Professional Organizers Say Scanning Documents And Photos
To Digital Is Key To Beating Clutter
For 2012, Resolve To Go Paperless
Many people start the year with New Year’s resolutions – a chance to start anew. Each year, “getting organized” is listed among the top 5 resolutions made by Americans, as they strive to sort through the clutter and the mess that clog up both their workspaces, cars, homes, and even their wallets or purses. Resolving to get organized is such a popular choice largely because being disorganized is a sure recipe for stress. If you want to beat anxiety and make your life run more smoothly, maintaining a clean and organized environment is a must. And to emphasize this important fact, January is designated as National Get Organized Month. Get Organized Month (also called GO Month) is a national event sponsored by the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and dedicated to raising awareness about the benefits of getting organized. Although unknown to many, there is a large and thriving professional organizing industry in the United States. If you’re up to your eyeballs in papers, junk, or clutter, you might consider hiring a professional organizer to help solve your problems.
The National Association of Professional Organizers comprises about 4,200 professional organizers who make their livings by helping individuals and businesses create order and efficiency where there has been only chaos. Professional organizers design customized systems and processes for their clients, using specific organizing principles. An organizer also works with his or her client, teaching valuable organizing skills to ensure that the client will keep everything running smoothly in the long run. It may seem like anyone with a knack for managing time or coordinating details could be a professional organizer, but there’s some specialized knowledge and skill involved. The pros study organizational theory, small-business concepts, and methods for establishing working relationships with their clients.
One secret that the pros like to pass along might sound obvious, but its effect can be dramatic: get rid of paper. Whether it’s bank statements, bills, receipts, or even old photographs, paper takes up space, easily gets jumbled together, and quickly becomes clutter. Scan all of your important documents and photos to digital, and you won’t have to deal with the stacks of paper, the file cabinets, the boxes full of old photos, or the closets full of old photo albums. There are professional services that can handle digitizing documents in bulk, and can even create text-searchable files from ordinary printed papers. The IRS now accepts digitized receipts and other financial documents, so don’t worry about being audited. Moving forward, you can sign up to receive most bills and bank statements online, and do Mother Nature a favor while keeping your desk free from clutter. And when it comes to all those photo albums, scanning your photos to digital has never been easier. A professional photo scanning service like ScanDigital can make the process totally painless, and your precious pictures will be preserved and organized on your computer, where they can easily be flipped through and shared. Take it from the pros, and lose the paper!
The “Street View” feature of Google’s popular online maps service has raised some interesting questions when it comes to issues of privacy. While most Americans seem perfectly contented to have their homes, businesses, cars, and even themselves photographically mapped out in Google’s all-encompassing “mapplication,” residents of other countries, notably the UK, are less anxious to join the Google Maps party.
If you’re a Hollywood buff or photography enthusiast with cash to spare, you could be in for a treat this week. On March 26th and 27th, thousands of classic glamour photographs from Hollywood photographers like George Hurrell will be auctioned off by a respected dealer called Profiles in History, which specializes in vintage signed photographs and manuscripts, historical autographs, letters, and other guaranteed-authentic original documents. Classic photographs of movie stars from Jean Harlow to George Clooney will be available for auction to the public, but don’t expect to nab a classic photo on the cheap. The dealer expects to fetch over $20,000 for Hurrell’s iconic Vanity Fair portrait of Jean Harlow on a white bearskin rug.
As the makers of Guinness beer happily remind visitors to the brand’s Dublin museum, “everyone’s Irish on March 17th.” Indeed, St. Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated by Americans of various ethnic backgrounds, and annual St. Patrick’s Day parades in the U.S. date all the way back to 1737, when the first one was held in Boston. But for many Irish-Americans, St. Patrick’s Day is also part of Irish-American Heritage Month, which is a time to recognize and celebrate Irish history and family heritage. While many Irish and non-Irish Americans join in on the wearing of green and the merrymaking on March 17th, most of us miss out on the opportunity to explore and celebrate our family heritage throughout the month of March. One great way of doing this it to make a photo family tree on your computer.
With digital cameras and photo scanning becoming more and more common, many of us have large collections of digital photos. And though this trend of moving photos to digital has made life easier in many ways, it brings with it new complications. Sure, emailing photos is a piece of cake, but what’s the best way to display your digital photos in the kitchen? Or in the living room? And how should you show grandma the photos of your latest trip to Disneyland when you visit her this weekend?
One of the largest and most famous Spring Festivals anywhere in the United States, the San Francisco Chinese New Year celebration is a month-long affair, with pageants, parades, street fairs, and performances by Lion and dragon dancers. Each year, a new Miss Chinatown is crowned at the annual Pageant and Coronation Ball, and the Chinese New Year Run raises funds for the YMCA’s youth and teen programs. But for many San Franciscans, the biggest and most spectacular event is the well-known Chinese New Year Parade, which is one of the few remaining illuminated parades, and is always held at night.
The recent disaster of the devastating earthquake in Haiti has sparked an enormous response from Americans. Volunteers from across the globe continue to travel to Haiti to provide much needed health care, cleanup, and other services, while millions of Americans have donated money to aide the relief efforts. Even during this difficult time, the people of Haiti remain hopeful that there are better times ahead, and many world leaders, including President Obama, have expressed hope that the recovery process will grow into a full-fledged rebuilding process for the Haitian nation.
You never know what you’ll find in the attic – it could be a picture like this, dusty and crinkled from age, but rich with history.
