Professional Organizing News

Our clients aren't the only people who like to spread the word about us, so does the press! Arranging It AllSM is well known as a leading provider of professional organizer services in the nation and founder, Barry Izsak, is recognized as an articulate leader, advocate and spokesperson for the professional organizing industry. He has been quoted in hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post and USA Today, as well as featured on CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC and CBS.

Click on any of the subjects below to read articles and learn more about getting organized and why Arranging It AllSM is the right choice to help you get organized!

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Recent Articles

Pride in Messy Desk Replaced with Sinking, Drowning Feeling

By Darren Garnick - The Boston HeraldJanuary 13th 2010

For most of my professional career, I have been the proud poster boy for A Perfect Mess, the contrarian book that preaches the virtues of a cluttered work space. The disorganization bible, written by Needham author David H. Freedman and Columbia University management professor Eric Abrahamson, argues that office chaos actually enhances creativity and productivity.

“A messy desk can represent a surprisingly sophisticated informal filing system that offers far more efficiency and flexibility than a filing cabinet could possibly provide,” they assert. “Messy desk owners typically have separate piles for urgent, less urgent and nonurgent documents.”

Three years ago in this space, I passionately endorsed A Perfect Mess and ruthlessly mocked Barry Izsak, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers. NAPO had branded January as “Get Organized Month” and Izsak, who is a professional organizer in Austin, Texas, ominously told me that his archenemy, clutter, plagued “the bulk of humanity.”

It turns out that his superhero rhetoric was right. My employer’s decision to relocate to larger offices this month has forced me to confront the mounds of documents, newspapers, trade journals and notebooks blanketing every square inch of horizontal space. Despite thriving in this environment for years, I am now strangely experiencing Barry’s prophecy of a “sinking, drowning feeling.”

I can’t take it any more. Why would I save a Wal-Mart sales flier from 2004? Looking at it, I had no idea which product originally enticed me. Why would I save DVDs for Microsoft Front Page 2000 or Microsoft Explorer 5 - for the dream software museum I hope to launch one day?

There is no way I am ever hiring a professional organizer, though I now reluctantly respect what they do. The problem lies in my refusal to let anyone touch my stuff and decide what is truly valuable. Like the bottles of Benadryl (expired 8/2004) and Tylenol (expired 1/2006) anchoring my desk drawer. Those could be vital artifacts for the dream medication museum I hope to launch one day.

With the help of some consulting co-workers, I begrudgingly threw away a banged-up VHS tape of World War II newsreels. They convinced me I was not the only one with footage of the Nazi invasion of Poland.

Ironically, deep inside one of my mounds of newspapers was an Associated Press story declaring newspaper hoarding to be a mental disorder. But the greatest contributor to my “disorder” are hundreds of scraps of paper with “important” information scrawled on them. Phone numbers. “To do” lists. Article ideas. Calendar listings. Gas receipts never claimed on expense reports - is there a statute of limitations?

My advice to anyone facing a similar avalanche is to immediately gather up every trade show tote bag you own and throw them away - without even looking at the contents. Empty vessels automatically get filled - usually with useless promotional freebies that seemed so appealing at the time. How many “stress relieving” squeezie toys or soda can koozies do you really need?

After more than a week of intense clutter therapy, I profusely apologize for my past insensitivity to the National Association of Professional Organizers. There is no such thing as a “Perfect Mess.” With that psychological hurdle out of the way, it’s now time to tackle my home office.

Time Saving Tips for Working Mothers

By Kathy Murdock - AllBusiness.comNovember 3rd 2009

Between getting to and from here and there and finding time to get things done when we arrive, it's difficult to keep everything organized. Yet an disorganized busy working mother is even worse - you have to keep things together if you want to make every appointment and retain your sanity. Here are some tips for busy women like you who are trying to juggle it all!

Amy Knapp, who has created a variety of family organizers, says:
Clean out your car while you are waiting for your kids after practice.....or use waiting time in your car to address or write notes on holiday cards, birthday cards, etc.

Barry Izsak, a professional organizer in Austin, Texas who recently completed serving two consecutive terms as the President of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), offered numerous tips, including:

--Schedule activities appropriate to the amount of time you have to do them. Do small tasks when you will have more interruptions and larger tasks when you have more time.
--Combine activities logically...group your errands together, do phone calls while unloading the dishwasher, etc.
--Select clothing the night before.
--Allow kids to help pack lunches.

--Assign a set time each week to handle paperwork: paying bills, filing items, going through mail and tossing what is not needed.

Izsak, a personal organizer whose company helps lots of working moms, also suggests creating a 'launch pad' by the door that holds everything you need before you leave. I do this: Our backpacks, purses, and shoes are located in or on top of a shoe shelf that stays by the back door heading to the garage. In the morning we simply grab our items and go.

Some tips I have found to be helpful:

--Keep a planner in your purse and a calendar by the wall.

--Transfer new entries nightly while making dinner.
--Go through mail while preparing dinner - toss junk,

save the rest.

--Keep a set of cleaning supplies in each room and clean while you can - while the kids bathe, while you cook, etc.

--Use carline time to do tasks such as returning calls.

More Recent News

Featured Articles

Pride in Messy Desk Replaced with Sinking, Drowning Feeling

By Darren Garnick - The Boston HeraldJanuary 13th 2010

How to Give the Garage Back to Your Car

By Sharon Harvey Rosenberg - The Miami HeraldMarch 16th 2008

The family garage is probably the most used and abused room in a home.

''The average American two-car garage has basically become a no-car garage because it's crammed full of so much clutter,'' says Barry Izsak, author of Organize Your Garage In No Time (Que Publishing, $16.95) and a well-known garage organizing expert. Izsak is a professional organizer in Austin, Texas and founded his own professional organizing company called Arranging It All in 1996 that specializes in organizing garages.

Fortunately, it doesn't cost much to organize the family garage, says Izsak, who is also the immediate past president of the National Association of Professional Organizers.

Here are a few low-cost solutions:

• Think. How is the garage used (workroom, storage, extra kitchen)? Do you want or need to change its use? Are you effectively using the floor and walls?

• Pick easy targets. Toss out the rusty wheelbarrow and the 10-year-old magazines.

• Learn from the kitchen. Kitchens have built-in organizational systems such as the refrigerator, cabinets and drawers. Create a system for organizing your garage.

• Create zones. Use a hardware store model to solve the turf war among craft materials, sports equipment and lawn supplies.

''Keep similar things together,'' says Suzy Wilkoff, owner of Tasks Unlimited, a professional organizing service in Miami and president of the NAPO-South Florida chapter.

• Find a new purpose for the old furniture in your garage, Izsak says. A discarded entertainment center can be recycled as a work bench. Compartments in baby furniture or old desks can be used to store items.

• Organize a garage sale or donate unwanted items to charity. The family garage should be purged and organized once or twice a year, Wilkoff says. Enlist the help of a professional organizer if you can’t do it on your own.

And finally, ''Save room in your garage for at least one car,'' Wilkoff says. ``That's what it was built for.''