a new day

For the last several months a substantial shift has been going on in my life, and I've finally decided to let my blogs reflect it. Just over six months ago, I accepted the position of full-time Artistic Administrator for The Nathaniel Dett Chorale - a professional choir dedicated to the performance of Afrocentric music of all genres. To say my life has been turned upside-down is an understatement; this new job has taken hold of me with the passion of a calling, and yet at the same time I have been continually challenged to learn and grow as a human being, and it's not always been easy.

I'm still passionate about professional organizing - the original subject of this blog - as well as my other professional interests, for which I also created blogs: eco-friendly cleaning and consulting, freelance writing, visual art and design. Realistically, I just haven't had time to attend to everything in the months that I've been with the Chorale.

In the interests of simplifying my life (see, the professional organizing is always lurking there somewhere beneath the surface!), I'm consolidating most of my professional blogs into this one, and channelling my non-professional interests into one personal blog, http://www.emelgy.blogspot.com/.

The process may take several weeks, but from now on you can expect that this blog will deal with professional organizing, eco-friendly cleaning, and other wholistic living subjects.

The drawing at the beginning of this post was created with a mug full of Crayola Twistables crayons at a pub in North Toronto this past last week. I hadn't coloured in weeks, and was inspired to create something that symbolized a new happiness unfolding in my life.

me on tv

On Thursday and Friday of this week (March 21 and 22, 2008) I was featured in two news segments on Toronto's City TV. My colleague April Poppe and I organized and redecorated a child's bedroom in a viewer's home. Video clips can be found on the links below.

Part 1: "Before"
Part 2: "After"

My "big" interview, featuring tips on how to stay organized, is shown during the second segment. I hope to share more information on the behind-the-scenes experience soon.

i'm going to be on city tv!

So here's the full scoop: I was approached by City TV reporter Jee-Yun Lee to be the professional organizer for a contest that City was holding. Viewers had been invited to send in photos of a room they wanted organized, and we selected a winner this past Monday, then spent all day yesterday shooting the "before" footage, including a shopping spree at (I hope I can say this before the segment airs) IKEA.

Today we're filming the work session and the "after" shots. I invited fellow Toronto professional organizer April Poppe to help me with the entire project, and we're both having a blast.

The story will air in two segments on the City TV 6 o'clock news this Thursday and Friday March 21 and 22. The ironic thing is that I don't even own a television...

p.s. The photo was taken yesterday morning in my apartment: The tools of my trade...

how to get things done

There's an old adage: If you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it.

Sometime last fall I walked into my church choir rehearsal and the conductor (and my now-employer, Brainerd Blyden-Taylor) asked me how I did it.

Did what?

My writing... where did I find time for it all? (I guess he'd been taking a look my blogs - all six of them.)

I don't know, was my reply. I guess the real answer was that I loved doing it, and it was easy to find the time to do the things I loved.

Thinking back on it now, though, I realize that there's something to be said for momentum. It's the getting started that hampers most people - the inability to overcome the inertia of inactivity in certain areas of their lives.

I am looking forward to an insane couple of weeks. I am very busy at work with upcoming grant application deadlines, and I got a phone call late Friday afternoon from City TV wondering if I would be the professional organizer for a spring-cleaning contest they're holding right now for their viewers. If that goes ahead as planned (although knowing TV-land, there's a good chance that it might not), I am going to need a few 30-hour days just to keep pace with everything I need to get done.

The great thing about being busy, though (at least for finite periods of time - I wouldn't want this to go on indefinitely!) is that I'm already moving. As long as I can take care of the basics - getting enough sleep, nourishing food and some built-in downtime - everything else will (hopefully) fall into place.

The answer to this post's title, I guess? Give it to me... LOL

i have a new job

This entry was posted simultaneously on three of my blogs: an organized existence, the greener cleaner and the rest of my life.

I just found out today that I have a new full-time job: Artistic Administrator for The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, Canada's first professional choir dedicated to performing Afrocentric music of all genres. But through the mysteries of cyber-space management (and the fact that I always save several empty "draft" blog posts in each of my blogs every month), I am not actually writing this post until more than two months later - Sunday, March 16, to be exact.

I didn't write about my new job until now (March) because for most of my first two months on the job I was secretly terrified that I might be fired at any moment. It's not that I was doing a bad job... it's just that I wasn't sure I was doing a really good job. And I wasn't sure if my employer, the Chorale's Artistic Director, Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, thought I was doing a good job, either.

Can I say that I LOVE my new job, though? It's been both challenging and rewarding, and is pushing me to grow professionally and personally in so many ways. At the end of every day I am ecstatic that I get to serve the amazing musicians who can do this:



I am inspired and lifted up by this group of people. This is a very special organization that touches so many lives in a very important way.

Brainerd and I were chatting with an arts colleague recently, and this person mentioned that her own organization had gone for several months without hiring someone for a vacant administrative position because they decided they were going to wait for just the right fit. Eventually someone walked through the door with that special aura about them that told our colleague she'd found "the one."

Later that day I asked Brainerd if he had felt the same way when he hired me - expecting him to answer in the negative (which he did). (Can I say that one of the other things I love about my new job is that I feel I can talk freely to Brainerd about almost anything?) The thing is, it wasn't obvious when I was hired that I possessed all the skills and experience needed to do this job well. Brainerd had made a list several months earlier, though - a list of all the qualities that he wanted in his future administrative head. And the longer I'm at this job, the more he is realizing that I have most of those qualities.

How many jobs have you had where you've felt you were the answer to someone's prayer? It's pretty sweet...

I'm still doing organizing and eco-friendly consulting on the side, but I'm pretty selective with the clients I take on now. Feel free to contact me about a project you'd like help with, and if I can't do it myself, I will refer you to someone I can.

(And don't be afraid to hold out for "the one" while you're at it...)

"have you always been this organized?"

Yes. Eat your heart out.

(Just kidding - about the heart part, anyway.)

That's the one question I'm most often asked by clients (usually right after they've seen my organizing kit or my car's trunk). (The second most popular question: "Is my house the worst you've ever seen?")

(To which I'm inclined to want to answer (but don't): "Do you WANT it to be?")*

Yes, I've always been this organized. But that doesn't mean you can't be organized, too. There's a difference between being organized and being a professional organizer - and I'm here to help you with the former. Don't even worry about the latter.

Organization is a skill that can be taught, and even the most disorganized person can learn some basic tools to create and maintain more order in his or her life. So please don't feel defeated when you see people who seem to have their acts together, and admit to having been that way their whole lives. (This would include most professional organizers. We're a strange breed.)

You, too, can live an organized life. There is hope.

A good place to start is to spend some quiet time with yourself, thinking about the way you'd really like to live. Do you have a friend or acquaintance whose life you admire? When you look at pictures in books or magazines, what kinds of homes appeal to you? What kind of lifestyles make you feel truly good inside? Do you pine for a fast-paced, hectic life, or one that's mellower - more laidback?

Pay special attention to the things you yearn for. If we truly love something, we are more inclined to do the work necessary to manifest it. Beware of trying to create environments you feel you "should have" or "should want." Are you happy living in comfortable clutter? Maybe you don't even need to do anything about it. Only if your life is negatively affected by some aspect of your disorganization should you even consider making a change.

If you're convinced you really do want to change, consult with a professional organizer who can help you prioritize your needs and create your action plan. Based on your budget and your time frame, you can then begin to address your organizing challenges.

*I have to admit that that line is not original to me. I heard it from a breakout session speaker - an American professional organizer named Lynne Johnson, who specializes in helping the chronically disorganized - at last year's Professional Organizers in Canada conference in Toronto. She was a terrifically funny woman, with a deadpan delivery reminiscent of Ellen Degeneres.

copyright 2007, Michelle Lynne Goodfellow

so, what are michelle lynne goodfellow's specialties?

The majority of my experience is with residential organizing. I got started in the field while working at my previous business, an eco-friendly home-cleaning company. Clients (particularly seniors) would ask me for advice and help with moving or downsizing, and my new business was born.

I've spent several years working intimately with people in their own homes, which is possibly why I prefer residential organizing. But having been at the helm of several small businesses, I also understand the needs of the business sector - especially small office/home office setups.

My background in Home Economics (B.Sc. (H.Ec.) '89 from the University of Western Ontario) has given me special insight into the design of living and working spaces, and I am currently training in a kind of bodywork called the Alexander Technique which further helps me evaluate the ergonomics of spaces. I'm also a longtime yogi and meditator, interested in helping people create calm, soothing and regenerative places in which to live and work.

I have extensive experience working with seniors - they are a population that is dear to my heart. I have a lot of insight into their special needs and (I hope!) a lot of patience to deal with their fears and resistances.

I also have extensive experience working with young families, meeting the needs of children as well as their working parents. I am a foodie who loves to cook and (that Home Ec. experience again!) organize a kitchen.

I love the drudgework of sorting and purging a client's chaotic clutter - and being a visual artist, I have an eye for organizing things to pleasing (and functional) effect.

I'm fast - in fact I often have to curb my tendency to rush - but I can slow myself down for a client who needs to take time to weigh decisions. People are often amazed at what I can help them accomplish. I especially love to educate and coach my clients in organizing strategies, and I get the most satisfaction from knowing that I've passed along useful tools that will keep clients organized long after I've left.

I have a passion for organizing, which is why I write about it so much. I want to share what I know...

copyright 2007, Michelle Lynne Goodfellow

profile of a professional organizer

Hello beautiful person! Thank you for finding this blog post. Unfortunately I have moved all of this post's scintillating original content to my new blog, here.


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my blog

Hello beautiful person! Thank you for finding this blog post. Unfortunately I have moved all of this post's scintillating original content to my new blog, here.


Peace out.