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How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

a man standing with his hands beside his eyes so he can't see what is around him.

Clutter Blindness

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

Clutter blindness is simply clutter that is in front of you, but that you don’t see. Usually, this clutter accumulates slowly over time but because it is never dealt with it begins to look like it belongs there. It’s not that people have a vision problem. It’s just that they have become accustomed to the clutter and expect it to be there. How does clutter accumulate? Clutter generally accumulates when tasks are not completed. For example, you bring in the mail and you might even pull out the obvious trash and throw it out or recycle it. The rest is…

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How To Create And Use A Communication Center

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

A communication center is a dedicated area that helps you keep track of everything that is needed to run your home. The purpose of the center is to create organization, coordination, and efficiency in your home. How to create and use a communication center Where should you put the communication center? Your household determines where you put your communication center. When I was single, it was in my office. But if there are other people in your home then the center needs to be in a convenient and easy location for everyone. Often it is in the kitchen or an…

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Repurposing Your Things Is Good For The Environment

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

Do you repurpose your things? I love to repurpose furniture. One of the chest of drawers in my house is no longer used for clothes but has been repurposed as my wrapping station. The drawers along the top hold tissue paper, tape, scissors, and small gift bags. The three large drawers are dedicated to ribbon, birthday wrapping paper, and holiday wrapping paper. These drawers are so long and deep that I can also stash small gifts inside them. Repurposing things which we own is one of my primary missions as a professional organizer. Titles of businesses Do you ever think…

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Have An Extreme Decluttering Project? Here Are Some Tips

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

A friend or family member may ask you to help with an extreme decluttering project for someone they love who is overwhelmed and is living with clutter. You care about the person and would love to help. Offering to Help with an Extreme Decluttering Project Offering to help is a wonderful thing to do. It is also very difficult. It will probably take a lot longer to complete this extreme decluttering project than you expect. Prepare yourself to meet with resistance from the person you are helping. First and most importantly make certain that the person with the decluttering project…

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realistic benchmarks for change

Setting Realistic Benchmarks For Change

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

We’re about a month into the new year and most of us set the intention to make some changes. We set some lofty goals for ourselves. Maybe we see ourselves as 20 pounds lighter or our home cleared of all the holiday clutter and finally the place that we can return to and relax. These are not realistic benchmarks for change. Instead of setting lofty goals that are overwhelming, start with small, modest, and realistic benchmarks for change that you can accomplish and build upon in years to come. Mark Twain stated, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started….

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holiday decor

Make Space to Showcase Your Holiday Decor

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

Most holidays I do not do a lot of decorating, but I do love to decorate for Christmas and showcase my holiday decor. It is one of my guilty pleasures. It’s so enticing when we are out shopping to pick up another unique and pretty ornament for our home. I also receive a lot of lovely ornaments from friends. My attic already holds boxes and boxes of holiday décor that I would love to showcase. Too Much Stuff and Too Little Space To Display My Holiday Decor But my house is small, and I do not have a lot of…

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change habits to get organized

How To Create A New Habit With 5 Simple Steps

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies, Uncategorized

Do you want to create a new habit? It can be truly challenging to first decide what habit you want to create and then to make the habit stick. The author, James Clear, advises readers of his book, Atomic Habits to use the technique of habit stacking when creating a new habit. Do you know about habit stacking? It is when you link two habits together. This sounds simple, right? Well, it is and it isn’t. How to create a new habit There are several steps to take when undertaking this task. Step #1: Identify the habit you want to…

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3 Ways to Use Our Organizing Deck of Cards

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

I can’t believe it’s already been two years since Jonda Beattie and I started talking about creating an organizing deck of cards to help people create more order in their homes. We know that  one of the best organizing strategies is to break the task down into very small components. So, that’s where we started. Jonda asked the question, “what can you do in 10 minutes?” Everyone has 10-minutes to work on one task, right? That is, if the task is small enough. That’s how we came up with the title: Organize Your Home 10 Minutes at a Time. Then…

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outdoor storage area

7 Tips To Declutter Your Outdoor Storage Area

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

Spring has finally arrived, and we want to spend more of our time outdoors. Having a clean, clutter-free outdoor storage area makes our time outside even more inviting and relaxing. Many of us have a lot of “stuff” that we store to keep our yards, decks, patios, and any other outdoor areas a place of relaxation. Decluttering our outdoor storage areas makes it easier to maintain our outdoor areas and saves us time so that we can enjoy them. Outdoor storage areas can get messy and cluttered throughout the year. Because they are not in our main living area it…

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The Best Reason to Use the Zone Plan to Organize Your Home

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

You are probably familiar with the expression “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? Benjamin Franklin said this way back when. Of course, I don’t know what he was referring to at the time but there are so many applications. Think about a door knob. If it becomes loose, it’s a good idea to tighten the screws before the whole thing falls off. You don’t want to wait too long to attend to this task or you may have an even bigger problem to fix, right? Preventive maintenance is one of the best ways to keep little…

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