There’s a very interesting production making it’s Chicagoland debut tomorrow called “Clutter: The True Story of The Collyer Brothers Who Never Threw Anything Out”. It’s a play based on the true story of the brothers who were wealthy, eccentric hoarders in the 1920′s–long before the hoarding phenomenon. Because of their hoarding, the two brothers became shut-ins in their aristocratic New York neighborhood. Langley Collyer is missing and Homer Collyer is found dead amongst floor-to-ceiling piles of newspapers, books , and junk. the police investigating the case, two brothers with a strained relationship mirroring that of the Collyers, are simultaneously making discoveries about themselves. Narrated by the brothers and the police investigating the bizarre case, this darkly fascinating tale is a poignant and profoud exploration of human behavior. It’s opening tomorrow night at the Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue and closing March 11. Clutter is written by seven-time Emmy Award winning playwright Mark Saltzman. Here is an exclusive offer to our readers:
Travel season is in high gear so today’s Friday Favorite is a useful tool to help you avoid pre-trip chaos. Do you feel stressed out before a trip for fear that you will forget something important? The “Pack This!” list from Knockknockstuff.com can help put your mind at ease. It is an exhaustive checklist of everything you could possibly need for a vacation or business trip—from travel documents and electronics to clothing and toiletries. It’s a 6×9″ notepad with 60 sheets on a heavy cardstock backing. You can find it on sale now for $5.99 at organize.com. Put your mind at ease and enjoy your travels with this thorough list. But be careful not to overpack. Use the list to make sure you bring what you must, but before you start hoarding everything but the kitchen sink, think realistically about what you’ll be doing. Pack light and lean, but do use this cool checklist so nothing important is forgotten.
I’m happy to announce that Chaos to Order will be featured on the season premiere of Hoarding: Buried Alive on TLC. The show airs this Wednesday evening. Click here for the lineup this month, the show is titled, “Nowhere Near Normal”. This was a very special project for us, we were featured on another episode of the show last year, but this is an extreme hoarding case, unlike anything we or the show have ever seen. We were able to learn a great deal about the debilitating effects of hoarding and how to help someone in these circumstances. It was a terrific experience, the people at TLC were a pleasure to work with and I’m anxious to see the episode on Wednesday night!
A cyber hoarder by definition is, “when an individual has an excessive amount of pointless word documents, pictures, etc. saved on their computer that they will never look at”. So I was recently asked, “when does saving documents for safety’s sake turn into cyber hoarding?” My belief is that cyber hoarding is not much different from other hoarding. If you keep too much of anything, it can become a problem in your life. I have my own story of cyber hoarding (I know it’s not good for the organizer to come out with her hoarding issues, but hopefully my story will help you). I am an avid picture taker and never thought twice about saving pictures onto my hard drive, until, of course I overloaded it. As a mac user, I saved all photos into iPhoto and was very proud that the pictures were all in order by date. One day iPhoto crashed and all the dates freaked out! I had over 20,000 pictures in the program and it was just overloaded. Here is my warning…don’t do what I did! Store only your current pictures on your computer and keep past years on an external hard drive. You don’t need all photos, music, documents, etc. always readily accessible on your computer. Take a look at what you may be cyber hoarding, can you do some editing?
We are working with Discovery Television on the show “Hoarding: Buried Alive”. The producers are looking for participants. If you are a hoarder and are interested in receiving assistance, this could be a great opportunity. In addition to a stipend, the show offers professional organizing and therapy. Contact the Chaos To Order office at 847-825-8400 or info@chaostoorder.com for more information.
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