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Peace of Mind Organizing

Make space. Find peace. Feel joy.

Articles tagged with declutter

Worth repeating: Today's piece of holiday advice

5 December 2023 | Comments [0] »

I wrote this post six years ago and I still think it’s sound advice. The more unloved holiday decor we keep, the harder it is to decorate your home. I urge you to build some ease into your holiday season by following this advice!

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Time to edit your Halloween decorations

24 October 2023 | Comments [0] »

If you bought new Halloween decor this year (or even if you didn’t), I encourage you to take a good look at the Halloween decorations you didn’t put up this year. Rather than just leaving it in the bin when you put away this year’s items, perhaps you could take a few minutes and look through this year’s rejects. Is there decor you could let go of so you don’t have to sort through it next year?

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The power of working with a professional organizer

14 August 2023 | Comments [0] »

I’m always amazed at how often I put off dealing with clutter in my own home. If I give it some focused attention, I’m able to declutter and organize pretty easily. But if I add a professional organizer to the mix and the process is supercharged!

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Sell (some of) your unwanted stuff on Decluttr.com

17 June 2022 | Comments [0] »

Decluttr also buys smaller tech, CDs, DVDs, textbooks, children’s books, and games and consoles. Based on my (albeit limited) experience, I recommend giving them a look next time you have something you’d like to sell.

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Weed out your files!

23 May 2022 | Comments [0] »

I’ve just been through the journey of moving my dear 91-year-old father into assisted living. It went well and he’s happy. I went through everything in his condo that he didn’t take with him. My big takeaway? Weed out your files!

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Worth repeating: Letting go of sentimental items

18 April 2022 | Comments [0] »

When I re-ran my No Excuses series last week, I had a comment about the difficulty of letting go of sentimental items. I thought I’d repeat a blog post from April 19, 2021 (almost exactly a year ago!) that addresses this challenge.

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10 things you can throw away right now

26 April 2021 | Comments [0] »

I led an organizing team in a basement last week and enjoyed watching the clients experience the freedom of letting go of three carloads of unneeded belongings. It made it so easy to organize what they decided to keep.

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Letting go of sentimental items

19 April 2021 | Comments [2] »

During last week’s Declutter Happy Hour class, we discussed the challenge of decluttering sentimental items. They can be so hard to let go of, even when you’re motivated to downsize.

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Look around: What tiny project can you do?

14 April 2020 | Comments [0] »

When social distancing started, I attacked a few organizing projects around my house because I suddenly had time to do them. But my enthusiasm for them waned pretty quickly. Now, one month in, I’m starting to address some teeny, tiny projects that will remove some irritations without much effort.

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KMOX interview on helping people let go

22 April 2019 | Comments [0] »

In March, I was pleased to be asked by the big St. Louis talk radio station, KMOX-AM, to do an interview on helping people let go of stuff. The Marie Kondo-fueled decluttering craze prompted the story. The reporter, Megan Lynch, a KMOX news veteran, asked really thoughtful questions and the interview was a lot of fun. I was also thrilled to be recording in a big, professional studio. I talk into a microphone in my home-office podcasting studio, but it was nothing like this!

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Worth repeating: What can you do in five minutes?

7 January 2019 | Comments [0] »

I can across this post I wrote in August 2017 and thought I’d share it because I found inspirational! It’s amazing the decluttering and organizing you can get done in short, five-minute bursts of time. I’m going to try this again tomorrow!

I’m a big believer in using a timer to motivate me to work quickly and get stuff done. I have a seriously full calendar but a relatively free morning today so I thought I’d see if I could some clutter spots and other small tasks taken care of.

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Selling unwanted designer bags

19 February 2018 | Comments [0] »

Enter Rebag.com, a website that purchases designer bags and make the process easy. (They sell the bags they purchase on Trendlee.com.) You download their mobile app, take photos of the bags you want to sell through the app, and submit. Within a few days, they send you an offer which you are free to accept or decline.

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Today's piece of holiday advice

19 December 2017 | Comments [0] »

Yesterday, I watched a client part with the holiday decor that was weighing her down. Bags of decor left her storage room to find a new home with folks who will value it. It felt so good. It led me to write down this piece of advice for you. I’m willing to bet that you’ll be very happy if you implement it.

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What can you do in five minutes?

9 August 2017 | Comments [0] »

I’m a big believer in using a timer to motivate me to work quickly and get stuff done. I have a seriously full calendar but a relatively free morning today so I thought I’d see if I could some clutter spots and other small tasks taken care of.

So I pulled out my phone and asked Siri to set a timer for five minutes. I did it seven times. Here’s what I managed to accomplish in just seven five-minute blocks:

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The phrases that make me cringe and smile

23 January 2017 | Comments [6] »

When I’m working with a client, a few phrases make me cringe when I hear them come out of the client’s mouth. And a few make my heart sing.

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Worth repeating: Eliminating the extraneous

29 January 2016 | Comments [0] »

My desk needs some serious help at the moment, probably because I’m spending too little time in my office these days. This weekend, I plan to focus on creating more visual peace in my office. I’m taking inspiration from this blog post, which I first posted on February 18, 2013. I’m so glad I signed up for Jen’s program and I wish she were still offering it!

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Worth repeating: An empty drawer is a beautiful thing

11 January 2016 | Comments [1] »

My team and I helped a client declutter and organize her entire home last week and we were able to make a huge impact—because the client parted with so much. She was so ready to let go of the excess that was weighing her down and she made amazing decisions. As we took out bag after bag of denotable items, the rooms seemed to get lighter.

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Worth repeating: Shifting your perspective by shifting your furniture

5 November 2015 | Comments [0] »

Nearly three years ago, I moved my desk 90 degrees. The impact was immediate and amazing! I’m still loving the placement of my desk, so I thought I’d repeat the post I wrote about it in 2013.

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An empty drawer is a beautiful thing

26 January 2015 | Comments [3] »

My team and I helped a client declutter and organize her entire home last week and we were able to make a huge impact—because the client parted with so much. She was ready to let go of the excess that was weighing her down. As we took out bag after bag of denotable items, the rooms seemed to get lighter.

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Worth repeating: Decluttering my keys

8 July 2014 | Comments [0] »

About ten months ago, I decluttered the copious keys in our house and posted a step-by-step explanation of the process. I’m happy to report that the key bin has not attracted more clutter and we’ve found having labeled keys for our friends’ and neighbors’ homes to be really useful! Here’s that post.

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10 things you can throw away this weekend

9 May 2014 | Comments [0] »

It’s basement season for my business. I’ve been in a lot of basements recently and my teams have helped make them much more enjoyable and functional spaces. I keep seeing the same sorts of items, so I decided to a create a quick list of items that I frequently see people unnecessarily hanging onto in basements (and other parts of the house).

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Decluttering Step #5: Put everything away

17 February 2014 | Comments [1] »

The fifth and final entry in my Declutter Your Home blog series. Each Monday since January 20, I’ve covered a different step of the decluttering process: Step #1, Create your vision, Step #2: Choose your space, Step #3: Gather your supplies and Step #4: Ask key questions .

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Decluttering Step #4: Ask key questions

10 February 2014 | Comments [0] »

This is the fourth in a blog series I’m writing on Mondays that will take you step by step through the decluttering process. Each Monday for the last few weeks, I’ve covered Step #1, Create your vision and Step #2: Choose your space and Step #3: Gather your supplies. Today we actually getting started decluttering.

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Decluttering Step #3: Gather your supplies

3 February 2014 | Comments [0] »

This is the third in a blog series I’m writing on Mondays that will take you step by step through the decluttering process. Each Monday for the next few weeks, I’ll offer a new step. So far, we’ve covered Step #1, Create your vision and Step #2: Choose your space. Today’s step is the last preparatory step before actually getting started decluttering.

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Decluttering Step #2: Choose your space

27 January 2014 | Comments [0] »

This is the second in a series of blog posts I’m writing on Mondays that will take you step by step through the decluttering process. Each Monday for the next few weeks, I’ll offer a new step. If you missed Step #1, Create your vision, be sure and check it out.

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Decluttering Step #1: Create your vision

20 January 2014 | Comments [2] »

This is the first part in a series I’m writing that will take you step by step through the process of decluttering. Each Monday for the next few weeks, I’ll offer a new step. Today we start with the first step, creating your vision.

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Decluttering my keys

2 September 2013 | Comments [7] »

I’m a big believer in having one place where the keys are placed when coming in the door. In our house, it’s been a coated-wire basket just inside the back door, where we enter from the garage. We now automatically drop our keys right in the basket.

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Small change, big impact

30 July 2013 | Comments [0] »

My husband and I have lived in our home for 22 years. (Well, four of those 22 years we lived in New York City, so I guess it’s 18 years.)

One of the big frustrations in the house for all those years was the master-bedroom closet had sliding doors. These were oversize sliding doors—in other words, each one was more than half as wide as the closet.

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Dresser transformation

24 July 2013 | Comments [4] »

One of the habits I’ve tried to create over the years is to put away my clothes properly at night (either in the closet/drawer or down the laundry chute), rather than piling them on the top of my dresser, as I’m inclined to do.

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Where to start decluttering

17 June 2013 | Comments [1] »

Clutter overwhelms many people. Probably the most frequent thing I hear from clients who seek help decluttering is that they don’t know where to begin.

There are three things to look out for selecting when figuring out where to start deluttering:

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A little focused attention

31 May 2013 | Comments [1] »

Our old house has two full baths and there’s one that’s primarily my domain. I shower there and get ready for my day. My husband rarely steps foot in it.

So I have no one to blame but myself that the bathroom closet was a nightmare. For something like ten years, items went in and seldom came out.

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Shifting your perspective by shifting your furniture

11 March 2013 | Comments [3] »

I’m not somebody who switches furniture around. I know there are people who consider that fun, but I’m not one of them. I typically agonize over the placement of furniture and once it’s done, that’s that.

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Eliminating the extraneous

18 February 2013 | Comments [12] »

I recently signed up for the fabulous Workspace and Studio Redesign program offered by Jennifer Hofmann of Inspired Home Office.

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Tackling large projects

28 January 2013 | Comments [2] »

In yesterday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the cover article for the Sunday Home & Away section was entitled, Conquering the clutter: Tips on how to tackle a big organization project.

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Less really is more

23 January 2013 | Comments [9] »

I just spent some time as a houseguest of my friend, Shannon Wilkinson, who moved into her lovely home in Portland just six months ago.

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