Upcoming Events

Since we have a program about De-Cluttering on Tuesday, November 1, 2011, I have decided that having our regular Thursday evening De-Clutter Club meeting might be too much in one week. I have cancelled the Thursday night meeting in November but will address the group that attends on Tuesday meeting about our December meeting and beyond. Members and those who are interested in joining this group are encouraged to attend the presentation to learn about us and give us your input.

As a holiday project to help us clear out some stuff from our lives and at the same time help others, I am compiling a list of things that the South Brunswick Food Pantry and other local social assistance organizations need that we might have just “lying around” our houses. I know that most of these places want new and nearly new items, but if you are anything like me, you have a few of those new and nearly new items lying around as well as your well loved and over used “stuff.”

I will make the list available and have boxes and bags at our December meeting to gather the items and then arrange to get them delivered before the holidays.

If any of you have a contact with a charity that you know that needs “stuff,” contact me and let me know if you would be willing to deliver those designated donations after the meeting. I will let you know as soon as I can what items are needed that we might be able to contribute.

Also, at the December meeting, we can discuss our successes this year, start to set reasonable resolutions for 2012 and discuss ways to have a stress-free holiday season by letting go of the clutter in your life and mind. We can make it an early holiday celebration! I will have coffee and cookies and maybe some other surprises.
Please come to the presentation on Tuesday, November 1 with Sangita Patel of Kalakar Interiors on The Magic of Thought Logic: Clearing and Connecting Your Mind-Space and Home-Space and then join us as we wrap up 2011 on December 1 in the other side of the room in which we usually meet; we are sharing the space that evening with a Girl Scout Troop.

Ask the Expert

Many of you have asked for the library to offer talks from other Organizing Professionals so that you may learn some new techniques or perhaps find an organizer that you think you might want to work with one-on-one to solve your organizational issues. As I said earlier, I looked at the websites for the National Association of Professional Organizers and at the Institute for Challenging Disorganization and did a search on finding an organizer in this area - within 25 miles of 08852.

The list was quite extensive on both sites about help available in the South Brunswick area. This means that you are not alone in feeling like you could use help with getting your life in order. I have contacted a few of those listed that live in the immediate area and I'm working with them to try to schedule some presentations this fall. We are concerned, however, that we cover some topics that we haven't covered so well in the past. I have one organizer that focuses on clearing your mind to clear your home so that you can achieve inner calm. Another that I have spoken with can talk about maintaining your de-cluttered space once you have achieved your goals or she has offered to do an "Ask the Expert" Q&A session to answer any questions you may have that pertain to a particular area or type of clutter.

I would like your feedback about what kind of presentation you would like us to provide. I will bring up this discussion at our first De-Clutter Club meeting of the fall on September 1st at 7:00 p.m., but if you could let me know ahead of time what you would like to learn from an expert in the field, I can get some presentations scheduled before the calendar is entirely booked.

You can email your suggestions to me at outreach@sbpl.info or you can reply to this posting. I hope you are all having a great and productive summer de-clutting your environment. I have seen a lot of garage sales starting to pop up around town - these must be people who spent some of those super-hot days indoors, sorting through their "stuff." Let me know what your issues are and we can see if we can find some answers or find the "perfect" professional to help you get closer to a clutter-free life!