If you’re plagued by persistent and severe disorganization that significantly impacts the quality of your life, you may suffer from chronic disorganization. Symptoms include:
- Difficulty organizing and managing time
- Clutter and hoarding behaviors
- Procrastinate and find it difficult to complete tasks
- Feel overwhelmed and stressed by disorganization
- Difficult for you to find important items
- Neglect personal hygiene and appearance
Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD):
As the premier resource on chronic disorganization, this Institute for Challenging Disorganization‘s mission is to provide education, research, and strategies to benefit people affected by chronic disorganization and the professionals who work with them. According to ICD, chronic disorganization:
- Persists over a long period of time
- Recurs despite repeated self-help attempts
The ICD Clutter Quality of Life Scale (CQLS):
ICD has created a tool that I use quite frequently with clients I suspect may suffer from chronic disorganization. The Clutter Quality of Life Scale (CQLS) is an online, self-assessment tool that helps people determine the impact that clutter has on their well-being. The scale includes 18 statements. Participants choose a response for each statement on a scale of 1 to 7 that honestly represents their feelings. When completed, respondents can hit the “submit” button to view their score.
Below is a partial list of the questions on the self-assessment. I intentionally have not listed all eighteen. If you suspect that you’re chronically disorganized, I don’t want you to read all the questions here. Instead, I highly recommend you take the Clutter Quality of Life Scale self-assessment to determine where you fall. As they say—knowledge is power. Once you know where you fall on the scale, the choice to take action or not is completely up to you!
Partial List of Clutter Quality of Life Scale statements:
- I’m concerned about what others might think of me if they knew about the clutter in my home.
- I have to move things in order to accomplish tasks in my home.
- I often buy things I already have because I don’t know where things are in my home.
- I avoid having people visit me at home because of the clutter.
- I don’t get to use spaces in my home the way I would like to because of clutter.
- I feel overwhelmed by the clutter in my home.
- I can’t find things when I need them because of clutter.
- I have incurred debt I can’t really afford as a result of having too many possessions.
- I have to be careful when walking through my home in order to avoid tripping over objects.
- I paid bills late more than once in the past 3 months because they got lost in the clutter.
I’m Chronically Disorganized. Now What?
If your score indicates that you’re chronically disorganized, the ICD website offers several resources and tools you can check out. It includes national organizations, support groups, professional organizers, etc.
My upcoming Buried in Treasures Workshop/Support Group:
In addition, I want to make you aware of a sixteen-week workshop/support group I recently became certified to facilitate. The name of it is “Buried in Treasures” and it’s based on the book (2nd edition) by the same name. I plan to start it in May, 2025 (unless the class fills up before then). Program highlights are below. Click here for more information and/or to apply.
- Nationally recognized, structured workshop that helps people who suffer from compulsive acquiring, saving, and hoarding.
- Addresses skill-building, how to think about your possessions differently, and encourages gradual challenges to not only help you manage your current clutter but also address compulsive buying.
- Each week, we discuss a specific skill and complete challenging and rewarding exercises. I will assign required, weekly homework to reinforce lessons.
- Meetings will be virtually via video (Zoom) so you can participate no matter where you’re located (device/internet required)
- This is a 16 week program; class is held 1/week; class duration is 2 hours.
Click here for more information and/or to apply.
Summary:
If you suffer from chronic disorganization, please know that you’re not alone! According to the IDC website, approximately 5% of the US population struggles with hoarding behavior. That translates to approximately 10 million+ Americans.
Don’t be embarrassed.
Help is available if you want to change.
Will it be easy? No. Will it be worth it? YES!
You simply have to have the courage and motivation to take the next step and ask for professional help. Please check out the ICD resources I mentioned in this blog. If you still have questions, feel free to reach out to me and I’ll do what I can to point you in the right direction.
My goal is to help you get the help you need and deserve—even if I’m not the one to provide it. There are lots of fantastic resources out there that you can tap into. You just need to take the first step. No matter who you are, you deserve it. Life is too short and too precious to live every day overwhelmed physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. by the weight of your excess possessions.
Other Resources:
Interested in learning more about clutter? Here are a couple of my other blogs that may be of interest to you:
“Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor – it’s anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living.”
Peter Walsh
LET ME HELP YOU:
If you’ve tried to organize on your own time and time again but got stuck, please tell me where. Is it that you start without a plan in place or that your task/project is too large? Perhaps I can offer some words of advice that will help you and others get unstuck. My wish for you is that you’re successful… with or without my help!
Brenda Tringali, CPO® (Certified Professional Organizer)
Organizing | Productivity | Goal Accountability | Speaker
At Your Fingertips Organizing
Serving Greater Myrtle Beach, SC or "virtually" anywhere via video
Cell/Text: 603.490.6062
Brenda Tringali is the owner of At Your Fingertips Organizing. She provides Speaking, Organizing, Productivity and Accountability services to Workplace/Residential clients both in person in the greater Myrtle Beach, SC area & “virtually” anywhere else via video, phone, etc.
In addition to being one of only 350 Certified Professional Organizers® worldwide, Brenda is also a certified Facilitator for "Buried in Treasures, " a workshop/support group dedicated to those who compulsively acquire, save and hoard.
She is also an active member of NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing professionals), Faithful Organizers, and the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.