I have been truly blessed with a career that I love and working with clients that I enjoy. I cherish the time that I spend in your homes while we work through the de-cluttering and organizing process to make your life simpler.

The past few months have been extra busy for me, and I have not been able to keep up with certain tasks that I typically have under control. For those of you who hesitate to call a professional organizer because you are afraid of being judged, I ask you to hear my message, that we are people too and sometimes our stuff can get out of control.

For example, my son’s room has become a storage area for luggage from a recent weekend trip, a winter comforter that needs to be taken to the laundromat because it will not fit in my machine and my travel cosmetics case that needs refreshing. By the time I go to bed tonight I will put the luggage in it’s rightful storage area and I promise to get the cosmetics case refreshed by Sunday night. And if it does not happen, it’s not the end of the world, and my life will go on if I have a half bottle of eye makeup remover during our next weekend out of town. As far as the comforter, it won’t be needed until late fall so that task is not a priority.

Another example…a few weeks ago I decided to make a weekly purchase of fresh-cut flowers for our bedroom. I stopped by the florist and asked the sales person to arrange flowers in a vase in a way that would be easy for me to copy for future purchases. By the way, I have absolutely no talent in this area. The florist put something beautiful together that I proudly took home. The vase, filled with river rocks and four large, fluffy hydrangeas, sat elegantly on the top of my bureau for 10 days. I spritzed and changed water every other day and my efforts paid off. The florist said that they might last one week, so I was delighted. That experience set the bar high for future floral purchases. My next arrangement only lasted four days. I started to lose steam on this concept, so then I changed my choice of flowers. The vase was too big and required more flowers than I wanted to pay for to make the arrangement pretty. My brilliant idea became a burden, and now the vase is sitting empty (with river rocks) on my bureau.

I have been very busy this season with clients, both old and new, many of whom had called me because of my articles in The Jewish Link. Some nights it’s been hard to keep up with everything around the house. Just like I tell my clients, it’s ok to ask for help. It’s ok to drop a project because the timing is not right or it’s too much work at this moment.

Back to the weekly floral arrangement, I have decided to purchase a smaller vase and a couple of Gerbera daisies. Once I have some free time to get to the florist, I will be back in the swing of fresh flowers in the bedroom and perhaps it won’t be a weekly purchase. For now, this project is on hold.

I have chosen to prioritize my projects and I suggest that you do as well. And while you are at it, give yourself a big hug and know that we are all doing the best we can.

Happy prioritizing and organizing.

By Eileen Bergman

Eileen Bergman is a professional organizer, a proud member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO) and the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD). Eileen is listed in the resource directory for the Hoarding Disorder Resource and Training Group. Eileen may be reached at 973-303-3236 or  [email protected].