Personal Organizer

Today's requirements of the social and professional world are higher than ever, making a priority to be organized in the different areas of our life, and keep a reasonable balance among them.

And yes, we don’t have the time or energy to get all things done.

Where to start?

ORGANIZING YOUR LIFE...

 Marie Mauceri 

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It was 2003 and I was having a hard time trying to organize my books, paperwork and clothing in a 140 square feet place in Manhattan, feeling overwhelmed and lack of creativity, when this article about Compulsive hoarding -a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), cough my attention. (we do not need to be in this extreme situation to ask for help).

It was about the two brothers, Homer and Langley Collyer, found dead under piles of junk and debris of various kinds,  on 1947 . The Collyers were part of one of New York's oldest families, a branch of the well-known Livingstons. Their ancestors had come over to America on the ship "Speedwell" in 1664, about a week after the Mayflower. The family had been members of the congregation of Trinity Church since 1697. Their father, Dr. Herman L. Collyer was a successful and renowned gynecologist, and his father, William Collyer, was said to have been one of the leading shipbuilders in America. In 1909, Dr. Collyer moved his family from Murray Hill to a fine upper-middle-class brown stone home in Harlem. 

(So, I thought, it is not about social-economic status, but rather about behavior and patterns. Some of us have the tendency to keep things that no longer serve any purpose, but emotional attachments being unable to make priorities among our different belongies.)

The overwhelming mass of debris the police removed from the house consisted largely of cardboard boxes, magazines, newspapers lying around that dated from as far back as 1915. Strewn everywhere were such things as hats, boxes of Christmas cards, five violins, a folding chair, and pieces of everything everywhere. The

basement room was found to hold 3,000 books, numerous telephone directories, a Steinway piano, a horse's jawbone, a Model-T Ford's engine block, numerous campaign buttons, and large amounts of newspaper, as usual, tied up neatly in bundles.

Even most of my work in NYC is filing and budgeting, I've had a couple of critical cases, very unsafe to work with. In one of them, years of dust had made a consistent cover on every objet and furniture, and there was no way to get to the window without clear years of bags full of old mail never opened, clothing that no longer fit and still keep their tags, and piles of newspapers. It was the winter of 2004 and I was contacted by a professional psychiatric to help a very successful business women who had a 'terrible secret' in her private life. I took it as a challenge. When I could get to the bottom of the first newspapers' pile they dated from 1982. No bathroom -tub and floor full of bags, and no power. When I asked, she told me "I take my showers in my office before come back home'.

I could share hundreds of different histories, although in the effort of being successful keeping the different aspects of our lives organized, we should focus in creating behaviors and small actions that will become patterns, driving us to achieve our  ORGANIZED LIFESTYLE.

No big effort is needed to improve our wellbeing and lifestyle. Just setting up some priorities and keep the commitment to organize our life focusing them.