In May, I traveled to Phoenix for the NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) Conference and sat for my first Level II Certificate through the ICD (Institute for Challenging Disorganization.)  
In preparation for the exam:

I completed four books which included:

• Judith Kolberg's What Every Professional Organizer Needs to Know About Chronic Disorganization
• Cindy Glovinsky's Making Peace With The Things in Your Life 
• Dr. Thomas Brown 's Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults
• The ICD Guide to Challenging Disorganization for Professional Organizers (edited by Kate Varness)

Completed nine hours of tele classes:

1. - ADD100 Basic ADD
2. - ADD 210 Normalizing ADD
3. - ADD445 What Organizers Need To Know About Executive Functions
4. - ADD450 Essential Structures with Clients with ADHD
5. - ADM110 Establishing Successful Client Relationships
6. - ADM485 Coaching and the CD Client
7. - CD390 What I Know Now That I WIsh I Knew Then
8. - ICD215 Understanding the Clutter-Hoarding Scale
9. - MH335 Mental Health First Aid

I earned a perfect score on the exam, and I am pleased to announce that I earned my CD Specialist Certificate from the Institute for Challenging Disorganization this month.  I am very proud of this accomplishment and look forward to the next steps!  
 

The ICD has five levels of certification:

1. Level I-- Certificate
2. Level II-- Specialist
3. Level III- CPO-CD ® 
4. Level IV-- ICD Program Mentor
5. Level V-- ICD Master Trainer in CD and Organization 

If you are interested in learning more, please visit their website or feel free to contact me.  It has been a great experience!

Sit back, close your eyes and try to list the complete contents of one room of your house.  Not too bad?  You can probably give a pretty good guestimate.

Now imagine staying up for two days straight after a fire forced you to leave your home.  Your insurance agent has asked you to provide a Home Inventory to begin the claims process.  You are so overwhelmed that you have no idea where to start.  

Creating a Home Inventory seems like one of those tasks that you will get to "some day," and yet should be often times be moved up on the priority list.  There are varying levels of detail that can be put into these.  

How to Create A Home Inventory:
The best way to complete an inventory would be to have some visual documentation along with your notes, receipts, and manuals.  

• Video:  Use video to walk through your home and capture all items, serial numbers, and histories in one step.  You could say soothing like: "Ibanez guitar purchased new from Keith's Guitar Shop in Madison for $199 in December 1998."  Take video of the guitar as well as any identifying information such as a serial number.  
• Photograph:  Smart phones provide a great way to capture photos and upload to the Cloud for easy retrieval.  Digital camera also work great and just require an additional step.  You can take more than one photo of an item.  Serial numbers are great to document this way.
• Itemized List: List each room and the contents.  Include brand, purchase history, appraisals, serial numbers, and detailed description.
• Software: There are many programs out there!  I am testing a few so I will be coming out with a list of suggestions in the future.  

Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance does give some information on how to create your home inventory. (http://oci.wi.gov/consumer/inv-home.htm)  They also provide a template that you can use to itemize a list of your belongings.  (http://oci.wi.gov/pub_list/pi-224.pdf)  Finally, they link to FREE apps to work on an inventory on your iPhone or Android.  I have downloaded the iPhone app and it is pretty user friendly, but very basic.  

WOOHOO!  I was really excited to attend the 2014 Annual Conference for the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).  They are known as the Organizing Authority.  They provide home and business organizers with a code of ethics, educational opportunities, and community involvement opportunities.   Consumers can go to them to find information about organizing and to locate members in their area.   

The conference offered a wide variety of opportunities to grow my knowledge about organizing challenges, as well as chances to be a more savvy business woman.  The sessions I attended included:

• Organizing a Successful Business in Your Own Office and Your Client's by Krista Clive-Smith
• Marketing to Therapists and Psychiatrists by Ari Tuckman, PsyD, MBA
• Decisions, Indecision, and Cutter in Hoarding Situations by Elspeth N. Bell, PhD
• Creating Home and Business Inventories by Susan Kousek, CPO ® 
• Distracted and Obsessed: Helping ADHD and/or OCD Clients by Robert Olivardia, PhD
• How to Work "ON", Not "In" Your Business by Nick Friedman
• LinkedIn Means Business by Collette Robicheau, CPO ® 

I was able to meet many organizers from across the country, and some in my backyard that I look forward to collaborating with in the future.  I came back to Wisconsin full of ideas to continue to grow as a person and a business.  Stay tuned for some very exciting announcements this Summer and Fall from Life: Organized. An evolution of sorts. LLC