with these families as their homes and lives have been taken over by so much stuff that there is often only a path through the home.  There is no place to eat or prepare meals, often just a sliver of bed space on which to sleep, and usually only one small place in which to sit.  The families continually make excuses about why they never invite people over or entertain.  Their blinds are usually pulled down, and no one even suspects what is on the other side.

Our success stories come about when the individual has completed, or is in, treatment with a mental health professional.  They need to begin to understand the whys of the accumulating, and learn how to part with things one small step at a time.  Even after successful counseling, they are still overwhelmed, don’t know where to begin, and see very little progress on their own.  This is where a Professional Organizer comes into the picture.  We help them sort through their stuff, aid in the decision making process, and offer resources so their things can be used elsewhere and not simply thrown in a dumpster.

If you are searching for resources I recommend that you contact the The National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, and the National Association of Professional Organizers to search for professional hands-on assistance in your area.  The literature suggests that mental health treatment from someone trained in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy has been the most successful; to learn more contact The National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists.