I was curious to know what value folks were getting from hearing me speak on the topic of organizing. Several months after giving a talk at The Actors’ Network, I sat down with one of the attendees – the dry-witted actress Nancy Schofield – and asked her to share her experience of putting my advice into practice.

K: When you came to my talk what did you want to get out of it? Why did you go?

N: Because I had been feeling increasingly burdened by the clutter. It’s one thing to think, “Oh, this is a mess and it’s not ideal but I can live with it” kind of thing… but, for me, it became almost suffocating. Suddenly, instead of: “I have to sit down and clean up my office”, it started to feel like I couldn’t. It was just so overwhelming I just couldn’t start. And it made me fell stuck work-wise – I knew there was stuff in the room I need to access but I couldn’t quite get too… the room was big enough, but I seemed to have just this tiny little space to work in. So, then when I heard you were giving your talk I thought, “I better go to that!”

And the other thing that helped was knowing you and knowing that you were going to suggest something reasonable to do.

K: I know for myself I want to do things in the simplest, easiest, cheapest way possible! That’s where I come from and I think that’s a pretty valuable point of view. Who wants to spend any more time and any more money than they absolutely have to?

N: Yes! And hearing that even a little effort will make a difference. I know that I get into this all-or-nothing mode where unless I’m going to be completely organized with beautiful colored files, etc. then, the only alternative to that perfection must be living in complete disorganization. But now I understand that each little step forward will be beneficial.

K: I often think one of the obstacles in the way of people actually hiring an organizer is that the project seems so overwhelming that they think: “This is going to cost a fortune. Even if we work five hours – or five days — it will only make a dent!”

N: Well, my experience when I had tried to organize myself is that I work five hours and don’t make a dent! And the whole idea that, because I make such a mess in the process of going about it, that unless I have three days or so that I can devote to organizing – with no interruptions and like, the stars are aligned so that my back is in good shape… but then again, if I ever had three days like that I’d never spend them organizing!

K: What content in my presentation was most helpful to you?

N: First of all you talked about how things need a home and that was, like “Ohhhh!” Hearing it now it sounds so obvious – how could that not have occurred to me in the past? But, nevertheless… one of the things I could never find is tape and scissors. I’d be reading a magazine and want to clip something out and be sitting there trying to carefully rip it out – but you know you always rip the page when you do that. But the daunting prospect of looking, once again, for those stupid succors was too much! I’ve even used nail scissors because at least I knew where those were! I know now I not only have to choose homes for things but I also have to get in the habit of putting them back. This sounds silly but it feels so good when it’s time to cut something and I know where the scissors are!

What you said about breaking things down into time segments rather than task segments was very helpful. I got that I could approach the project like “I’m going to spend an hour today on this” rather than “I’m going to organize the closet.”

And not buying containers until I know what goes in them!

It sounds retarded but I spent a lot of time matching up socks. I came up with a little way of organizing them so I don’t have to sit there looking through them all the time. I mean I’m a reasonably smart adult but a big chunk of my day was taken up with stuff like that.

You know, there’s an awful lot of judgment involved on my part about all this… you know, a “really good” person – a “really good” woman — would be organized and have everything in little containers and never live this way. And certainly “by my age” I should have this stuff licked. Between those two thoughts I can really torture myself… so your idea about figuring out “what works for me” means that it doesn’t have to be a certain way as long as it is working for me and that really let off a lot of the pressure.