My obsession with clutter began at a very young age. I didn't have nearly as much stuff (a technical term in the organizing world) back then, but you can bet that everything in my small bedroom was regularly purged, straightened, stacked, and alphabetized. In my adult life, people often comment that I am so organized. Which means I'm more organized than they are – not nearly as organized as I would love to be. As I sit here writing this blog I'm thinking about how the dresser drawers sure could use cleaning out and the bathroom cabinet absolutely must be reorganized this weekend.
When a friend mentioned her professional organizer years ago in casual conversation, I began thinking about becoming one myself. I attended a couple of local professional organizer meetings and soon realized that my day job as a family law paralegal paid a lot better and had better benefits than those of a self-employed organizer. Not to mention I wasn't all that crazy about tackling someone else's mess. Take one look at the TV show Hoarders, and you'll see what I mean.
Then the brainstorm hit – don't become a professional organizer, write a cozy mystery novel about one. And she can uncover a dead body under a mess in the bathroom or in the walk-in closet. Wait – this book is going to be set where I live. It's way too hot in the Houston area to hide a body for any length of time in a house. Okay – make it February, and the body's in the garage. That'll work. And so my character – professional organizer Poppy Cartwright – and her business, Klutter Killer, came into being.
How about you? Are you blind to clutter, do you hire someone to take care of your clutter, or are you obsessed like me?
Cozy mystery author Kay Finch is currently writing her new Bad Luck Cat Mystery series set in the Texas Hill Country to be published by Berkley beginning in 2015. Kay lives in a Houston, Texas suburb with her husband, two rescue dogs and a cat. Visit her web site at www.kayfinch.com.
Kay, you're talkin' my language. (Well, except for the "straightening up" bit.:o) I just "organize".) I'm on my second move in as many years and a month or two later, will be tackling my third move across town, so clutter is a dirty word around here these days. I'm purging, boxing, and organizing as we speak! Can't wait for a sane moment to give me an opportunity to read your book. It sounds like it'll be right up my alley - murder and all!
ReplyDeleteI have a friend and her husband who plan to downsize from a house to a townhouse at some point. She tells various contents of the house "you are NOT going to the townhouse." Time will tell.
DeleteI cannot stand clutter. A kIndred spirit here I think, In teh house at least. My writing - no so much, But I;m owrking on that.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest thing is for me to ignore clutter because I need to be writing so I meet my upcoming deadline.
DeleteI'm somewhere in the middle. I can't turn a blind eye to clutter, but I haven't reached the point where I need to hire a professional to sort it out for me. The worst spot in the house is the area around my desk. There I have all sorts of things that are necessary (or I think might be someday) to my writing - and I plan to tackle that before the weekend. Your post was just the nudge I needed.
ReplyDeleteThe middle is a good place to be. I'm getting a teensy bit better at ignoring clutter when I need to be spending the time writing - but I can only ignore it for so long.
DeleteOh, you would not be happy at my house. We call it "creative chaos."
ReplyDeleteNothing spurs on tidying up (that's what we call it) like imminent visitors. My writing room is also the spare bedroom and my daughter is often here overnight from interstate for work.
ReplyDeleteWe also ripped up 40 yr old carpet throughout the house and boy did that make us get rid of a lot of stuff we'd ignored for years! It had to be moved.
Generally I'm of the no mess brigade. I'm not a neat freak by any means and I'm certainly no great shakes at housework but I like tidy relatively clean house.
Nor my house. I have a system of organized clutter and use the pile system in my office. But I know where each and everything in the piles and clutter is.
ReplyDelete