Neat freaks

People are being buried alive by the information age and members of the National Association of

Professional Organizers are building a tidy business by providing help.

The association's well-organized national convention is scheduled April 9-12 at John Ascuaga's Nugget.

Paper is the culprit in many offices, say three specialists in organization who work in northern Nevada. The real-world ghostbusters of the information age help people regain control of the flow at home and in the workplace.

People with a penchant for neatness may wonder why such services are required.

Elizabeth Stanton of Stanton Services says paper piles grow out of control because people think they might need it in the future.

July Ozment of All Together Now, meanwhile, attributes clutter to "People's emotional attachments."

And Meggin McIntosh of Emphasis on Excellence says, "I believe people don't change until the pain is bad enough."

McIntosh, who holds a doctorate in linguistics and had been a professor at University of Nevada, Reno, says academics often are at risk of being buried under piles of paper.

"In academia, jobs change frequently, so people need new systems," she says. "Academia is its own interesting weird industry."

In 1988, McIntosh turned proactive in organizing her own out-of-control academic workload. Others at the university noticed and turned to her for help. She began conducting workshops on the side, and in 1995 founded Emphasis on Excellence Inc.

Now she teaches group workshops with titles such as "Keeping Chaos at Bay" to help others exorcise disorganization demons.

But some resist culling the clutter.

Gifts, for instance, can carry both guilt and emotional attachment, says Stanton.

"People can't make the purge," she says.

When McIntosh is called onsite at a company, she says, "I meet with the individual in advance to determine whether it's their idea or whether a boss told them to get organized."

Sometimes she just says no. "My job is to work with the people who are willing."

Among the willing, says Stanton, are real estate agents who maintain home offices. There, she finds: "Piles of paper. Files are a mess. All categories are labeled miscellaneous. Desktops are cluttered. They don't even want to sit there."

In such a situation, she asks, "What's your routine? What's the first thing you do when you come in?"

The home office also yields business for Ozment, who says, "Paper clutter is most common. My job is to educate them on how to handle their paper; how to store it, file it."

Organizers typically charge by the hour, and while national rates range from $45 to $200 per hour, locally the fee is $50 to $100, she says.

When clients ask how many hours the task will take, Ozment responds, "That depends on: How quick can

you make a decision?"

"As soon as they touch it, there's a story behind everything," she adds.

But once people manage to sever those past ties they feel freed.

"I've been hugged," Stanton says. "One gal who hadn't seen the top of her desk in a couple of years almost started crying."

"It's such gratifying work, says McIntosh. "At the end, people are exhausted but exhilarated."

"You can see the mental weight lifted off their shoulders," says Ozment. "I love what I do. I'm born to do this."

The organizers' national conference is open to members as well as non-members who are interested in starting an organizing business. (More information is at www.napo.net.)

Peter Walsh, keynote speaker for the conference, wrote the book: "It's All Too Much:

An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff."