Planning, careful planning, under way for Ohio chapter of national organization

By KEVIN PARKS This Week StaffWriter
October 16, 2003

The chronically disorganized among us sometimes become terribly frustrated, but instead they could get PO'd That's"professionally organized, - not whatever you were thinking.

Across the country and around Ohio, growing numbers of people are taking up the relatively new profession of organizer.

They offer their services, for a fee - hence the "professional" part - to individuals and businesses in order to get them on back en track, keep them on time and put them on the road to a less cluttered, less stressful existence.

Several professional organizers from central Ohio are working together to establish a statewide chapter of me NAPO, the National Association of Professional Organizers.

Based in Norcross, Ga., the NAPO was established in 1985 to "develop, lead and promote professional organizers and the organizing industry." according to its Web site.

Membership in the association recently reached the 2,000 mark, which is remarkable. in the view of NAPO president Barry Izsak, given that the 1,000-member milestone was achieved as recently as 1998.

"Our membership is growing at its fastest pace ever," Izsak wrote in a recent e-mail to members throughout the United States in which he pointed out that 500 people have joined the ranks in the past year alone.

Ohio currently has 48 NAPO members, according to one of them, Terry Trimper Jones of the Worthington area. Around 18 professional organizers have been gathering together in recent months to start a statewide chapter. The association only requires 10 or 11 members to grant chapter status to a state, Jones said. 'I have no doubt that more people will get into the profession as it gets more visibility," she added.

One of the goals of a state chapter would be to raise awareness of the burgeoning profession and correct some misconceptions, according to Jones.

"When people hear 'professional organizer,' they think you help them with their closets." she said.

That's just a small part of a host of services professional organizers can offer to clients in their personal or business lives,

"It's very rewarding," said Jennifer Studer-Miller of Dublin. "For me it's rewarding because I can work with someone.in two hours and see that a huge weights lifted off their shoulders because they cap see ... light at the end of the tunnel."

Studer-Miller read a story in The Columbus Dispatch three years ago about a Michigan woman who was a pro-