Professional Organizer | Clearing Clutter | Motivational Speaker | Salt Lake City, Utah

It can be hard to let go of things and get rid of clutter. Clutter becomes overwhelming when we hold on to things we don’t needor use. Here are 7simple tips to help you decide effortlessly what to let goand what to keep when organizing your home.

Getting rid of clutter seems to be a hot topic in magazines and about town. Every magazine seems to have a headline about clearing clutter. I was teaching a class at the local University to a group of seniors 50 and older on clearing clutter and I asked them what they wanted to get out of the class. Marian slumped in her seat and asked how to know what to let go of and what to keep. Fifteen other heads bobbed up and down around the class room in agreement.

Getting rid of clutter just got easier by using these 2 tried and true ways to manage your time and get rid of clutter. If you think you don’t have enough hours in the day try these for 10 days and find out what a big difference they make.

When I think of my 82 year old grandma I think of her tiny yet beautiful garden with its straight rows of veggies. My cousins and I used to “sneak” (Now that I am older I suspect she was watching us from her kitchenwindow) into the lettuce patch and pick the luscious greens. We would take them into the house and after washing the leaves would smother them in mayonnaise and eat them with relish and delight. My grandma would fake scold us for getting in her garden and we would laugh and giggle.

It was a warm July morning, birds were singing outside my open window and the curtains ruffled in the breeze. I was standing in my bedroom and I was scared. I thought scary things are supposed to only happen in the dark on cold rainy nights. I had a good reason to be afraid as I was trying to find something to wear and nothing I had in my closet or drawers were fitting.

I was bulging out of all my clothes and I was gaining weight weekly even though I walked three miles a day and I know a lot about nutrition and how to diet. (At least that is what I told myself). I realized I didn’t’ know how to stop gaining weight and that scared me. I knew my body fat percentage should be in the high teens, not in the high forty’s. It was also exhausting beating me up emotionally and mentally every single day. I was very discouraged.

As a professional organizer I work with women whose homes are full of clutter and they keep beating themselves up every day saying “I need to get rid of clutter” but don’t know where to start or how to do it? They know a lot about clutter but nothing has seemed to work when they have tried to get rid of clutter. Just like starting and stopping a diet their resolve would begin again on Monday and be shattered by Wednesday.

I gave myself pep talks that it didn’t matter if I was fat, my family and friends loved me anyway and I was a good person no matter what size I was. I knew this was true but it did matter to me and I was constantly putting myself down. I avoided shopping for new clothes. I dreaded going out with friends for lunch because I hated the way I looked. I even thought others were judging what I chose to eat.

If you need to get rid of clutter I bet you dread guests coming to your home and you have stopped entertaining. You may have made up stories in your head that others judge you because you have so much clutter. Then you go one step further and you blame it all on yourself. Does this sound familiar?

I had to have an operation on my knee because I had a torn meniscus.  I was waiting for the doctor to tell me that if I didn’t weigh so much it would not have been as bad on my knee. Then I told myself he was happy to operate because that made money for him. I am good a making up stories but none of them made me feel any better. By the way, it is usually athletics that have this problem with their knees. It was not because I was overweight that I had a torn meniscus.

My closet had clothes in it that didn’t fit even though as a professional organizer I recommend that our closets hold only clothes that fit. For those who must hold on to skinny (or fat) clothes I recommend they be removed and stored elsewhere—and then only one size up and one size down from what fits. Because I follow “practice what I preach” I did just that. I hung on to smaller clothes. However I clung to two sizes smaller. All the time I had self loathing. I would even say to myself, “If I talked to my friend like I am talking to myself how long would she be my friend”. I knew I would never talk to anyone else like I talked to myself.

It is common for women to hold on to things they don’t wear and other things they don’t need “just in case they may need it someday”. What is the cost in space and the mental guilt by holding on to clutter? I had it in my mind that when I was a certain weight I would have the ideal body. What really happened was I had to get rid of every article of clothing that I had been hanging on to and storing because I slid right past those sizes.

There is a good chance that the things people hang on to will never be needed and if they are how hard will it be to replace it?

I was consumed about getting in shape and losing weight. I thought about it all the time. I had been a jogger and then a walker six to seven days a week for over 35 years. I even knew how to eat healthy. I used to joke, “I eat healthy between eating junk food”.

I finally was so scared that I was spiraling out of control with weight gain I decided the key was different exercise which I could only get at a gym as I believed I needed to lift weights. I took my daughter with me to check out gyms (I really wanted to do this but I couldn’t make myself do it by myself).

Sometimes this is how it is with getting rid of clutter, we need someone to help us objectively and someone who has the training and knowledge to help us get rid of clutter in a painless way.

We chose a gym to join that came with trainers and a nutritionalist. I went to meet with her with the attitude that I knew as much as she did. This was another one of those humility moments in my life. She gave us an eating plan—not a diet as I had always tried before--and we began working out with a program designed specifically for us.

One size fits most does not apply when it comes to getting rid of clutter. Each home is unique and everyone has different space and different needs.

I committed to going to the gym three days a week to lift weights and two days of aerobic exercise. I chose to hike in the mountains. I knew what didn’t work for me in the past so I set new goals and then I went to work in accomplishing them.

This is the same formula to get rid of clutter. Find out what is working and not working, set goals and then do it. I have reached my goals and now I have set new goals to stay in shape. I feel better about myself. And I look better. In fact I don’t look at all like my before photos. Getting rid of clutter can do the same for a home, there is more space in drawers, in our closets, in fact everywhere and we feel better about ourselves and our home.

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Do you dread the weekend because there is always so much to do and you are glad to get back to work? If getting rid of clutter is something you want to do but you get tired just thinking about it here are 5 ironclad organizing tips to get you going.

Don’t you just love Monday’s? Without a Monday we wouldn’t have Fridays and everyone I know loves Fridays. Fridays mean the work week is over and we can start having some fun for a few days or it may mean we switch from doing one kind of work to another.

When someone asks me Monday morning how my weekend went I usually have to stop and think because I have moved on. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t good or bad, it was just another part of my week.

Are you tired of spinning your wheels when it comes to getting rid of clutter and it seems to take more time all the time. Try these 3 simple tips to lighten your load.

I remember when I worked in an office someone had the brainstorm that we as workers would every 15 minutes write down what we had been doing. Let me tell you this was exhausting and for me a big timewaster.

At the time I was a child abuse investigator and between interviewing children, transporting them to shelter care, talking to the police, parents, school personnel and typing up reports I was extremely busy. I couldn't believe someone had the nerve to suggest that every 15 minutes we were to report what we were doing.

This idea didn't last long as it was disruptive and in my way of thinking disrespectful to us worker bees.

As a professional organizer I inspire woman as I organize with them in their homes to get rid of clutter. These 3 simple tips to get rid of clutter can help you not only get more done but like it too.

My mother used to say "A stitch in time Saves Nine". I just didn't get that as a child but as I got older and I got a rip in my clothing and I was the one who had to mend it I understood what she meant.

I had a blue sweater that mysteriously got a little hole in it. I loved that sweater and every time I wore it I noticed the little hole got bigger and bigger until it was a major process to try and fix it. I did try to fix it but because I let it get so big it looked like a patched job and it never looked the same again. If I would have taken a needle and a thread to it when it was just tiny it would not have gotten out of hand.

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