Many things go into a good tidying experience. When working with a client, I might ask what time of day works best for them for a particular activity. And as we work together, I might suggest we take a break for a snack, a sip of fresh air or even the change of scenery. Through little experiments like these, we learn what works for us.

I love weeding junk mail. Similar to gardening, it’s pretty clear what to eliminate. Removing weedy mail takes just a few steps. These easy decisions and simple actions reap pleasing rewards. This post offers you suggestions for how to reduce and weed out unwanted mail.

Having trouble letting go of clothes even though they haven't seen the light of day in years? Try doing it in stages. I like to keep two containers for giveaways. One is for the definite giveaways, ready to go. The second is for the “probablys” or “maybes.”

Creating a new system for organizing an area --like perhaps a storage closet or your nightstand, can seem daunting. What should I keep? What should I get rid of? What goes where? What’s the best set up? Thinking you have to get it right can paralyze the whole process. That’s why I like to think of setting up new organizing systems as experiments.

Where do you start when reorganizing a home or office? What should I keep? What should I get rid of? What goes where? What’s the best set up? Facing the piles, staring at clutter… it can feel overwhelming and paralyzing. In this post, I elaborate on concepts I've touched on in shorter posts and bring them together to give a complete picture of the process of decluttering and organizing.

Organizing remotely? Can you really do that? Yes, you can! A health administrator in Scotland cleaned up a large shed, a freelancer in Queens, NYC tidied a closet, a physician in California decluttered a garage, and a mother in New Jersey brought calming order to her art studio —while I guided and supported from another state (or continent).

If you struggle to let go of releasing sentimental objects, you are not alone. Many of us connect memories, emotions, and stories to these objects. To help you along your decluttering journey, I offer you these practical tips for releasing and letting go with kindness and compassion.

Taxes, darning, cleaning house. Don’t these words just light you up? If not, I invite you to dream a little. Imagine what could transform normally unpleasant tasks into less painful and possibly even fun events. Consider collaboration. I’ve found that collaboration can transform mundane tasks into social events.

As a life coach and personal organizer, I help people downsize, organize, and get through rough spots in life. When it comes to downsizing, one of the rough spots is in dealing with sentimental items. I’m eager to find ways to help us release ourselves from the burdens, obligations and pain that often get connected with sentimental objects.

Clutter. It’s the stuff that covers your counters, fills closets and cabinets and sometimes even makes its home on the floor. It’s not necessarily messy, but it crowds storage spaces, visual space and sometimes traffic zones. Intuitively, most of us sense that clutter is detrimental in some way. But is it just social pressure? Is decluttering just a fad?