Stacey Agin Murray says her latest career began while she was growing up in a five-member family living in a two-bedroom apartment in Queens, NY. The shortage of space required that she be organized. So after a brief career as a teacher and editor, she set out to help others get organized. Her company - Organized Artistry - operates from her home. When people throw up their hands at their messy garages, cluttered basements, or disorderly closets, they call Murray.

Q. Why are most people disorganized?

There are different reasons. Some people did not grow up in an organized household. Some people work several jobs and have not come up with the time to establish systems for their lives. Some people have disorders such as depression. They are holding back from moving forward in their lives for various reasons.

Q. If someone sees that they are disorganized, what is the first thing they do, outside of hiring an organizer?

They should figure out the spot in their home or their office that causes them the most organizing grief. For example, for a mother who runs a household, it could be the kitchen. For someone with a home office, it could be their files.

Q. How does one start?

Determine the most important place. Then they should tackle it in very small increments. Don't try to set aside a Saturday and organize. Take 15 minutes when you are feeling good. Set the kitchen timer, and tackle one small area - a drawer, two of the files in your filing cabinet, only the shoes or the skirts in your closet. When that 15 minutes is up, see where you are. Can you go another five minutes and finish? If not, leave it to the next day.

Q. Is being organized the same as being neat?

No. They are two different things. Being neat is seeing that there are no dust balls around. Being organized is being able to find the things you need when you need them. If you can locate it in three seconds, then you are organized. You know where to go to get it, you use it and put it back, and two weeks later when you need it again, you know it's going to be there.

Q. Most people have a desk or work space piled with papers or files and books. What should they do?

Take each paper or item one by one, look at it, and figure out what it is. Is it an unpaid bill, a letter from your ex-boyfriend? Start to sort through the paper. Do I need it? Can I get it elsewhere if I don't keep it? Start to make piles of items in different categories. There could be several statements from credit cards. Group them together. Paint chips from when you painted the kitchen. Put like things together, and be discerning. A lot of organizers say you have to be ruthless.

Q. How do you start when you arrive on the scene?

I come, usually with trash bags in hand, and depending upon what part of the home the client has asked to start in, we sort. If it's a closet, we take everything out and we group things together - all the skirts, all the shoes. We may sort them by season. If it's a kitchen we may empty the cabinets. We see what exactly we have and once we sort, we do a purge.

Q. What are your final instructions after you have organized someone?

I tell them that it takes maintenance. If you didn't take your car to the garage for an oil change for a year, it wouldn't work so well. You need to schedule time to maintain your file system or your kitchen, adding what you need, keeping things in place. At the end of each season, weed out from your closet what you have not worn. Don't put it in storage. Do it now.

E-mail: austin@northjersey.com