Get Organized was written by Mike Chouinard and was originally published in the Chilliwack Times.

For many, the thought of dealing with cluttered rooms at home or the piling system on their desks at work can become too much.

The end result is more mess, and thus the cycle continues.

To help people turn some of this chaos into order, speaker Linda Chu will be giving people a hands-on look at ways to clean things up. Her free “Out of Chaos” presentation takes place at the public library in Chilliwack Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Chu can help anyone get organized. She’s worked with everyone from a university professor who lost some thesis papers to a stripper wanting help with the costumes she uses-and loses-on the job.

“One thing clutter does,” she says, “it crosses all social-economic boundaries.”

Some of the stories of people she’s helped get organized are funny and some, like the widower who couldn’t touch his late wife’s clothes for years, are touching. For many, the challenge they face in getting rid of something often doesn’t lie with the actual object.

“It’s the emotions, not the item in itself,” Chu says.

The gist of her presentation is that chaos can happen to anyone and there are some basic steps people can take to restore some order.

“You have to go through a specific step-by-step approach,” Chu says.

She summarizes the process with the acronym S.P.A.C.E.* which stands for sorting one’s possessions, purging the unnecessary ones, assigning all items into categories, containing the keeper items using different storage options, and finally evaluating what how you’re using your space to take into account both form and function.

To kickstart this process, people need to ask themselves some basic questions, such as when was the last time they used or accessed an item; when they came across an item, did they even know they had it; and if someone took the item or they lost it, would they miss it?

“I get paid to be a two-year-old,” Chu says. “I get paid to come in and ask questions.”

Chu spent years working in hotel management and says she learned the importance of being orderly there. With numerous people working numerous shifts in the same space, it was crucial that staff members be able to find an item in short order. The key was making sure everything was in its rightful place.

“It’s a business that doesn’t close,” she says. “Twenty-four hours day, seven days a week.”

With a downturn in the tourism business after 9/11, she was told by a friend about the business of professional organizing. In the five or so years since, she’s watched it grow to the point where provincial and national organizations are booming. It’s even taken over the airways with programs such as Clean Sweep.

“None of these shows existed when I started,” she stated. “The industry’s huge.”

She also emphasizes it’s important for people to reward themselves for evaluating the clutter in their lives, not by buying more stuff but in other ways such as setting aside time for special activities or leisure.

“As adults, we don’t reward ourselves for accomplishments because we’re multitasking,” she says. “You need to create those rewards once you’ve accomplished a task.”

*The S.P.A.C.E. process was originally developed by Julie Morgenstern in her book Organizing from the Inside Out.