Vicky Sim is a professional organiser. She can tidy your space, coordinate your clutter, direct your disorganisation; she can classify, categorise, organise and systematise your life. Sim launched Simplicity Services in Durban almost a decade ago. Her background as a town planner gives her a good sense of space and project management skills. Her new career, she said, married well with her experience and her desire to spend more time with people."My job is to help people organise their environment. It usually involves a decluttering stage where we go through everything and decide what should be kept or discarded. I try to organise what is left in a way that works for the client's lifestyle."Sim is the only South African member of the Institute for Challenging Disorganisation, which provides education, research and strategies to benefit people affected by chronic disorganisation. Sim said joining the institute has helped her deal with people who have serious organisational issues.Hoarding is big overseas. Recognised since 2013 as a mental disorder, the dysfunction has spawned TV reality shows such asHoarders: Family Secrets and Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder. In South Africa, it's not taken particularly seriously."It's new here. Overseas, psychologists and organisers work closely. Here, psychologists are not familiar with the issues," said Sim."Hoarding and clutter are often symptoms of an underlying problem - anxiety, depression, learning disorders or Alzheimer's. Then again, some people just grew up in a cluttered environment and haven't got organising skills."Some of her work is straightforward - young mothers, for example, who are trying to juggle work and too many toys. Then there are her elderly clients, those who have to downsize and move into care facilities and those moving in with adult children.Her most difficult case was an elderly man battling depression after his wife died."The house was literally crumbling around him," she said. "There were dassies in the roof, window panes had fallen out and he had covered the holes with plastic. He wasn't able to keep up with the clutter."His daughter, who lived overseas, was planning to come to South Africa and move him into a home. She wanted the decluttering to begin before she arrived."It was difficult. At first he wouldn't work with me and his daughter found it frustrating that things moved so slowly, but we had to go at his pace."Eventually he came to trust me and we made progress."She describes herself as "neat" but far from compulsive: "I don't order my clothes by colour, but I do hang them by type, all the jackets together, then the long-sleeved garments, followed by mid sleeves, followed by short sleeves. My husband is a bit of a hoarder, though, so we have separate working spaces."She keeps in touch with many of her clients. "I'm a problem solver. I get real joy knowing that the job's been done and done well, and that the clients are happy."Contact Simplicity Services on 083-661-0386 or find an organiser who belongs to the Professional Organiser Association Africa at www.poaa.co.zaVicky Sim's basic rulesLess is moreGo through your cupboards and space and keep what you really need, use and love. Be ruthless.Use best storage space for most-used itemsYour most accessible storage space is like prime real estate. Storage spaces that are easy to access without stretching high or bending down should be for items you use regularly.Have a home for everythingAll your belongings need a home. Everyone in the household needs to know what belongs where, or the space will be 'hijacked' and used for other things. Get into the habit of putting things away. Have a quick tidy-up at the end of each day - you'll be amazed at the difference this makes.Use cleaning days to keep things tidyIt's difficult to clean a cluttered house, and the clutter usually means that a lot of the house doesn't get cleaned properly. Use cleaning days as a trigger to tidy up spaces that have got cluttered during the week...