General Organizing
Organize and Tidy Your Bathroom
How did the bathroom counter become so cluttered? The cabinets and drawers a jumble of personal care items? Your bathroom is a heavily used room and in some homes, it’s small, with little storage. Our bodies require some upkeep, but let’s be real about how many products we need and use. Old products and…
Read MoreHow Timers Can Help You Organize
My colleague, Ellen Delap, incoming president of the National Association of Professional Organizers is a guest blogger for this post. Thank you Ellen! My Organizing Obsession: Timers It may not surprise you about my obsession with timers. A timer is a vital tool for time management. It’s a monitoring device as well as an accountability…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreLearn 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…
Read MoreHelp Your Kids Edit Their Stuff Before the Holidays
The holidays are a fun time of year. Giving and receiving presents can be fun, but it can also add stress and clutter. It doesn’t have to be stressful if you are mindful about giving, and do a little editing of your children’s belongings before the onslaught of receiving. Over the next couple of weeks,…
Read MoreIt’s Okay if You Don’t Send Holiday Cards
Sending Christmas or other holiday cards to family and friends is a wonderful tradition but it can also be overwhelming, time consuming and not so enjoyable for some of us (including me). This tradition can be simplified if you want to continue sending cards but are finding it more and more difficult to find the…
Read MoreWeekend Mini-Organizing Challenge: Thin Out Your Holiday Decorations
Need some organizing motivation and inspiration, or a gentle nudge? Simply subscribe to my blog to receive mini-organizing challenges several weekends a month. They will be automatically emailed to you so you won’t have to remember to visit the blog. Mini-organizing challenges are doable and will focus on decluttering a tiny area of your home. If the…
Read More4 Simple Steps to a Clutter-Free Thanksgiving
Hosting Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks? Don’t panic. It’s possible to organize four key areas of your home before Thanksgiving without organizing every hour of every day. Front entrance or porch: Make your home more inviting for your guests. Sweep the cobwebs away from your front door and sweep the porch. Give the welcome…
Read MoreWeekend Mini-Organizing Challenge: User Manuals/Instruction Booklets
Need some organizing motivation and inspiration, or a gentle nudge? Simply subscribe to my blog to receive mini-organizing challenges several weekends a month. They will be automatically emailed to you so you won’t have to remember to visit the blog. Mini-organizing challenges are doable and will focus on decluttering a tiny area of your home. If the…
Read MoreHow To Keep Track of Your Monetary Donations and Prevent Confusion
If you’ve donated to charitable organizations in the past, you probably receive a thick stack mail from charities every week. It can be confusing and time consuming to keep up with the requests. It’s a common practice for charities to sell, share, or rent your contact information with other charities. This is why they appear…
Read MoreDo Professional Organizers Have Perfect Homes?
Professional organizers are fairly normal, lead normal lives and some even have messy homes. Clients ask me about the state of my house. Is it perfectly organized? Are all of my containers and shelves labeled? Is my clothing organized by color? The answer is NO. Even though I’m passionate about organization and enjoy helping others…
Read MoreHow to Deal With Purchasing Mistakes
You are not the only one who has purchased something only to find out you don’t really need it or like it. I’m more likely to do this when it’s on sale or if I can’t find exactly what I want and I settle for the next best thing.Clearance sales, or any sale for that…
Read MoreLet Go while keeping the memories alive
I donated my mom’s favorite dress to charity a few months after her passing. I now have a sense of how my clients feel when they give away items once treasured by a loved one. I didn’t treasure or even like my mom’s special dress, but she loved it more than any other article of…
Read More5 Not-So-Obvious Things I’ve Learned as a Professional Organizer
I opened my business on a whim and a prayer in September of 2002, relying on my love of people and my organizing instincts. As you can imagine, I’ve learned quite a bit since then, including the following five not-so-obvious things: 1) Papers are the most common organizing challenge for people. Papers quickly pile up…
Read MoreWeekend Mini-Organizing Challenge: Bedroom Closet Floor
Need some organizing motivation and inspiration, or a gentle nudge? Simply subscribe to my blog to receive mini-organizing challenges several weekends a month. They will be automatically emailed to you so you won’t have to remember to visit the blog. Mini-organizing challenges are doable and will focus on decluttering a tiny area of your home.…
Read MoreConsign or Resell Wardrobe Pieces You’ve Edited From Your Closet
Don’t leave money hanging in your closet. Edit your clothing/accessories and take the items you no longer wear or like to a local consignment or resale store. Resale stores buy items on the spot. Consignment stores pay you a percentage of the selling price once the item sells. In order to have the most success…
Read MoreWeekend Mini-Organizing Challenge: Delete Emails
Need some organizing motivation and inspiration, or a gentle nudge? Simply subscribe to my blog to receive mini-organizing challenges several weekends a month. They will be automatically emailed to you so you won’t have to remember to visit the blog. Mini-organizing challenges are doable and will focus on decluttering a tiny area of your home.…
Read MoreCreating a Simple Home Inventory
It’s important to be prepared for an emergency and to have a plan for protecting your loved ones in place. A natural disaster or other catastrophic situation could cause you to lose your home and its contents. Do you know what’s under your roof? Insurance companies strongly suggest we document the contents of our homes.…
Read MoreWeekend Mini-Organizing Challenge: Delete Phone Apps
Need some organizing motivation and inspiration, or a gentle nudge? Simply subscribe to my blog to receive mini-organizing challenges several weekends a month. They will be automatically emailed to you so you won’t have to remember to visit the blog. Mini-organizing challenges are doable and will focus on decluttering a tiny area of your home.…
Read MoreOrganize Your Craft Supplies and Let Your Creative Juices Flow
If you are an enthusiastic crafter, you may have noticed that your crafting supplies have gotten out of hand, cluttering up your workspace. It’s often just as much fun to buy the supplies as it is to actually create the item. Imagine how awesome it would be to be able to find your supplies and…
Read MoreWeekend Mini-Organizing Challenge: Workout Room
Need some organizing motivation and inspiration, or a gentle nudge? Simply subscribe to my blog to receive mini-organizing challenges several weekends a month. They will be automatically emailed to you so you won’t have to remember to visit the blog. Mini-organizing challenges are doable and will focus on decluttering a tiny area of your home.…
Read MoreOrganize To Prepare For A Baby’s Arrival
Organize and prepare your home a few weeks in advance of your baby’s arrival so you are able to snuggle your new family member as much as possible. I’m sharing some tips for parents of newborns this week. Shop early for essentials — delivery dates are only an estimate. If you’re a mom-to-be in a…
Read MoreHow to Stop Procrastinating
I will do it later, tomorrow, someday, a rainy day or after I take a short nap. Are you a procrastinator? We tend to procrastinate when we feel overwhelmed. If a task feels too difficult to tackle, we may procrastinate. Stop procrastinating and start taking action with these simple and effective tips. 1. When you…
Read MoreHow to Have Your Home Company Ready Well Before Company Arrives
Why do we frantically clean and declutter when we are expecting visitors? We fear having them see our mess, right? But, what if your home was company ready, peaceful and comfortable most of the time….for you, its full time resident? You deserve it and YOU are worth it! Now I’m not proposing you maintain a…
Read MoreThe 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…
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