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Keep it personal

For-hire organizers help draw the line between business and home space.

FREEDOM! IT'S WHAT THE in-home office promised us. Work in our jammies, telecommute, start our own business, choose our hours. Sleep in, go out for coffee, call clients when we feel like it.

No one ever told us about Sunday afternoons at the computer, fax machines that tie up phone lines, billing and bookkeeping, and, worst of all, mountains and mountains of stuff. As many in-home office people have learned, the fantasy of freedom too quickly becomes the reality of a self-imposed prison of disorganization.

Little by little, the insidious beast called clutter comes to blur the lines between our business and personal worlds. Daily, it arrives with snail mail, e-mail, and faxes. Before we know it, we can't see our kitchen table or walk through our living room. The bed has to be cleared of folders and files before we can sleep.

The wise and disciplined keep clutter at bay, tossing those pieces of junk mail in the trash before they make it to the desk or computer desktop. But for those of us way past the nip-it-in-the-bud stage, professional help is available.

Abby Goldenfarb, owner of Chaos Consulting in Boston's North End, is one of a growing number of for-hire organizers who help in-home business operators reestablish order, separate business and personal space, and become more productive and efficient.

"Most of my clients are victims of not enough time in the day," says Goldenfarb, "and they often have difficulty throwing things away."

Always an organized person who loves to pitch and toss, Goldenfarb in earlier days didn't understand why so many people were calling her.

"Now that I have my own business," she says, "I totally get it."

Now that her business is booming, she says, "There are more catalogs, more mail, more and more junk!"

And not all the junk is on paper. "I know someone who was away for a week and got 100 voice-mail messages," says Goldenfarb.

Getting on Goldenfarb's uncluttered track does take some effort. First, she says, pitch all those newsletters you're never going to read. Next, get rid of catalogs from previous seasons, and cancel catalogs you don't need. And while you're at it, get off unnecessary mailing lists.

The ever-popular Post-it notes don't make Goldenfarb's efficiency list. They can add to the clutter and sense of disorganization. "I suggest a notebook by the phone or in your purse - ideally just one," she says. "Train yourself. If you must use sticky notes, transfer them as soon as possible to your notebook."

Goldenfarb's clients include social workers, a psychologist, marketing specialists, retirees doing investing, and "a lot of writers."

While Chaos Consulting and other organizing services assist people with a range of tasks, often their primary focus is helping weed through years of accumulation. Once they have honed things down to the essentials, they can organize and label file cabinets and shelves, set up filing systems, sort and prioritize mail, and even maintain tax records.

Setting up computer programs, paying bills, purchasing gifts, and shopping for baskets and boxes that fit a person's home and lifestyle are other services Goldenfarb provides. As with most organizers, she offers her services on a one-time basis - spending a few hours to organize and set up a system - or she can establish a longer-term relationship with a client, returning every week or month to help maintain order.

"We can check over people's shoulders, help them set up the system, and teach them to maintain it," Goldenfarb says. "Other people want to leave for the afternoon and come back and have an office all set up." Good clutter specialists are not judgmental, and they're more than happy to work with a client's personal style.

Lynn Serper, president of Brain Enhancement Services Inc., is one of many happy clients whose lives have been turned around by a decluttering specialist.

"I was in desperate straits," Serper says. "I was complaining a lot, because I kept cartons around and milk-crate types of containers, all stacked and filled. It was awful. They spilled over into my living space."

Serper operates out of her two-bedroom home in the Back Bay, working with people who have illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, and aphasia. Although she reserved one bedroom for her office space, work-related materials still spilled out into her personal space. Thanks to Goldenfarb, home and office are now separate. "That is incredibly important," says Serper. "What I've gotten back is time."

Serper herself had a stroke 10 years ago and has recovered through years of patience, work, and therapy. She attributed her mounting home/office clutter to a busy life and the voluminous files she keeps on each client.

"I'm on the go all the time," says Serper, "going out and helping people, and I speak at conferences around the country. The last thing that gets done is my paperwork. And then, there comes Abby. She's incredible."

Initially, Goldenfarb came for a few hours to help Serper get organized. "She set up notebooks for me - one for each client - with dividers. Now, when someone calls, I can say, 'Just a moment, please,' and open to that divider, and there is the information."

For Serper and others who have regrouped and separated home office from home, the most important advantages are the peace and sanity they've regained. "I don't waste time looking for things now," says Serper. "It helps my mental and emotional state. Abby doesn't tell me what to do; she works with me."

After a lifetime of operating in her home, designer Sandy Keohane finally has the space she needs to do her multifaceted work, which is spread among a three-bedroom house in Quincy, a retail store in Milton, and rented warehouse space.

Remembering her days in a small New York City apartment with two children, Keohane says she used to lay out fabric on the bed, then have to put everything away at night. "Then," she says, "I moved to the dining table and had to put everything away to eat."

"For 15 years," Keohane confesses, "my living room looked like a growing amoeba." Once the work area claimed a corner, it just began to spread.

Keohane's businesses sound like a one-woman conglomerate. At Earthly Possessions, her store in Milton, she sells antiques, home furnishings, women's clothing, and more - most of which she has made, found, refashioned, or fixed. In an upstairs bedroom at her home, she sews and fashions pillows, scarves, clothing, and jewelry. "I have a thousand projects going at once," she says.

In her basement, she smashes dishes to make mosaic tabletops, and the warehouse is for painting, refinishing, and fixing furniture. She has mastered the art of keeping different projects in different rooms and of keeping her home and work lives separate. "My house, when you walk in, looks like a house," she says.

Keohane recognizes the importance of separating not only space but time. At a certain point, when you've spent the day working, it's time to shut down and knit or read, she says.

Keohane confines paperwork to her den/office, and she uses a computer for files and business. Confessing a need to keep every button or piece of fabric she has ever owned, she knows when to send a file or a fabric to storage.

Anne Braudy, president of Before and After Organizing Services in Brookline, also stresses the importance of separating personal and work papers. "For some people, file cabinets work; for some people, it's the pile system - a series of piles on a table," she says. "Essentially, it's having a system that works for you." She suggests separating boxes into current, not current, and mail.

Containment, she says, is key. Braudy does not claim to be inherently organized. Indeed, she says she has learned the hard way, and so she understands how different people need different organizing systems. She swears by a Palm Pilot or other similar device. "I think it's the most incredible invention," she says, and recommends using it for a calendar, to-do list, reminders, and memos.

For files, Braudy suggests three to six big categories, such as marketing, clients, and such. She advises against alphabetical listings - they become too numerous and unwieldy and are thematically unrelated.

Also, she says, go through and clean out your files every six or 12 months. "You'll realize either 'This is old, and I'll never use it' or 'Wow! I forgot I had this - it's great!' People keep way too much stuff; some people keep files for 15 years. Keep the current year in files." Older things should be stored elsewhere.

Purging and organizing "clears up energy," says Braudy. "You become freed up, psychologically and energetically. It allows people to put their energies where they want to."