General

Organizing your home and life can be easier with this concept I teach called "Habit Hooks."  You probably already do this and don’t know it… the idea is that you take something you already do regularly and hook a new habit onto it.  For example, when you brush your teeth at night, you may also… Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

My very dear friend Susan Sabo from Productivity Café has written a couple of great posts lately on "saving styles," speaking of how you particularly like to keep things (or not).  Are you a Keeper, Collector, Sharer, Recycler, Finisher, or Streamliner? I think I am a Streamliner with Finisher tendencies… what are you?  Her first… Read more »

Today I read an absolutely excellent article on clutter from AARP’s magazine.  Here is a snip from the article, by David Dudley: In Dante’s Inferno there is a circle of Hell reserved for two warring armies, the Hoarders and the Wasters, who spend eternity rolling enormous boulders at each other on a desolate sun-baked plain…. Read more »

I saw this article in the Austin American-Statesman today about a new book called How to Cheat at Cleaning by Jeff Bredenberg.  I like how this guy thinks!  Like I am always saying, part of thinking like an organized person means asking yourself how you can do things faster or even not do them at… Read more »

On a personal note, I am today recovering from spending my weekend at the Austin Spring Home & Garden Show— wow, that will wear a person out!  But it was very fun to meet a lot of people and tell them about the Clutter Diet.  We got a great response!  I spoke 4 times this… Read more »

I just wrote this article that I thought a lot of you might enjoy reading:  Ten Basic Home Organizing Concepts.  These are things we teach people every day in our work with clients.  I hope it helps you start your New Year off on the right foot! Have a great weekend everyone!