Shortcuts: It’s Time To Get Professional About Getting Organized

Winnie Sandler knew she was running out of time. Her children, 9, 12 and 13, were away at summer camp, but soon school would start, and her family would be in a whirlwind for the next nine months if she didnt get a system in place to organize the household.

Once the kids are in school, were all running in six different directions — there are music lessons, sports, etc., said Ms. Sandler, who runs a law practice from her home near Boston. Your days shrink, then theres dinner and homework.

So she searched the Internet and found a certified professional organizer, Standolyn Robertson, who runs Things in Place in the Boston area. She has hired Ms. Robertson to come to her home on Monday to plan finishing touches for a new storage room in the basement and to help organize her office and other areas. School starts for her children on Sept. 5.

As summer vacation season nears an end, families like the Sandlers are scrambling to find ways to run more efficient households. This is the time of year that people start thinking of new beginnings, Ms. Robertson said. Its a new leaf. They are buying new clothes, new books, and they want a fresh start.

At some point, heads of households may feel the need to call in a professional, and they can expect to pay $50 to $200 an hour. But an organizer often pays for herself, either in found money or opportunity, Ms. Robertson said. Among her finds have been uncashed checks, gift cards and certificates yet to be redeemed, coin collections and stock certificates.

This chore looms large; to make it more manageable, organizing specialists were asked to suggest smart ways to tackle homes, backpacks and lockers, cars and desks.

HOME BASE Every house should have a launching pad, Ms. Robertson said, where the family can drop stuff off at night for pickup the next day. This includes lunch bags, backpacks, phones and chargers, purses and briefcases and MP3 players, as well as library books and movies that need to be returned.

The launching pad could be a table in the foyer, a workbench in the garage or a corner counter of the kitchen. But it has to be one agreed-upon spot and nowhere else.

This way, no one is running around the house looking for homework or phones and making everyone else late, said Ms. Robertson, who is president of the National Association of Professional Organizers (www.napo.net).

To ensure that the next day gets off without a hitch, she said, before bed, pack lunches, make coffee, prepare breakfast and pick out what everyone is going to wear so there are no fights in the morning. Its huge!

SCHOOL GEAR Donna Goldberg, author of The Organized Student: Teaching Children the Skills for Success in School and Beyond (Fireside, 2005), has a system for taming lockers and backpacks called PACK, for Purge, Accessorize, Categorize and Keep it up.

The elements are these:

¶Purge: Parents want kids to purge daily but nobody does that, she said. Instead, she suggests students sit down once a week, on a Sunday, perhaps, to examine the contents of their backpacks. They can throw out trash, file papers they no longer need in a desktop file box at home and sort items by weight, with the heaviest going in first.

The less you carry, the more organized you are, the easier you can find things, Ms. Goldberg said. Lockers, she said, should be cleaned thoroughly several times a year.

¶Accessorize: Buy organizers for the backpack, or buy one with a lot of compartments for bus passes, money, pencils and papers (but dont overdo it, she said). Outfit lockers with accessories: magnets can be used to post schedules and other notes, whiteboard can be used to jot notes. Hooks and shelves can make it easier to find items.

¶Categorize: Separate the contents of the locker into categories.

Subdivide textbooks and notebooks by subject or by morning and afternoon classes. Use clear pockets in binders. Younger students will find To Do, Done and Notes to Parents tabs useful. Older students will need a pocket for every subject. Homework should go into the first clear pocket so that its the first thing a student sees when opening the binder. If you can see it, you can do it, Ms. Goldberg said.

Students can assign a home, whether in the backpack or locker, for everything they put away, she said. Even if they do not put the items in the same spot regularly, when it is time to clean up, they will know where to put them again, she said. Other items live in a locker or backpack, like iPods, CDs, sneakers and sports uniforms. To find these on the run, keep like items together.

Alina Tugend, who writes this column every other week, is on vacation.

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