Closed September 2017

The Clutter Diet Blog

How Organizing is Like Driving a Car

Nearly everybody has had the experience of driving home and not remembering how they got there!  You get on mental "autopilot" and your habitual actions are unconscious.  If you want to go to a new place, you have to consciously consider the route you’re going to drive and make the right choices in the moment… Read more »

Organizing for “Gamers”

Do your kids have several video game consoles?  Mine do.  It is not something I am thrilled about!  But they are really into it, and we do have limitations on their use.  So here are a couple of tips on how an organizer gets the gamers organized! First, the cords and cables.  What an electronic… Read more »

Getting Started: Overcoming Inertia

As a Professional Organizer, I talk with people a lot about overcoming procrastination when they are trying to get organized.  Sometimes that is one of the biggest reasons our clients hire organizers– because they can’t seem to make themselves set aside the time to do it!  But the overwhelming majority of the time, once people… Read more »

Get Organized to Travel Light!

Many of you, my dear readers, may be preparing for an upcoming Spring Break trip or business travel.  With the long lines at security, the taking-off-of-the-shoes, and countless other necessary (?) inconveniences, one is very motivated to get organized to reduce the hassles.  No need to bring clutter along with you when you leave the… Read more »

What’s a “Family Closet?”

A few days ago I posted about innovative ideas for handling the transport and efficient flow of laundry, including having two laundry rooms, two dryers, laundry chutes, and other thoughts.  What if you turn this entire thing on its ear?  The whole struggle centers around carting laundry to and from bedrooms, right?  There is a… Read more »

Little Known Microsoft Word Shortcut Saves BIG HASSLES!

Being efficient and saving time is a big part of being an organized person.  Today I am in touch with my "Inner Geek" and wanted to tell you about one of my favorite Microsoft Word shortcuts that saves a ton of time and hassle!  Have you ever typed a really long phrase, or even a… Read more »

Are You an Abstract or Concrete Thinker?

When getting organized, people often express to me that they feel their clutter is necessary because "out of sight is out of mind."  Other people tell me they are compelled to put every item away and do not want to see it.  There are two ends of a continuum at play here that many people… Read more »

Getting Creative with Laundry

We talk all the time with our Clutter Diet members about how systems and routines are crucial to staying organized.  We counsel people all the time in our hands-on organizing work with clients about how to create good laundry systems and other household management techniques. One of the trends we are seeing as our clients… Read more »

Organizing Shows: Reality TV is not Reality!

Home organizing shows have really taken off in the last 3-4 years, with several shows on HGTV and TLC like "Mission Organization," "Neat," "Clean Sweep," and others.  These shows have been a mixed blessing for the organizing industry– on the one hand, they have increased visibility to what we do, but they also have set… Read more »

Who’s Watching Your WiFi Connection, and What Can They See?

Many of my dear readers enjoy a little productivity boost by working off-site in a coffee shop or bookstore for a change of pace.  There is a lot of paranoia out there about people being able to spy on your WiFi internet connections when you are out in public, and I found a very helpful… Read more »

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