EXPERT OFFERS ADVICE ON HOW TO GET ORGANIZED

When Deniece Schofield's third child was born, her household organization hit rock bottom.

"I wasn't born organized. And it got worse every year," Schofield said. "Finally I said enough is enough."

Schofield is in Cape Girardeau tonight to offer her expertise on how to get organized. The program begins at 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn. Tickets are available at the door.

"I was so overwhelmed," Schofield recalled. "I made a list of all the things that were wrong, and chose one thing. I worked on it until I got it right. It gradually turned into a system of organization."

"Nobody has any time anymore," Schofield said. "Everyone trying to figure out how to get more done in less time."

She wrote a book about her system in 1982 and has been on the speaking circuit since.

The bottom line, Schofield said, is desire. A person has to want to be organized before any system will work.

The other key is maintenance. Once something is organized the first time, a person must continue to maintain the situation. "This prevents you from having to go back to the beginning. Usually maintenance takes just a few minutes."

The most common organizational nightmare for people is paperwork. "Just about everybody has papers, newspapers, receipts, bills, stuff kids bring home from school," Schofield said.

She has devised a family planning notebook, which is basically a calendar for upcoming events and a family organizer to keep schedules and telephone lists.

"This way a lot of paper can be thrown away," Schofield said. "A lot of other papers can be neatly stored away in the notebook so it's not magnetized to the front of refrigerators."

She also recommends a filing system for things that really need to be saved. "You need a system that allows you to retrieve that piece of paper."

Schofield has ideas for tidying up toys and storing children's stuff. "I was following kids around all day long picking up after them," she said.

She put plastic garbage cans in each room. As toys were spread throughout rooms, she tossed them in the cans. At the end of the day, the toys were returned to their rightful places.

"I know a lot of people talk about the need to get rid of stuff," Schofield said. "And there is a lot of truth to that. But I think there are ways to find a lot more space without getting rid of everything."