Statistics

  • 80% of the clutter in most homes is a result of disorganization, not lack of space.    
    - National Soap and Detergent Association

  • Office workers waste an average of 40% of their workday.  Not because they aren't smart, but because they were never taught organizing skills to cope with the increasing workloads and demand.
    - Wall Street Journal

  • 3.1% of the world’s children live in America, but they own 40% of the toys consumed globally.
    - University of California Television network web series "A Cluttered Life: Middle-Class Abundance"
     
  • The average American receives 49,060 pieces of mail in their lifetime; 1/3 of it is junk mail.
    - National Association of Professional Organizers, Organizing Statistics Data
     
  • The average American woman owns 30 outfits—one for every day of the month. In 1930, that figure was nine.  Johnson, Emma. "The Real Cost of Your Shopping Habits." Forbes Magazine

     
  • In 2008 NAPO Survey of 400 consumers nationwide, 27 percent said they feel disorganized at work, and of those, 91 percent said they would be more effective and efficient if their workspace was better organized. 28 percent said they would save over an hour per day and 27 percent said they would save 31 to 60 minutes each day.  -National Association of Professional Organizers. 2009 Get Organized Month Survey

  • The average desk worker has 36 hours of work on his or her desk and spends 3 hours per week sorting piles trying to find the project to work on next.
    -Richard Swenson, The Overload Syndrome, (NavPress 1998)

  • The Wall Street Journal reported that the average U.S. executive wastes six weeks per year searching for missing information in messy desks and files.  (That translates to just 1 hour per day.)
    - Wall Street Journal
     
  • Americans waste 9 million hours per day searching for misplaced items.
    -American Demographics Society
     
  • A 2008 NAPO Survey of 400 consumers nationwide showed that 65 percent of respondents noted that their household was at least moderately disorganized, 71 percent said their quality of life would improve if they were better organized and 96 percent of respondents indicated that they could save time every day by becoming more organized. Of those, 15 percent of respondents felt they could save more than an hour each day — for a total of more than 15 days per year — if they were more organized at home and 30 percent of respondents felt they could save at least 30 minutes each day — or more than an entire week per year — if they were more organized at home.  -National Association of Professional Organizers. 2009 Get Organized Month Survey
     

Inspiring Quotes

"Organizing has become a survival skill for the modern age..."
- Julie Morgenstern, Professional Organizer & author

"Time is really the only capital any human being has, and the one thing he can't afford to waste." 
- Thomas Edison, (1847 -1931), American inventor

"To change one's life: Start immediately.  Do it flamboyantly.  No exceptions."
-William James, (1842 -1910), American psychologist & philosopher

"That which we elect to surround ourselves with becomes the museum of our soul and the archive of our experiences." 
-Thomas Jefferson, (1743 -1826), 3rd President of the Unites States

"There must be more to life than having everything."
-Maurice Sendak (born 1928), American writer & illustrator

"There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know." 
-W.E.B. DuBois, (1868 - 1963), American sociologist, historian, author, & civil rights activist

“Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions” - Barbara Hemphill, Productivity expert & author

"Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it." - Winston Churchill, (1874-1965), Prime Minister of United Kingdom

"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things."  -Albert Einstein, (1879 - 1955), Theoretical physicist

"You will never be completely ready.  Start from wherever you are."
  -CJ Hayden, MCC, CPCC, Business coach & author

Facts

  1. With more women working outside the home and more families requiring two full-time incomes to stay afloat, fewer households have a full-time homemaker. 
    - Lane, Carrie M. "What's Driving the Demand for Professional Organizers?" The Orange County Register., 3 Sept. 2013

  2. Americans work longer days, take less vacation and retire later than their peers in other industrialized countries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    - Bureau of Labor Statistics

  3. Using the correct organizational totols can improve time management by 38%. 
    -Mobile Technology Products

  4. 80% of papers and information that we file or keep, we never use or look at again. 
    -Agency Sales Magazine

  5. There are 300,000 items in the average American home.
    - MacVean, Mary, "For many people, gathering possessions is just the stuff of life.", Los Angeles Times. March 21, 2014.

  6. A UCLA study confirms the direct correlation between a woman’s cortisol (stress) levels and the density of household objects.
    - University of California at Los Angeles

  7. In a study by IKEA, 31% of those surveyed reported more satisfaction from clearing out their closet than they did after sex.
    - IKEA

  8. Planner usage does not require a significant time investment – Our study found that 69% of paper planner users actively use their planners at least 15 minutes a day, and 40% use their planners at least 30 minutes a day. This suggests that active planning can be done in a relatively small amount of time. 
    -FranklinCovey Products., New Research Insights, , July 2009

  9. The National Soap and Detergent Association reports that getting rid of excess clutter would eliminate 40% of the housework in an average home.  -National Soap and Detergent Association
     

  10. "The time lost switching among tasks increases with the complexity of the tasks." 
    - Shellenbarger, Sue. "New Studies Show Pitfalls of Doing Too Much at Once." Wall Street Journal, 07 Feb. 2003