In my professional organizing practice and through this newsletter, my goal is to share my wisdom. That said, you may wonder where I get my organizing ideas?

Great question. Simple answer.

Some of my ideas come from my training as an organizer. Some are intuitive. Much I glean from other professional organizers who share my vision.

Here are a few pearls from an article I recently came across where 24 professional organizers shared their best ideas.

• Take a photo of a room, closet or even a drawer. Then zoom in on that photo. How does it make you feel. Do you use every item? How often? Then think about how you would feel if that space was tidy and uncluttered.
• File don’t pile – Whether it’s paper you leave on your desk, the coat you hang on a chair, or the shoes you kick off in the living room. It takes just as much effort to file the paper, hang the coat up in the closet and put the shoes in your bedroom. So, why not do that?
• Throw a party – Nothing jumpstarts a cleaning/decluttering effort better than some sort of event or party. The best part of this strategy is it creates an experience/memory for you and your guests—a true gift.
• Sentimental cards – Some people want to hold onto every card and sentimental item they receive. The advice is to have one special container for those items. When you receive a new item and go to put it in the container, it offers you a chance to reconsider what’s currently in the container—or if the new item should go in. If in doubt, take a photo and store it in the cloud. At the end of the day, it’s the thought, feeling and memory that are special—not the item. You can revisit that anytime by looking at the photo.
• Get rid of expired products – In your bathroom, over-the-counter medications and prescriptions have expiration dates. And some things that won’t have an expiration date, like make up, are a breeding ground for bacteria. So, make a point to check the dates of products in your bathroom every six months. Do the same with the canned goods in your kitchen. You would be surprised at the difference this will make.

Those are just a few of the pearls from the article, I welcome you to check out the rest. If you decide to take on bullet number 3 this summer and need some help with a declutter prior to your event, give me a call at 508-246-6120 or drop a line.