Secrets of Professional Organizers Volume 1: Experts Talk about Chronic Disorganization & Hoarding by Donna Smallin Kuper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It seems a long time since I finished a book. Moving, boxes and boxes and boxes. I feel I may never get finished with this move. But the mess I left behind, I never want to see again. After a couple years of the fibro getting me down and keeping me in bed the place was a mess. I have to admit it was a mess. But I was in bed. When you’re in bed you don’t feel like cracking the whip on anybody else. And they don’t see it like you do, they don’t see the mess, they don’t care, or they think I’ll get up and do it even though I’m hurting. And my brain wasn’t working. I did what I could do, and I read a lot. In those worlds my life wasn’t messy, I had adventures.
Thank goodness for summer. I finally felt good. I had a chance to go on road trips. I got to go swimming and I felt good! And in all of that I found hope again. And possibly, I found some answers for my health. Because whatever I’m doing now must be working. Even though I’ve walked 3 miles every few days and have muscle aches, I still didn’t get a flare. Is it the magnesium? Is it the extra B vitamins? Is it the extra calcium and D vitamins? Is it the elevation here in Christmas Valley or the barometric pressure or the lack of humidity? Is it the combination of all of it plus a new life in my own adventure? I don’t know. But while I feel good, I want to organize and get my life together.
So I’ve been collecting books about housekeeping, organization, and decluttering, those kinds of books. But I dreaded reading them. You see, long before fibro, I knew I had ADD/ADHD. Organizing is a problem for people like me. There are shiny chickens everywhere. Cleaning out the closet may find me putting together a new hobby or finding something new to research. That’s me when well. Add pain and exhaustion to that and nothing will get done. And here is where the book I just read comes in.
This was not so much how to book though there is a little of that in there. This book feels like I got to meet a whole lot of organizers, who were also counselors. Each of the counselors has her own way of dealing with people and has a specialty of types of people that they deal with. Many organizers deal with people who have money. These people can afford to have all the shelves put in and closet arrangers that they need in their houses to get organized. When you’re poor, you can’t afford that. When you’re poor, you need to organize even more, but you don’t have the money to hire an organizer or have the money to hire a housekeeper. One of the women interviewed talks about taking this whole subject on. I hope they can find help for all of us who are in that position.
Another person interviewed takes on the issues that a person with ADD/ADHD must contend with. And yet another takes on the issues that senior people have. Like me. When you had problems in your life, health problems or psychological problems that set you back when there’s no one to help you, the problems just get worse. Your place becomes a health hazard, accidents are going to happen when you can’t walk through the place with plenty of room. And it was a relief to see that these people in this book are looking at these issues and seeing them as true challenges.
Sometimes you feel somebody out there does care. This book helped me feel that. It helped me to see how to read the rest of the organization books that I’ve picked up. To realize that these are tips and tricks that work for some but not for everyone, but to collect what works for me. And to realize I’m not alone.
This book was free when I got it. Now it is $3.99 I think. Still I think it’s worth it. It’s a good starting book. I’d like to read the rest of the series. This was only volume 1.
Darswords 
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