by Chris Wilson

“Organizing is not about your stuff —  it’s about your life.” That’s the tag line that Helen Kornblum of Natural Order Organizing has adopted as her professional organizing company’s mantra. Kornblum has been helping people and businesses in North Central Florida get organized and de-clutter, both physically and psychologically.

“In the olden days, we had large families in small houses,” says Kornblum. “Today, we have small families in large houses with big closets. We can shop 24-7 and that makes a difference.”

Kornblum says she grew up in a house with an organized mother, who took care of her three kids without the modern conveniences of disposable diapers and ready-made formula.

When she became a mother herself, Kornblum says she realized how important it was to be organized. “When the kids were taking naps, I didn’t want to have clean,” she says. “I wanted that time to myself. So, I had the kids help me stay organized.”

To this day, Kornblum vows that parents modeling organizational behaviors is important to teaching young kids how to keep their own things organized.

Kornblum took her organizational skills to the PTA and to her jobs as a freelance technical writer and then as director of a publishing for an education association, where she had to meet constant deadlines. When a friend who was a professional organizer recommended the field to Kornblum, she had found her natural calling.

According to Kornblum, the goal is to help you accomplish more through organization. “Being organized means you can find things when you need them and you know where to put them away when you’re finished with them,” she explains. “It means you can get your work done without wasting hours in the day for activities that are wasteful.”

The goal has to stay at the top of your mind when you’re organizing, according to Kornblum.

Kornblum says many of the organizing strategies she uses help people cope, similar to the work done by a social worker.

“A professional organizer helps you forgive yourself and say ‘this is not a federal crime,’” she says. “Organization is about functionality, not about perfection. If it’s good enough for you to live or work around, then it’s good enough.”

One of Kornblum’s clients, Letty Valentine, says she was relieved to learn about Natural Order Organizing through a friend. “I was excited,” says Valentine. “I had made up my mind that I was not going to feel guilty and I was not going to feel embarrassed. I just wanted to get rid of the clutter.”

Valentine says the end result was what helped her get through the process. “It gave me an incredible sense of freedom,”?she says.

Part of what comes along with organizing is purging the items, papers or general clutter that we all face. Kornblum says she helps people purge by being impartial, but also by getting a feel for what is still important to them. “It’s a personal situation,” she says. “Sometimes I will stumble across something and I say, ‘Tell me about this.’ Sometimes I hit a trigger object and stumble into an area I?shouldn’t go.”

This point relates to Kornblum’s company as a whole. “It’s not my natural order that I impose on a client,” she explains. “I’m referring to their natural order in the patterns and habits they have established. Listening carefully to them helps me find these (patterns).”

To help motivate her clients, Kornblum says she keeps focusing on their goals and she maintains a positive outlook on the task at hand. “Language is important and I’m always listening for the ‘should,’” says Kornblum. “Should is usually what someone else wants you to do. You have to focus on what you want to do and you will feel much more motivated.”

Kornblum also has helped a lot of people who have ADHD. According to Kornblum, the syndrome is often accompanied by depression, which hampers people from accomplishing what they want. She says most of her clients have ADHD just need someone to help them stay focused on the task at hand.

“People get demoralized because they are sometimes made to feel incompetent,” she says. “Society at large does not have a strong grasp on what ADD actually is.”

Natural Order Organizing can help you at home or can even help get your office into better working shape.

“When I go into offices, I look for work patterns,” says Kornblum. “When I see patterns I can’t categorize, I can see or diagnose a problem area.”

In order to help an office with multiple employees function, Kornblum says signs around the office and a filing system index are just a couple of ways she can help your workforce improve its habits.

For more information about Natural Order Organizing, call Helen Kornblum at 871-4499 or visit her company on the web at www.naturalorderorganizing.com.