I love to read. (My favorite books are murder mysteries) I have to read every night before I go to bed no matter how tired I am. However the other night I couldn’t even get through one paragraph without dozing off. So I turned off my light and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was wide awake—what was up with that? I was irritated.

As a professional organizer I have recently worked with several families who also love books. They have books stacked all over their homes (and they don’t like it as these wonderful books create clutter).

At my book signing in Colorado Friday night half the people who stopped to chat about my book had the same problem—books everywhere that were creating clutter.

Here is an organizing tip on how to clear clutter books can create:

·Instead of a traditional night stand use an attractive book case that has cupboard doors to hide the books and yet has space on top for a lamp, radio, a book, glasses etc.

What do you do to clear clutter when you have books everywhere?

Already 6 days have passed in the New Year and you know what that means—we all have our new calendars.

My question is—what did you do with your old calendar? If you say you put it in a drawer because the pictures were so pretty and you couldn’t part with it—well, that just isn’t true! You CAN part with it.

If you don’t have a specific use for it this is how to declutter:

•Recycle it and you won’t even remember what the pictures were by tonight.
•Don’t get caught looking back through the months and getting all nostalgic about certain pictures and then keeping it “because you might use it someday”. That is another trick on how to declutter—don’t set yourself up for failure.

This photo shows the 4 calendars I recycled this year. I had two that are 2010 ones that I bought for $1.00. Since then I got two beautiful ones as gifts for Christmas. One was from my friend in England and the other one from my sister-in-law. So I recycled the ones I had purchased. The other two I used and enjoyed last year, I have no use for them so I am moving on.

•IF you have a specific use for a picture or two tear them out and file them where you can find them when you are ready to work on your project.

Learning How to declutter can be so simple…So, tell us—did you save or recycle your old calendars this year?