Our family cycled over the Harbour Bridge, participating in the Sydney Spring Cycle. With 10.000 others, we prepared the bikes and lunches the night before, got up early, took a train to North Sydney – up the first hill –“are we there yet?”
At the starting point we had to find the choir, because on top of cycling 55km we were registered to take part in a Guinness Book of records attempt to be the biggest choir on a bicycle. We rehearsed Waltzing Matilda with the Choir of the Opera House. (The lyrics are actually hard to learn; and explain to a 8 year old why someone wants to die rather than go to jail; and how he can drown in a puddle?!)
“are we starting yet?” when we waited for our choir section to get the go ahead. “can we have morning tea?” as we cycled through the Rocks. “how much further?” every 5 km.
Despite having participated in that event for 7 years, we are never sure of the route. They changed it considerably this year and because we don’t have (working) bike computers, nobody ever knew exactly where we were going and where we where up to.
So we focused on the ‘now’ time, on our instincts as how much further to go, on our knowledge about local bike paths to try to guess where we are heading.
We knew where the finish line was going to be – the kids knew they would get an ice cream, but apart from that, we just took our time and enjoyed the ride.
I think it’s a good analogy how I work with most of my clients: Be prepared. Have a end result in mind. Have a plan that doesn’t’ have to be followed by the letter. Embrace the unexpected.  Have a  clear idea about the reward at the end and willingness to enjoy the journey.
PS: despite the brilliant rehearsal, the singing on the bride was quite disputable – and we haven’t heard back from the organisers yet whether we are indeed the biggest choir on a bicycle.

I think they are all quite different things:
Most of my clients would have “a bit too much stuff” . It mostly started with a life changing event: having a baby, getting divorced, losing a loved one, moving, new job… We help them getting back on track, and they find the routine they once had and (hopefully) live happily ever after. Being unorganised is very much in the eye of the beholder – if you don’t have a problem but your mother in law has with the state of your household: “you don’t have a problem”
I haven’t had many collectors yet – not what I consider one, anyway. I had people claiming they collect things, but if a collection is not displayed or organised and enjoyed with pride, I don’t consider it a collection. There is no shame involved with having a (vast) collection. You are happy for people to come over and have a look.  A collection has focus. I guess most collectors are happy with the state of their collection and don’t look for an Organiser. This doesn’t mean that someone else wouldn’t have a problem with your collection. My grandmother collected Bohemian Crystal. Mostly, vases and glasses and bowls. She loved them, displayed and used them. When she passed away, nobody wanted it – for us, it was stuff!
Most people enquiring about my services would mention the word hoarder at one stage or another. However, I agree with one of my colleagues, who always asks at that point: “are you on any medication or are you seeing a specialist about it?”  Hoarding is a serious mental disposition, and I am sorry to say, not easily fixed. It needs determination and time, and other people helping, like Councillors, Psychiatrists and Professional Organisers. Hoarders often don’t see themselves as having a problem, which doesn’t help if you try to help. The first step is making them aware of what’s really going on in their lives – what they are missing out on because of their addiction. As Peter Walsh always puts it:” what is more important, people or stuff”?

Filing infrastructure are the containers and gadgets that contain files and things. See below for a couple of ideas (and I am sure you’ll find more at Officeworks)
Most of my customers inherit a filing cabinet from somewhere and start using it, never asking themselves whether it’s the right system for their personality and their type of files.
Ask yourself whether you are a “chucker” or a “tucker”. Chuckers love suspension filing, just open a drawer and fling it in. Tuckers love lever arch files, punching holes and tucking everything nicely away.
Some files are better contained in binders; some are easier accessible in Manila folders. Ask yourself and make a conscious decision. And don’t put the benchmark too high. Just because you like the look of lever arch folders on a shelf, all nicely labeled and colour coded doesn’t mean you can maintain them. Did you know it’s 7 separate steps to file something in a lever arch folder compared to 3 for suspension filing? Choose a system that you can maintain. There is no point in rows of beautiful folders from kikki-K that are empty on a shelf with piles of paper the size of my oldest son (1.79) on your desk.

I have been asked by a big international Company to talk to their staff about an organised office and ideas how to achieve is. And because it’s corporate, they want as much information up front as possible, but don’t have much time, which means you come up with one liners. My answer always is, whether corporate or residential: Filing is about retrieving. If you just want to put something away, consider the bin.
If you know you will never need a document, why keep it in the first place? And, if you take that on board, it goes further: when you categories and name your files, ask yourself: “where would I look for things?”

NOW 2010

Every year, the second week in September is National Organising Week. This year has been the 4^th, and for the last three years we (AAPO) had Dymo sponsoring our efforts.

There are competitions and free workshops all over the country – and Peter Walsh, Oprah’s Organising Guru comes “home” to give the event a bit of a celebrity shine.

In my role as Sydney Forum leader, I had the great pleasure to meet him yesterday for breakfast –me and 80 others.

A couple of years ago I worked with him on a before and after style TV segment, so it was nice to catch up. He gave a short talk, which ended up being mostly an answering questions thing, but he is very entertaining and clearly knows what he is talking about. He uses good analogies: finish the cycle- as you would never stop a washing machine mid cycle to leave it half washed in the drum for a week, you shouldn’t stop midway through any project.

Arrange your desk like a car is arranged for you. Have the things you use constantly at arm’s length – the stuff you use less frequently is in the glove box: you have to bend over to get to it. To fill the car up = get new paper or stationery, its fine to get off your seat and walk to a different end of the room.

And pay attention whether you are left or right handed. It’s good to pick up the phone with one hand and write with the other.

Despite being a bit repetitive here – but every hero needs a mention:

these are the pictures of the amount of rubbish we moved out of a Storage unit here in Sydney last Friday.
And believe it or not, it took just 3 hours.
On top of this we decided on 7 boxes of books to be sold at the upcoming garage sale and took them from the storage unit back to the house to be ready to go.
The only things that were left are photo albums (which will come into the house after as much as possible has been sold at the sale) and Christmas decoration. For that we found space in the attic, so, by the end of the month, this storage unit will be empty and $ 55 a month saved.

… not necessarily people but definitely relationships.

I am coming across a lot of people with an oversupply of scrapbooking material. To an extent that there are three kids bunking in one room, because the second bedroom is completely overtaken by paper products and ribbons.

Most scrap bookers are very fast to admit, that they do love scrapbooking, but never have enough time to produce the page about  little Tom’s  christening (little Tom being big Tom in the meantime and finishing High School).

And that they love shopping for the material much more than actually sitting down and doing it.

I love paper and anything crafty or stationery myself – I mean really love it. (I still have big sheets of special paper from studying Interior Architecture some 20 years ago… and a couple of notebooks from the Czech Republic from before the iron curtain was lifted!!)

But I would never even contemplate scrapbooking. The reason being, that  a day has just 24 hours.

So let’s do the math and see where you would find the 50 hours it takes to finish a scrapbooked photo album:

7 hours for sleeping, 1 for cooking, ½ for cleaning and tidying, 1 for driving the kids around. 1 for helping with homework, 1 for eating breakfast lunch and dinner, 2 for watching TV, 1 for reading a book, 8 for working in a payed job, 1 for getting to and from work.

That already equals 23.5 hours. All this doesn’t’ include the weekly activities like shopping for groceries, exercising every second day. In these 23.5 hours you haven’t talked to anyone, didn’t drink a beer with a mate, haven’t done the gardening or cleaned the windows. You haven’t taken the kids on a day to the zoo or had just half an hour with nothing planned.

Because that’s what I would like to do with the half hour – just have nothing planned.

So give your scrapbooking material to a toddler, watch him have fun with it for a couple of hours and happily chuck the leftovers in the bin!

And now: enjoy half an hour with nothing planned!!!!!

Panic! We have to move overseas for my husband’s work. Packing up a messy house with years of accumulated clutter was not easy. So we called LessMess less Stress. Our house was also needing some renovations before we could rent it out. LessMess gave us practical advice on decor and color schemes. LessMess then took over the supervision of the renovations after we had left. Susanne supervised new carpets, painting inside and outside the house and various odd handyman jobs. She then organised the house to be cleaned, the rubbish taken and the garden done. Susanne from LessMess is down to earth but totally professional. Everything was done to our absolute satisfaction. The bill was very reasonable too!
Carolyn, Singapore

Dear Susanne,
Thank you so much for travelling to Brisbane to help me sort out my storage units. I really couldn’t have faced it on my own and your enthusiasm and excitement from the very beginning was very infectious. The process was very satisfying, especially nearly filling a rubbish truck with “stuff” that I had been PAYING to store! Another highlight was having the driver of the charity truck THANKING me for the huge donation of goods I was just glad to be relieved of! I have continued utilising the skills I have learned at home and am, for the first time, actually enjoying tackling new areas that need “organising” without being overwhelmed by the thought of it.
I must share with you an unexpected serendipity of this process. During the sorting of papers in the storeroom I came across several warranties I hadn’t seen in four years. One was for an expensive DVD recorder that no longer recorded and the other was for a leather sofa suite that now has a tear in it. Both of these items were over five tears old but I had forgotten that at the time of purchase, I had paid extra for extended warranties and, for the sofa, a protection plan. I am pleased to report that the DVD recorder I thought I was going to have to replace, was picked up yesterday to be fixed and… today I selected my BRAND NEW leather sofa as apparently mine was faulty!
I’m thrilled with this result as well as my new found confidence and skills taught by LESSMESS.
Thanks again Susanne.
Julie-Anne