Schedule a Free Call
Articles Tagged with

clutter

Bright living room with fireplace

Decluttering Living Room Tips Featured in Redfin Blog

One of my tips for decluttering living rooms is featured in the Redfin blog! 19 Must-Read Storage Hacks for a Cluttered Home. You’ll find my insights in Tip 17: Involve Your Family.

And here are some EXTRA tips to keep your living room looking neat!

1. The Clutter Buster

Here’s one creative idea I used in my family of 4 children. When the house started looking cluttered—which it often did—I would warn them ahead of time that we’d be doing a cleanup and give them some transition time. Then we started a 10 to 15-minute clutter buster. I asked everyone to stop what they were doing, pick up 10 things and put them away. It’s amazing how much better your house looks when 40 items of clutter get picked up! You can also use a timer so it’s a race against the clock.

2. Maintaining a tidy living room

In the living room especially, blankets, magazines, electronics (and cords) and gaming devices become an issue. One thing that bothers me is how messy the blankets look when strewn haphazardly over the couches.

An easy solution for a tidy living room is to get a large, attractive basket, then fold & put away the blankets every night. That way, at least the living room stays neat all day, until family time the next evening! It takes regular decluttering to keep up with the chaos.

3. Cords, Cords, Cords!

Cords are such an eyesore. I especially detest black cords cluttering my living room. So, I went to an organizing store and bought a small grey bin that fits a power strip, and a couple game controllers with room for coiled up cords. It works well and looks MUCH better.

Another solution is to get a cord “tube” (it looks like an old-fashioned spiral telephone cord) and channel all your cords through it. They come in a variety of colors, and you can hide them along the baseboard or under the couch. This is a great help in decluttering your living room and making it feel more orderly.

The Redfin blog has a lot of other great tips (besides my own), so I hope you find something that will help you work through your current organizational challenge! And don’t forget to check out my other blogs, which cover topics from holiday shopping to food storage strategies. You’ll find them all on my website, efficientspaces.org.

Earth Day Radio show!

Woo-hoo, my Radio Debut!

Back in February, Aletha Nowitsky of KSKQ radio Ashland called and asked me to be on her radio show. On Earth day, April 20, we recorded a live show. Pretty exciting for me, really. I share some of my stories and some great info:

  • How I got started
  • What a session with me is like
  • Jenny’s thoughts on Marie Kondo
  • What does clutter say about you?
  • Plus, many success stories from clients

Click on the play button above to hear the ‘Innerview’.

Feel free to share this page on your social media! It’s easy, just click on Pinterest, FB icons hovering at the lower left of your screen!

 

 

organized walk-in closet with skylight

Secrets to an Organized Closet

Does your closet scare you? How long does it take you to find what you are looking for? Are your clothes crammed in tight or is there space between your hangers?
How would I organize my closet, as a professional organizer? Well, I just did my closet last week, so I’ll share my secrets with you.
First, a little advice. These are the 2 magic questions to ask yourself as you go through, or purge, your closet.

Do I use it?
Do I love it?

Anything else needs to go in one of the discard piles.
Materials needed: 1 black trash bag and a white bag, Post-its or paper, a Sharpie, a labeler or plain-old Scotch tape.
Once you gather the materials, you are ready to get started! Here are the steps:

ONE:  Decide where you will donate or sell the clothes you discard. I like to give clothing to my favorite thrift store. Think about a women’s crisis center, a community closet or a resale shop close by. Now get 2 different colored trash bags, or even boxes, a sharpie, and some Post-its.

TWO: Take everything from one section of your closet—like all of your blouses–and pile them in a larger space like the bed or the bedroom floor. This gives you space to move and think. I’m a bit claustrophobic, so I prefer the larger room to work in.

THREE: Use the Post-its or some notebook paper to make categories where you will pile clothes.
Categories: Keep * Try on* Donate * Sell * Repair* Trash

FOUR: Sort your clothes by taking each item and making a quick decision about which pile it goes in. Do not think about it too much. Remember to ask yourself the use it/ love it questions if you get stuck.
One of my early clients, about 7 years ago, had an inordinate number of bras. This was inexplicable to me. She had between 20 and 30 bras. They took up an entire drawer in her bureau! I asked her to pick a reasonable number of bras, and then we whittled them down to that number. Then they only took up half of a drawer.

FIVE: Get together with a trusted friend, sister or daughter and give them a fashion show of the things you aren’t sure flatter you. If it doesn’t fit now, release it.
For example, don’t keep boxes full of the size 8 clothes you plan to fit into “someday;” by the time you fit into them they will be out of style and you will want to celebrate by getting new clothes.
Saying goodbye is so hard to do! I have a few skirts I need to take in, which I’ve been meaning to do for about 6 months. I wore them a lot when they fit me, so it’s worth it. I decided to put a Post-it with an expiration date on the hanger. If I don’t alter the skirts by Thanksgiving this year, I have to get rid of them.

SIX: Bag up or box the Give, Sell and Trash clothes. Use black bags for trash and label white bags ‘Donate’ and ‘Sell’ with a Sharpie. Put the ‘Donate’ and ‘Sell’ bags in your vehicle immediately.

SEVEN: Repeat with a section of your closet every day or every weekend until you’ve finished!

EIGHT: Once the whole closet is purged of clothing you don’t use or love, organize it. Divide up pants, blouses, T-shirts, dresses, bags, PJ’s, etc. into categories. If you think you have way too much of a type of item, like blouses, you need to do another purge. A good rule of thumb is 3x more tops than pants. Now place the clothing in their zones.

Some of the zones I use: workout, casual, professional, dresses, purses/bags, travel
Of course, we are all different. You may need to add or take away a zone depending on your activities.

NINE: Enjoy your handiwork; you just accomplished a major organizing project! Take a picture of your awesome, organized closet and post it on FB or Pinterest, and please share it with me too!
www.facebook.com/OrganizingAttics2Basements/?pnref=lhc
——————————————————————-
Related links: https://www.pinterest.com/jennyrossomorin/organizing-your-closet/
Real Simple June 2016 article: Solutions for every closet.
Real Simple January 2015 “Clothes” purging tips p. 101.

Privacy Settings
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
Youtube
Consent to display content from - Youtube
Vimeo
Consent to display content from - Vimeo
Google Maps
Consent to display content from - Google
Spotify
Consent to display content from - Spotify
Sound Cloud
Consent to display content from - Sound
Schedule a Free Call