Clear the Clutter: Streamline your space to enjoy your home. Plus, organizing will provide more time for yourself — and less guilt. (Deposit Photos)
This week, we were lucky enough to have a radio chat with our Fierce media partner, Janet M. Taylor, author of 101 Secrets to an Organized Life and host of the blog radio show, Got Clutter, Get Organized. Here are a few of her tips, and our own, about streamlining your space and enjoying your home.
Gather your tools: In order to put everything in the proper place, you must have a place for everything. The first step
toward and organized home is thinking about what types of spaces you need to clear. If you’re like lots of women, you have a fabulous living room, but your hall closet is a disaster. So make a list of the most cluttered spots in your house and then go shopping.
The Container Store has just about everything, but your local housewares shop should have the basics. Taylor suggests you consider closet and shelf dividers; pull-out shelves for kitchens and utility closets; tool racks for garden and utility rooms, and, of course, the all-important hair-styling station for your flat-iron, dryer and curling rod.
Let it go! OK, breathe in deeply. Now exhale. Open the garbage bin and prepare to throw out all of that stuff you don’t need. That tattered T-shirt will not bring back the cute guy who left it behind. Your mom loves you, so she will understand if you dump two of the three crockpots she has given you — ditto for the rice cookers. We all have small mementos we want to keep, but try to separate your sentimental feelings from objects.
? Identify and keep just one (maybe two) key things from an event.
? Consider creating one small journal of moments you want to remember with dates and maybe a pressed flower on the page, rather than holding on to a collection of objects from each event. That way, you preserve the memory and clear your space.
Get it together. Taylor advises that one of the basic principles of organization is to keep similar things together in one, appropriate place. Place all of your receipts in one accordion file. Sort your clothes, and hang or store them by season and type (coats, blouses, skirts, etc.). Create a system you can stick with. You will be rewarded with clear, clean space and a lovely home.
About Fierce Fridays — Tips for Weekend Well-Being
We each cherish those precious days off at the end of the week, but increasingly those of us who are charter members of the sisterhood of the stressed and overworked are losing our Saturday and Sunday leisure time to weekend work and domestic duties.
To make sure that you do something every weekend that’s just for you, we’ll be sharing a little advice to make those 48 hours a great time to recharge your batteries, bring a little good news into your life or discover a quick and easy way to improve your health.
