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The Philadelphia Hoarding Task Force, a coalition seeking to improve the outcomes surrounding hoarding issues, hosted a hoarding intervention workshop led by Jesse Edsell-Vetter. Jesse presented an innovative intervention model that he has developed and implemented with an impressive 98% success rate. The key to his model is the shift of focus from the “stuff” to the person.

In the past, Jesse, a Case Management Specialist with the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership, had used a common approach when dealing with hoarded homes. He would explain the health and safety issues and cite the code violations that had to be resolved to prevent eviction. After leaving the person alone to address these issues, follow-up meetings predictably showed little-to-no progress. A clean-out was the inevitable next step, costing an average of $10,000. Over time, Jesse observed the homes return to their hoarded state. Focusing solely on the clutter has proven to be extremely costly and unsustainable as a treatment option. Beyond the monetary cost, the emotional trauma is also a factor. In one tragic example, a family returned to their home after the clean-out and committed suicide.

In response, Jesse shifted his approach from focusing on the “stuff” to focusing on the person: who they are, their commitments, their struggles and what moves them. For the majority of us, life’s challenges leave scars and hurts that dissipate with time. For people with hoarding behavior, woven in the items they hoard are their scars on display for all to see and judge. While a clean-out removes the “stuff,” it does nothing to unlock the stories and hurts interwoven in the piles. Jesse’s model, in contrast, coaxes these stories out with respectful, compassionate and nonjudgmental interactions emphasizing the human side of the clutter, lessening the grip of extreme hoarding habits.

During the workshop, Jesse shared a case study about Bob, an elderly man challenged with health problems, living alone, facing eviction, and surrounded by paper piles, some as high as seven feet tall. Rather than mandate compliance to codes and leave Bob alone to manage his stuff, Jesse explained the safety requirements to Bob and asked how he could help. Jesse gained Bob’s trust with empathic statements like, “I worry that X” and “I am concerned because Y.” As Jesse rolled up his sleeves and sorted through the piles with Bob, he asked questions such as, “Tell me about your X” or “Tell me about these papers I see.” This technique of “curious questioning” revealed Bob’s vulnerabilities (mental and physical health, traumas, and family history), his cognitive processes (problem solving, attention, and executive functioning skills) and his core beliefs (values, responsibilities, and how he sees his place in the world). Jesse learned that Bob came from a very religious family. Three of his sisters were nuns, and he himself had wanted to be a priest. Struggling with his sexuality, at age 20 Bob told his family he was gay. He was then shunned by his family and his religious community. Fast forward from that time in the early 1960’s to the present day, Bob’s apartment was a manifestation of that devastating loss. One item Bob hoarded was church bulletins. He attended church services every day, each day taking copies of the bulletin with the intention of sharing them with others. From the overwhelming piles, it was obvious though that this rarely happened. Using a team approach, a cornerstone of his intervention model, Jesse invited Bob’s priest to collaborate. Seeing how committed Bob was to his religion, the priest asked Bob to assist him in providing communion to people who were unable to attend church. In that moment, Bob recovered his purpose in life and adopted a healthier expression of his deep connection to his church and community.

Bob’s story illustrates the human side of Jesse’s 98% success rate, showing what’s possible when we leave our judgments at the door, stop addressing the person’s “stuff” and instead, unlock the stories and hurts buried in the hoarded piles. When intervention models lead with the threat of a clean out, walls go up, but, as Jesse has shown, when the intervention is infused with respect, non-judgment, curious questioning, statements of concern, clearly articulated expectations and actions, motivation and genuine praises for milestones met, partnership and collaboration becomes possible and the work of letting go and healing begins. In Bob’s case, when the priest invited Bob to help him, Bob was able to connect to his life again and the importance of his “stuff” could take a back seat.

Trying to know everything about the Internet is as impossible as reading every book ever written. Like the spooky spider webs (real and synthetic) that accent our autumn décor, the fingers of the world-wide-web stretch and reach into sometimes unexpected corners of our lives. Schools, grocery stores, medical offices, places of employment and social groups – it is hard to find areas of life that are not touched. Yet, while technology races to manage our world, how well are we managing technology?

No matter where you find yourself in this digital age — ahead of the curve, just keeping up, or lagging behind — step away from the shivers you feel about getting caught in the web. Here are suggestions of some free tools and applications that I, myself, have found useful. They have helped me create order and ease in different areas of my daily life.

When You Shop: If you keep your cell phone with you, use it to store your shopping lists. Simply take a picture of your refrigerator grocery list before leaving the house or have a family member text you a picture of it when you’re at the grocery store. Create your list in an “app” such as Remember The Milk. And toss all those plastic loyalty and club cards. Use an app called Key Ring and they will always be with you when you need them.

Appointment Management: Phone calendars are wonderful for helping keep track of appointments and deadlines. They even offer the ability to set alarms. Go a step further and set up a shared calendar for your family in Google so you can know who needs to be where and when.

Travel Help: Have you ever been traveling and needed to find a gas station, restaurant or restroom? Don’t want to end up in a less than desirable location? Use the Yelp app to find something local and reviewed by others. Want to catch a movie on the fly? Try the Flixster app to find what’s playing now in your current location.

Files at Your Fingertips: Whether used for business or not, this can be more handy than you might think. Try creating a medical file in Evernote or Dropbox with snapshots of test results, medications and procedures. Bring an iPad or tablet to your doctor appointments and pull them up so your doctors can scroll through them easily. Similarly agendas, contact lists, and meeting notes for your association or social club meetings can be saved online. Even if you prefer bringing printed copies, storing them in Google Drive is a great backup plan. If you get into a bind and are caught without the printouts, you can log in to your Google account and access the notes on your phone or tablet without having to stop home.

I challenge you to choose one new techno-solution this month and see if it can help you streamline an aspect of your life. Don’t wriggle helplessly in a web constructed by someone else. Use technology to create your own web of control and order. Replace your fear of the Internet by spinning a web of your own design.

Can you believe it’s October already? Where have the last 10 months gone? With the holidays on the horizon, now is a great time to get your kitchen organized, whether or not you plan to use it a lot in the coming months. There is nothing like a healthy kitchen makeover.

Having a kitchen that is well organized, stocked with healthy foods, and free of nutritionally deficient ones is important if you want to upgrade the quality of food that you and/or your family are eating and make it easy to prepare quality meals.

Here are 5 tips to get you started and to help you maintain what you’ve already organized.

1. Store items near where you use them. Store your dishes and utensils near the dishwasher. Store your pots, pans, and bakeware near the stove and oven.  Make sure all your plasticware have bottoms and lids that fit together. This will save time, energy, and space when you need them and ease putting them away.

2. Arrange “like” with “like” in your pantry. Keeping similar items together makes it easy to know how much of an item you have and if you need to buy more. For example, keep all pastas on a shelf, soups on another shelf, and condiments on a 3^rd shelf.

3. Keep masking tape and a Sharpie near your leftover containers and/or plastic bags. Having supplies at the ready allows you to easily label every leftover with the date and contents. Store leftovers in one place in the refrigerator. This will help you throw out expired food and will remind you to go through your refrigerator and cabinets for any other old food items.

4. Store extra plastic bags in one larger plastic bag or a container. Storing all the bags in one spot makes it easier to find them when you are in a hurry and to recycle them for future use.

5. Keep counters clear. Store seldom-used appliances in another area of the house (e.g., on a shelf in the basement, hallway closet or garage). This will free up counter space to prepare meals.

Making some simple changes will help you get the most out of your time in the kitchen.  You will save time, energy, and space keeping things where you use them. An organized kitchen makes it easier to cook at home to improve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. You will save money eliminating duplicate and triplicate purchases and by eating out less. Family members will be able to help with meal preparation and clean-up when they know where things are stored. Finally, your life will be simplified, and you will be able do the things you really want to do.

What are you going to do to make your kitchen a healthy area of your home? Now is your time to go From Bedlam to Brilliance!

If you come to my house, you won’t see a perfect, magazine-ready home. But you will see a clutter-free, tidy space, unless the kiddos are having a LEGO-fest. Then all bets are off.

Want a more clutter-free home all the time? Take note of things that organized people do to keep their home organized.

1. Don’t put it down, put it away. Yes, everything has a place in my home, even if it isn’t always in its place. If piles form in places they shouldn’t be, we reduce, recycle, shuffle, store, or donate to make room for new items. This goes for mail and coupons, too!
2. Make time to clear the clutter. It doesn’t take much, but my kids know that we will wait for them to clear the toys out of the living room before they can turn on the TV. We occasionally will be late to events because they needed to put craft supplies away. It’s a small price to pay now for my kiddos to learn that they are responsible for keeping the house livable.
3. Make seasonal adjustments. Flipping the closets from winter to spring and from summer to fall takes just a few hours, but it’s a must-do. It’s not a glamorous job, but making sure there is storage space in the closets and dressers means that other things can be put away in the closets, and not end up sitting out, creating piles of clutter. (See point number 1 above.)
4. Use the downtime. I think the microwave is among the greatest organizing tools ever invented. Whenever  I am warming a cup of tea or prepping a meal, I use those 30 second and 2 minute chunks to quickly tidy one small area of the kitchen. A minute can be spent daydreaming out the window, or it can be used to quickly load or unload the dishwasher. Two minutes allows enough time to go through a backpack or toss junk mail. I can quickly clean the powder room while waiting for little ones to put on shoes and jackets. It’s amazing what little jobs can get done in 60 seconds or less, the average run of our microwave. Even upstairs, I use the time my children are playing in the tub to quickly clean the bathroom floors. While they are brushing their teeth, I can be putting away laundry. These little chunks of time really work for us.
5. Don’t buy extras. Because I don’t buy for “just in case,” I don’t have to carry home, store, clean, and organize extras. I try to buy just what we need, just at the right time. That of course, doesn’t include toilet paper. You can never have too much toilet paper.
6. Keep lists. My brain is full from the moment I wake up in the morning, so my brain is no place to keep important information (ha!). I keep a few lists for shopping, tasks, and events, and a very tight calendar to help me manage it all. Most of my lists are electronic, so I don’t have random papers floating on my counters.

While there are many more things that organized people do, these 6 things that organized people do might help you to stay more on track in your own home.

Have you always wanted to organize some or all of your home, but you just can’t seem to get started? Below are some helpful hints to get you on your way.

1. Schedule it
First and most importantly, timing is everything. Pick a time of day when you have the most energy.
Keep in mind that if you’re tired, the effort will be over before you really make a difference.
Minimize interruptions as much as possible.
Be sure you’ve had something to eat before you start as you’ll need energy for decision making, moving, and lifting.

2. Ask why this is important?
Why has this project been nagging at you? Write down the reason. (I’m serious).
If and when you begin to have trouble with whether or not to keep or toss an item, you can simply ask yourself, “Does this item help or hinder the purpose I am planning for this space?”

3. Purge
There is logic behind minimizing and surrounding yourself with only the things you truly love and find useful.
Visual clutter is distracting, can hinder our attention, and is not conducive to a serene environment.
Depending on the purchase, the following years will require you to dust it, wash it, dry it, hang it up or fold it, maintain it, repair it, iron it, and, eventually, donate it.

4. Sort
Keeping similar items together will enable you to know how much you have of any given item, and it will eliminate unnecessary purchases.
If this is done in all areas of your home, it can add up to big savings.

5. Location, location, location
Everything we own should be stored in a carefully selected ‘home.’
Store items where you use them.
Staying organized needs to be easy.  For example, removing a lid on a hamper so things don’t pile up on top of it.
Schedule time to address these areas so the simple act of putting things away is a breeze.

6. Procrastination
Clutter often adds up to postponed decisions. Whether facing a stack of paper or an intimidating project, ask yourself these questions:

-Are you hesitating because you need information? If so, make a list of what you need and who might be able to help.
-Are you simply a bit intimidated by the scope of the task? If so, break the task down into bite sized pieces.
-Can you commit to scheduling each ‘piece’ to your calendar?

7. Maintenance
A few minutes each day is all you need. I’ve been asked on many occasions, “Will my home stay organized after doing this work?” I like to use the analogy of weight loss when responding. With a little effort, and some careful decision making each day, you can maintain your achievement with pride.

–Taking 5 to 10 minutes per day to put things in their ‘home’ will keep your house in great shape.
–You’ll want to limit what’s coming in. Consider instituting a ‘one-in, one-out’ policy. Space is not infinite. Therefore, when buying a new piece of clothing consider letting go of an old piece.
–Resist impulse buys. Wait 24 hours.
–Make conscience decisions about the life cycles of your possessions. For example, let’s say that you decide magazines will only be kept for one month. You would throw the last issue out when the new issue comes in.

8. The payoff, celebrating!
Achievements and goals can be anti-climatic without reveling in them.
Having a home that is organized provides a surprising sense of pride, relief, and readiness.
You’ll have the freedom to host a spontaneous dinner party or barbecue at a moment’s notice.
This is the lifestyle that no accumulation of small possession can replace.

Whatever you do to celebrate, I suggest you reward yourself with experiences, not possessions. The experiences are the things we remember far longer.

I had the privilege of speaking with a 2nd generation auctioneer yesterday, and I want to share the information I learned with you. The premise of the call was to help professional organizers learn what does, and does not have value in the auction market so that we can give our clients the most up to date information. After all, we are not experts, but we need to be able to direct our clients to the best solution to meet their needs.

The most important thing I learned was that this is not a good time to sell your household items, furniture, or collections. That being said, if you have things to get rid of, you NEED to get rid of them, so you should at least try. Also, unless you have a Tiffany lamp or other valuable items to store, it’s not worth paying for a storage unit to hold onto things until the market has improved as it could be 20 years before that happens. This may sound grim, but I think we all (myself included) have to be realistic.

In one instance, I took some diamonds to a well respected auction house and was disappointed by their estimates. I ended up getting a better price at the local jeweler. In another instance, I took a 1920s English sterling silver set to a well respected auction house and the range that they gave me was less than if I melted it. I haven’t done anything with it because the idea of melting something so beautiful makes me ill.

The comments below are general, and things may vary depending on the geographic area. Also, specialty auction house results may be better than general ones. Please remember that the words ‘value and valuable’ are relative terms.

Art work
Watercolors are usually not that valuable
Contemporary art is valuable but difficult to price
Artwork featuring people and animals is more valuable

Silver
American silver plate has very low value (due to mass production)
English silver plate has more value
Most silver value is in the metal, unless it is from a quality name like
Tiffany or Georg Jensen

Collectibles
1% of what is out there is valuable
Hummels and Royal Doulton, that are signed, are valuable
Other collectibles are worth 50% less than ten years ago and 75% less than 20 years ago

Militaria
World War I more valuable
World War II has some value

Coins
Have value since people are still collecting coins

Stamps
Less value because there aren’t that many collectors looking for them

Books
First editions and signed books, in good condition, have some value
Old books that are in good condition have less value
Due to less interest, religious or educational books have little value

Records
A lot of 33RPM records have some value
78s are generally not popular

Toys
Need to be saleable
Cast iron is valuable
Original boxes add value

Comic Books
Need to be in mint condition
Ones with the lower cover prices have more value

Rugs
Handmade, 60 years and older, with silk content from Iran, have the most value
Machine made are less valuable

Jewelry
Sells for 1/3 of its appraised value
Signed jewelry has some value
Old watches have diminished value

China-Ceramics-Glass
Tiffany, Lalique, Herend and Royal Crown Derby are hot
Some signed art glass has value

Tools
Values are much less than new

Bronze
Real bronze is extremely heavy
Has value, but there are a lot of knockoffs

Mid Century Modern
High quality is valuable

An appraiser can help you select a good auction house for you to sell your high value items. Also, it is important that you work with reputable appraisers and auction houses. The American Society of Appraisers is a great way to get started.