My Articles

I’ve organized some of my favorite tips and tricks in articles published over the past year. Check them out below.

DECEMBER 2018 - Christmas Clean Up

The holidays are upon us once again. The trees are decorated, the houses are festive; ablaze with lights and candles. You’ve done the hard work. The gifts are bought and wrapped. But you know what is coming. Not Aunt Doris’ gift, (she really is impossible), but the dreaded taking down and putting away of the Christmas decorations.

This year will be the year that you finally take control of the after Christmas clutter and put things away in an orderly fashion so that next year you don’t have to spend an hour (ok, it was more like 30 minutes, but it felt like an hour) untangling the outside lights before you could even begin wrapping the trees.

So, where does one begin? First, if you have any areas of your home that you know you want to duplicate next year, make sure to take pictures of them so you can remember exactly how they are arranged. Take some close ups so that nothing will escape your memory. Did you set a particularly beautiful table for your book club dinner and you want to remember the center piece you used for next year? Document it!

The best place to start disassembling is with all of the items that you didn’t use this year. It’s time to be honest with yourself and admit that if you didn’t use and don’t really like some of the Christmas items you have now, chances are you won’t like them next year. Go ahead and donate them. I’m sure someone will be thrilled to re-home that snow globe! Now, you’ve freed up valuable real estate in your home to put things away in a tidy manner.

Once the donation is complete, move outside to those dreaded lights. First, label each strand with masking tape and a permanent marker. Then, take a bit of cardboard cut into a square slightly smaller than the box in which it will be stored. Make a slit in the end for the plug, then wrap the lights around it. Each square of cardboard should hold about 100 lights. Continue making squares until all the lights are put away.

Once the lights are finished it’s time to take down the wreaths. You could purchase a wreath storage box for each one, but that gets pricey. A less expensive alternative is to hang the wreaths on hangers and then cover each with a trash bag. Hang the hangers in a closet, or on a wooden board nailed to the rafters in the attic. Your wreaths will stay dust free and nicely shaped all year.

Ornament boxes with divided spaces are easy to find in most stores. However, your more delicate ornaments can still get scratched by the cardboard. Wrapping very delicate ornaments in tissue paper is a good idea, or just putting a coffee filter in each divided space to avoid scratches to the paint for less fragile ornaments works well too.

Spending a little extra time now will save you headaches and aggravation next year when it is time to start the process again. Of course, you still have a few weeks before you absolutely must clear it all out. In the mean-time do what we all do this time of year and procrastinate! Put it completely out of your mind until the pine needles on the floor become taller than the cat and the eggnog in the fridge becomes sentient. Then, roll up your sleeves and get to work.  You’ve got this.

JANUARY 2019 - New Year New You—Really!

Are you tired of all of the “New Year, New You,” articles already? I am. How about, “New Year, Same Me, With Perhaps a New Grey Hair or Two,” article? I can get behind that. What I’m shooting for here is an article that has just one or two words of wisdom that might help with tedium of everyday life. So, here it goes.

Sunday is ideally a time for rest and relaxation. It also needs to be a time to get a few things tied up for the new week. Taking a bit of time out of Sunday to plan ahead means a smoother week that will pay dividends in the happiness column.

Each Sunday, take fifteen minutes to have a family meeting to map out everyone’s schedule for the upcoming week. Use this time to decide who will drive whom, and what is needed for each event. Create a family calendar. You may already have one on your computer or smartphone. This meeting will eliminate that frantic call for missing cleats or a forgotten leotard.

Once you know what the week looks like for the family, take some time to plan your evening meals. Then, thank God for slow cookers. Make a grocery list and go to the store. Or at least plan when you will go to the store. Knowing what you are going to prepare ahead of time and having the ingredients at the ready takes the stress out of the week, and you out of the drive-through lane.

Alright people, stick with me here. This is the most important part of streamlining your week. If you do this every night, I promise it will make your mornings run smoother, the coffee taste better, and little Johnny get into the college of his dreams. I’m reaching, but you get the picture. Every night before bed, prepare the clothes you will wear the next day, make your kids prepare theirs, and have them pack EVERYTHING THEY NEED FOR THE FOLLOWING DAY. Seriously. Making sure that homework is in the backpack and the cleats and soccer ball are in their bag in the car will have you practically giddy as you saunter in to work, five minutes early with a twinkle in your eye.

No one likes to take time out of the weekend to prepare. But…everyone will love the result.

FEBRUARY 2019 - Photos in February

February is typically a hibernating month in my house. It seems to be a time when I like to bake cookies. Then I like to eat those cookies. As moderation is not my strong suit I find that I need to distract myself with projects to keep myself busy and my hand out of the cookie jar. Perhaps this sounds familiar to you, too?

Now is the perfect time to tackle a project that you’ve been putting off for far too long: those pesky, boxes and envelopes of photos that were taken before the advent of digital photography. The question is, where to begin?

First, decide on the way you want to organize your collection. Should you categorize your photos by person, year, event or a combination of categories? For instance, you may have all of the photos of your children organized individually, but then have another category for family trips.

Next, cull through the piles and discard photos you don’t really need to keep. Do you need duplicates? How about photos from places you can’t identify any longer. That is a beautiful sunset from Tempe. Or was it Tucson? Divesting your collection to the people in the photos is a nice way to share memories while reducing the number of photos you keep. Aunt Sara will love having photos of her kids, and you won’t miss your cousin’s first Communion pictures taken in 1983.

After the photos have been reduced to only the ones you really want and sorted into the categories that make sense to you, it’s time to decide how best to preserve them. Digitally scanning them is optimal for long term preservation. This can be done at home, although without a good deal of training photo quality can be lost. There are several professional services that can up load photos to the cloud for a fee. Preserving your original photos is best done in a lignin-free archival box that will prevent future photo degradation. These come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Some are attractive enough to act as decorative accents for the home.

Tripping down memory lane while organizing your photos can be a rewarding way to wile away a cold February day. It’s also a fun way to calm the clutter while remembering people we’ve loved through the years, hairstyles we thought we loved and fashion that we regret.

MARCH 2019 - Attic Attack

Even though I’m a professional organizer I am sometimes guilty of having cluttered spaces, too. When my sons were younger, I would save clothes to pass down from the older one to the younger one. Inevitably, the seasons wouldn’t match up quite right, or the growth spurt wouldn’t have been the same and often my older child’s clothes didn’t work for my younger child. I should have just popped those clothes in the back of the car and driven straight to the donation center or consignment shop. But often I put the lid back on the container and went on about my day. Does that sound familiar to any of you? What I’m getting to is that everybody’s attic probably has some clutter, and now is the time to tackle it while the weather is cool and you won’t melt.

Taking time to assess what you have is the first step to any organizing job. That means the dreaded boxes that have been sitting patiently (and maybe a little judgmentally) need to be opened. Perhaps a treasure worthy of Antiques Roadshow will turn up, but if not, sorting items into keep, donate and throw-away piles is in order.

Once you see what you have and have decided what to keep, the next step is to house it appropriately. Long term storage for important papers should not be done in a cardboard banker’s box. A leaky roof or an industrious rodent would make quick work of your carefully saved tax returns from the last seven years. A better choice is a plastic weathertight file box; it can’t be damaged by water or rodents.

Sometimes the weight of the object dictates the size of the container you need. A nice, big, plastic tub can hold a mountain of books but will feel like a mountain when it is time to move it down from the attic. Similarly, you don’t want your boxes to be so light that they fall over at the slightest touch.

Once everything has been put into a proper container organize your attic space according to type of item. If your attic is used for holiday decorations, luggage, extra bedding and children’s keepsakes, clearly label each container and delineate a space for each category. Little Susie will be far more pleasant if she doesn’t have to dig through the Christmas light box to find her old Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

Take advantage of mild spring days to get your attic tidy— who knows, maybe it will encourage you to move through the rest of the nest!

APRIL 2019 - April Showers Bring…Our Cars Back Into the Garage

We are so fortunate to have spring in North Carolina. I grew up in Texas and there it’s probably 120 degrees outside today. We also exaggerate in Texas. But…with the not yet drippy humid days that are on the horizon, let’s talk about clearing some space in the garage for… wait for it… the car!

Some Glen Laurel residents are lucky to have three-car garages, but not all. In many cases one bay of the garage simply must be used for storage. But in some situations, and you know if I’m talking to you, there may be a surplus of items kept in the garage that are no longer in good working condition, no longer needed, or perhaps needed elsewhere.

Often when we’re in a hurry the garage becomes the dumping ground for items that are broken, or don’t work like they should. Maybe we have a cordless vacuum that doesn’t hold a charge well, so we put it in the garage thinking we’ll fix it later. Six months pass and we haven’t fixed the cordless vacuum and now we’ve either purchased a new one or have adjusted to getting out the larger vacuum instead. We must decide: fix the cordless or donate it to Habitat for Humanity where an industrious person can fix it up in a snap. Go through your garage and find all of these “I’ll get to it soon” items and decide once and for all. Then, either fix, donate or trash the rest.

The next category of garage excess is the “no longer needed” group. This group includes the third through sixth hammer that my dad has (sorry, Dad), and the plethora of Little Tikes ride-on toys that parents of teenagers keep. There are so many items in this list we could fill a book, but I’m sure you get the picture. Habitat for Humanity, Goodwill, The Salvation Army and so many other organizations would love to take these pieces and put them in the hands of people who will enjoy them.

Finally, items from other parts of the house that end up in the garage isn’t only happening to you! Other people come out into their garage and find cheese graters, too. No, I don’t know how this happens either, but it does. It is for the universe to sort out. Just gather all that stuff back up. Wash it thoroughly and put it back where it came from. In the meantime, watch the cat.

MAY 2019 - Clean Out that Closet

Almost everyone has too much stuff in their closet and a lot of it isn’t clothes. I myself, am currently keeping my grandmother’s cookbooks from the 1960’s and ‘70’s in my closet, but that’s a story for another time. So let’s take a few minutes and talk about what should stay and what should go, and how we can make the transition a simpler one.

The first group of items to get rid of is fairly self-explanatory: clothes that don’t fit, don’t feel good or are woefully out of date. In essence, if you don’t wear them, they have no business taking up valuable closet space.  While you’re at it, go ahead and do something with the big white dress you wore on your most special of days that takes up a quarter of your hanging space. Sell it, heirloom it, donate it, just get it out of the closet. 

Geralin Thomas, author of Decluttering Your Home, recommends removing any item that has fewer than two “partner pieces.” For example, only keep a skirt if you have a blouse and a sweater that both match it. This is a great piece of advice when shopping as it helps you maintain variety in your wardrobe. 

Other pieces of clothing to lose? Get rid of anything that is too hard to maintain, like the linen blouse that has a million pleats and costs a fortune to dry clean. There it sits, waiting to be worn, in the closet. Also, shoes that are beautiful but can’t be worn because of the big, fat blisters you get just from imagining yourself walking in them. How about the leather handbag that weighs as much as a two-year-old and requires a trip to the chiropractor after carrying it for a day? It’s got to go.

When purging these items, you must disregard the amount of money you initially paid for them. That is a sunk cost. No matter what you spent on the blouse or bag when you bought it, having it sit unused in the closet is not helping your bottom line. Consigning or selling gently used items on ebay, Poshmark or LePrix may help you recoup some of your investment.

Maintaining the master closet is not a one time proposition. It needs to be culled through at regular intervals: seasonally is ideal. At the end of each season take time to decide what has been worn and what hasn’t; what can be donated or consigned and what you would like to replace. It is also a good time to check the cookbooks and see what you may want to try next season for dinner. Oh wait… physician, heal thyself.  

JUNE 2019 - Pack Like You Mean It!

The anticipation is growing as the end of the school year is within sight. As the days get longer and hotter many of us are ready to get out of Dodge for some well deserved R&R. Let’s get ourselves organized to maximize the fun and minimize the google searched trips to the store to pick up forgotten items.

Keeping a master list for the family of general travel essentials is a good place to start. Remembering the tickets for both planes and events, passports, identification for children old enough to require it, and house and car keys nips a migraine in the bud. Also on this list are chargers for phones, iPads and various accessories that can work for many family members. Try to consolidate the number of these items that must be brought as they are easily lost or left behind. All the travel essentials should be assigned to a designated person who knows they are responsible for them throughout the trip and who will confirm that they still have them during each leg of the journey.

Secondary lists are handy for suitcases. Susie must have her stuffed rabbit and you know Owen can’t skip a dose of asthma medicine. Once these lists are made they can easily be tweaked for different vacations: out go the swimsuits and in come the ski clothes. However, the list of toiletries remains the same.

My family and I like using packing cubes for longer trips. We find that using a rolling method of packing gets more clothes into each cube. We designate one for shirts, one for shorts and one for socks and undergarments. As the clothes get dirty, we roll the worn clothes and repack them into the bottom of the suitcase out of the packing cubes. It separates the clean and dirty clothes nicely and helps to maintain order in the suitcase while you are traveling. 

For shorter getaways try to maximize your fun by doing a few things before you go. Do your homework to figure out where you want to stay. If you are taking a pet, go ahead and find some pet friendly places you can take Fido. If you know you want to try a great Asian restaurant, research the best one in the area and make a reservation before you go. You can always cancel it if you’re not in the mood when you get there, but in many cities last minute reservations are hard to come by. 

Hopefully with a little bit of planning you can enjoy your vacation almost as much as your kids do. That would be a tremendous success!

JULY 2019 - Reasons to Call an Organizer

Recently I was asked to attend an event representing professional organizers. They asked me to speak for a few minutes about the kind of work we do and at the end take questions. It was more eye opening to me than to the audience. Wow…we stink at letting the public know what we do! So, let’s take a few minutes and talk about it.

You are right in your first assumption-- we do organize your stuff. Just how organized you want it to be is entirely up to you. I always say, “What is organized for me may not be organized for you,” and the reverse is also true. Some clients want their pantries to look like a magazine spread while others just want a permanent home for the peanut butter. Both clients are exactly right, because it is their home and their needs are fulfilled. In addition to pantries most organizers will work in areas as large as entire homes or as small as a single cabinet. Many will work in attic, basement and garage spaces as well.

An area that people don’t necessarily think about when they think of professional organizers is as moving assistants on both ends of the transaction. Calling a professional organizer before the home goes on the market shows it in its best light. Unloved items are purged and remaining items are put to rights. Once the family is moved a professional organizer can unpack and organize the home so that everything has a well-defined, permanent location.

As older adults downsize, finding ways to lovingly divest large amounts of belongings that have sentimental or financial value is another reason to contact a professional organizer. The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) has a network of contacts for professional organizers to tap into to find the right person who can help in selling or donating special collections. Professional organizers are trained to maximize smaller spaces efficiently.

Major life changes can also facilitate the need for a professional organizer. Happy times can be stressful times. Bringing a new baby home is all encompassing for some first time parents. Giving a couple the gift of organizing and baby-proofing the nursery takes a lot of stress off new parent’s shoulders. Similarly, when a family experiences the death of a loved one many people find it easier to have a third party come in after a mourning period to help in removing some of the departed’s belongings.

Usually people ask me if their house is the “worst” I’ve ever seen. Chances are it isn’t. And if it is…it would be a great challenge that I, or any other organizer would love to tackle!

AUGUST 2019 - Paper Clutter Cutter

Do you sometimes feel like you’re drowning in a sea of paper? It stacks up on our counters and desks, falls out of our children’s bookbags, and never skips a day repopulating our mailbox. Not only does this surplus of paper threaten our clutter-free goals, but it hurts the environment too. Let’s tame the paper dragon.

Many of us take the time to register ourselves on the “Do Not Call” list, but fewer take the time to limit the number of catalogs we receive. The nonprofit company Catalog Choice, that is found at catalogchoice.org, gives users the ability to opt out of receiving many of the catalogs that are delivered to them. Identify those you want to stop receiving and in about six weeks, you’ll be 10 pounds lighter.

For people who feel comfortable using on-line bill pay, transitioning from paper bills to on-line banking is another way to minimize the amount of paper clutter. Depending on the bill and your bank, your bills will show up either in your email or as an alert in your bank account’s bill pay area. 

Magazine subscriptions can be received digitally to lighten the load of paper clutter. Magazine subscription services such as Kindle Unlimited and Magzter allow you to peruse up to 5,000 magazines a month for just $10. They can be seen on your Kindle devices, iPhones and iPads, on Android devices, Macs or in Windows.

The Raleigh News and Observer is available online for $129.99 for a one-year subscription. The Wall Street Journal’s on-line annual subscription rate is $234 and the New York Times’ is $160. No more piles of newspaper lying around without losing the ability to print out a recipe you want to try or an article on minimizing aphids on your roses. 

Having a recycle bin and shredder next to your mail opening station is a great clutter-buster, too. Each day as the mail is opened the envelope is tossed in the recycle bin, the contents are filed in either the “action required” file, recycled, or shredded. At the end of the week when it is time to take the required action, you’re in business: pay what needs to be paid, follow up with calls that need to be made and file what needs to be filed. Your “action required” should be empty and ready to start the next week. With these techniques you’ll slay the paper dragon in no time! 

SEPTEMBER 2019 - Laundry Room Tips

Laundry: it’s never-ending and never fun. I’m sure that none of my friends has ever called me saying, “I just had the most amazing day doing my laundry! Can I come over and work on yours? What?! Ironing? Yes, please!”  If you have this friend then disregard the rest of this article. For those of you who don’t, let’s talk about some quick tips to try to make laundry less of a dirty word.

The biggest trick to keeping up with the laundry monster is to do at least one load every day. When I say one load, I mean the whole shebang: washing, drying, folding and putting away the clean clothes. Leaving the clean clothes in the laundry basket is just delaying the inevitable. Finish the whole process and the laundry piles begin to disappear.

Getting the whole family involved minimizes the work on one person and gives each member of the household some accountability for their own appearance. The youngest members of the house can put their dirty clothes in a hamper. Older children can help sort their laundry. A convenient time saver for people is to maintain a divided laundry sorter where each member of the family can deposit their own dirty clothes daily. Use color coded tags on each partition to show where darks, whites and colors should be placed.

Everyone but the youngest members of the household can set aside stained garments that need extra pre-treating. As children get older, having them sort socks and put away their own clothes helps them feel responsible and mature and takes a bit of the work off of parents.  Middle-school age children and older can learn to use the washing machine and dryer and can complete the task themselves.

Clothes that require dry cleaning should be put into a transportable bag immediately after being worn so they don’t end up in the wash. Similarly, garments that require special care, like line-drying, should be sorted into their own area so that the person doing the laundry doesn’t have to read each garment tag individually

Not every item has to be washed after each wearing. Jeans, shorts, bras, pajamas and some dresses can be worn multiple times. Of course, if you are a heavy sweater you will want to wash them more frequently.  Sheets can be washed weekly and towels every 3 to 4 uses. Exercise clothes, undergarments and socks should be laundered each time they are worn.

Relying on the whole family for assistance and keeping on top of it daily helps keep the never-ending task of laundry manageable. Finally, if all else fails, there are nudist colonies to consider. Who knows… maybe they’re on to something.