Paper Tales : For those trying to deal with a lifetime of accumulated records, there is help in the form of organizational advice from specialists.

Listening to a radio talk show a few years ago, I heard the tale of a woman, her retired husband and his papers.

The woman was the one calling. The husband was retired, but still subscribed to several business periodicals, and insisted on keeping and rereading all the paperwork accumulated during a career spanning decades. They wanted to sell their house, but couldn’t put it on the market until the fate of his papers and periodical stacks was decided.

The radio psychologist told the wife to move her husband’s “treasures” to a rented storage unit. For the long term, the psychologist recommended an agreement under which the husband would remove one box of clutter each week.

History has not recorded the resolution of that story. But plenty of similar tales lie waiting to be told in houses, condominiums and apartments across this county. And many senior citizens with a lifetime of possessions to manage could benefit from some organizational advice.

Enter the organization professional.

One such professional is Glorya B. Schklair, 60, owner of the Practical Organizer in Thousand Oaks and a specialist in helping senior citizens with records management, health insurance claims and office organization.

“Many senior citizens are reluctant to get rid of papers for fear that they might lose something important like insurance documents,” Schklair said.

But the circumstances can vary widely. Schklair recalled a retired client who gave music lessons in her home.

“She had a little notebook for student appointments, a second to record payments and another one for expenses,” Schklair said. Then at the end of each month, the woman put all this information--and receipts from expenses--in a brown paper bag, stapled and dated it.

“She thought she was doing well. But her file cabinets and shelves were filled with dozens of these bags. And she couldn’t access anything.”

Schklair streamlined the woman’s accounts by using one three-ring binder, divided into sections for various categories. Next, she persuaded her client to set up file folders so that she could easily find items such as utility bills. Finally, Schklair assured the woman that it was safe to throw away most records more than 7 years old.

Schklair said she often urges clients to consider computers. “But it’s still very off-putting to most people over 50.”

Schklair recently worked with Jim and Norma Nocero of Camarillo, aiming to help Norma Nocero more easily keep computerized books on the couple’s home-based woodworking and cabinetry business. It was scary at first, Norma Nocero said, but “the bottom line is I have to have accurate figures.”

To ease the trauma of computer literacy for senior citizens, Schklair often recommends an accounting and bookkeeping software program called Quicken. “It is very easy to learn. And for many people with arthritis, it is easier to punch the keyboard than to write checks,” she said. “And the Quicken program allows people to balance their checkbook, keep track of expenses by categories and to actually print out checks that can be mailed.”

Whether the organizing problem is paper, hobby equipment or clothes, Schklair sometimes reminds clients, it will not go away without attention.

In this assertion, Schklair has plenty of company. Barbara Hemphill, a seminar leader and author of “Taming the Paper Tiger: Organizing the Paper in Your Life,” often recalls a client whose mother died and left her 22 dressers, each with many drawers full of papers. It took the daughter three weeks to sort the important papers from the rest, Hemphill said. Then she pointedly asks her audience: “Is this the legacy you want to leave your children?”

GETTING IT TOGETHER

Professional organizers can be found in phone books under “Organizing Services,” “Business Consultants” or “Personal Services,” with fees that usually begin at $40 to $50 an hour.

The National Assn. of Professional Organizers publishes a directory of its members, and will send copies to those who send a stamped, self-addressed No. 10 envelope to NAPO, 1163 Shermer Road, Northbrook, Ill. 60062-4538. The directory includes the following Ventura County listings:

* Kathy Lemmon, Organizing and Space Planning, Westlake Village, (805) 379-2032, residential, office organizing, closet design, packing-moving-relocating. Tonight at 7:30 Lemmon will present a free seminar, “Organizing Your Home and Closet,” at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 32165 Watergate Road in Westlake Village.

* Glorya Schklair, The Practical Organizer, Thousand Oaks, (805) 492-5003, office organizing, records management, bookkeeping, health insurance claims and computer consulting.

* Rikki Horne, Medical Claims Management, Newbury Park, (805) 375-2678.

* Betty Holst, California Filing Systems, Westlake Village, (818) 991-9720.

Packrats International, 12662 Hoover St., Garden Grove, Calif. 92641, (714) 894-8223, offers quarterly newsletters and seminars, and tracks research on attention-deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and behavioral traits exhibited by hoarders.

Messies Anonymous, 5025 SW 114th Ave., Miami 33165, offers seminars on overcoming the messy mind-set and serves as a clearinghouse for self-help material for clutter-junkies. Information should be requested in writing.

Referrals to a variety of related self-help groups are available in California by calling (800) 222-LINK.