Get Your Place Organized With The Help Of A Local Pro

There’s no better time of year to get your house in order than the spring, but decluttering and getting organized can seem like a daunting task. As president of the Austin chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers, Jennifer Lava has been helping people get their spaces into shape for nine years. “Organizers are a lot like personal trainers,” she says. “We’re personal trainers for your stuff.” We asked Lava for her top tips for effective reorganization.

1) Decide What to Keep or Toss

Determining what stays or goes is the first step in Lava’s organization process—and it’s often the slowest step because of people’s emotional attachment to their belongings. Ask yourself this: Do you need it, use it or love it? “If it’s one of those,” she says, “you can keep it.” And don’t let the high amount of money you spent on something be a reason to keep it. “You have to ask yourself, is it enhancing my life?” she says.

2) Let It Go

There’s a liberating feeling that comes with getting rid of things, but not everything you purge should go to the trash can or recycling bin. You have two choices:

• Sell: If items are in good condition, list them on Craigslist or eBay or sell them to a consignment shop or thrift store. Although going the garage sale route is popular, Lava does not encourage it. “It’s a lot of work for not a lot of return,” she says.
• Donate: Bring discarded electronics to Best Buy or the Austin Resource Recovery Center for recycling, and take your remaining clothing and home wares to the Goodwill, Salvation Army or the Texas chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Another simple solution? Post an item on freecycle.org or Craigslist’s free forum and make someone’s day. 

3) Cut Out Clutter

The most common problem area that Lava sees with clients is excessive mail. She recommends downloading the app PaperKarma, which helps users remove themselves from unwanted mailing lists. Lava also suggests signing up to pay bills online. “Anything you can do to opt out of receiving the mail in the first place is good,” she says. Not to mention eco-friendly. 

4) Maximize Space

Now that you’ve pared down your stuff, the key to smart organization is utilizing storage as well as walls, doors and vertical space. Here are six items that can help:

• Hooks: Stick them on the back of cabinet doors to hang everything from measuring cups to curling irons to robes.
• Spice racks: These can be repurposed to store rubber bands, thumbtacks, nails and more. The racks can be especially helpful in a craft room or office.
• Over-the-door shoe organizer: Not just for shoes, these can hold socks, ties, belts, small toys or cleaning supplies.
• Magnetic strips: They’re perfect for neatly storing knives in a kitchen or tools in a garage. 
• Lazy Susans: Spinning solutions are great for hard-to-reach places, such as under the sink, in the pantry or even in the refrigerator.
• Risers and stackable storage: “Use your vertical space,” Lava says. “A lot of times we have more room to go up than around.”

5) Keep It Up 

Just like someone who has lost a bunch of weight must work hard to keep it off, people who have purged their junk must be vigilant about keeping unwanted items and clutter out of their home. Says Lava: “You have to think really hard about, What am I going to allow in my house? And if I do bring something new in, where is it going to go? And does something else need to leave?” Consider tossing out one old thing every time you buy something new. Upkeep is essential.

Make the most of your space at home with helpful advice and organization tips from an expert. (ME!)

From Sam’s Club’s Healthy Living Made Simple Magazine

The spring season is the perfect time of year to clean out the old and bring in the new. Traditionally, this spring cleaning heralds in a fresh start, when people purge their homes of the dust and clutter of the winter. However, many find it a difficult task and have trouble knowing where to begin.

As a professional organizer, one of the classic problems I come across when assisting my clients is the feeling of being overwhelmed. They don’t know where to begin — instead of dividing things up into small tasks, the client only sees the big, messy picture, which can be discouraging. This leads to delayed decision-making due to frustration.

Fix your mess

The very first thing I tell my clients when tackling a project of any size is to let stuff go. Before you can decide where to put items, you have to decide if you need it, can use it or love it. Ifyou can’t say yes to any of these parameters, then it needs to leave. Leaving doesn’t necessarily mean being thrown out — this can mean being donated, returned to the person it belongs to or recycled. Most importantly, you just need to examine what you really need to keep. That’s the essential first step.

After losing what is unnecessary, you must designate homes for the things you wish to keep. Knowing they have a place to go once they are no longer in use puts the mind at ease. Also, it’s essential to stay disciplined in returning things to where they belong. The same thing applies to new items or purchases that you bring in to your home or workspace — it’s imperative to have a system in place for when something new comes in. Having a fluid routine when clearing things out is just as important as bringing in your new additions.

Build new habits

Continuing to remain organized is a two-part process: First, practice returning items to their respectful homes. For example, keep a bowl or basket on the coffee table or side table for remote controls. Once you finish watching TV, train yourself to place the remotes back in their home so that, in the future, everyone will know where they are. Secondly, practice elimination. When you don’t need it, let it go. These simple yet effective steps can ensure continued organization once the initial purge is over.

Create new space

One of the things people don’t think about often is vertical space. Picture a coat closet: You have the empty space on the floor, a rack for coats and usually a shelf above for storage. The trick is utilizing all the available space, yet keeping it tidy. Place bins and boxes on the floor, stacked neatly out of the way, yet where you can still see everything. Adding another shelf to the closet can also help create an extra level of organization — otherwise that three feet of space above your coats is wasted.

Desks and offices are also oftentimes cluttered. To some extent you have another opportunity to use vertical space to your advantage. Get stacking trays, vertical file holders and bins to hold papers and other documents. This keeps them out of the way, but readily available when the need for them arises. The footprint on your desk isn’t very large, but vertical file holders allow you to see everything without them being spread out on your workspace.

If my client has children, I always tell them to do anything they can to make it easy for the children to clean up. Something as simple as a basket without a lid works wonders — a lot of the time a lid acts as a barrier that prevents them from putting their toys away. I also recommend medium-sized toy boxes; large toy boxes tend to eat little knickknacks, making it impossible to find the toys on the bottom without emptying the large box.

Enjoy your home

Being organized can really make things a lot easier and more pleasant, not just emotionally and physically, but financially as well. If you can’t use all the rooms in your house to the fullest, you are essentially losing money on your home. If you can’t park in the garage due to clutter, then you risk damage to your car from the elements. A study done by the University of California-Los Angeles concluded that three out of four American families can’t park their cars in the garage due to clutter. That’s losing money, and can also create a dangerous fire hazard, as a potential escape route is taken up by mess.

Above all, organization can help you enjoy your space safely. From staying organized in the kitchen with turntables under cabinets to installing racks in your garage, a clean, organized home turns dead space into a useful place. You want to enjoy everything you have, and everything you’ve bought.