NAPO Leads the Charge to Get Organized During GO Month

2010 GO Month Press Releases

NAPO’s sixth annual Get Organized Month was a huge success, garnering nationwide press coverage in a variety of news outlets! NAPO educated the public through a variety of Get Organized programs, including ask the organizer panels, clutter workshops, and recycling and collection events. NAPO spread the word about the benefits of getting organized and hiring a professional organizer through numerous newspaper articles, radio interviews, and television segments.

Articles about GO Month were picked up by newspapers and websites nationwide, including:

• www.about.com
• WCMH-TV NBC-4
• PR Newswire
• Business Journal

In addition to media coverage, NAPO members offered a variety of organizing events—many focused on nonprofit groups—during Get Organized Month, including:

NAPO-Austin Chapter hosted its fourth annual Clear Your Clutter Day event on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010. The public was invited to “drive by and drop off” unwanted items and throughout a four-hour period, 172 vehicles took advantage of this opportunity. IKEA provided an exclusive parking lot, protected from public parking, and participants were routed to different stations where event partners were staged to collect various items according to type. Event partners included Junk Busters USA (junk hauling), Round Rock Area Serving Center (Thrift Store and Charity), Goodwill Industries of Central TX (electronics recycling), Central TX Secure Shredding (paper shredding), and EcoBox (moving box recycling). Upon exiting, participants were polled as to how they heard about the event, and given “goodie” bags containing a member directory, coupons for IKEA merchandise, and sponsors’ promotional materials.

CYCD and NAPO-Austin was featured in several newspapers, on local radio and TV (including live coverage). Generous support for the event included in-kind services valued at $7810 and monetary sponsorship at $1081. A unique feature of CYCD is the “Strangest Item Contest.” This year’s winner was a handmade fertility totum. When asked why the participant was parting with this item, she responded “I have enough kids!”

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The NAPO-Baltimore Chapter held their first Get Organized Month(SM) event on Saturday, February 20, 2010 with IKEA in Baltimore. Baltimore Chapter members spent several hours volunteering their time and expertise, both answering organizing questions and presenting workshops. Susan Von Suhrke and Barbara Boone presented the organizing workshops in IKEA’s closet and home office departments.

In preparation for the GO Month event, Baltimore chapter members promoted the event via press releases, social media, newsletters, and in the Baltimore Examiner. IKEA also promoted the event heavily on their in-store radio, in-store flyers, website and Facebook page.

This event, which was organized primarily to create public awareness of NAPO and the new NAPO Baltimore chapter, was a tremendous success. Organizers commented on how much they enjoyed helping the public to solve their problems, whilst working side by side with their fellow chapter members. Both IKEA and the chapter hope to plan future events, making our first GO Month event the beginning of a long partnership with IKEA.

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NAPO-South Florida Chapter partnered with Shake A Leg Miami to help them get organized so that they would embody their slogan of being “ship shape” for the New Year.

Friday, January 22, 2010 was the day for positive change and the staff at Shake A Leg was ready and awaiting the arrival of ten Professional Organizers and volunteers.  The goal was to create more efficient space with easy access to stored materials, organize all areas to make optimal use of existing space and reconfigure the warehouse area to enable easier retrieval of all items and allow for all staffers to be able to maintain the space with everything in its place.

The academy staff was delighted with the results. “This group is really phenomenal and have made a real impact.” said Colleen Reed, member of the staff at Shake A Leg.

“We were all so pleased with the outcome and the feedback from the staff.  Our biggest pleasure is in knowing we made a difference in the working lives of this giving group of people” agreed all ten organizers that participated; Lori Abou, Gail Biers, Lorette Hunter, Gayle Jacobs, Jane Kamau, Beth Levin, Cristina Maria Lloyd, Tonya Paulette, Pat Ribera and Stacey Rodriguez.

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NAPO-Dallas/Ft. Worth Chapter teamed with Easysale, Inc., and SAM-Store & Move to host a “Messiest Garage” contest for GO Month! Months of preparation led up to the 2-day event where, despite freezing rain, 22 professional organizers and 10 sponsors united to organize 1 garage, 1 shed, and 1 driveway that had been overtaken with “stuff.” Sponsors 1-800-Got-Junk hauled away 3 truckloads, Easysale submitted items on eBay (valued at approximately $3,000), SAM contributed two portable storage units, Sherwin Williams of Rockwall donated paint and supplies, and Starbucks contributed hot beverages. Publicity included an interview on Good Morning Texas®, coverage in a local newspaper, live video streaming, live news coverage by Fox News®, Rockwall Blog, and a 5-station radio interview during the 2-day project. The winners of the contest were extremely pleased stating that they are “...very excited about the garage and [are doing] a little something every day to [make] it even better!” NAPO-Dallas/Ft. Worth Chapter is thrilled with the success of this event. We look forward to more opportunities to help local families and promote the value of professional organizers in DFW!

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The NAPO-North Carolina Chapter celebrated Get Organized Month on January 23, 2010 with Ask the Organizer panels at Barnes and Noble. Twenty chapter members took turns as panel members or greeters at the Barnes and Noble bookstore at Southpoint Mall in Durham, NC.

During the three-hour event, panelists answered a wide variety of organizing questions from the public while greeters handed out NAPO brochures. Among other things, visitors asked about organizing craft supplies, how to get more storage space in closets, how one becomes a professional organizer and where a local thrift store could find more and better display fixtures.

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The NAPO-Southeast Michigan Chapter participated in a media campaign this year with the help of Gov. Jennifer Granholm declaring January 2010 as Get Organized Month in Michigan. The governor’s proclamation supports the work of professional organizers and the benefits of being organized. “By getting organized, residents of the state of Michigan can use their newly found skill to provide valuable goods to charities and non-profits and aid the environment by recycling, reusing and reducing the purchase of duplicate and unnecessary items” according to the proclamation. Citizens were encouraged to participate in the observance by bringing order to their homes, offices, and businesses.

We were excited to have the proclamation written and it was a great lead- in when talking about Go Month to the media and our clients.

Many chapter members had events that they offered to the community for free or a nominal charge. Betty Huotari, Donna Smallin-Kuper, Deb Stanley, Debbie Tebbie and Rita Wilhelm had events around the metro area teaching organizing principals, de-cluttering, de-stressing, budgeting and informal coffee sessions. These events, along with the proclamation and press releases helped in raising the awareness of our industry and gave people support with their New Year resolutions to get organized and simplify their lives.

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The NAPO-Washington, D.C. Metro Chapter offered public workshops on January 9^th and ^23rd. For the 2-day event, hosted by IKEA in Woodbridge, Virginia, chapter members shared tips on how to organize children’s rooms, closets, home offices, and kitchens. Each vignette allowed participants to see firsthand how to implement specific tips in their everyday lives. At the end of each workshop (8 sessions/day), one lucky winner received a 30 minute consultation with a NAPO-WDC organizer, while another received an IKEA gift bag with organizing products.

On January 7^th, NAPO-WDC’s partnership with IKEA around GO Month was profiled on the local ABC program, Let’s Talk Live, promoted via IKEA’s main and local websites, and added to several online calendars. The chapter also promoted the events via their web and Twitter pages and posted videos of each presentation to their YouTube Channel for those who couldn’t attend all workshops.

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NAPO-New England Chapter participated in GO Month 2010 by working with organizations in Massachusetts that provide education, resources and support to families who have children with special needs.

The first aspect involved an organizer facilitating a networking session at the Joining Voices Conference in November 2009. Her topic was ‘organizing tips to help parents manage and gain some control over their lives.’ Approximately 10 parents, including fathers, spent an hour and a half with Lorraine Fine, discussing tactics and sharing tips for staying organized in what can be difficult and stressful situations.

The second aspect involved NAPO-NE organizers providing services to the ten staff members at Family Ties. Mary Summers, the Director of Family TIES, reported that the staff members who got help from NAPO-NE were thrilled with the work. As a result, staff can function more effectively and efficiently to do the work they do with families. Both SMEAD and The Container Store provided organizing products to assist with the work.

The third aspect was an electronic meeting with an organizer where Family Ties staff learned about how to more effectively use spreadsheet programs.

There were 20 NAPO-NE organizers involved in all aspects of planning and implementing GO Month 2010.

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The NAPO-Richmond Chapter promoted “Get Organized Month” on Thursday, February 4th 2010 by, once again, giving back to the community and volunteering members’ time, knowledge and resources to the Greater Richmond ARC.  Local professional organizers and Associate Members, each with her specific organizing expertise, worked with the ARC staff to help prepare various departments for the upcoming move to a new facility in April and assist other areas that will remain in the current location.   They provided one-on-one office consulting, held a seminar to answer staff questions on how to utilize their new space and time more efficiently, sorted and prepared archival documents for scanning and/or destruction, inventoried and organized office supplies, and re-organized the child/infant toy and afterschool rooms.

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NAPO-San Diego Chapter is a proud participant of the annual NAPO Get Organized (GO) Month project and partnered with Make-A-Wish Foundation San Diego headquarter office again. After a successful partnership in 2009, NAPO-San Diego has adopted Make-A-Wish San Diego for another year of ongoing organizing projects.

Traditionally GO Month takes place during the month of January; however, NAPO-San Diego extended the initiative to a year long commitment. In 2009, NAPO-San Diego donated over 120 hours of professional organizing services to Make-A-Wish San Diego. Each employee at Make-A-Wish San Diego has been assigned their own Professional Organizer and they worked together to improve their office space. From purging files, clearly labeling files, getting rid of unused items, paring down office supplies, creating clear work surfaces to organizing electronic files, NAPO-San Diego tackled it all.

In addition, a team of NAPO-San Diego volunteers tackled the offsite storage unit of Make-A-Wish San Diego. A donation of $500 to purchase much needed shelving units was made by a NAPO-San Diego Chapter family member. Needless to say, the employees of Make-A-Wish San Diego are grateful for their newly organized storage site.

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