Challenging Disorganization and Hoarding Expert Ellen Hankes

E-Boxing

When we as professional organizers help our clients deal with items that are loaded with emotional messages, it may be helpful to use a e-box.

For example, Jessie has recently lost her husband. While she is ready to address some aspects of decluttering his hobby area, she cannot deal with some unfinished items that were meant for family members. We suggest she put these items in an e-box or emotional box for the present time.

The e-box concept can be attributed to veteran professional organizer Terry Prince.

Have you used an e-box to "park" something until you are emotionally ready to make more decisions? I would like to hear if this technique was effective for you.

Hot Organizing Tip: Count to Three

We organizers like to keep it simple. You can't get much easier than counting 1-2-3.

There is a natural rhythm to three.

When I first learned to construct Toastmaster speeches, I found I could easily deliver a presentation without notes if I stuck to three main ideas.

Some of the most beautiful floral arrangements have three elegant flowers or three distinct elements.

Here are three ways that counting to three will help you get or stay organized:

Long Live The Cardboard Box!

Here's to the cardboard box! If the organizing industry chose a favorite tool, perhaps it would be the cardboard box.

It has long been recognized by observant parents that children have loads of fun playing with ordinary cardboard boxes. There's something about the inviting space created by a minimum of four sides and a bottom. Add top flaps and you really have a functioning system.

The challenge of folding the top four flaps of a box so that they stay closed without tape or other closure has always fascinated me. Is there a name for that process? If you know it, please share it with me.

Perhaps the Most Important 10 Minutes of the Day

Did you take ten minutes for yourself today? You are worth it, aren't you?

Dr. Barton Goldsmith puts it this way:

If it's not a terrorist attach you owe yourself at least 10 minutes of peace every day. Just meditate or stare out the window.

So, how did you spend your 10 minutes of peace today? Let us know the results.

So What DO You Say To A Disorganized Person?

How do you work or live with someone who is Chronically Disorganized? You may have a family member, co-worker or friend who lives in the midst of a hurricane of clutter and disorganization. It may be a source of frustration for everyone.

Here are 3 tips to help communicate with them:

• Focus on the person's specialness. Find ways to support and honor their gifts such as generosity, loyalty, friendship, and creativity,

• Accept others as they are. It is a powerful motivator when we show others that we accept them as they are.

• Be a good listener. Give your full attention to the person. Draw them out and let them help set the agenda for your conversations.

Today's Travel Tips

Whether you are headed to the airport on a business trip or for spring break, it pays to check out current rules for new service fees for checked luggage. While rules vary with different airlines, the trend in air travel is for user fees when it comes to some checked luggage.

User fees are charges that apply only to those who actually use services such as baggage check-in. We are beginning to see charges for checking more than one bag or for oversize bags such as golf clubs.

Book in the Ear

As I grew up, family members described me with four words: Nose in a Book. Today, so very tired of winter, I took a little longer with my usual Saturday morning errands. It had been months since I visited the local library so I stopped there. What new technological wonder did I find there?

Several shelves of Playaway digital audio books were near the conventional audio books on CDs. I found a fiction title that sounded interesting. When I checked it out, the librarian gave me a plastic box about the size of a VCR tape. Inside was a a device smaller than a deck of cards containing more than four hours of digital recording. Operated by a AAA battery, Playaway requires a user's 3.5 mm headphones.

Those Valuable Failures

Most of us just hate to make mistakes. We see failures as roadblocks to our success.

Actually mistakes are part of the learning process. When Joe can't put his hands on an important document needed for filing his income tax, he knows he must spend extra time in obtaining a replacement document. At this point he is likely to devise a new system for keeping track of the documents as they come to him. Without the failure in Joe's handling of the documents, he may not have worked out an effective system for dealing with these papers. Joe learned from his mistakes.

E-Keepers

Are you an E-Keeper?

You might be an E-Keeper if you have at least one of these: unused computer, non-functional keyboard, old television, dead remote control, or a non-operating cell phone.

E-Keepers like to hang on to obsolete electronic gadgets. Even though they no longer provide the function they once did, there is a glimmer of hope that someday, somehow, these obsolete electronics will return some value to the owner.

The Blue String Paradox

Years have passed and the treasures have accumulated. There is a box of paperback books from ten years ago. Here's a bag with an long-unfinished latch hook rug.

We find a roll of blue string. We haven't used it in the dozens of years that it has been in the basement. In fact, we didn't even know it was there, and we certainly can't remember why we have it.