Birdie Brennan This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. ThisWeek Newspapers

   www.thisweeknews.com/thisweek. - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/20/2005   Last Visited: 1/21/2005

   Co-chairs of the National Association of Professional Organizers are, from left, Jennifer Studer-Miller, Dave Linn and Birdie Brennan in Brennan's basement, a highly organized space.
   ...
   "We will physically go through their messy space and turn it into a functional, comfortable and welcoming space," according to an announcement about the contest supplied by Birdie Brennan, a professional organizer from Commercial Point, just south of Grove City, who is now in her fourth year as national chairwoman of "Get Organized Month."
   ...
   "We plan to do it every January," Brennan said.
   ...
   For more information about the contest or to obtain an entry form, call Birdie Brennan at (614) 297-1550. Her e-mail address is brennan1@myexcel.com.
   ...
   Brennan was shocked -- a little, anyway -- by what she saw.
   
   "There was a pile of clothing in there half the size of a car," Brennan said, shaking her head.
   
   On the eve of being among the judges of the first "Messy Space Contest" in central Ohio, Brennan, a professional organizer from Commercial Point who has clients in Columbus and Circleville, isn't too worried about potential contestants actually creating clutter.
   
   Brennan knows, absolutely, that the truly disorganized simply aren't organized enough to get around to doing that sort of thing.
   
   The truly organized would never even entertain the idea.
   
   "I think people who lose some function in their life due to clutter will sign up," Brennan said.
   
   She's also not overly concerned about receiving photographs of rooms that have crossed the line from merely messy to outright unsanitary.
   
   "In organizing, I find some unsanitary places, but that's because people can't get in there to clean," Brennan said.
   ...
   "The person has to really want to do this," Brennan said.
   
   For some people, the concept of losing their precious piles of stuff, even if lots of stuff is lost within those piles, is simply too troubling to contemplate.
   
   "Being organized doesn't mean you can't have piles," Brennan said. "It just means you know where to find things.
   
   "People want hints and think they can do it themselves, and a lot of people can," Brennan added. "And then there are people who really don't know how."
   
   It's the latter, she indicated, who would make the best contestants for the Messy Space event. She is hoping friends of totally disorganized people might pick up entry forms for them and gently suggest they give the contest a shot.
   
   Brennan is in her fourth year as national chairwoman for Get Organized Month, which was launched in 1992 by the National Association of Professional Organizers.
   
   The nonprofit professional organization was itself founded in 1985 and has been growing steadily ever since, particularly in recent years.
   
   Membership in Glenview, Ill.-based NAPO reached the 1,000 milestone in 1998, but then went past 2,000 a mere five years later.
   
   It currently stands at around 2,900, according to Brennan.
   
   The central Ohio area boasts roughly 35 professional organizers.
   
   "Locally, we have grown so fast," Brennan said.
   
   Picking a winner in the Messy Space Contest may not be all that easy, she speculated.
   
   "I think it will be difficult," Brennan said.