I was asked to submit a course proposal to teach classes for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. I was talking to the director and she suggested I start teaching Winter semester because: “that is such a good time to organize and clear clutter”.

I suggested to her as a professional organizer I think anytime is the best time to clear clutter.

Summertime is a good time because it can be a less demanding time and we’re more laid back. If you are shopping summer sidewalk sales it is a good time to make space for new things. Also it is a good time for a garage sale.

Fall is a great time to clear clutter because it is a time of new beginnings—school is starting, seasonal clothes will be rotated in your closet, the new concert season is starting and so forth.

Winter is a good time because with so many holidays it is time to clear clutter to make way for new things and to accommodate guests.

How about Spring? Some think this is the best because they have had cabin fever and it is time to organize and clear clutter that has crept every so quietly into our living space.

Clearing clutter is a constant process, it really isn’t best just one time of year. Now is the best time to clear clutter.

For the last 3 ½ days I have been involved in a MAJOR organizing project which was unexpected. My daughter decided to go through every box in her storage shed as she wanted to clear clutter so she could walk into the room and make it more functional. As it was she could get the door open and just toss things inside.

After she had taken out all 624 boxes (it was probably less but it felt like that many) I saw her walking around looking in this box and then another. I suggested that to get rid of clutter in the boxes she needed to find out what was in all of them so she could move items from one box to another so all like things would be together. If I had said and done nothing else that was a huge tip that she said more than once was VERY helpful in her getting rid of clutter. It also saved her a lot of time.

Even though it wasn’t my space it feels so good to know she can now find anything she wants when she wants it.

Do you have any major organizing projects coming up at your home?

Happy birthday to my daughter Julie today!

When she was packing to go away for two years to serve in the Peace Corp her room needed some serious clutter control. I couldn’t even stand to look in her room as I walked by because it looked like a tornado had hit it.

She said to me (which has become a family joke); “mom, it’s your fault I’m not organized, you never taught me”. I was agog and aghast. Now she is an expert at clutter control, packing and organizing. With all the places she has lived and worked (Albania, Eritrea (Africa), Niger, Nigeria and places in the U.S.) she now has taught me a thing or two about clutter control.

If you are working with your children teaching them how important clutter control is and you don’t seem to be getting anywhere—keep on teaching and working with them, sometimes it just takes a bit longer than we think it should take for them to be organized as we would like them to be.

I belong to two quilting groups and when someone is showing a quilt they have made and they start apologizing about it not being perfect because points on a star were cut off or some other quilting “no-no we laugh and say, “it doesn’t matter, your quilt is beautiful and there are no quilt police”.

It is the same thing with organizing—there are no Organizing Police. When you are getting rid of clutter do you feel guilty because you bought (whatever it is) and never used it so you hang on to it and it just creates clutter? Is getting rid of clutter hard because you liked it when you bought it so you think you should hang on to it—forever?

Do you feel guilty getting rid of clutter because that clutter (oops, I mean thing) was given to you by someone else? If you don’t like it, don’t use it, or it doesn’t light you up, remember…..there are no Organizing Police; it is okay to get rid of clutter no matter where or how it made it into your home.

My friend Edna has been on a mission to clear clutter in her home. She called and shared this idea on how to clear clutter in a simple way (and painless way). It is exciting because it is another way to make organizing fun.

She picked out a place in her room that she wanted to be the focal point of that room. She then worked to clear clutter around that area. She said it was fun to see how much clutter she could remove to make that area stand out and look nice as friends and family came into the room.

Have you ever thought of organizing a room like this? Thanks Edna for that tip!

Now maybe I have said this before but I love timers. I was going to straighten up my kitchen, load a few dishes and do that kind of stuff. But I didn’t want to spend a lot of time doing it so I set my timer for 9 minutes.

My epiphany was this: I use timers when I start a project such as getting rid of clutter in a particular room but I am dragging my feet on doing it. When I set a time limit this gives me permission to stop when the timer rings and come back to it later.

As I was working in the kitchen I started to leave the room and check on the cat that was outside. I stopped myself because I only had a certain amount of minutes that I had allotted myself and had set the timer for.

When the second “temptation” to go and do something else happened I realized that just by setting my timer it had helped me stay on task. (I finished before the 9 minutes were up and I went on to another room and did the same thing).

As you are getting rid of clutter I suggest you set a timer to stay on task.

I bought a new phone this weekend which is helping me get rid of clutter. Now you might wonder how a phone could help get rid of clutter but it has. Already it has saved me time and not cluttered my life with unnecessary phone calls.

This phone has a block feature on it so I can program numbers I don’t want calling me. If that isn’t the easiest way to getting rid of clutter! I love it. (We are on the do not call list, but three have slipped through lately).

Do you have a neat way you get rid of clutter—something unexpected that saves you time, frustration or space in your life?

Father’s Day is so great because I get a tool I have been needing. (Oops, I mean that my husband needs). One year it was a ladder—he was none too happy but it has been the best gift ever. Another year I bought a rose of Sharon bush for him. The beautiful flowers brighten our yard year after year. This year I need (there I go again, he needs) a wheel barrow so I don’t have to borrow my neighbors.

But this year he is getting a new suit which is just what he wants. Of course because I am a professional organizer I would think he would want to get rid of clutter, but alas he has other things on his mind.

The secret is that I do get rid of clutter a little at a time so if it is something that he thought he wanted to keep, but never uses, doesn’t ever talk about it and doesn’t know where it is I clear clutter before it starts to multiply.

Happy Father’s Day to you and your family!

I was complaining to myself the other day, “I just can’t lose weight…eating everything I want to eat”. I had to laugh at myself because as long as I am not willing to change my eating habits this statement will be true.

Have you ever complained, “I just can’t get organized”? That may be true—it you are maintaining the same habits without changing the way you deal with clutter control things won’t change.

If you really want to have clutter control in your home and life the first thing to do is to analyze where the problems are. Start slow and work on one place in one room at a time so you don’t get burnt out. By changing the way we see things and working on changing our habits we will soon say, “I am so organized”.

Now that I am through with writing my book which I was working on 9 to 12 hours a day for six months I feel like I have a life again. (For those who don’t know I wrote a book for a publisher on Organizing. They titled it Go Organize! Conquer Clutter In Three Simple Steps. It will be in major bookstores in December.) So now I have more freedom I have been working in the yard.

There is one pesky weed I noticed that is coming up right in the same spot as it did last year in the driveway. All summer I pulled it out and it just returns.

I was thinking this is like organizing. Do we get rid of clutter or do we just move it from one place to another? Like my weed to we find temporary solutions instead of permanent ones which would save us time and effort?

To get rid of clutter; designate a specific place for everything in your home and when finished using an item, put it in its home. Teach your family to do the same. I find as a professional organizer people (including children) are more willing to keep things organized if they know where things belong.