Tidy business in conquering chaos

Although Germans are known for their tidiness, an enterprising Berlin woman whose service brings order into the chaos of private papers is cleaning up, writes Derek Scally

Selling order and tidiness to Germans sounds like selling coals to Newcastle. But a Berlin woman has struck it rich by rescuing Germans who are drowning in paper.

"We bring order to your life," is the motto of the Beer Sorting Service, emblazoned on the van Christa Beer has driven around the streets of Berlin for the last six months. With only a few flyers and word of mouth, she has no shortage of clients eager to pay her to bring some Teutonic orderliness to their lives.

"So many people are embarrassed when they call me to help them. That is something we have to change - that is the wrong attitude to messiness," says Beer.

She first consoles her clients, telling how she was once as unorganised as them. Her turning point came when she missed a flight because she couldn't find her ticket among the chaos in her apartment.

After that she vowed to develop her own system of keeping things in order. She expanded this into what she calls the "Beer System" sorting papers into folders labelled "job", "finance", "car", "insurance" and "household". But Beer says her service offers more than just a tidy desk.

"I help people to help themselves. I give them a system which they can then continue to follow," she explains.

Her greatest challenge was working with a 95-year-old man who had not thrown anything away for over 30 years. "It took two weeks in all. Soon he realised that he didn't know just what he had anymore, so he couldn't say whether or not he needed it," remembers Beer, with a short, practical bob and glasses that give her the look of an old-fashioned librarian.

Beer admits she is herself far from perfect. "My aparment isn't always tidy. I don't want to be enslaved by order," she said, laughing at the idea that she is instead paid to enslave others.

Beer isn't just selling order, she is selling well-being, according to one psychologist.

"A desk or an apartment is one of the environments over which a person has personal control. Controlled chaos can be a personal choice," said Malte Mienert, development psychologist at Berlin's Humboldt University. "But now people who thought they knew where everything is realise they don't anymore. The 'messy phenomenon' - once a taboo - is now coming to light," he says.

He cites a German saying to explain the trend: "A fool tidies up, a genius conquers the chaos". By doing both and charging customers €30 an hour, Christa Beer is cleaning up in every sense of the word.