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 its intended function. No books stashed in the oven or piles of laundry in the…
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 in the end it’s all just stuff, when you think about decluttering, all that stuff…
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 yourself. Olivia Organized looks around her kitchen one sunny morning and notices that things aren’t…
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 or through my membership with the Institute for Challenging Disorganization. I am a proud ICD®…
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 to your clutter and take yourself out of the house as much as possible. When…
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 Punctual is at 11 am. She’s always understanding when you end up screeching into the…
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 hit. Will people still be willing to spend money on getting organized when life opens…
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 making things harder than they need to be. Are you all over the map? If…
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 your organizer, you want to know that hiring someone will be worth it. You know…
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 a mess? So what? When you’re too mad or sad to declutter or organize anymore,…
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!” you decide, ready to order some beautiful storage online so you can Get Organized. But…
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. But as with most things, there’s a spectrum. The Institute for Challenging Disorganization’s Clutter Hoarding…