What now, after that exhausting crush of holiday buying and revelry? Next to losing weight or quitting a bad habit, getting organized is up there in this time of New Year’s resolutions. But how to get started?
Not surprisingly in this complicated life, there is plenty of professional help. The National Association of Professional Organizers started in the mid-1980s with 16 members and today has some 4,000, with many in the Boston area and names like Resolutions, Your Organized Life, Organized Simplified Living, and Organizing Solutions by Linda.
They charge $50 to $200 an hour, or a set amount per project, and can help you with any organizing — from tidying up overflowing closets to arranging a dignified disposal of late Grandma’s beloved place settings and china. For them, there is much truth in Marie Kondo’s bestselling “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.’’
After you overcome the inertia to de-clutter, perhaps you’ll have time to take in these somewhat offbeat happenings this week.
The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown celebrates “First Day . . . on the Second!’’ with free performances from a magician and a saxophonist, a Broadway sing-along, and a variety of arts workshops at which youngsters may experiment with paint, paper, collage, performance, movement, and more, on Monday, Jan. 2, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information at www.mosesianarts.org.
The Red Cross holds a blood drive at, where else, Dunkin’ Donuts on Mansfield Avenue in Norton on Tuesday from 1 to 6 p.m. Get a free long-sleeve Red Cross shirt while you’re at it, while supplies last.
If you like to sing, try out for the Fine Arts Chorale in Weymouth, which is seeking new members for its spring concert featuring Celtic music. Open rehearsals at South Union Church, 25 Columbian St., Weymouth, on Wednesdays, Jan. 4, 11, and 18, at 7:30 p.m.; visit www.fineartschorale.org for more information.
In Sharon, Tom D’Avanzo discusses the Environmental Protection Agency during the early Reagan years and what might happen in the Trump era, from his perspective of 37 years with the agency in Washington and Boston. Free, at the Unitarian Church of Sharon, 4 North Main St.; Friday, Jan. 6, 7 p.m.
The Carlisle Trails Committee leads a moonlight walk on Saturday, Jan. 7, starting at 7 p.m. at the Cranberry Bog House, 750 Curve St., Carlisle. Depending on conditions, participants are welcome to walk, cross-country ski, or snowshoe under the nearly full moon along two miles of trails surrounding Carlisle’s cranberry bog. For more information, e-mail sptobin@comcast.net.
You can also learn more about these and other events by visiting the Globe’s regional sections at www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals. This weekend, we’ll feature a new Suburban Handbook on the “New Year, New You,’’ with articles on professional organizers (see above), ideas for exercise indoors and out, and getting away to a spa.
L. Kim Tan can be reached at tan@globe.com.
