Do you feel overwhelmed by the possessions, paper and piles that have taken over your life and space? Don’t know how or where to start to make changes? You’re not alone.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is pleased to announce the formation of a free, educational support group for individuals who are struggling with clutter and disorganization. The NYPL Clutter Support Group will be a member-based group facilitated by organizing expert A. J. Miller. It will meet on an ongoing basis to address clutter and disorganization related issues and offer support, information, tips and techniques to combat clutter and become better organized.

The NYPL Clutter Support Group is open to people of all ages with any degree of disorganization. Whether you’ve had a life long struggle with being organized or your problem is more recent; whether you’re just a little overloaded, a hoarder, have ADHD or are living with someone who is one of these, please join us.

We look forward to seeing you at our introductory meeting on February 4, 2009 from 6:00 – 6:45PM at The New York Public Library, Grand Central Branch, 135 E. 46th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues.

If your clutter issues stem chiefly from shopping, here are a few helpful tips to change that reality so you can conquer your clutter once and for all.

1.     Be aware of how you feel. If you use shopping, and specifically BUYING to alter your mood, notice it! If buying something new gives you an emotional high that temporarily takes you away from your troubles, makes you feel safe, worthy, loved, or gives you some other rush, it’s important to be aware of it. Once you’re aware of why you’re buying, you can take other steps to make yourself feel better besides buying. I would recommend a few sessions with a counselor, a hypnotist, or therapist to get to the root of your buying.

2.     Imagine yourself at home. When you’re OUT of your cluttered home and inside the gorgeous four walls of Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel, it’s easy to forget how stressed your home makes you. Again, that’s the idea. They WANT you to forget about your house and just open your wallet. And listen, when you really need something, great. Go buy it! But before you do, vividly imagine yourself back at your house with your new “thing”. Where in your already cluttered home will your new thing live? Who will clean it? How much space will it consume? What will it give you back? How long will it be valuable? Asking yourself these questions will help you make better buying decisions.

3.     Calculate the TIME cost. If money isn’t a motivator for you, and unnecessary spending doesn’t inspire you to reduce your shopping, think of how much TIME your new “thing” will cost you. Let’s say you make $20 per hour, and your new “thing” costs $100. In time currency, your new thing will cost you FIVE HOURS of your life. Thinking of new purchases in this way will help you decide if you REALLY need it or if you just want it to make yourself feel better.

The next time you’re out shopping, try these simple tips and see if it doesn’t help shift your shopping mindset so you can make better, more powerful choices and reduce the clutter in your life.

This past weekend, The New York Times ran an interesting article on how the downturn in the economy is affecting the self-storage industry. Not surprisingly, it confirms what I and my fellow organizers already know: the vast majority of storage units contain mostly clutter.

Since the start of the recession, occupancies at storage facilities nationwide are down 2-3%. While not a big drop, apparently it has shaken an industry that has always thought of itself as recession-resistant, if not recession-proof.

Here are some quotes from the article:

“After a monumental building boom, the United States now has 2.3 billion square feet of self-storage space. (The Self Storage Association notes that, with more than seven square feet for every man, woman and child, it’s now “physically possible that every American could stand — all at the same time — under the total canopy of self-storage roofing.”)”

“A Self Storage Association study showed that, by 2007, the once-quintessential client — the family in the middle of a move, using storage to solve a short-term, logistical problem — had lost its majority. Fifty percent of renters were now simply storing what wouldn’t fit in their homes — even though the size of the average American house had almost doubled in the previous 50 years, to 2,300 square feet.”

“Human laziness has always been a big friend of self-storage operators,” Derek Naylor, president of the consultant group Storage Marketing Solutions, told me. “Because once they’re in, nobody likes to spend all day moving their stuff out of storage. As long as they can afford it, and feel psychologically that they can afford it, they’ll leave that stuff in there forever.”

If you rent self-storage space, I dare you to multiply what your storage space costs by the number of months you’ve been renting it. Okay, now that you’ve picked yourself up off of the floor, do you even remember what you have in storage? Think about what you could have done with that money instead of lining the pockets of the storage industry with it.

I urge you to read the entire article. It’s fascinating and may provide just the inspiration you need to go clean out your storage space! Hire an organizer to help, if you need, too, but get it done!