Kathy Jackson helps lead the fight against (dis) organized crime.

by Mick Kelly . photo by Matt Rose

She hasn’t always been a professional organizer, but Kathy Jackson isn’t ashamed to say she’s always been a bit anal retentive. Jackson, 57, has a master’s degree in library science and loves to get her hands on filing cabinets, records and archives of all kinds. Whether in a library or a corporate office, she simply has an impulse to make order out of chaos.

She moved to Asheville six years ago after spending nearly a decade in corporate research and strategic planning for Sprint. But she struggled to find work in Asheville that suited her particular skills. By chance, she came across the National Association of Professional Organizers and attended their four-day annual conference. Suddenly, she says, “I felt like I had found my people.”

Two years ago, she launched a business, BetterWorld Organizing, helping mostly small business clients organize files and records. That work, plus her white-collar skill set, has led her to some unusual junctures. One client is a former college professor who needed help writing a book. Jackson’s job is to help organize her files—converting dissertation files into book chapters—and to help make sure the prof makes time to write. At some point, Jackson will likely help edit the book as well.

She helped a longtime antiques collector dig through a lifetime’s worth of objects, and for another client, she unearthed letters from the woman’s father that she was certain she had lost. “One woman I worked with told me—this is just like going to an archaelogical dig,” Jackson says. “It’s been fascinating work. It’s a combination of the mundane in people’s everyday lives and things they find quite profound and meaningful.”

For more details about Jackson’s business, check out www.betterworldorganizing.com.