ORGANIZING CLASSES
Many individuals and organizations offer content-rich online classes, some of which are listed below.
Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD)
The ICD website (www.instituteforchallengingdisorganization.org) offers classes to organizing and mental health professionals as well as to anyone in the general population who is seeking to understand chronic disorganization.
The classes cost $39 each for nonsubscribers and range in topics such as:
• Using Self Understanding as a Bridge to Improved Functioning, with Dr. Lesley Cook.
• Managing Productivity and Chronic Disorganization in the Corporate Office Setting, with Clare Kumar.
• Functional Performance in Aging Clients with CD: Using Therapy Insights to Maximize Organizing Results, with Cindy Sullivan, CPO and Tim Sullivan, MS, OTR/L.
The schedule for the classes has been standardized and is as follows:
One-hour live classes are presented at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern Time Zone)
• January–March on Mondays
• April–June on Tuesdays
• July–September on Wednesdays
• October–December on Thursdays
Hoarding Home Solutions
Hoarding Home Solutions is an Australian-based organization providing training and insight into hoarding disorder. Two professionals, Wendy Hanes and Angela Esnouf, have created three separate classes: one for support professionals, one for independent service providers, and one for family and friends of individuals struggling with hoarding disorder. Hoarding Home Solutions intends to bridge the gap between hoarding theory and practice.
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Hoarding Home Solutions for Support Professionals
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This course is designed to educate social workers, case managers, and other support professionals on the proper techniques and mindset required to work with someone who has hoarding disorder. The course offers twelve modules and additional resources, including access to a private Facebook group and lifetime access to news of discoveries in the field. This course is most effective for people who regularly work with those who have hoarding disorder.
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Hoarding Home Solutions for Independent Service Providers
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This course is designed to educate social workers, case managers, and other support professionals on the proper techniques and mindset required to work with someone who has hoarding disorder. The course offers twelve modules and additional resources, including access to a private Facebook group and lifetime access to news of discoveries in the field. This course is most effective for people who regularly work with those who have hoarding disorder.
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Hoarding Home Solutions for Family and Friends
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This course is for the family and friends of someone who struggles with hoarding disorder. A participant may have tried to help someone in the past but found it difficult and made little headway. This training offers twelve hours of education, workbooks, resource tools, and real-life stories to help cement the lessons. Helping someone with hoarding disorder can be demanding, and doubly so if the person is a close family member or friend. This course intends to educate and train the average person in techniques that can make an immediate difference in their loved one’s life.
Clearing the Way Home
Susan Gardner is a Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization (CPO-CD). She offers services to help clients organize their space and maintain a comfortable level of clutter. Organizing Classes 47 Susan provides organizing help, hoarding disorder support, safe space creation, and training workshops. Her courses are dedicated to supporting individuals who want to make a life change that allows them to feel comfortable and content within their space.
Time Space Organization (TSO)
The Zone Plan: A Method for Organizing Your Home
This teleclass is a ten-month program consisting of two thirtyminute private sessions each month. The course is intended to guide an individual through a full-home organization project, focusing on one area of a participant’s home each month. The class also includes a PDF copy of Jonda Beattie’s workbook, From Vision to Victory.
Organization Rules® Clutter Support Classes
Vickie Dellaquila, CPO, CPO-CD has been a professional organizer since 2002 and has created her business, Organization Rules®, Inc., to provide compassionate organizing for every stage of life. Vickie offers virtual organizing, chronic disorganization, hoarding services, and a Clutter I’m Right Here 48 Support class. Her Clutter Support class is a six-week educational program that Vickie uses to help people learn how to recognize clutter, gather motivation, and effectively deal with the clutter in their space.
Clutter Support Class Topics of Discussion:
• Week 1: Clarification, insight, and project hierarchy
• Week 2: Goal setting, perfectionism, and accountability
• Week 3: Motivation and excuses
• Week 4: Personal clutter boundaries, plan for action
• Week 5: Non-acquiring exercise
• Week 6: The challenges of discarding
Vickie guides each participant as she creates a hierarchy of organizing projects. This list will serve as a guide for creating personal clutter boundaries and plans for action. Discarding and non-acquiring exercises followed by open discussion will help participants identify strengths and vulnerabilities. This class is for participants whose readiness for change is high. It’s designed for people who have had issues with major clutter, can’t seem to get control of it, keep backsliding, and don’t know why. Vickie delves into reasons why people are holding onto objects and discusses emotional attachments that participants may have to their possessions. Organizing Classes 49
Vickie shares who this class is best for. “People that have held on to things for a very long time and cannot identify for themselves what the reasons are. They have felt trapped by their clutter for so long but didn’t know why. Members of the class avoid reviewing the items due to the emotions that they will have to experience by dealing with the stuff.
“Some people can do things on their own, and sometimes they do. But the classes allow collaboration with likeminded people, and can work with a therapist and possibly with a professional organizer on site.”
Some students have signed up for the class because they have a significant other who can’t live with the clutter anymore. Vickie keeps the groups small to build trust among members. “Most people find the support of the other attendees very helpful, and the privacy in this group is protected,” Vickie promises.
Organization Rules, Inc. also offers a follow-up Clutter Maintenance class that lasts for three weeks. The maintenance course is designed to help keep people on track with their clutter goals and provide support to those who may have strayed from their plan.