Decluttering should be embraced, not skipped, because when you let go of those items that don’t serve you, it is so much easier to organize what remains.
Tagged with: decluttering, disorder, minimalism, storage, worth repeating
Tagged with: disorder, kitchen, order, worth repeating
Decluttering should be embraced, not skipped, because when you let go of those items that don’t serve you, it is so much easier to organize what remains.
Tagged with: decluttering, disorder, minimalism, storage, worth repeating
My husband and I are in the midst of a kitchen renovation. If you’ve ever done that, you know how disruptive it can be. We’re lucky in that we actually have a spare kitchen to use. (We live in a two-family house, but no longer rent out the downstairs apartment.) Still, despite my best efforts to organize the downstairs kitchen for our temporary use, everything feels topsy turvy.
I met with a client recently who explained all the storage solutions she and her husband had attempted in an effort to create order. They have three kids and a small house and it felt to them like their home was bursting at the seams. Yet their storage solutions hadn’t solved the problem.
Tagged with: decluttering, disorder, minimalism, storage
A winter storm has hit both coasts of the US, bringing rain, snow, and generally unpleasant weather to much of the nation. If you find yourself trapped inside by the weather, here are some organizing tasks you can accomplish. (I published a similar list in a February 2010 post called snowed in?.)
Tagged with: cats, clutter clearing, disorder, dogs, snow, weather, worth repeating
I wrote this blog post four years ago and it remains true. Clutter is truly in the eye of the beholder, which can become a problem when people in the same household have different standards!
Since I specialize in working with chronically disorganized people, I’ve seen a lot of clutter. I’ve worked in homes so full of stuff they were uninhabitable (literally).
Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, disorder, napo st. louis, order, perfectionism. worth repeating, unclutterer
I’m always amazed at what a big difference a little focused effort at decluttering, tidying, and organizing can make. I blogged about that last October.
Over the past week, I let my office get a little out of control. Getting ready to travel for a long weekend, I had stopped clearing my desk off each night. My early-morning pre-flight preparations made things worse. And when I got home from the trip on Monday afternoon, I worried about catching up with email, not cleaning things up.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, clean desk, disorder, order, worth repeating
On Wednesdays this summer, I’ll be re-running blog posts from the past. Each week, I’ll pick one that still rings true to me. Here’s this week’s selection.
I’m a messy person. And (clearly) I’m not ashamed of it. You might find it surprising that a professional organizer is messy. But that might be because you think that messy and disorganized are synonymous. Trust me, they’re not.
Tagged with: disorder, habits, order, organized, worth repeating
Over the past week, I let my office get a little out of control. Getting ready to travel for a long weekend, I had stopped clearing my desk off each night. My early-morning pre-flight preparations made things worse. And when I got home from the trip on Monday afternoon, I worried about catching up with email, not cleaning things up.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, clean desk, disorder, order
One of the benefits of having a blog for six years is that you can see how often you do stuff. Back in March of 2009, I blogged about decluttering the ancient computer documentation I had in my office closet.
Tagged with: clutter, computer, decluttering, disorder
Today is the Fourth of July where in the U.S. we celebrate the signing of our nation’s Declaration of Independence from England. I’m currently reading An Echo in the Bone, the seventh in Diana Galbadon’s wonderful Outlander series, which is set during the Revolutionary War. Maybe that’s why this year Independence Day really has me thinking about independence, and freedom, and what it means to me and my clients.
Tagged with: disorder, freedom, independence, order
I love the blog Unclutterer. Erin Doland, who writes most of the posts, is so smart and such a great writer. I love her perspective on striving to live a clutter-free life.
Tagged with: clutter, disorder, erin doland, order, routines, unclutterer
I’m a messy person. And (clearly) I’m not ashamed of it. You might find it surprising that a professional organizer is messy. But that might be because you think that messy and disorganized are synonymous. Trust me, they’re not.
The past couple of weeks have been very busy for me and I haven’t been home a whole lot. I did take one glorious at-home day off a week ago Saturday, where I caught up on my TV and did some knitting. (Boy that day went by fast!) I did nothing but relax, which I sorely needed.
Tagged with: disorder, habits, order, pockets of time, routines
I’ve had a difficult time coming up with insightful blog posts lately. I think about what to write and nothing comes to me.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, disorder, home office, priorities, productivity
I gave a decluttering talk the other day and of the audience members asked, “But what if I get comfort from having all my stuff around me?” I told her it’s not a problem to be surrounded by her stuff — unless it is a problem. I asked her whether being surrounded by her stuff was affecting her ability to function. She said yes. So we talked a little about what happens when the cost of keeping stuff is higher than the cost of letting go of it.
Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, disorder, guest post, quick clutter fix, rubbermaid, shannon wilkinson
Here in St. Louis, we have just a little snow on the ground, with a little more expected this afternoon. Those of you on the east coast, however, are pretty much snowed in. I just communicated via email with a friend in Maryland who said they got two feet of snow and were out of power for 36 hours. Yikes.
Tagged with: cats, clutter clearing, disorder, dogs, snow, weather
I’ve always been open on this blog about how things can get out of control in my house. Even though I have homes for almost all of my things (which isn’t to say there aren’t storage areas that need to be weeded out…I’ll be blogging more about that in coming weeks), I have a hard time putting stuff away. And when things get busy? Forget about it.
Tagged with: clutter, disorder, time management
Since I specialize in working with chronically disorganized people, I’ve seen a lot of clutter. I’ve worked in homes so full of stuff they were inhabitable (literally).
But I’ve also been hired to do consultations for people for whom there was no visible clutter, at least at first glance. Yet those folks made the effort to schedule an appointment and paid me to advise them on how to deal with stuff that was bothering them. To my eye, it was small, easily addressable stuff. But to them it was a problem. (I always have to remind myself never to trivialize someone’s problem.)
Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, disorder, napo st. louis, order, perfectionism, unclutterer
The adage may seem tired, but it’s true. To maintain order, you need to
1. have a place for everything and then
2. put everything in its place.
It’s so interesting to me how in control I feel when I have (and take) the time to keep my systems going, and to maintain order. And it’s also interesting how quickly those systems can break down.
Tagged with: autofocus, backsliding, balance, clutter, control, disorder, exercise, time management
The other day I decided to sell my Palm T|X handheld on Gazelle. It’s a website that buys used electronics. (I’ll write a post after the transaction is complete to let you know how the experience is.) I’d replaced the Palm with my beloved iPod Touch, so thought I’d divest myself of it.
Tagged with: clutter, computer, decluttering, disorder, gazelle
This week, as part of my Level III certification program through the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, I analyzed the book Making Peace with the Things in Your Life, by Cindy Glovinsky (link at right).
Tagged with: cindy glovinsky, clutter, decluttering, disorder, motivation
I wrote on Friday about how my house had become cluttered and messy over the past couple of weeks of whirlwind activity and how I had feet of lead when I thought about doing anything about it. I ended that post with “I hope to report on Monday that my life and business are back in order and that I’m feeling clutter-free and empowered!”
Tagged with: clutter, disorder, empowerment, gwa, mark forster, productivity
As I posted on Monday I had a crazy-busy week last week, leading a team of five other organizers to help a client get his house cleared out. This week, I’ve been doing follow up on that job. There’s been a certain amount of paperwork associated with it. And I had a NAPO St. Louis chapter meeting this week, which always generates paper.
On Friday I blogged about how I hoped to focus on decluttering in the coming weekend and that I was experiencing the rare and delightful confluence of having time for this kind of work and feeling motivated to do it.
I have to say, it went well. In Friday’s post, I listed the projects I hoped to accomplish:
Tagged with: accountability, decluttering, disorder, storage
If you’ve ever worked with a professional organizer, you know that one of the things we bring to the table is focus. When you make the financial and time commitment to have a professional help you get organized, you tend to stay focused on the job during your session. And if your attention strays, the organizer draws it back to the project at hand.
Tagged with: accountability, decluttering, disorder, storage
According to an “article(Saying Yes to Mess article)”: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/garden/21mess.html?ex=1167368400&en=6aadc90afd8e245d&ei=5070&emc=eta1 by Penelope Green in today’s New York Times, there’s an anti-anticlutter movement afoot. That movement, according to the article, urges people to say yes to mess and embrace their disorder.
Tagged with: anti anticlutter, books, disorder