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Entries Tagged 'Decluttering' ↓
Thank you to Laura Lozano who asked for some organizing tips on facebook and then shared her success in decluttering the top of her mini fridge, way to go Laura!!
Photo Courtesy of Laura Lozano
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog
Spring, spring, spring is here, my FAVORITE time of year! After many dark, gray months in the Great Northwest, I welcome the cherry blossoms, the daffodils and the tulips-yipppppeeee! My daughter and I planted over 100 tulips and this will be the 2nd spring to reap the rewards of color and beauty in our front yard every time we come home.
Spring is a time for renewal and new growth and spring cleaning and organizing too!
As the sun start shining and casting a spotlight on dirty windows and dusty blinds, this is a good time to create a list of tasks that goes above and beyond the daily dishes and piles of laundry. Don’t miss these tasks this year, even if you just do one task per weekend:
- Dust (or scrub) the blinds
- Wash the curtains-oh my goodness, I had curtains that hadn’t been washed since they were hung up about 9 years ago. Yuck huh? They’re washed now-phew.
- Dust window sills & door frames
- Dust the tops of pictures
- Pull out appliances and clean behind them-fridge, oven, washer & dryer-it gets nasty back there
- Clean light fixtures and replace any burned out bulbs, there are bugs in there!
- Repaint nicks and scratches on walls & trim
- Wash windows (or hire someone, even better!)
- Declutter and make room for new items in your home (this may be a bigger project that can be broken down into smaller ones)
- Let go of excess paper in the form of: old newspapers, magazines (are you really going to read them?) and flyers that are plastered on the fridge
You probably have some of your own “to do’s” on your mind, so you can feel free to use as little or as much of my list as you please! For 20 easy things to toss for home organization right now, you can check out my other list! 
Tags: 20 easy things to toss for home organization, declutter, DIY organization, Happy Spring & A Little 10 Item "To Do" List!, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, spring cleaning
“Organization is a process, not an event.” If you know a professional organizer then, chances are, you’ve heard some version of this saying. And that’s because it’s true! If I were working with you in your home for 2-3 hours on an organizing project, we would go through a process. And, after I left, I would hope that you would continue with the process by implementing maintenance techniques.
- First, we would decide where to start on your project.
- Next, we would take things off of shelves or out of boxes or off of cluttered counter tops. This is where you make decisions on what to keep and what to let go.
- Finally, we would place items that you are keeping in logical places, in organizing bins or files if called for and we would use labeling wherever we could.
It looks awesome, it looks amazing, we are jumping up and down, fist pump! Now we’re done right? Not so fast! We’re not done because this is a process. First you make decisions, you establish homes and order and then you have to maintain it. Just like weight comes back if you stop eating healthy and exercising, so does clutter.
The good news is, once you have systems in place, it’s much easier to restore order because you know where things go which is 90% of the battle! When you don’t know where anything goes and you have too much, then the piles just continue to grow.
The other good news is, restoring order shouldn’t take you long! Just make sure you take a few minutes to put things away where they belong and continue to get rid of things that you don’t need on a regular basis to avoid having to do a major overhaul again!
And here are 20 easy things to toss to get you started with the decluttering process!
Tags: decluttering process, DIY organization, home, Home Organization Blog, home organization is a process not an event, organizing project
It’s my favorite day of the year-MY BIRTHDAY-yipppppeee! To celebrate my birthday, my business partner gave me the green light to give my step-by-step, online decluttering video away for $10 until Sunday, March 4th!
You can check out my decluttering video on my website.
But use this link to by-pass the $17 charge and pay just $10.
Happy birthday to me and happy organizing to you!
Tags: Decluttering, decluttering video, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Organizing Product Reviews
You should be able to complete each of these 10 home organization projects in just 10 minutes! Get them done all in less than 2 hours or organize for just 10 minutes a day and watch your clutter disappear! On your mark get set go!
Home Organization Project #1: Clean out the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator, out with the old and wilted!
Home Organization Project #2: Purge the raggedy linens and refold the good linens you are keeping on just one shelf of the linen closet.
Home Organization Project #3: Purge your old, nasty make-up, it’s not healthy. For guidelines on how long make-up is good, please read more here.
Home Organization Project #4: Clean off the front of the fridge. Pull down all of the expired coupons, outdated phone lists and outdated flyers.
Home Organization Project #5: Clear the top of your office file cabinet. Let go of the phone books, software boxes and old papers that have piled up. Instead, place a tray on top labeled, “To File” and place papers that still need to be filed there. A logical place!
Home Organization Project #6: Organize your jammie drawer. Pull out all of the jammies and put them on the bed, real quick-you only have 10 minutes! Pull out everything that looks old, sloppy and worn out and get rid of it. Refold or buy new jammies that are cute and look nice. Tell your husband I said, “You’re welcome.”
Home Organization Project #7: Now, the top of the fridge! A clean, clear fridge is a happy fridge. Take down the extra cereal boxes and put them in the pantry, the fridge is not an extension of the pantry.
Home Organization Project #8: Tackle under the bathroom sink. If it’s too much for 10 minutes, just take on half. Pull out all the beauty products that you no longer use. You can either give them away or take them to your local hazardous waste drop off if needed.
Home Organization Project #9: Recycle old magazines. Hit the magazine pile and hit it hard. You either have time to read them or you don’t. If you don’t, please recycle or give them away and then cancel your subscription.
Home Organization Project #10: Shoo shoes from the shoe bin. Head to your shoe bin or local ‘kick off’ spot and make sure that the shoes that live there: 1) Have a mate 2) Fit 3) Are actually worn. If they don’t fit the bill, give ‘em the boot! (I couldn’t help it!)
Tags: clutter, Decluttering, DIY organization, home, Home Organization Blog, home organization project
Are you feeling overwhelmed, stressed out and frustrated every time you walk into your office? That’s no way to work! I’ve got 7 easy office decluttering tasks that you can tackle in your office and each one will take less than 10 minutes. Set the timer for 10 minutes every day and see what you can accomplish in just 7 days!
Office Decluttering Task #1: Recycle your phone books because you are now using google. This should take maybe 2 minutes, 1 to track them down, 1 minute to walk to the recycle bin, easy peasy!
Office Decluttering Task #2: Recycle or move software boxes to another location other than your immediate workspace.
Office Decluttering Task #3: Declutter your bulletin board. After a while we just tune out the ‘important’ stuff we placed on the bulletin board. Declutter by removing papers, schedules, cards and phone lists that are no longer relevant.
Office Decluttering Task #4: Remove garbage & dirty dishes. Gather up the coffee cups, plates and silverware that have gathered from lunch and get them outta there. Look around for wrappers, fast food containers and empty Starbuck’s cups and get them outta there!
Office Decluttering Task #5: Remove items that are not office related. Which of these don’t look like the other? Has your desk turned into a dumping ground for items that belong elsewhere? Gather toys, beauty supplies & small tools and return them to ‘elsewhere.’
Office Decluttering Task #6: Let go of extra office supplies. Do you have old binders, hanging file folders and 3 extra staplers? Maybe it’s time to dump them or donate them depending on their condition; don’t clutter your “prime real estate” with stuff you don’t use.
Office Decluttering Task #7: Minimize personal mementos. Now, I”m not saying you can’t display your pictures of your old Aunt Betty’s glamour shots, but do keep the volume down. Too many nick nacks, photos and cards on display make for a visually cluttered office. If you must keep them, put half away and switch them out by rotating every few months.
For more tips on how to get organized in your office, please read more right here! And if you have a comment, I’d love to read it right here!
Tags: declutter, decluttering tasks, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, office organization, recycle, software, Starbucks
It can be so much easier to boot excess belonging out of your home if you feel like you know where it’s going and you feel good about where it’s going. I personally just want to get stuff we aren’t using out of my house and I’m good with any local donation truck that may be rolling through. But if you need to go a step further, consider these 7 options to send off clutter for home organization:
- Donate to a charity that is near and dear to your heart. In our area, we have a thrift store that you can donate to who sells the items and uses it for a battered women’s shelter. Maybe you can’t donate money, but your belongings can still raise money-yeah!
Just being able to imagine the group of people you are helping, may be just enough to let your belongings go!
- Pass down children’s items to younger children in your family, neighborhood or church. Clothing, toys and books in good condition can be so appreciated by young families. Just be sure to ask if they need them in case storing your items creates a burden in their home.
- Pass down items to young people just starting out or starting over. Perhaps you know someone who is getting their first apartment or you’ve just read about a family in your area that suffered through a home fire. This is a great opportunity for you to go through your extra linens, dishes and small appliances to see what you can part with.
- Join Freecycle in your area, a grassroots community dedicated to keeping items out of landfills by giving away items for FREE! I used to to get free play chips for our outdoor play area a few years ago.
- Sell it: Sometimes it’s hard to just give away stuff that you’ve spent perfectly good money for. You have options such as consignment stores, antique malls, craigslist, eBay, an eBay trading assistant or a garage sale. Always remember, your time and energy to sell these items is valuable too, make sure it’s worth it to sell.
- Recycle it: If you can keep items out of the garbage and thus the landfills, more power to you! Here in the northwest, we’re particularly fussy about this so be sure to recycle cardboard, paper, bottles, plastic bags, cell phones, batteries and whatever else you can recycle in your area. If you live in WA State: dial 1-800-Recycle
- Shred it. If you’ve got sensitive documents lying around, you may feel better if you drop them off with a local shredding company to get them out of your house. Be wise with documents with bank account numbers, social security numbers, tax ID numbers and credit card numbers on them.
Whatever it takes to get it out, just let it go, you’ll love it and you have a chance to help someone else! For more ways to declutter your home, please read more here.
Tags: clutter, craigslist, declutter your home, DIY organization, ebay, eBay trading assistant, garage sale, hme organization blog, home, Home Organization, recycle, send off clutter
My kitchen is small and my preference is to walk in and see clutter-free counters so it doesn’t make my kitchen look even smaller. Plus, just by my nature, I don’t like to see too many things out all at once in any area of my home. I believe the kitchen is a very important room to keep organized and functional so we can prepare meals quickly and easily. The more we have to push past stuff and search for stuff, the harder it is to work efficiently. Since cooking isn’t my favorite task of the day, I’d rather get in and get out!
Here are 5 Strategies to Clear Your Kitchen Counter of Clutter so you can work efficiently whether you love to cook, bake or not so much!
Decluttering Strategy #1: Throw Away Trash
- Grab a trash bag and look for all the trash that can be tossed on the spot: food wrappers, fast food containers and recycle items such as pop cans (OK soda cans East Coast, I hear ya) and beer bottles.
Decluttering Strategy #2: Let Go of the Extras
- Go drawer by drawer, cupboard by cupboard and let go of items that you have too much of or that you no longer use. Kids no longer using sippy cups? Let them go. Do you have 30 coffee mugs when you can get by with 10, let 20 go. Chipped dishes that you never use? Let them go.
- Letting go of the extras will free up space to put things away and not leave them out on the counter.
Decluttering Strategy #3: Stow Small Appliances
- Have your counter tops turned into small appliance parking lots? Only keep the most frequently used small appliances out within easy reach. For most of us, this will include a toaster and a coffee pot. Use that extra space you created in the cupboards to store less frequently used items such as juicers and waffle irons.
Decluttering Strategy #4: Stretch Your Space
- Use organizing products to your advantage to stretch your space to hang up your paper towels & hand towels.
Paper Towel Holder from Organized A to Z
Towel Bar from Organized A to Z
Decluttering Strategy #5: Keep a Flow Going
- Make sure dishes don’t end up on the counter and in the sink because the dishwasher needs to be cleaned out. Be sure that someone in your home (or you) has dishwasher duty so you can load it up instead of backing it up.
For even more kitchen organizing strategies, you can keep reading more right here cuz that’s how I roll.
PS: These photos are from my kitchen on a bad day-see, I’m not perfect.
Tags: clutter, clutter-free, Decluttering, decluttering strategy, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kitchen counter, Kitchen Organizing, kitchen organizing strategies
If clutter being a nusiance isn’t enough to get you motivated to declutter your home, how about if you think about it in terms of being hazardous to your health? Maybe that will light a fire. Of course it’s all going to depend on just how much clutter any given household has. One cluttered coffee table-probably not so bad. Every floor and flat surface covered with stuff, maybe more of a problem going on.
I’ve got 5 things that I’ve seen personally that I believe can be hazardous to your health and a great motivators to start the decluttering process:
Hazard #1: Animal feces. It’s much easier for animals to get away with using the floor as a potty when they can’t get out the door. It’s also a lot harder to keep up with cleaning it when you can’t see it or the floor.
Hazard #2: Rodents. What a nice, warm, welcoming environment for these friendly little critters to get come in from out of the cold. I’m sure they are very grateful for mounds of soft clothes and paper to shred for their homes. Rat feces and people are not a good combination for good health.
Hazard #3: Accidents. If your floor is covered with clutter, it’s an accident waiting to happen. You don’t want to trip and fall over your own stuff, nor do you want something to come crashing down on your sweet, little head.
Hazard #4: Fire. Talk about scary! If you have stacks of paper a mile high and trails to get around your home, you could really have a dangerous situation.
Hazard #5: Mold. I’ve worked with paper that was stored in a box so long there was black mold growing in there. That is not good and you don’t want to be breathing that in. The good thing though, there was $500 cash in that box! Your house needs to breathe and if you have your walls piled high with stuff, it’s not breathing properly.
It’s so important that you are happy in your home and that your home isn’t a hazard for you or your family. It’s definitely worth your time, energy and effort to declutter so you and your home can breathe easy!
Tags: clutter, declutter, decluttering process, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog
Don’t let clutter live in your home with you forever, start the countdown until you kick clutter to the curb! It’s easy to set stuff aside thinking that you’ll get to it “someday,” that you’ll use it “someday” and that you will fix it “someday.” But “someday” never comes. Slap “someday” silly by creating deadlines for yourself and you’ll know exactly when “someday” has arrived.
Follow these easy deadline decluttering tips:
#1: Create a clutter withdrawl box. As you start purging your stuff, you may come across things you just aren’t sure you are ready to part with yet. Go ahead and put them in a box labeled: “Clutter Withdrawl” and then place a note on your calendar to donate the box. If you have to get something out, that’s OK. If you don’t, you can feel good letting the whole box go. The shorter the timeframe on your calendar, the less time you will have to store it. Aim for 3 months or less.
#2: Expired Stuff:
- Food: Don’t get sick, it’s not worth it. Plus the co-pay to go to the doctor will probably be more than the expired food-go hog wild and treat yourself to new food.
- Coupons: Expired coupons don’t work, say no more.
- Newspapers: It’s old news, let it go. There’s more news on the way!
- Medications: This will give me a freakout-I used to be a back office medical assistant. Please don’t even think about taking old medication, take it someplace where it will be disposed of properly (which means not down the toilet).
#3: Things to fix. Place things that need to be fixed on a shelf and address them once a month. Either fix them, take them to be fixed or throw them out after a month.
#4: Gifts to Give: If you must keep a box, bin or drawer of gifts to give, then make sure you give them. Whenever a holiday or special occasion comes up, go to your gift stockpile first before going hitting the mall. Keep your inventory moving, if it’s not gone by the end of the year, donate it.
#5: Clothes that don’t fit: You’ve got one year baby to get in a smaller size. Make sure you are being fair to yourself and are not keeping sizes that aren’t realistic to get back into. Our bodies change as we get older and it’s not fair to think you should get into your jeans from high school-15 years ago.
Make sure you keep clutter moving right along so you won’t get overwhelmed by yourself. If you need decluttering tips to help get you started, please read more right here!
Tags: clutter, Decluttering, decluttering tips, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, timer
