Saving Money

Getting Organized Column
BackStage, October 2006
topic: saving money

Cheap Thrills
By Kristine Oller

After 45 minutes of searching, you still cannot locate your actor accent tapes. Flopping down on your bed, you recall that the last time you tore your apartment apart trying to find something you swore it would be the last time. Finally, you’re ready to get organized. With determination, you roll up your sleeves and… go shopping. Stocking up on containers, bins, and boxes of all sizes and shapes, you shell out cash and hope these new items will help restore order to your environment.

It is too easy for organizing to become yet another expensive activity in an actor’s life. The entertainment industry is without rival in encouraging you to throw money at your career in an effort to advance. Can’t land an agent? Get new headshots. Can’t get auditions? Take a workshop. However, the solutions to most struggles – in organizing and in acting – do not rely on buying more stuff.

Organizing is a relatively cheap life-improvement tool because the basic requirement is thought. Planning, analyzing, re-arranging, changing habits, and shifting perspectives are at the core of every successful organizing project. Here are some suggestions about how to get the guidance you need without breaking the bank.

Free is a Very Good Price

The internet is a wonderful resource for free how-to information about organizing. These websites are packed with advice and worth checking out:

blog.NeatAndSimple.com – Ariane Benefit has created a blog that is a one-stop shop for step-by-step instructions and inventive ideas on how to tackle almost every area of your home and home office.

FlyLady.net – Once you get past the cutesy, female-centric theme of this site, you will discover a terrific free program developed to help you change your habits and integrate more organization into your life.

LifeHack.org – This site delivers a potpourri of “pointers on productivity, getting things done, and lifehacks” aimed at making your days a bit more manageable.

Stretching Your Dollar

If you prefer to have someone by your side, personally guiding you through your organizing project, you can hire a professional organizer or enlist a friend. There are pros and cons for each option. Professional organizers will cost more upfront; however, their ability eliminate the causes of your frustration efficiently will reduce the time and energy you spend on this project. Plus, as experts, the results and impact of their work should be positive and long lasting.

If you chose to invest in professional services, there are three ways to maximize your time with the organizer. One, make notes ahead of time about what areas of your environment frustrate you the most and why. Two, purge before the session as many of your unwanted items and papers as possible. Dealing with paper is probably the most time-consuming aspect of organizing. And three, consider recording the session, if possible, so you will be able to capture every bit of the organizer’s advice. Organizing can be physically and emotionally draining and sometimes you will be presented with more information than can be immediately absorbed.

Having a friend help you out – perhaps even bartering services with him or her – is a more cost-effective option and can yield satisfying results. For that to happen, however, you and your friend must be well-matched. Understand that being an organized person is different from being a person who is able to organize for others. Most likely the friend you have chosen is organized by nature and has found what works for him or her completely by instinct. This friend’s methods may or may not work as well for you. If you decide not to implement his or her suggestions, or if you “fail” to keep your home the way he or she left it, that friend may take it as an indication that you didn’t value his or her service. Also, the excitement of what started as a “fun little project” for said friend, might loose its appeal long before the work is actually complete, leaving you in a bit of a lurch. Clear communication and patient, non-judgmental attitudes are necessary to avoid such disappointments.

The simplest money-saver is to buy your containers at the end of the project, not at the beginning. To purchase a container that will serve you well, you first need to know how it will be used (How big should it be? Does it need a lid or not?), what it will be holding (How sturdy must it be? How many compartments should it have?), and where it will live (Will it need to be aesthetically pleasing or merely functional?) Once you have those answers, you can take measurements and precisely choose the container that will work best in the long run. Think of selecting containers as the sweet reward for an organizing job well-done.

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© 2005-2007 Kristine Oller, all rights reserved. You are free to use material from these columns in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

“By Kristine Oller of Personalized Organization. Please visit Kristine’s web site at http://www.kristineoller.com for additional information and resources on organizing and career strategy for creative people.”

(Make sure the link is live if placed in an eZine or on a web site or in a blog.)

 

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