Do you have a huge, overwhelming decluttering project? Are you convinced that you need to do it all yourself because you have to be the one who decides everything? It doesn't have to be that way! There are ways to involve family and/or friends so that they make the same decisions you would have made.

Every space is different and often professional organizers have to be creative in our solutions to disorganization, but there are often guidelines we use to make the storage and use of items easier for clients. If you're finding yourself stuck on figuring out where to create homes for your items, try following the guidelines the professionals use.

For some people, a major roadblock to seeking out an organizer is the fear that s/he will "make me get rid of everything". Let me set your mind at ease. It's not an organizer's job to "make" you do anything. We offer advice based on our expertise, but ultimately the decision about your stuff is yours alone.

The truth is important so I'll tell it to you. If you think you can have a clean, calm space and not get rid of things, you're wrong.

With cell phones in our pockets, news isn't confined to our morning or evening TV sessions or the radio during our commutes. Information comes every time we open our social media apps and alerts are constantly dinging on our phones. Like slot machines in our pockets, we won't turn it off or stop looking because the next alert might be "the big one".

Just because you don't have barrels of cash to throw at your clutter problem, doesn't mean that you can't improve your organization and cut the clutter. There are strategies for stretching your organizing budget, even if that budget is a big, fat zero.

Travel and summer adventures should be fun for the whole family. Don't let lack of preparedness and disorganization ruin your plans. Get organized before your trip, pack with intention, and ease back into your normal life. Bookend your trip with organization and planning and you won't have to dread the preparation for travel and return to real life.

When a loved one dies, it's easy to put things off that will bring up feelings of grief, sadness, and/or anger. There are generally things a person has to deal with, such as emptying out a home or living space, and in the throes of emotion many people delay making decisions and move everything to their home to be dealt with later.

Ideally, there would be months of decluttering and systematic packing of only those items you are actively choosing to take with you. Without this kind of advanced preparation, the outcome is frequently a bunch of boxes with random items that no one is sure will ever be needed or wanted in the future. “I’ll deal with this when I unpack” is a common refrain.

When you have a time crunch and need to tidy a space or make a change quickly, do you stuff everything into a bag to deal with at some undefined ‘later’ time?  Or, do you switch to new bags occasionally and leave a bunch of debris in the old ones?  When you clean out your car to make space for people to sit, do you shove everything into a tote and stash it in a closet or the garage?  If you have a stash of bags containing random items, it’s time to face them!

Delaying and putting off dealing with decisions can have a crippling effect.  As unmade decisions pile up, they start to take over your mind and your space.  In this article series, I'll review the most commonly avoided items and ways to get started when you've been paralyzed by the thought of tackling the project. Let’s tackle email.

Delaying and putting off dealing with decisions can have a crippling effect.  As unmade decisions pile up, they start to take over your mind and your space.  In this article series, I'll review the most commonly avoided items and ways to get started when you've been paralyzed by the thought of tackling the project.

She's not happy with her life, but Anne is sure that if she becomes a runner, a crafty person, a reader, and healthy she will finally be happy.  It sure looks like the people who post online about these things are happy, so she’s adopted these aspirational goals for herself.

To do all this, she's going to need stuff. Time to go shopping!

Each decision you make adds up and can eventually lead to decision fatigue.  Just like exercising at the gym, there comes a point where you are too exhausted to continue.  There are strategies to reduce fatigue and recharge when you hit your limit. You’ll be a decision-making athlete in no time!

There are specific criteria that can identify a person as a hoarder. Despite there being diagnostic and evaluative information available to be able to label people with a diagnosis or problem, I actually don’t think it’s helpful at all.  Creating a label doesn’t change a situation, action does.

Money is a tool that aids in living life.  And just like tools you use for home repairs, money should be stored in an organized way until you need it. 

You look around your home and find there are piles of laundry that will take at least a dozen loads of washing to clean.  Or maybe there are mounds of dirty dishes that have been left to molder since you ran out of clean dishes 8 months ago!  You want to make a radical change in how you manage your stuff. The most radical strategy I employ with clients in these situations is going to shock you.

When wanting to create organization, it’s easy to see well-purposed containers in pictures online (or in our friends’ pantries) and assume that the organization is caused by the containers.  This is false.  “Organizing paraphernalia” are accessories.  Organization CAN include bins, but they are far along in the process for most projects, not the beginning.  They certainly will not solve the main issue of most chronic disorganization: too much stuff!

Lots of people have trouble keeping up with the daily influx of mail that comes into their homes. Try some or all of these tips to reduce the burden of mail in your day-to-day life.