Organization business helps clients declutter

By Jim Obert

Business Today

"Less mess is less stress" is the slogan Ann Swanson of Jackson uses in her home-based business, Clean Up Your Act. Swanson is a professional organizer.

Professional organizing is one of the top 25 emerging professions in the country, says Swanson, who recently attended the National Association of Professional Organizers Conference in Denver. The conference featured workshops on organizing techniques for residences and offices, organizational accessories and demonstrations of case histories.

Swanson started her business in June. She points out that neatness and organization come naturally to her, but these skills are not natural for everyone.

Six years ago, Swanson bought Gulliver's Travel Agency in Cape Girardeau. She says it had a massive, antiquated filing system with lots of out-of-date information.

"There were 12 filing cabinets full of travel-related brochures and papers," said Swanson. "I didn't want to be burdened with all this obsolete information, so I spent a lot of time pruning through it."

By the time she moved Gulliver's Travel to Jackson in 1997, travel-related brochures were organized and placed in five filing cabinets, and drawers of paperwork were stored on computer disks. Other organizational changes resulted in less time spent on back-office tasks.

Swanson says the travel agency grew until she closed it in May 2002, then began referring clients to another travel agency.

Her new business focuses on residential service. When she was young her family moved about 15 times in 20 years.

"I became accustomed to deciding what was important and what was not in terms of possessions," Swanson says, adding that many people are burdened by an excess of things and a shortage of places to store them.

"Professional organizers assist people with decision-making about their possessions," she says. "We are not in the business of telling people they have to throw away everything."

Swanson assists people with storing needed items in logical places, discarding unusable and unneeded items, donating usable but unneeded items to charities, giving items to family members, and cleaning and repairing needed items for future use.

There are a variety of reasons why many people are not organized. At the conference Swanson attended, "chronic disorganization" was a term frequently used. Lack of time, lack of appropriate storage space, indecision, unchecked acquisition of things, emotional attachment to possessions -- all can contribute to confusion and clutter.

To become more organized, Swanson says a person needs to commit to changing habits., such as going on a diet and successfully losing weight.

"Professional organizers aid their clients in assessing their 'thing' needs and how to improve their 'thing' habits," says Swanson. "We facilitate decision making based on importance, frequency of use and emotional value."

When Swanson meets with a client, the client fills out a questionnaire that asks about current usage of different rooms in a house, high traffic areas, important items frequently lost, types of accumulation, ages of children, type of pets. During a two-hour session, Swanson will help the client categorize and decide what to do with items.

If items are to be given to the Salvation Army, Goodwill or other charities, Swanson will arrange delivery.

Clean Up Your Act cross-markets with another business, Maid Solutions of Jackson. Maid Solutions owners Eric and Melinda Allred refer potential customers to Swanson. Swanson, in turn, makes her customers aware of Maid Solutions -- after she has decluttered their homes.