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Top Three Tips to Cut Clutter

7/22/2019

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Summer break is a great time to evaluate your current strategies for coping with clutter. But what is clutter?

Clutter is anything you don’t need, use, or enjoy on a regular basis.

It’s the tchotchkes, knickknacks, and overstock in your home that never find a true purpose. You have them, but do you really need to keep them? Probably not.
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Letting go can be difficult, so here are my top 3 strategies for editing your belongings.

#1 Pareto’s Principle.
While you might not be able to pronounce his name properly, this turn of the century Italian economist developed what we commonly refer to today as the 80:20 rule. Vilfredo Pareto determined that what we invest versus the return we get is unbalanced. Applied to our homes, it would appear that 80% of our things are used only 20% of the time. In simpler terms, this means that out of all of your t-shirts in your dresser drawers, over half of them (80%) are only worn less than half (20%) of the time. The flip side of that equation is that you’re wearing a very small percentage (20%) of your t-shirts the majority (80%) of the time. Sounds like it’s time to declutter some of those unworn shirts!
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#2 One-In-One-Out Rule.
To avoid unnecessary overstock, you’ve got to have a plan to subtract whenever you add. We’re great with toilet paper – we buy lots, but we use lots, so the toilet paper supply never gets out of hand. However, when we’re buying things that aren’t consumable, those items tend to pile up. Consider purses. Although you might love purses (and bags of all sorts), it’s unnecessary to have ALL the bags. So, when buying a new bag, you must let go of an old one. Using the one-in-one-out principle helps us to establish healthy buying habits, which in turn reduces the potential for clutter. If you’ve got an excessive amount, then multiply this rule to read One-In-Three-Out until you can get your stash down to an appropriate level.

#3 Expiration Date.
As you continue on your decluttering journey, you’ll stumble upon items you think you might need one day. While this mindset has proven useful in past decades, it has followed Pareto’s Principle more than we’d like to admit: of the 80-100% of the things we keep for a delayed and unknown need, only 0-20% might ever get used. The replacement light bulbs that come with every strand of holiday lights, or extra buttons that come with your new cardigan. The dull hack saw you salvaged from a garage sale or the door knobs that came out of your renovated property. Maybe it’s the fancy table linens for the parties you never throw or extra sets of glass punch cups. You’re keeping these things because you THINK you’ll use them, but so far you haven’t. In fact, instead of using the old things, you actually just pick up what you need for less than $25 when you need it. Be honest with yourself. It’s time to let these things go. But if you don’t believe me, then place these items in a box with an expiration date clearly marked on the side. Once that date arrives, you’ll have no regrets donating those items because you KNOW you never actually needed them.
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What are your favorite strategies for cutting the clutter? Share them below in the comments!

This post originally appeared on The Good Life.
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Garage Organization in 4 Simple Steps

6/3/2019

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Now that you’ve cleared out your garage (and other storage areas) with your spring yard sale, you’re ready to tidy up those coveted storage areas in preparation for a busy summer.
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Identify Your Belongings
Use your driveway as a staging area to sort the items found in your garage. As you’re sorting, try to group similar items together. I always get a good laugh out of the number of brooms and bug spray come wandering out of corners and shelves. Are there any more items that you can donate or discard? Think wisely about the duplicate tools, coolers, gross yard shoes, and rags. When was the last time you used each of them? Isn’t your space more valuable than your collection of unused duplicates? I thought so! Offer those extras to your neighbor!

Keep it Simple
It’s easier to find (and return) items when you don’t have many places to look. Creating a handful of broad categories will help you to narrow down your search.

Classic garage categories and subcategories include:
  • Home Care
    • Painting + Wall Repair
    • Hand Tools
    • Cleaning + Paper Products
  • Car Care
    • Tire Repair
    • Oil
    • Car Wash Supplies
  • Yard Care
    • Rakes + Shovels
    • Gardening Gloves
    • Potting Soil + Grass Seed
    • Hoses
  • Outdoor Entertaining
    • Camping Chairs
    • Roasting Sticks
    • Citronella Candles
  • Toys + Sports Equipment
    • Bikes
    • Rackets
    • Bats + Balls
  • Pool Gear
    • Noodles
    • Puddle Jumpers
    • Sunscreen
    • Water Guns

Go ahead and start shifting your piles around on the driveway. This will give you a sense of just how much space you’ll need for each broad category.

Assign Zones
Next, it’s time to think about how those categories are used so that we can assign the best zone for them in the garage. Yard tools and outdoor gear are best kept near the garage door. Painting supplies can be kept in the back on a far wall because they’re used less frequently. Take a moment to review your broad categories and determine which need to go towards the garage door, which need to be close by the entrance to the home for quick access, and which categories can be tucked up high. Our pool gear hangs out on a top shelf during the winter but switches places with winter gear as the temperatures rise.

Invest in the Right Tools
Make the most of your storage space by going vertical. Install shelving, peg board, and large hooks to accommodate your storage needs. Clear, sturdy bins are a favorite of mine because you can quickly see what’s inside. Don’t forget to designate a home for your ladders, which I prefer to hang horizontally as to not shorten the length of shelving above. Ceiling mounted shelves are also a great storage solution if you need to get your seasonal items off the ground. These are difficult to access, so make sure the items you place up there regularly used. Bikes are my least favorite to store because, let’s face it, kids need to be able to grab and go. While we hang our adult bikes, the kids’ bikes line the wall.

This post originally appeared on The Good Life.
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3 Simple Steps to Donate Like a Pro

2/4/2019

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As a professional organizer, donating is all that thrills my soul! Loading my van up to the brim and buckling items into my seats for safe passage; I just can’t get enough of it. It’s so exciting to see gently used items get a second chance at life. And I’m fairly sure that if I listened hard enough, I’d hear shouts of joy coming from the unloved coffee mugs and barely worn jeans.

But all too often, these items slated for departure never actually leave. They sit in boxes, bags, or random piles around our homes and inside the trunks of our cars. They are SOOOO close to new life, and yet so far away. The poor things!

So how can we actually get our donated items where they need to go?
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Launch Pads Are a Necessity.
Do you have a place where you store items that need to leave your home? Everyday items like your wallet, briefcase, book bags and even the sports equipment required for tonight’s game should have a place near the door you most frequently exit when leaving your home. Most likely you’ve already got some hooks, a table, and a closet near this zone we’ll now call your Launch Pad. (It’s not just a clever name. It’s meant to launch those items so that you can complete all your tasks for the day without wasting valuable time searching for misplaced keys, phones, cash, or projects.) Your donated items deserve a spot too. Picking a primary place to store your donated items will help everyone in the home know exactly where to put something that is no longer used or loved but still has life left in it. I’d recommend a sturdy bag or bin.
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Keep Your Eyes Peeled.
Storing your donated items near your launch pad ensures that you’ll pass them daily. You’ll have an excuse to evaluate how full the bin, bag, or box is so that you’ll know when it’s time to deposit its contents. If you dig donating as much as I do, then you might have additional collection points around the home. Keeping a secondary bin in a child’s closet provides a quick place to drop the gently used shirt that no longer fits or the toy that is no longer interesting. Check the additional collection points weekly (like when you’re collecting the dirty laundry) and don’t forget to transfer those items to your primary collection point in or near your launch pad.

Complete the Cycle.
This is the hardest step of all because it takes something most of us feel like we don’t have time to do: follow through. Now that you have a place to collect your items and you know how often the bin fills up, you’re better equipped to plan for your drop-off. Having a plan is the game-changing secret to success! Quickly make a list on paper (or in your head) of the donation stations near you. I personally recommend manned stations because I LOVE a good tax-deductible receipt for every donation made. Now think about the week ahead. Will you be going by any of these donation stations? Most likely your answer will be affirmative with multiple options. If you’re not sure of a donation facility near you, click here to find them!

If you think you’ll forget to bring your donations with you, set a reminder on your phone or stick a big, bright Post-It to your bin with the day you’ll be headed that direction. Habits are hard to form, but keeping your bin near your keys will help you build that new habit much faster. After each drop-off, make sure to bring your empty bin back to your launch pad and pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Your donations put people back to work. Never underestimate the power of your efforts!

Need a pro to help declutter? Click HERE to learn more about our hands-on services!

This post originally appeared on The Good Life.

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    #DeclutteringGreenville #OrganizingGreenville

    Coach Lauren

    Transforming chaos into categories, leaning towers into stable storage solutions, and anxiety into peace.

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