Blog

June 18, 2026, Thursday, in-person

From Stacks to Speciality: Finding Your Place on the Paper Continuum with Colleen Warmingham of Minimologist.

This meeting is for Professional Organizers and allied professionals.

**Attendees will learn a four-track framework for paper competency to use at every job.

**New organizers will learn what paper skills to develop first and if and when to refer out.

**Experienced organizers will be able to deepen their conversations with their clients and might discover that specializing in paper is a natural next step for their business. 

TIME: 4 pm networking/schmooz-a-rama, new & prospective member Q&A, 4:30 pm official start, chapter updates, 6 pm meeting wrap.

Chapter members, please register for free here. Meeting link and access code available in POINT messages and on POINT Philadelphia Community Home page.

Visitors welcome; register here. 

Questions?  Please email the director of membership at napo.gpc (at) gmail.com

July 16, 2026 Thursday, Summer Social

The very popular summer social is hosted this year by our valued business partner: Closets By Design in Malvern.

Members are encouraged to attend for this casual, fun social event. We’ll play, mingle, and create some collaborative social content.

A big thanks to Closets By Design for hosting and providing dinner. Members, as of now, you’ll get to come and enjoy without any needed prep.

More details will be posted soon.

Members, watch POINT for details and the location in Malvern, PA. To help our event organizers plan, members please register here for free.

Visitors welcome; register here. 

August 2026, NO MEETING

September 17, 2026, in person

 Topic: The Great Beyond: Finding Homes for Your Clients Castoffs

This is show-and-tell, professional organizer-style.

Come mix and mingle with your organizing friends, including chapter business partners who offer excellent complementary services to our community. This meeting is a lively and relaxed way to share our favorite tips and tools.

Each attendee will have one minute to describe a type of item that they have re-homed or donated, plus their creative or favorite source for solving the problem of ridding clients of things they no longer want, whether it’s a vendor, donation service, or community resource. These collaborations are a perennial crowd-pleaser. Newbies and veterans alike LOVE to see some new tricks.

Location: Homewood Suites by Hilton Philadelphia Plymouth Meeting, 200 Lee Dr, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

Start time: 4 pm Informal networking and schmoozing.  

Official call to order at  4:30 pm.

6:30 pm is the close of the formal meeting. We’ll adjourn to a nearby restaurant to continue socializing and sharing.

Existing chapter members, please register for free here. (registration link to be added) (This is essential to help us plan for refreshments and supplies.)

Visitors welcome; register here. 

January 15, 2026, Thursday, VIRTUAL

If Everything’s A Priority…Nothing is: Planning a Year That Actually Works with Ellen Faye, author of Productivity for How You’re Wired: Better Work. Better Life.

This meeting is for Professional Organizers and allied professionals.

Attendees will:

**Pause, reflect, and commit their intuitive priorities to paper to gain momentum and focus.

**Understand their structure preference to create a 2026 plan that truly fits the way they think and work.

**Get clear on their goals, intentions and priorities to achieve more and reduce stress.

TIME: 5 pm virtual networking/schmooz-a-rama, new & prospective member Q&A, 5:30 pm official start, chapter updates, 7 pm meeting wrap.

Chapter members, please register for free here. Meeting link and access code available in POINT messages and on POINT Philadelphia Community Home page.

Visitors welcome; register here. 

Questions?  Email Geri Chark Frankel, Director of Professional Development.  or text/call 856-296-6605.

This meeting will not be recorded.

February 19, 2026 Thursday, VIRTUAL

Holding Space From Afar: Exploring Virtual Organizing: What to know before saying yes or no to virtual work with Pam Holland

Attendees will:

1. Learn how Virtual Organizing can expand/compliment a traditional practice.
2. Find out the essential tools and systems to use.
3. Benefit from hearing stories and case studies: what worked, what did not.
4. Get a ready-to-use guide

For subscriber specials and free tips to declutter your life: http://bit.ly/DeclutterYourLife_Ezine

Existing chapter members, please register for free here. Meeting link and access code available in POINT messages and on POINT Philadelphia Community Home page.

Visitors welcome; register here. 

Level Up: NAPO Virtual Conference March/April ✨

Are you a budding organizing entrepreneur, a team member aiming to sharpen your skills, or an experienced business owner ready to scale sustainably? NAPO2026 Level Up is the ultimate virtual event designed to take you where you want to go. Click to register.

Get ready to grow with purpose and scale with confidence through a powerful blend of on-demand trainings and live sessions where you will learn from the best in the business how to elevate your client experience, systemize your services, and market like a pro.

With two targeted tracks, you’ll be able to choose the learning path that’s right for you!

 Here’s what to expect

Each track will be hosted in NAPO University and includes 4 on-demand courses and 4 live, presenter-led sessions. 
Earn up to 1.0 CEU per session, with up to 16 CEUs available across both tracks!

• On-demand content drops March 23, 2026
• Live sessions run over 4 days starting April 20, 2026
• Recordings available exclusively to NAPO2026 Level Up registrants

Click to register.

March 19, 2026, Thursday, IN PERSON

 Topic: Organizers’ Favorite Things

This is show-and-tell, professional organizer-style.

Come mix and mingle with your organizing friends, including chapter business partners who offer excellent complementary services to our community. This meeting is a lively and relaxed way to share our favorite tips and tools.

It’s time to reveal “what’s up your sleeve”!  You will have one minute to show off your favorite tool or describe your go-to tech solution to your colleagues at this perennial crowd-pleaser. Newbies and veterans alike LOVE to see some new tricks.

Location: Homewood Suites by Hilton Philadelphia Plymouth Meeting, 200 Lee Dr, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

***NEW Time***: 4 pm Informal networking and schmoozing.  

Official call to order at  4:30 pm.

6:30 pm is the close of the formal meeting. We’ll adjourn to a nearby restaurant to continue socializing and sharing.

Existing chapter members, please register for free here. (This is essential to help us plan for refreshments and supplies.)

*Special offer: NO GUEST FEE for the March 2026 meeting with pre-registration. Visitors welcome. Please pre-register here AND here. You do NOT need to pay the $25 guest fee, but you do need to register in advance.

September 18, Thursday, in person

 Join us IN PERSON at a NEW location on Thursday, September 18,2025 for “Dive In… Or Refer Out: Explore these Four Organizing Specialties with our Local Leading Experts.”

·       Hoarding – Yasmin Goodman

·       Move Management – Anna Sicalides

·       Paperwork – Colleen Warmingham

·       Photo Organizing – Darla DeMorrow                            

You’ll hear the pros and cons of each specialty, get time to ask questions, and determine how you’ll proceed the next time these opportunities arrive.

*** NEW! *** LOCATION: The Hyatt Place at King of Prussia, 440 American Avenue King of Prussia, PA

TIME: Doors open at 5 p.m. for Networking; Formal Meeting begins at 5:45 p.m. and ends by 7:30 p.m.  

LIGHT REFRESHMENTS will be provided.

You won’t easily find this type of information in the wild, so come join your colleagues for targeted learning.  The worst that can happen is you’ll increase your billings. 

Questions?  Email Geri Chark Frankel, Director of Professional Development.  or text/call 856-296-6605.

Visitors welcome; register here.

October 16, Thursday, in person

Need to understand your neurodiverse clients better?  Want insights, strategies and exercises for your upcoming sessions with them?

Click here:

Click to purchase The ADHD Productivity Manual, by ADHD expert Ari Tuckman, the presenter at our upcoming October 16th meeting.

Formatted as a workbook, you’ll have instant access to ways to guide your clients to success. You’ll experiment and learn and witness what works, and what does not and what to do about it.

As a GPC member, you can bring your questions to our October 16^th, in-person meeting where Ari will be speaking AND addressing individual “live from the field” issues you share.

Make the most of this opportunity. Order and start reading this TODAY.

*** NEW! *** LOCATION: The Hyatt Place at King of Prussia, 440 American Avenue King of Prussia, PA

Existing chapter members, please register for free here.

Visitors welcome; register here.

November 20, Thursday, virtual

Topic: November – 5 Steps to Fill Your Organizing Pipeline Full of Referrals – how to build your business through word of mouth

Denise Praul of Whiteboard Learning. Walk away with 3 to 5 action steps to create your own Referral Marketing Strategy for a pipeline of referrals ready to buy from you.

Attendees will learn:

1. How to create a clear marketing message that teaches others how to find referrals for you.
2. How to inspire and leverage your current network to send you more consistent referrals.
3. How to utilize referral partners to create a more consistent cash flow.

5 PM networking starts, welcome guests and members

5:30 PM meeting starts

7 PM meeting ending

Zoom link to be provided to registered members via POINT.

Visitors welcome; register here.

December 7, SUNDAY, 5-8 pm

Holiday Feast and Fun at The Container Store in King of Prussia, 650 W Dekalb Pike, King of Prussia, PA 19406

This is a member’s only meeting. Join here. We can’t wait to celebrate another fantastic year organizing Philly. Come celebrate with Philly’s organizing community.

Everyone loves a little drama! Sticky Situations might be your guilty pleasure. Hopefully they aren’t as sticky as the ones the AI-generated image shows. I hope this image is good for a laugh.

Our next NAPO-GPC monthly meeting will be on June 19, 2025 via Zoom. Members will receive their meeting link via email. Guests are encouraged to attend by registering here.

5 pm networking/schmooz-a-rama, new & prospective member Q&A
5:30 pm official start, chapter updates
7 pm meeting wrap 

Sticky Situations are moments with clients when our ethics, best business practices, knowledge and experience are challenged. New and veteran organizers alike face these. Sharing them with colleagues can be enlightening. Just like reality TV, discussing sticky situations gives us a chance to get a little dramatic (but in a safe way). 

Zoom meeting breakout discussions on each Sticky Situation selected will let us get down and dirty and get to know each other professionally.

Our meeting date falls on Juneteenth, so please check your schedule. Maybe figuring out how to honor a new federal holiday feels like a sticky situation to you? Come join us, as we figure it out together.

Save the date: Our next in person event is our summer picnic taking place on July 17, 2025. Members will receive details in email. Click here to join now.

I’ve been reading articles about the promise of a paperless office my entire life, and for the most part, those articles have just created more paper.

For the first time in modern history, we now have the tools to go completely paperless. But before you go invest in a new gadget and hunker down to scan all of your paper, you can probably do a lot to reduce the amount of paper in your life.

Turn Off Paper Statements

• The first thing is to turn off any statements for accounts, especially if you aren’t opening them. Bank statements are usually the prime offender. Call your bank or go online to shut off those statements. Check to be sure the bank’s retention practices will meet your needs, and that you can access statements online if you need to.
• Then turn off any billing statements, especially if you have them on auto-payment arrangements and can check your account online.
• Check with your medical offices to see if they can eliminate or reduce your paperwork there, too. Most medical offices have PHRs (personal health records) and can email you copies of office visits, tests and prescriptions.

Turn On Auto-Pay

• If you have some but not all of your bills on auto-payments, turn those on, too. Many institutions will allow you to set a minimum payment amount each month. You can always pay more, if you choose, by making additional online payments.
• If you are concerned that you’ll either miss a payment or somehow be out of the loop on your accounts, write up a simple list of accounts being paid automatically (either by hand or using a spreadsheet), and check these online the same day you get your paycheck. This adds one piece of paper to your life, but might be exactly what you need to keep it all straight. 
• Set up folders in your email program to file e-statements. Folders allow you to organize emails into groups for long-term storage, out of your inbox. Rules allow you to automate routine statements to be filed without you having to be the one to do it. If you need help with learning to use folders (or tags in gmail) and rules, search the internet for “how to set up folders on {my email} service.”

Get Off Mailing Lists

• Contact https://dmachoice.thedma.org/ and https://www.catalogchoice.org/ to opt in or out of paper mailings. They won’t stop all of the mail, but it will stop much of it.
• Be generous, but be selective, too. Stay off the “sucker lists,” which are lists of people who are likely to respond and donate to charitable appeals. Charity fund raising is big business. The more organizations you donate to, the higher the chance that data mining companies will identify you as an easy target, selling your information to even more charities. Honor your nature to be generous by donating to fewer causes that are important to you, and that have good ratings from  https://www.guidestar.org/. Be selective to stay off the lists that generate even more charity mail in your mailbox.
• Opt out of unsolicited credit card offers. Many of these are generated by companies data-mining your credit reports. Reduce these unsolicited offers by contacting each of the three main credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian), and requesting that they not allow your data to be accessed for the preapproved offers. The toll-free number for all the national credit reporting agencies is 1 888 5OPTOUT (1 888 567 8688).
• Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you (“Firm Offers”). The FCRA also provides consumers with the right to opt-out of these offers. If you choose to opt-in or opt-out, you can visit www.optoutprescreen.com to make your request online.” (excerpted from Experian.com)
• Reduce the amount of credit accounts you have. Stick with one main all-purpose credit card and another one for backup. Reduce the urge to sign up for store credit accounts just to get short term offers. Cancel promotional cards as soon as you fulfill the promotion. The more cards and credit accounts you have, the more mail they will generate. 

Utilize Online Information Sources

• Recycle most manuals for household items. Chances are you don’t need the manual for small items like toasters and coffee makers. You can access manuals you do need online at https://www.manualslib.com/ and http://www.manualsonline.com/. If you can’t find it there, which is rare, you can usually find a manual for an older product at the manufacturer’s website.
• Support your school’s, church’s and community’s efforts to go paperless. Learn how to use online forms and payment options like e-checks and Paypal. 

Say No to Paper Offered to You

• Don’t bring home fliers, brochures and free magazines. These rarely get read, and they rarely have information that you can’t find online.
• Instead of collecting business cards, scan a card on your phone and enable your settings to send information right into your phone’s Contacts app. ScaBizCards and Evernote both can upload details directly to your contacts app.

Reset your Reading Habits

• Cancel your newspaper and magazines if you never read them. Continue to get your local news by purchasing a digital subscription, and request a daily email of headlines and topics that interest you.
• Are you really serious about having less paper in your life? Get an e-reader and learn to use it instead of buying and storing books you’ll need briefly. Sure, you love the feel and smell of actual books, but you can have HUNDREDS of great books and magazines in less space than your unread piles are taking on your cluttered nightstand right now.

If you really want to go paperless, start with these steps to have less paper in your life. You’ll find more space in your home. 

The following is excerpted from the best-selling book: Organizing Your Kitchen with SORT and Succeed:

What is your goal? Are you trying to get or stay healthy, looking to set a good example for your kids, or are you just tired of fighting clutter in your kitchen?

If you want to get healthy, the kitchen is a great place to start. Research shows that cluttered kitchens prompted people to eat 44% more snack food than a kitchen that was organized and decluttered.

Unless you are working with a paid professional organizer, do not start out with the goal to organize your entire kitchen. For most people, it’s just too big of a goal to accomplish in the ideal project timeframe of between fifteen minutes and four hours.

Instead, pick smaller goals to organize your kitchen, and tackle them one after the other, perhaps on different days:

Clear the sink

Clear the countertop

Remove or re-organize magnets and notes stuck to the refrigerator door

Baking supplies

Cleaning supplies

Pantry items

Small appliances

Everyday dishes

Grill, picnic and party gear

Refrigerator (inside)

Freezer (inside)

Towels, napkins, placemats and tablecloths

Pick one of these mini-projects, or choose something that’s specific to your kitchen, and write down your goal. It can be a single bullet point. It can be on scrap paper or the back of an envelope. Just write down the one thing you are working on today, right now.

Yes, actually writing it down is the first step to getting started. If you’ve ever gotten distracted while organizing (and really, who hasn’t?), then you’ll appreciate this.

A written reminder can help you stay focused on your project and reel you back into the kitchen when you start to wander off. It’s the equivalent of having that professional organizer or good friend there beside you, tapping you on the shoulder, reminding you to stay focused on what you said you were going to do today.

After writing down your goal for this project, actually get started. You’ve already completed one-fifth of the SORT and Succeed system to organize your kitchen or anything in your home.