inspiration

It’s not the stuff in life that matters

“All you need is love,” according to The Beatles. It’s not the stuff that matters. In fact, owning less stuff will positively change your life.  Short on time? Save time, shop less. Stop acquiring more things that need to be laundered, dusted, organized, etc. Short on space? Make space by decluttering and donating your excess.…

The Less Obvious Costs of Clutter

Clutter is costly, especially if it has caused you to lose checks/gift cards/money and resulted in added late fees. These are the more apparent monetary costs of clutter. There are other costs that are less obvious but still harmful. A poor credit score due to a late or missed bill payment. Switch to automatic bill…

Learn How To Start Organizing Now With This Step By Step Tutortial

Learn how to get organized with this 4-part video series I created.  Each video is less than 4 minutes   because I want to provide you with enough guidance to encourage and motivate you without risking information overload.    You’ve been meaning to get organized but you struggle with or even resist starting.  Where do…

The 5 Possible Causes of Clutter and The Solutions

Do you look around your home and ask yourself, “How did I let it get this cluttered?” Please, don’t beat yourself up, instead let’s explore the causes and find a solution to ending the clutter cycle. Here are five possible causes. 1. Shopping. If purchases are still in their bags, boxes or have their price…

How Do You Work Up the Courage To Get Rid of Stuff?

How do work up the courage to get rid of stuff?  It’s rather frightening for many of us, isn’t it? When I’m contacted for hands-on organizing assistance, I always ask if they are ready to let go of stuff.  It’s crucial for you to be ready and in the right frame of mind in order…

Start Organizing Today with These Awesome Tips

   Happy New Year! If you are dreaming of a more organized 2015, make it a reality with these awesome tips and my free e-book, 77 Mini-Organizing Projects: Eliminate Clutter Without Feeling Overwhelmed.  I have received e-mails from my newsletter subscribers telling me that the book has helped them start organizing today. Click here for…

My daughter has returned…..

I am very pleased our daughter is back home for the summer.  If you have kids in college, you can relate to all the S.T.U.F.F. that needs to be moved in and out of their temporary college dwelling each year.  We are lucky it all fit into our SUV!  The photo represents about two-thirds of…

Perfect, Clutter-Free Mom’s Day Gifts

If you want to honor your mom, grandmother or someone who has been “like a mom” to you, there are some wonderful, meaningful options that will not add clutter to their lives. First of all, consider the following: Has she dropped gift hints?  If so, then at least you know she wants the gift and…

Is your collection meaningful or a burden?

Most of us have collected one thing or another during our lives.  Our collection grows, sometimes out of control, once we tell someone about our collection.  We receive pieces to add to our as gifts than we may have intended to collect. What do you collect? I was a collector, until I outgrew my collections.…

Strategies for Success

How can you achieve success? What are some tips for success? What is your definition of success? I’m a guest blogger this month on the topic of Success at the Organized Assistant Blog Carnival!  Specifically on overcoming overwhelm and moving forward. Other guest bloggers covered different angles of success.  From helping ADHD students achieve to…

De-clutter your way to organization

De-cluttering your home will result in a more organized home.  We all have too much stuff.  Even the professional organizer has too much stuff!  I’m constantly de-cluttering and putting things back where they belong to maintain an organized home. Just imagine if we pared down our belongings by a third! We will have less to…

A client makes an unconventional decision

Deferred decisions or the lack of decisions tend to cause disorganization, clutter, and chaos!  Think about it, if you don’t make a decision about whether to keep something, decide where to put things, decide on commitments/activities to participate in, decide to maintain organization, or decide to ask for help you aren’t going to change your…

Favorite Organizing Tool #5

            Bags.  Especially paper bags with handles! Why are bags one of my favorite tools?  They are the perfect size and sturdy enough to hold a variety of items.  It’s also an easy way to reuse the bags. I use paper bags to hold my donations for my favorite charity…

Favorite Organizing Tool #4

The basic laundry basket. Why is it one of my favorite tools?  It’s a useful organizing container for many areas of your home, not just the laundry room. I’ve used laundry baskets to hold balls, sand toys, and more in client’s garages, for toys and dress-up clothing in play rooms, and in closets as dirty…

Do you over-organize?

I believe it’s possible to over-organize and create too much of a good thing.  We see ultra organized spaces in magazines, on the internet and television and then think, I want my house to look like that!  What we don’t realize is that it’s very difficult to maintain an ultra organized area and we may…

I’m fairly normal

Professional organizers are fairly normal, lead normal lives and even have messy homes.  Sometimes my clients ask about the state of my house.  Is it perfectly organized?  Are all of my containers and shelves labeled?  Is my clothing closet organized by color? The answer is NO.  Even though I’m  passionate about organization and enjoy helping…

Grateful for clutter?

It’s not unusual to feel burdened by clutter but there are times when our abundance can invoke feelings of gratitude.   We live in a country where many of us have all the stuff we need plus much more.   Acknowledge your abundance and share with others in need, when possible. Here are 3 ways to…

9 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid, Mistake #9

I really encourage you to avoid mistake #9 because nothing good will come of it. Mistake #9: Beating yourself up for making organizing mistakes.  Don’t give yourself a hard time for letting your house or office become unorganized or messy. Solution: We are human and we make mistakes.  Instead of dwelling on mistakes, say to…

9 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid, Mistake #8

  Mistake #8:  Giving up.  You have a rough spell or life is just hard so you give up on organization or maintaining. Solution: Sometimes life happens, things don’t go as planned, we get sick, ect.   Sometimes we backslide into our old ways of doing things.  With any new habit it takes time, at least…

9 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid, Mistake #7

Are you outgrowing your space?  You may be making mistake #7. Mistake #7:  Keeping too much.   More stuff requires more space and more of your time for maintenance.  If you are having a difficult time maintaining organization and out growing your space you might be keeping  too much stuff. Solution:  Be ruthless when sorting…

9 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid, Mistake #6

Have you organized an area only to have it return back to it’s original state within days?  Mistake #6 might be the cause. Mistake #6:  Lack of systems Solution:  Systems will help you maintain the areas you have already organized.  Think of a system as a routine or procedure for maintaining the area.  You probably…

9 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid, Mistake #5

Save yourself time and money by avoiding mistake #5. Mistake #5:  Purchasing containers before you begin organizing.  Let’s face it, it’s fun to shop for cute containers or buy them when they are on sale.  Most  of us have a stack of empty containers somewhere in our home, waiting to be put to use.  We…

9 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid, Mistake #4

  There are 9 common organizing mistakes.  Previous posts focused on Mistake #1,  Mistake #2 and Mistake #3.  This post will cover mistake #4. Mistake #4:  Tackling too large of an area. Do you feel overwhelmed when looking at the photo above?  Where would you even begin? Solution #4: Break your large project into small…

9 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid, Mistake #3

Organizing mistakes are common.  They may cost you valuable time, money and stress.  I covered Mistake #1 and Mistake #2 in previous posts.  Today we will look at Mistake #3. Mistake #3:  Perfection.  Does perfection prevent you from getting organized?  Do you think, “it won’t be perfect so why even try?” Solution #3:  Stop It! …

9 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid, Mistake #2

Would you like to avoid common organizing mistakes?  I’d like to help you succeed by providing solutions to the 9 common organizing mistakes.  Today we will look at mistake #2.  Click here for mistake #1. Mistake #2:  Believing you will need to set aside a large chunk of time for your organizing project.  False!  You…