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Entries Tagged 'Decluttering' ↓
Are you are feeling overwhelmed by your home organization projects? Do you have lots of piles in lots of rooms and don’t know where to get started? Sometimes people don’t even get started because they feel so overwhelmed and don’t know how they will ever get through it all. Well, there is light at the end of the tunnel! You CAN get through it and see progress, see empty spaces and clear your counters!
Here is the serious dent that was made in this garage in only about 2.5 hours:
Garage in Need of Organization
Garage Partially Decluttered
There’s still work to do in the second photo, but we were able to finish the rest of the garage during the next round in about 3 hours.
Organized Garage Shelving Unit
Here are 5 organizing tips to help you see the light if you are feeling overwhelmed by your clutter:
1) Remember this is not TV and your project doesn’t have to be finished in one day.
2) Choose one room to start with, then choose one area to start with within the room.
3) Work in one area until it is done and then move onto the next area in the room.
4) You may have to move items that will no longer stay in the room you are working in. This could mean moving them into another room which will make that room look worse for a while. Remember, you can only work in one area at a time, so preserve your goals in one room before you worry about the next one.
5) Make it more fun with music, snacks and a helper.
You CAN see light at the end of the tunnel! It starts with decluttering one small area at a time, staying consistent and keeping at it. Be sure to reward yourself along the way too!
Tags: declutter, garage organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, home organization projects, organizing tips, room
Magazine Clutter
Magazines=lots of words, lots of pictures, lots of products, lots of knowledge, lots of C-L-U-T-T-E-R… Yes, clutter.
Please tell me that you know rationally that you will never, ever have time to catch up with piles and piles of magazines. Magazines on the the couch, on the table, the floor, on the nightstand, in the bathroom too.
What do you do if magazines are multiplying in your sleep, getting you further and further behind? Try any and all of these 10 Decluttering Tips to lighten your load:
1) Reduce volume by being picky about what you allow in your home, discontinue all magazine subscriptions that you are no longer reading.
2) Do a major purge to give yourself a clean slate. Let all of the unread magazines go so you can read only the new information coming in.
3) Recycle, recycle, recycle.
4) Share a subscription with someone else. Read only what you want and pass it on knowing your friend won’t want outdated info.
5) Take magazines to your local library, libraries will often sell them to raise a little bit of money for programs.
6) Read magazines in your local library, sit and read what peaks your interest and go home without them.
7) Check out your favorite magazine websites for articles & recipes.
8) Just say no to magazine fundraisers instead of trying to be nice by ordering something you don’t want.
9) Donate old magazines to a local hospital.
10) Donate old magazines to a local doctor or dentist.
You will let go of a lot of guilt when you let go of a lot of magazines, just do it, trust me! Click here for more helpful home decluttering tips.
Tags: clutter, home, home decluttering tips, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, magazine clutter, magazines, recycle, subscriptions
Introducing a very important home organization tool….
The Toilet Paper Tube!
Toilet Paper Tube for Home Organization Projects
No, I haven’t lost it! I just know that it can be overwhelming when your organizing project starts out looking like this:
Cluttered Basement
Oh, where to begin? Narrow your focus. Take a toilet paper tube, look through it and begin with the area you can see looking through this small tube. That’s really all you can do, start with one small area, conquer it and move onto the next area. You know the joke: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” How do you cut clutter? One piece at a time!
Here are a few organizing tips to help not feel so overwhelmed:
1) Decide how long you feel you can work and set a timer. Even 15 minutes will make a difference! And, once you get started, you may not even want to stop!
2) Start with the area that is impeding your movement, if you can’t walk into the room start with the floor.
3) Have someone give you a hand for support and to keep you on track.
When you break your decluttering project down to one bite at a time, it makes it manageable so you will succeed!! Click here for or more decluttering tips.
Tags: cluttered, decluttered, Decluttering, decluttering tips, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing tips
Declutter, weed, what? Recently I was outside tackling the grass and weeds in my yard. Here in the northwest we’ve had plenty of rain greening things up, we’ve also had plenty of rain making it almost impossible to get outside to mow & weed our yards. Yes, a bit of a catch 22. This is the time of year that I love as spring & summer are my favorite seasons! It’s also the time of year I dread just a little bit as it means I have outside duties on top of inside duties to care for. So, I started with the first mowing of spring, I’m not sure that grass is really supposed to have little flowers sprouting from the top….I then moved onto weeds. My oh my, weeds galore! As I was staring down at the job(s) ahead of me, I realized I felt overwhelmed. Just like my clients feel overwhelmed with their clutter. They see shelves and floors piled with stuff and don’t know where to begin. Well, you begin with one ‘weed’ at a time.
Half way there-making progress!
All you can do is focus on making a decision and then move onto the next decision. Before you know it-you will have a clear space!!
Success!!
Had a little helper-told you I live in the northwest!
Now, the trick is to stay on top of it all so I don’t have to work so hard in the future. Once you declutter your home, then you need to work on preserving your clear space. Once you have a foundation, staying on top of it all is much easier that starting over! Read more about what you need in your decluttering toolkit here to make your job even easier.
Tags: declutter, declutter your home, Decluttering, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, overwhelming
Off to Charity after Home Organization Project
Recycling!
Earth Day is about protecting and improving our environment and one way to do that is through recycling. This is an excerpt that I took directly from Wikipedia:
Earth Day 20 and Earth Day 1990
Mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues onto the world stage, Earth Day activities in 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Unlike the first Earth Day in 1970, this 20th Anniversary was waged with stronger marketing tools, greater access to television and radio, and multimillion-dollar budgets.[32]
In the US we typically have way more “stuff” than people in other countries, usually far, far more than we actually need to get by. And usually we have pretty good stuff that we have spent good money on. We don’t want to just throw it away because that’s like throwing money away and it further adds to our landfills which isn’t a good solution.
This Earth Day I encourage you to start the decluttering process in your own home to find the “good stuff” that you aren’t using anymore. Find a way to recycle it so you don’t have to store it, it stays out of the landfills and someone else can benefit by adopting your stuff. Ways that you can do this:
1) Have a garage sale
2) Sell or give stuff away on Craigslist
3) Use an eBay trading assistant or sell items on eBay yourself
4) Join Freecycle and give your stuff away
5) Recycle cardboard & paper
6) Donate belongings to your favorite charity
Help the environment and meet your home organization goals all at the same time-a win win!!
Tags: charity, craiglist, Earth Day, ebay, environment, freecycle, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, recycle, wikipedia
Labels for home organization toolkit
When you are ready to tackle your home organization projects, it’s a good idea to make your list and check it twice. It’s best to be prepared with everything you need to tackle clutter once and for all so you don’t have to run around looking for supplies. This gives you more time to declutter! Here are 7 must-have supplies to help you get the job done:
1) A flat surface for sorting items. This could be a counter, it could be a table or a folding table you bring in or even a sheet on the floor. Preferably it will be up high to help save your back.
2) Bins or boxes for sorting. This will allow you to separate “like” items or items of the same type together. This is an excellent visual to see just how much you have of each type of item. Examples: round up all coffee cups together, round up all garden tools together, round up all measuring cups together, round up all glass vases together. You may be surprised when you see how much you have and it will make it easier to let some of the excess go-yeah!
Sorting Boxes
3) Sticky Notes or Paper to create labels for the bags or boxes that you are getting rid of as well as your sorting boxes.
4) Marker or Sharpie to write the label names. Common labels are: Garbage, Donation, Recycle, Shred. Having labels on the outside of the bags makes it less confusing when you are getting rid of stuff.
5) Sturdy bags or boxes to put in the items you are parting with that will be leaving your home.
6) Tape to stick the labels to the bags or boxes.
7) Storage bins or Ziplock bags to corral the items you are keeping and give them a home. Labels are highly encouraged!
Take the time to put together your handy supply kit so you don’t waste valuable decluttering time as you work toward your home organization goals!
Tags: declutter, donation, garbage, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, labels, supplies
Clutter in Garage
What’s your clutter level currently at? Are you dealing with just a little bit of clutter here and there-possibly holding steady at green? If you’re at green, it will just take you a few minutes to get make decisions and have a clear space again-ta da! Or is it starting to creep up, heading for blue or perhaps even yellow? Maybe it’s yellow because you can’t eat dinner a the table right now with too many papers to clear off first.
Stay on top of your stuff so it doesn’t make it to yellow and certainly don’t start heading for orange or red! The longer you let it grow, the more overwhelmed you will feel. You know you’re heading in the wrong direction when you start seeing big piles, when you can’t walk into the room, when you can’t open the closet door and when you can’t sit on the couch. This is a recipe for stress!
If you can catch clutter while it’s still a molehill, you will keep it from turning into a mountain. Make a plan to declutter right now-you can do it!
1) Choose one area to clear and keep your focus on that area until it’s done. Don’t jump around the room.
2) Decide how much time you can devote to each decluttering session-consider your time and energy levels. Work at the time of day that you have the most energy.
3) Decide how you want to use your space before you start clearing it. This will help you know what to keep and what to remove from the area.
4) Make firm decisions on letting things go. Do you use it? Do you really need it? Do you have too many? Can you borrow another one?
5) Keep at it, even it it’s just a little bit each day-you will get it done!
6) Celebrate your victories along the way!
Take time to declutter when your piles are in the yellow (or even sooner!) and the process will go faster and a lot less stressful!
Tags: clutter, garage, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog
Paper to Declutter
Grab a recycle bag, set a timer for 13 minutes and see just how much you can get rid of-you may be amazed! If loud music helps, then turn it up!
1) Start with one room and stay in that room until you are done. If you finish before 13 minutes, move on to the next room.
2) Have your recycle bag with you so you don’t leave the area.
3) Be in a positive frame of mind that you can let things go!
4) Set your timer for 13 minutes.
5) Ready, set, go!!
Recycle:
1) Old newspapers-it’s old news, let them go!
2) Expired coupons.
3) Outside envelopes from bills.
4) Inserts from bills.
5) Expired advertisements/flyers.
6) Magazines over 3 months old, if they are that old, you don’t have time to catch up.
7) Junk mail.
Things you will never actually read-out goes that investment prospectus!
9) Invitations from events that have passed.
10) At least some of your child’s old homework sheets & art-you don’t really need to keep it all. Pick the best and part with the rest.
11) Sign-up sheets for activities that you know your kids don’t want to sign up for. Make quick decisions. No basketball? Then let it go.
12) Recipes you aren’t really going to try. Either try them out or let them go.
13) Books you have already read unless you know you will read them again or use them as a reference.
Decluttered Desk
Just think, with just a 13 a minute decluttering session, you may see the top of your desk, table or counter again!
Tags: books, declutter, desk, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, homework, paper, recipes
Organized and Calm Home
Home organization isn’t just about sorting bins, donation bags, organizing bins and labels. But, oh how I love them all! What I frequently find is that the donation bag is the catalyst for serious life change and better life balance. I’m not just making this stuff up. When I work with clients, I’m brought in because they are overwhelmed by their stuff. Their belongings have crossed the line from a source of pleasure to a source of pain. When people start filling the donation bag, the garbage can or the recycle bin, they are taking back control. Control of their decisions, their space, their time and their energy. They are released from a burden that has been holding them back. And that is magical!
I’ve had clients who could pursue a move because they let go of all of the excess that they were storing in a larger home. I’ve had clients who joined Weight Watchers and started losing weight. The weight of the clutter was gone and now they felt they could take better care of themselves. I’ve had clients who felt they could enjoy going on vacation because they didn’t feel obligated to stay home and declutter.
So, I challenge you to put on some music and take 15 minutes today to declutter one small area of your home-one drawer, one table top, one shelf. Kick-start your journey to let go of the stuff and enjoy the things that are truly important to you in life!
Your Home Organization Expert-Monika
Tags: Balance-Family, clutter, declutter, donation bags, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, home organization expert, labels, organizing bins, Self, work
Disorganized & Messy Kitchen
When you’ve got too much stuff out, it simply makes it harder to clean flat surfaces.
- When you can’t get to your kitchen counter top, it’s hard to clean food crumbs.
- When you can’t get to your table top, it’s hard to keep dust at bay.
- When you can’t get to your desk top, it’s hard to keep dust at bay.
- When you can’t get to your floor, dust, grime and food crumbs can take hold.
Choose one area of your home today to declutter and create a clear surface so it will be easier to keep clean! And it will look and feel better too-you can do it!
Your Home Organization Expert, Monika
Organized & Clean Kitchen
Tags: cleaning, clutter, counter top, declutter, desk top, disorganized kitchen, dust, floor, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, home organization expert, Organized & Clean kitchen
