Which Stuff is Important?

One way to answer this is to consider what you would take with you in an emergency. After a natural disaster or devastating loss of homes, we have all heard the voices repeat that all that matters is that the family was safe. But as we see images of them sifting through ruined belongings, we know their loss is great.


Things are important to us; however, we should be able to prioritize our things and make choices when spaces become cluttered.

I challenge you to look around and make a list of what you should absolutely grab if you only had 15 minutes to get your belongings out of the house (furniture would not be listed). Of course, you should already have the emergency box with important papers ready to go.


Some stuff is just stuff and living without it makes cleaning easier and accentuates the importance of the items that are left.

Motivation to Organize

In education we were told if we kept doing the same old things, we would get the same old results. In other words, we needed to try something new to get different results. I think the same thing applies in organizing.

To get yourself motivated, begin stimulating your brain with new activities in other areas first. Instead of watching the same television shows, watch something different. Even if you don’t like it, your mind will be stimulated in critical thinking.

You can try a new food product or recipe, go to a different grocery store or in reverse down the isles of your favorite store and drive a new route to work. Then start thinking about what needs organizing in your home. You may have some fresh ideas that will get you moving.

You may be surprised at the motivation you have once your brain is engaged in new patterns of thinking. Carol Miller, a quilter, gave me the inspiration for this and I must say it works. Give it a try for at least a week and let me know what happens.

Daily Organizing Tips

There are some things you can do everyday to get or stay organized. 
• Get up and dressed before you leave the bedroom.

• Make your bed when you get out of it.

• Avoid the temporary put down. Return everything to its home. If items do not have a specific, permanent home, make one for everything you own.

• Remove one item from you home each day. Worn out clothing or linens, utensils you do not use, outgrown toys, etc. Make a game with your children to find something in their rooms that can be removed. Donate or recycle those appropriately.

• Use a one in one out rule. If something new comes into the house, something similar must go.

• Keep a written daily, weekly and lifetime “to do” list and check off items as you do them.

• Have a clean-up time for the family members before bedtime.

• Clean the kitchen before you go to bed.

• Put out clothing, pack lunches, prepare backpacks and anything else you can do for the next morning. It will help prevent morning “emergencies”.

By establishing routines, you and your family can have a more a more organized, peaceful and secure environment.

How Much Stuff is Clutter?

Those attending my presentations often want to know how much stuff they can have and when does it become clutter.  And my politically correct answer is always, “That depends”. In fact it depends on lots of variables such as:   how much space do you have, are you happy with the way it looks, can you use what you have efficiently, can you move around safely in your spaces, can you find anything in one minute? 

It is obvious that someone with a 3000 sq. ft. house can have more stuff than someone living in a 1000 sq. ft. But all of us want to make the space that we have attractive,  functional and safe.

I suggest you take pictures of all of your spaces as they are now. You will be very surprised at what you see. We often cannot look at our things objectively because they have become common place or normal to us. Clutter can be disguised that way.  Pictures are a much more objective way to see things as they really appear.

Print the pictures if you can so you can spend time evaluating them. Then circle the areas in the prints that do not look good to you and make a plan to change them. You will be surprised at the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction you will have when it is done.

Organizing vs. Cleaning

It is true that organized and decluttered spaces that are not really clean appear to be cleaner and more attractive than spaces that are sanitized but cluttered.

This doesn’t imply that you should not keep up the cleaning schedule but rather that to have your spaces looking clean, they should be organized.
When clutter is removed from spaces, it allows you to make cleaning easier and quicker. Think about it. Do you have to move stacks of books, magazines, toys, dishes or papers around before you dust, polish, vacuum floors or wipe down counters?  Doing those extra activities makes it more difficult to get the cleaning jobs done.

Both are important. But if you keep your spaces organized, you will save time and energy cleaning them.

To Shred or Not to Shred, That is the Question.

If you have been working on organizing your papers, you are faced with the decision of what should be shredded or what can simply be recycled or thrown away.  Plainly put, not everything with your name on it must be shredded in order to protect your identity.
Why is it not necessary?  If your name, address or phone number is listed in a local phone book or on the Internet, it is already out there for the world to see and access whenever they want it.  Otherwise, how could you get so many unsolicited pieces of mail or phone calls?  Check it out for yourself on Google. Put in your name or phone number and everything else will appear.  One former student even found the names of my children on Google.  It is apparent evidence that their Wii or phone was dead and they were really bored..

Assuming you are protecting your identity by shredding every document, sales flyer, catalogue, etc. with your name or address on it is a waste of time and will eventually burn up your shredder.  It is much more profitable to shred financial documents and those that contain account numbers, birth dates or other highly sensitive information.

Don't let the shredding task become overwhelming and cause you to give up on your organizing project.  You really can get and keep control of your papers with the suggestions we have made here in the last few weeks.

Organizing Your Filing Cabinet

After collecting your documents for filing your taxes, you have a great opportunity to organize your reference files. These are papers usually found in your filing cabinet or boxes that you need to keep for a certain length of time but not forever. Receipts, paid bill statements, payroll stubs and financial statements are examples of these papers.

One good rule of thumb is to permanently save the end-of-the-year statement from financial institutions and employers. But the verified monthly statements or updates for the previous year can be bundled together and kept out of the current filing system somewhere else in the house. Every year those can be replaced with the updated papers from the more recent year and then shredded. Any verification or reconciliation requiring them would normally be passed in that length of time.

In addition, computer and/or online records are now kept by almost all institutions making it possible to track down information you may need in the future. Keeping every statement or purchase record indefinitely is not necessary and can create clutter and confusion in your paper filing system. This makes it harder to find what you really do need.

An inexpensive and simple reference filing system that anyone can use is found in the chapter on paperwork in my book, complete with sample pictures. It does not require any special supplies and can be adapted to any categories or filing preferences.  And I am always available by phone or email.