This week's challenge is to try on all your shoes and see what still fits. The pandemic has done a number on our tolerance for shoes that pinch or blister. If no one can see what you've got on your…
Joyful Surroundings LLC
Three Games to Help You Declutter Books
read this post on Medium When - not if - you declutter your books, taking charge of the process will make it easier. Kindle readers can skip this post - although I see you, digital clutter - but for most…
Organized Enough
There are no organizing police, but you'd be surprised how many of my clients worry there might be. Perhaps you too feel you aren't organized enough, that you're not doing it right. Often, that's because you grew up in a…
What’s Your Clutter Story?
If you grew up in a messy home, you know how awkward things could get. Maybe you were even uncomfortable bringing friends home from school. Our parents did the best they could, but they couldn’t teach us what they didn’t…
Pandemic Countdown Week 6: Coloring Books
Pandemics are stressful (this statement brought to you by the Ministry of the Obvious) and so we've all been trying to find some way to deal with the ongoing make-it-end stress. Perhaps you've dusted off your yoga mat or you've…
Decluttering Motivation
Decluttering is like walking the dog no matter what the weather's like or how you feel. To understand where I'm going with this, you should know that Daisy is two years old and has a lot of sheep herding energy.…
Pandemic Countdown Week 5: Scissors
How Many Scissors Do You Have and Where Are They? Were you raised in a full house where anything you could possibly want was somewhere if only that elusive spot could be located? We must have had at least twelve…
Pandemic Countdown Week 4: Puzzles
Have you been puzzling up a storm during covid? This pandemic has shown us that the world can be divided into people who love doing puzzles – they enjoy the relaxing challenge, the delight of a puzzle in progress, the…
Pandemic Countdown Week 3: Masks
Remember when the Pandemic started and everybody started making masks? It was a wonderful creative way to do something in the middle of chaos, wasn't it? I fondly remember the mask I got from our library - pretty fabric, super…
Pandemic Countdown Week 2: Decluttering Magazines
In these covidest of times, have you put your stack(s) of magazines to good use? Made the collages? Created the vision boards? Read all the articles you've been meaning to? No? You're not alone. The magazines have languished since well…
‘I always ask, What hurts most?’
Filled Up and Overflowing - what to do when life events, chronic disorganization, or hoarding go overboard, is a compassionate, practical read that I wish had been available when I was starting out as an organizer. I'm thrilled we have…
Pandemic Countdown Week 1: Decluttering Books
Covid is going to end - while we wait, here are 30 decluttering challenges to give you the freedom to come out from behind your screens and have people over again. If you get to the end of all 30…
Accountability That Works
If your Facebook or Twitter feed is anything like mine, you're currently being deluged with offers for productivity coaches, apps and courses. Many of them might be helpful but is this really the first time you've tried to get organized…
Paperwork Challenge Q & As
Last week's paperwork challenge gave me the opportunity to hear what troubles you most about paperwork - here are my answers to the top three most popular questions I've received. Shouldn't I Be Scanning All This Paperwork? Only if you…
Paperwork Challenge Day 9
You made it! I'm so grateful for your time and energy during this paperwork challenge. As promised, I'm wrapping this challenge up with a list of five file folder categories that'll make organizing your paperwork in 2021 and beyond so…
Paperwork Challenge Day 8
So good to see you! I'm posting these daily so you have the sequence of steps but please know that I'm not expecting, or even encouraging you to take just one day for each step. Take it steady, go at…
Paperwork Challenge Day 7
Thanks for coming back, I'm excited to show you how to move your paperwork from broad categories (see posts 1 - 6) into the next level of organization without having you break out into a sweat! To review, you've taken…
Paperwork Challenge Day 6
Keep sorting papers, twenty minutes at a time, until you have all the papers distributed into bankers boxes. Could take a while or it could take twenty minutes, depending on how much paperwork you're sorting. This could be the end…
Paperwork Challenge Day 5
Alright, you're ready - let's start sorting! Set your timer for 20 minutes and let's do this. Take a handful of papers and look at the first one. What is it? Without spending ten minutes reading it through and worrying…
Paperwork Challenge Day 4
Nearly there! Today's step is to gather a large recycling can and a large garbage can, empty them both and then set them in the room with the piles of paper, the flat surface to work on and the assembled,…
Paperwork Challenge Day 3
Today's the day to open the bankers box pack and assemble a few of them. If you've done this before, it'll take you less than 30 seconds per box but if you've never put together a bankers box before, you…
Paperwork Challenge Day 2
Welcome back! I hope Day 1 wasn't too arduous and you were able to gather all your piles of paper together and find a flat surface to sort them on. Day 2's step is to head for Walmart, Target or…
Paperwork Challenge Day 1
Even if you usually run a pretty tight ship, paperwork probably makes you groan. Sorting through it seems so daunting, so time consuming, so incredibly boring. To celebrate the end of 2020, I've got you covered with a New Year's…
Holiday Clutter Challenge: gift wrap
The challenge this Holiday week is to consider releasing any and all gift wrap supplies you don't end up using this week. It's not that they aren't perfectly good, but if they didn't make the cut this time, why will…
Holiday Clutter Challenge: Donation Requests That Never Stop Coming
Every day we skip to the mailbox and then slowly trudge back with our bills, flyers and catalogs again. Too boring to go through, we set it down "for now". If there was a way to completely stop it, we…
Read More Holiday Clutter Challenge: Donation Requests That Never Stop Coming
Holiday Clutter Challenge part 3
This week, the clutter challenge heads for the spare room. If you don't have a designated guest room, it's the room where someone would stay if they came for a visit. Keeping the game's rules in mind - find one…
Holiday Clutter Challenge part 2
How did you get on with last week's Send it away Saturday challenge? I enjoyed seeing your pictures and hearing about your Holiday discards! This week, the challenge gets a little more specific but it's still within the general umbrella…
Holiday Clutter Challenge
Mid-November through Mid-January is tough and expensive. It's cold, often overcast and there are all those Holidays. There's desire and pressure to buy gifts for anyone you can think of whether or not they want or need what you get…
How To Decide
One of the most difficult things about decluttering is making decisions about your possessions. What stays and what goes? Here's how I'd help you learn how to decide if we were working together and we realized you had five potato…
Ask The Organizer: A Bad Smell In The Fridge
Dear Joyful Surroundings, There's an odor in my fridge. I've got a new box of baking soda in there but it doesn't seem to be working. Thanks for listening, M, Colorado Dear M, We have huge fridges these days, nothing…
Organizing Your Bedroom
Remember when you were a kid and your room (or the bit of the bedroom you staked out as your territory) was the only place you had to keep everything? The bed, which doubled as your couch, was squashed in…
Ignoring Clutter
My son likes snakes and I don't. He would happily fill his room with cages full of carefully selected specimens and meet all their serpentine needs. I'd happily never see one again. Our compromise is that he has a couple…
How To Declutter When You Don’t Feel Like It
Some days you’re just not feeling it. You're still sick of not being able to find anything, you still really want to have your grandkids stay over, you still want to get the car in the garage and have friends…
Organizing Case Study: Jason’s Story
“Want to give me the tour?” I asked as Jason stood in front of me, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to the other. I’d seen photographs of his house already and we’d talked about his organizing goals but…
Mindful Decluttering
When it comes to decluttering, the focus is usually on how things look. Look at that bedroom! I can't see the bed! I don't see how all those clothes can possibly fit in the closet. But we have five senses…
The Importance of Clutter
from the archives: Sometimes clutter is vital and that’s why you’re keeping it. It’s not important because your house papers are in those piles somewhere, although that may well be the case. It’s important because it’s serving you well, cocooning…
Showing Up Even When You’re Not Feeling It
I could try to put this in my own words for you...or you could just enjoy this beautiful post from the creator of Zen Habits while I work through the sleep restriction phase of CBTI. Back to regularly scheduled programming…
The Simplest Clutter Challenge You’ll Find
As this pandemic drags on, I'm sure your inbox is as full as mine is with all sorts of improving suggestions about how to make the best use of our COVID time. If organization doesn't come naturally to you, these…
How Will I Know When I’m Organized?
If clutter has been a long-standing problem for you, it can be tough to figure out when you're done. How will you know when you're Organized with a capital O? Organized You're Organized when you can use each room for…
How To Stop Organizing Overwhelm
In theory, decluttering and organizing are simple. You select what you still need and let the rest go. Find homes for everything you've kept and move on with your life. The reality, as we know, is somewhat different. Because although…
What Does Chronically Disorganized Mean?
The Institute for Challenging Disorganization defines chronic disorganization as disorganization that persists over the long haul, often making your quality of life worse, and is a constant in your life no matter what you try to do to fix it…
Becoming a Better Organizer
I write this blog for you because I know that if you want to get organized, there's a way for you to do that. I'm always learning, whether it's through my work as an organizer, from my colleagues, from reading…
What are you doing instead of decluttering?
Everyone wants to be organized but no one wants to declutter because it's overwhelming. You take one look at the guest room and you just want to close the door and make it all go away. You cede the space…
How To Be On Time
Do you continually find yourself running late despite your best intentions? Here's how to make that a thing of the past. Side effects include improved friendships, feelings of being trustworthy and a decrease in overall stress. Your appointment with Polly…
Are Professional Organizers Doomed?
As the country gradually starts to reopen, there's a big question hanging over the heads of professional organizers: will people be willing to let us in their homes anytime soon? We weren't seen as an essential service when the virus…
Troubleshooting the Twenty Minutes
Twenty minutes decluttering a day is the slow and steady way to lasting change but sometimes it feels like you're spinning your wheels. When you start to wonder if it's worth it, check in with yourself and see if you're…
How Long Will It Take to Get Organized?
When you hire an organizer after decades of accumulating clutter, it's reasonable to ask how long it'll take to sort it all out. You want to put a budget together, you want to set aside enough time to work with…
How to Organize Even When You’re Sad
When the world stops making sense, it's hard to concentrate on everyday tasks like decluttering. There's a giant feeling of 'why bother?' hanging over everything and a feeling of terrible impotence. Anger turns inward to depression. So, the closet is…
Organizing Without Decluttering
Being stuck at home shoves the state of your house in your face. If there's no rhyme or reason for where things go, the descent into chaos is swift and sure. "A place for everything and everything in its place!"…
Are You a Hoarder?
"Wow, look at all those cactuses. What a hoarder!" The word "hoarder" is thrown around a lot, never in a kind way. It's become a shortcut for a house that's stuffed to the gills, too crowded in the speaker's opinion.…