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Meditation classes to unclutter minds
newsday.com/recreation
NEWSDAY,WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY 10, 2016 newsday.com ExploreLI N
funnyvalentine
Dancing to Frank Sinatralove
songs is aclassy waytocelebrate
Valentine’s DayWeekend. TheNew
Millennium Big Band performs the
crooner’s most notable love songs,
8p.m. FridayatSuffolk Theater in
Riverhead.The bar and restaurant
open at 6:30 p.m., music and
dancing begins at 8. $35-$39.
631-727-4343, suffolktheater.com
sixstrings
Jackie Greene and his band make
their first appearanceatthe YMCA
Boulton Center in BayShore at
8p.m. tomorrow.The Americana
and roots rock singer and guitarist
will perform an 11-song set from his
most recent album (his seventh),
“Back to Birth.” $40,631-969-1101,
boultoncenter.org
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WILLIAM P. GOTTLIEB COLLECTION
JAYBLAKESBERG
Patricia Campbell, left, and Eileen Koff declutter aclient’s home in Lake Ronkonkoma.
toomuch stuff?
Duo helps people think outside the boxestoget rid of junk
BY JANELLE GRIFFITH
janelle.griffith@newsday.com
Eileen Koff and Patricia Campbell
work best surrounded by
clutter incrowded kitchen
pantries or overstuffed basements.
But they don’t get their
inspiration from immersing themselves
inall this physical and
emotional baggage; rather, bygetting
rid of it.
Koff and Campbell are professional
organizers. Not tobeconfused with
home cleaners, the women are clutter
crusaders —paid to help people let go
of the things they donot need and to
recognize why they have attachments
to certain possessions. Clutter, they say,
is far more complicated than what the
eye can see.
“People think, ‘I should be able to do
Help decluttering
WHEN |WHERE Group meets at
7:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at the StonyBrook
home of professional organizer Eileen
Koff (631-553-0068 or email
eileen@tothenextlevel.net). Co-hosted
by professional organizer Patricia
Campbell (917-215-1818 or email
declutternowandforever@hotmail.com)
COST $10 per session
this by myself.’ But no. ‘Stuff’ is very
emotionally charged,” Koff says. “We
don’t even know what questions to ask
ourselves.”
In June, Koff started aclutter support
group that meets monthly ather Stony
Brook home. Koff and Campbell are
members ofthe National Association of
Professional Organizers and facilitate
the meetings. Attendees need not be
actual clients of theirs.
“People come together to share
similar struggles. They hold each other
accountable with new projects or
lifestyle changes,” Koff says. “Alot of
these people get toknow each other
really well. They share something that
is important to them.”
People are often reluctant to seek
outside help to deal with the piles of
baby photos or years-old theater
programs stacking up around their
homes, but the overcome by clutter to
realize their problem is acommon
one.
“They will come for something like
this because there isnojudgment
here,” Koff says. “We’re here togive
advice and discuss what works and
what didn’t work.”
JOHNNY MILANO
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WHEN STUFF TAKES OVER
Christa Johnson began attending
the meetings last month, after she
noticed her Ronkonkoma home had
been overtaken by someone else’s
possessions.
“A lot of stuff came in when my
mom died,” says Johnson, a
registered nurse.
Throughout the two-hour meeting,
Koff helped Johnson realize
that many people tend to latch on
to things asacoping mechanism —
especially after traumatic events,
such as the loss ofaloved one.
“A home is really just areflection
of what is going on in our mind,”
Koff says. “The home is our larger
self.”
Hoarding seems to run in Mary
and Katelyn Bryant’s family, and the
Hauppauge women came to last
month’s meeting hoping to find
help.
“My grandma gives mestuff,”
Katelyn Bryant, 20, says. “My room
is the haven inthe house for things
that won’t get thrown away.”
The items take up physical and
emotional space inher life.
“It’s depressing,” she says. “Ionly
have awalkway —and it’s abig
room.”
Koff poses aquestion to the
group: When you walk into ahotel
room, what’s there? She encourages
the group to model their own
spaces after hotel rooms, which she
notes have nothing beyond what’s
necessary.
In their roles as organizers, Koff
and Campbell act as “body doubles,”
in most cases physically
removing clutter from the homes of
their clients.
“We anchor the person into the
space,” Koff says. “We keep the
anchor strong. When you have a
No.1culprit ...
...PAPER It’s the leading
contributor toclutter and
the hardest thing for people
to part with, Koff says.
Koff,left, goes through belongings
while Campbell talkstoaclient
during adecluttering session at the
client’s home in Lake Ronkonkoma.
body double or abuddy, you’re
more likely toget atask
completed.”
MEETING TAKE-AWAYS
While no one leaves ameeting
completely cured, Koff closes
each session with achallenge for
each attendee. Last month’s task
was tocome up with one organization
project for each of the 12
months.
Koff encourages the women to
start out with small projects —
tackle asock drawer, one shelf in a
busy closet or ajewelry box —and
not to think it would be mastered in
aclean sweep or by housing their
belongings incolor-coordinated
containers.
“Organization is about living
simply, paying attention to our
actions, making conscious
choices,” Koff says. “Simplifying
our lives, restoring balance and
meaning, feeling connected.
These are the core of being
organized.”
WHY
There are tactile sensors
in our fingertips that create
an emotional connection
between how wetouch
paper, and that, Koff says,
leads to “our inability to
make decisions.”
Paper creates asense of power —documents bearing information
can give people afalse sense of significance.
People tend to save clippings for future use or with intentions of
giving to someone else. In most cases, it usually ends up in apile
somewhere because the follow-through isn’t there, Koff says.
TIP If you’re looking to part with paper, Koff and Campbell suggest
wearing apair of plastic gloves asyou sort to create abarrier that
should reduce your attachment to it.
DEPOSITPHOTOS/OXANA OLEYNICHENKO
JOHNNY MILANO
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ExploreLI newsday.com NEWSDAY,WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY 10, 2016