When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
The moon Laughs and Whispers,
‘Tis Near Halloween.

Did you know a full moon rarely shows up on Halloween? There have only been four times over the past century they have occurred on Halloween. The next full moon on October 31 will be in 2020. My first thought was, how old will I be? That is just 12 years away.

Safe and Happy Halloween to you and your friends and family. Another little tid bit: Americans purchase an estimated 20 million pounds of candy corn for Halloween each year.

We’re never too old to start clearing clutter! My friend Bev (who was in her late 50’s) told me, “women my age just aren’t interested in organizing, if they haven’t done it by now then they never will, we are just set in our ways”. I gasped when she said this! That just isn’t true; no matter how old we are we will always be clearing clutter in our homes and in our lives. Clearing clutter frees us up for more interesting things to do every day. And if we aren’t consistently clearing clutter then it can become a problem for us.

Just look at Cloris Leachman who is 82 and was on “Dancing With The Stars” reality show. What an inspiration she is. It doesn’t matter how old we are, we can do anything we set our minds to. She had an amazing dance partner who helped her every step of the way and if we need help clearing clutter, then let’s get help. I recommend the encouragement and help from a friend, family member or professional organizer.

If you live in Sandusky, Ohio, clearing clutter after Halloween will be easy if your children are over the age of 14. In 1995 they passed a city ordinance outlawing trick or treating by anyone older than age 14. I wonder if other cities have done the same thing.

Today (October 30) is candy corn day. I bought some corn and was surprised at the variety there is, harvest, candy apple, and caramel apple flavors. We have so many choices in our lives and such a variety of things to buy and try that clearing clutter can become a real problem.

Clearing Clutter tips:

•Before buying something think to yourself, where will I put this when I get home, is it useful to me, if you don’t have a place or a use, just enjoy it at the store.
•If you don’t like an item in your home, don’t use it, or it doesn’t have a purpose, donate or toss it. If you do use it, but you don’t like it get rid of it and replace it with something you like.
•Don’t save soap scraps, they just become clutter. By tossing them they don’t have a chance to become clutter in your bathroom.

What do you do to clear clutter before it can “take root” in your home?

Sunday morning before reading the comics I thought “I am going to look for organizing tips that I can pass on to my friends”. And guess what?…I found organizing tips! I must say I was rather pleased.

The comic Rose is Rose (no credit as to who draws it) was my inspiration for my organizing tips. There was a drawing of cute Mimi picking up leaves running here and there with an armful of leaves in each frame. In the last frame her dad said to her mom, “The raking would go a lot faster if Mimi wasn’t color-coordinating the leaf piles”! I will admit even as a professional organizer that was over the top for me. But….

Color coordinating can make organizing clutter in our homes easier and faster and help to keep them organized. This is especially helpful for people with ADD.

•Use colored file folders. They are easier to distinguish in a file cabinet, or when they are left out. They key our minds as to what are in them. Freedom Filer filing system is the color coded system I use. My mind immediately keys in to what is in the files by color. (Resource, permanent, active, taxes, remove/replace). This has saved me a ton of time. And it is a no brainer when it comes to filing.
•Color coding towels for different bathrooms helps immediately to know what room they go to by color.
•Sheets color coded by size immediately identifies what bed they go to.

Look around your home and see how many things you color code and please share with us your organizing tips on how this helps you with organizing clutter and how to be more efficient and organized.

Organizing clutter is as easy as 1-2-3. (wink, wink) Every time someone tells me, “Oh that is easy” I have learned that usually that is just not the truth. It might be easy for them but that doesn’t mean it is for me. I never tell people organizing clutter is easy, it is a process and by having systems in place it becomes “easy” over time. The nature of the thing hasn’t changed; it is us that has changed by learning how to do the task and by practicing. You know the saying, practice makes perfect.

Here are 5 organizing tips on organizing clutter:

•Keep things that are useful to you and that you like. Get rid of stuff you don’t like and never use.
•Have a place for everything. If you don’t know where something goes, take a minute and figure out where it is going to live. Don’t just set it down.
•If you have magazines you don’t read, stop the subscription. Throw out magazines over 3 months old. Tear out information you want to keep and file it. (Click here for a good system on organizing clutter for your papers).
•Keep only clothes you can wear, don’t wait to lose weight to wear them, if you must keep them move them out of your closet so you have more room for the ones you do wear.
•In your e-mail make folders by subject rather than just having a bunch of files, it will be faster for you to find what you are looking for.

What is your most successful organizing tip for organizing clutter?

This month is Halloween and I always thought that somehow this was just an American tradition. I didn’t realize it originated in Britain.
Trick-or treating started in the Middle Ages and All Souls’ Day, when poor people in Britain would beg for soul cakes, a sweet-bread treat, and pray for dead relatives in return.
Clearing clutter used to be a part of Halloween in the small town I was reared in because boys (we always blamed it on the boys) would smash pumpkins from people’s yards if they didn’t get the kind of candy they wanted.

When the little kiddies bring home their candy and dump it out on a sheet or table cloth on the floor to sort through it, this a good time for clearing clutter. The clutter is the candy they don’t like but keep it around because they got it and think they might want it someday. Throw it away, or take it to a shelter or food bank. Some dentists in our area buy the candy (by weight) and then they send it to third world countries. Check with your dentist to see if he/she has a program to do this.

Clearing clutter is spreading around the globe as trick or treating has spread from the U.S. to Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. Chocolate makes up about three-quarters of a trick-or-treater’s loot, according to the National Confectioners Association. Chocolate would be my favorite if I went trick or treating today—how about you? What is your favorite treat?

I am always humbled when I get recognition as a professional organizer. This last week I was featured in a two page spread in the Buzz Inner Circle newsletter that comes out of Salt Lake City.

As a professional organizer I am always giving organizing tips to help people brighten their lives so they can live a more organized life which brings peace and a sense of accomplishment to them, their friends and family.

Here is an organizing tip: start now to line up your Halloween movies. Here are 13 of the scariest ever fright films according to the Internet Movie Database:

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre—1974
Halloween –1978
Psycho – 1960
Night of the Living Dead –1968
The Exorcist –1973
The Shining –1980
Dawn of the Dead –2004
The Thing –1982
Suspiria –1977
Jaws –1975
A Nightmare on Elm Street –1984
The Evil Dead –1981
Alien –1979

Out of this list I have only seen Alien. As you can tell I’m not into scary movies. The scariest movies I have ever seen were The Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Fly. I wouldn’t close my eyes for months to wash my face after seeing The Fly. I love being a professional organizer, that is my thing—seeing scary movies is not my thing.

What are your favorite scary movies, or do you shy away from them too?

Do you feel you practically live in your car? Americans spend an average of 2 ½ hours per day in their cars. If you use your car like a second home, cars can also get over run with stuff and need some clutter control.

The Front Seat: The front seat is home to a family of things; chargers for cell phones and other electronic equipment, water bottles, magazines, sun glasses, books, cell phone, maps, directions to where you are going and snacks. But where do these end up? Here’s an organizing tip to help with front seat clutter control: Use containers. A universal center console organizer conveniently holds all of the items mentioned above plus much more. It can fit on top of the passenger seat or between bucket seats.

The Back Seat: If you have children that need something to keep them occupied when they are in the car a hanging organizer behind both seats holds CDs, school supplies, toys, books, snack containers and drinks. Behind one seat a removable tray could serve as a table for games or doing homework. A hanging trash bag could be secured on one side, not just a plastic bag, but a sturdier bag. By having things in easy reach of the children makes clutter control simple and yes, even easy.

Trunk Area: Items scattered about such as a diaper bag, sports equipment, work out bag, hazardous road kit, first aid kit, or groceries can be efficiently contained in compartmentalized systems that make use of vertical space for clutter control. Place as many containers as needed to keep everything organized and in its place.

With all the clutter control you have done you now have a “second home” you can be proud of. What have you done in your car for clutter control before it gets out of hand?

When you think of clearing clutter what do you think of? I know from my experience as a professional organizer many of us think about getting rid of things but this is just part of clearing clutter. I was given some plates for Christmas that are for everyday use that I love. I put them in the cupboard but I rarely ever used them. I wanted to use them and felt bad because I didn’t, so I came up with a simple solution.

I simply moved them to a different shelf in my cupboard. I had one of those corner shelves that doubled my cupboard space and I just changed places with some other plates I had had there for a long time and only used infrequently. What a difference such a simple exchange made. I can now use my plates and eat on them too. (Just like having my cake and eating it to). It was the best way to clearing clutter because I got to keep everything and nothing is cluttered.

What tips have you used for clearing clutter in your kitchen, or anywhere in your home?

I love organizing tips. Even before I became a professional organizer I was always reading organizing tips to see how I could do something faster, and more efficient. Here are three favorite organizing tips from my friends that can also help you to be organized.

Edna does three things on Friday, no matter what else she does that day she changes the bed sheets, does the laundry and goes grocery shopping. What a good organizing tip to have a routine and a goal. She has done this for several years.

Cindy only keeps things that light her up. If it makes her happy or brings her joy she keeps it. A wretched person had given her a curling iron in a gift exchange. Every time she used the curling iron she thought of that person and the old negative feeling came back to her. She donated the curling iron and bought one she liked. Now she only surrounds herself with things she likes and things that bring her good memories.

My organizing tip is I always put things back where they belong after I use them. I try to only touch things once. For instance; instead of putting a dish in the sink after using it I put it in the dishwasher. This saves a step and also saves time, helping me to stay organized.

Do you have a favorite organizing tip you will share with us? We would love to hear from you.