Self-Help Group Puts the Mess to the Test : Clutter: The congenitally disorganized call in the professionals and join a sort-of ‘Pack Rats Anonymous.’

One woman stockpiles toilet paper--lots of it. Another let memorabilia from a long-defunct marriage overrun her home. A man can’t see a flat surface for the “stuff” he has saved.

They are a few of the folks whose desperation over clutter have led them to Jacqueline Fox or Linda Anderson, angels of mercy for hard-core pack rats.

Besides operating a business, Simply Organized, to help people organize their homes, offices and lives, the suburban women run a weekly support group, Clutter Free, which attracts men and women whose homes have become hopelessly stuffed.

Fox said she and Anderson are coaches, not therapists, who help clients get to the root of their messy problem.

One client is Connie Gredzinski, who said she answered their newspaper ad six months ago because the clutter in her home “was affecting my everyday life and I could not function.”

“I was so sick and tired of being unorganized,” said Gredzinski, 29, of Philadelphia.

After months of Monday visits with Anderson, Gredzinski let go of a shirt from a trip with her former husband and cards from old boyfriends. When that happened, she said, “I also let go of other things in my life.”

She said getting rid of things has given her more energy. But there’s a closet she’s still not ready to battle.

“I guess I’m holding on to something there too,” she said.

Fox leads the support group that grew from their business.

“There are as many different reasons (for clutter) as there are people,” she said.

Old childhood habits. A feeling that an item may someday be useful. Guilt. Fear. Emotional attachment.

In some cases, the blame rests with experiences during the Great Depression, an explanation for one woman’s compulsion to keep up to 210 rolls of toilet paper.

“They are fearful that there will come a time again when there will be a lack in their lives,” Fox said.

But when pack rats finally clear away the junk, “they have more zest for life,” she said.

One woman who requested anonymity has been a member of the support group since its inception earlier this year. Last month, Fox made her first visit to her home.

The woman, a writer, said she can’t throw away her papers because they include projects she hopes to accomplish.

She cleared out a “sacred corner,” but “little by little I started putting stuff back in there.”

Jack, 63, of Jenkintown has a long way to go. In his seven-bedroom house, “every room is filled, the floor is filled with stuff,” he said. Jack has joined the support group and didn’t want his last name used.

“The clutter consists of books, things, tools, furniture. Every flat surface is full of things,” Jack said.

“I’m intrigued by things rather than people,” he said. “I’m a thing guy, not a people guy.”