Wallace is president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, which is promoting “Get Organized Month” to kick off 2012. Why your hyperfocus on organizing?
Organization is just the crux of everything I do. I just love the field. It’s so expansive; it includes so many aspects. For me, it was like ‘Wow, anything I want to do. I put it under this umbrella called organizing’ — stuff, thoughts, the way you do things.
I think you might be scared by my desk. …
Well, organization looks different for different people and at different times in life. Reporters have a chaotic life. Many reporters are creative types; the work style of a creative person looks different. Everything doesn’t have to be square on your desk. Organizing is whatever works for you. My guess is there’s probably a few things that have bothered you — target areas. If you handle those, the rest wouldn’t matter. It’s just a matter of time, and most importantly, get help.
Thanks for the pass. Why get someone to help?
It makes you set aside the time to do it. If you have help, it goes twice as fast, and it’s more fun. Otherwise, you go through the first pile and you go, ‘I don’t know what to do with this and I’m going to go get lunch.’ It helps get you started and keeps you on track.
How has your job changed in this increasingly digital world?
In today’s electronic world, most people are trying to go paperless but in the process, they’ve just made a big mess of their computer. It’s all really a retrieval system — find everything when you need it in a way that doesn’t affect your functioning.
How do you react to hoarders?
Hoarding is a mental health issue. … You might have a lot of stuff; that doesn’t make you a hoarder.
— Brian Hughes
