Making plans to move doesn’t start the day you start packing.

Whether you are moving, across the street, across the country, or just temporarily while your house is being remodeled, the secret to a stress-free move is all in the preparation.

Here are 15 “Dos” and 15 “Don’ts” to help you, or those you know, plan and prepare to move without breaking the bank or your back.

Do’s

1. Do get at least two written, onsite estimates and read them carefully. Fees for supplies, materials, 2nd stops or even labor can vary widely from mover to mover.
2. Do label and if possible, separate items you are Moving (by destination), Selling, Donating or Hauling.
3. Do consider getting your high value items insured against loss or damage, especially if you are moving more than 50 miles.
4. Do give yourself plenty of time to purge if you have clutter or are downsizing your home.
5. Do hire a licensed mover with a long list of references and check their references.
6. Do plan on being there on move day to direct movers at your old home or new home if you can’t be there.
7. Do pack heavy items such as books in small boxes, light items such as pillows and lamp shades in large boxes, bulky or odd-sized items such as lamp shades, toys or tools in medium boxes. Fragile items such as crystal and china should go  in extra strong dish-packs.
8. Do have a plan for unpacking and getting organized at your new home. The average home will take 1-4 weeks to unpack depending upon the amount of items you move. Consider hiring professional organizers if you need it done more quickly.
9. Do arrange with your movers to disconnect large appliances such as washes and dryers.
10. Do make a plan for your school aged children on move day  and secure your pets in a safe place.
11. Do inspect the moving truck after your items are unloaded to be sure it’s fully emptied before movers depart.
12. Do leave folded clothes in dressers. Most movers will provide wardrobe boxes, free of charge, for your hanging clothes.
13. Do book your move first thing in the morning.
14. Do label boxes clearly so movers can get them to the right room in your new home.
15. Do consider donating or giving away your gently used boxes or see if your movers will take them back.

Don’ts

1. Don’t assume movers will be available on the day you need to move. Book 4-6 weeks ahead if possible.
2. Don’t hire movers you haven’t met with or have not been recommended by people you trust.
3. Don’t forget to pack/purge contents from storage areas, attics, sheds and offsite storage.
4. Don’t waste time scrounging for boxes and packing supplies. Gently used ones can be found online and less expensive ones at stores like Home Depot. Professional Movers can also deliver boxes/supplies
5. Don’t leave packing to the last minute. It will add to the cost of your move if your movers were not hired to pack.
6. Don’t hire a mover solely on price. Experience, knowledge of your community and skill (like moving a grand piano) counts for much more.
7. Don’t move boxes you haven’t opened since your last move.
8. Don’t call movers at the last minute with significant changes to your move. It will cost you.
9. Don’t book a move at the end of a month or in the summer, if possible. These are their busiest times.
10. Don’t water your plants for two days before you move.
11. Don’t forget to go back and check all areas of your home before your moving truck leaves.
12. Don’t forget to complete a change of address form for all your service providers and the US Mail.
13. Don’t talk to movers when they are moving heavy objects
14. Don’t forget to tip your movers if they did a good job.
15. Don’t forget to notify friends, relatives and the post office about your new address.

• You spent a lot of money on that sofa 5 years ago but it doesn’t work in your new home.
• You loved it when you bought that suit but it doesn’t fit your personality anymore.
• Your best friend talked you into buying that clock last year but it’s just not you.
• Your husband gave you a gift because he thought it was meaningful but it’s simply not your taste.

Sound familiar? What do you do?

First, forget how much you spent on it or how much it may have cost. That money is gone.

Second, it won’t serve you tucked away in some back cabinet or closet especially when you need that space for other items.

Once you’ve realized the cost of holding on to it exceeds the cost of letting it go, you have two options.

1. Donate it
2. Sell it

Keeping it is an option if you want to delay your decision even longer but that’s the very definition of clutter.

“Gifting” it to someone else is also an option but be careful that you are not simply transferring your clutter to someone else. In this case I consider “gifting” the same as donating.

The next thing you should do is decide on a dollar amount that would make it worth your time to sell it because selling an item takes a lot longer than donating. And donating takes time too.

Would you take the time to sell it if you made $10? $50? $100? More?

Let’s say for example you have an artsy, hand-painted table you bought fifteen years ago when you were living as a single person somewhere else.  Now you are married and working full-time.  It’s still in good shape but it no longer fits your more streamlined, contemporary style (or your spouse hates it).  Now there’s no place to put it so it’s just taking up space in your garage.

You paid almost a thousand dollars for it so you can’t imagine donating it.  Your kids don’t want it and you don’t have the time to refinish it.

You’ve already taken the time to find out similar used tables sell for about $200-$300.

If you decide to sell it you will need to be prepared to spend at least a couple more hours selling it. You can do this on sites like Craigslist, Amazon or Ebay, including the time to reply to emails,  be available to meet with prospective buyers and sell it in person, assuming you don’t plan on shipping it.

If you’re lucky it will sell for the price you want. If not, it’s still taking up valuable real-estate in your garage, not to mention space in your brain.

You can also donate it to a charitable organization such as Goodwill. Alternately you can donate it to a specific local charity or non-profit organization you are connected with for a fund-raising auction. Again, this will take time, more time depending upon which type of donation you choose. You can also consign but keep in mind consignment shops have the last word on whether or not they will take an item. You could end up going from store to store and still not get anyone to take it. Be sure you know and understand a consignment store’s policy before you go there.

Most people tend to overvalue the worth of their possessions. Not everyone will have a seemingly worthless vase that really is a priceless collector’s item like the ones on TV’s Antiques Roadshow.

When deciding whether or not to donate or sell, you’ll want to obtain the true estimate value of an item or items to help you decide.

Donation is not the same as disposing. When you donate an item it does continue to have worth, both tangible (the tax benefit, re-sale value) and intangible (the ‘feel good’ effect).  Incidentally,  the IRS allows for up to $500 of non-cash donations to be claimed on your taxes without having to provide proof of value for each individual item.

Does this mean you should donate the table? Not necessarily but it does depend on other factors:

• Do you have the time and willingness to sell it?
• Do you need the income right now?
• Is the item worth your time to sell given it’s actual estimated market value?
• Will donating now versus waiting to sell it help with other goals you have such as gaining more storage or more room for another hobby or interest?

If you consider all of these factors together, chances are you will know what to do. If you’re still stuck, consider asking the advice of a professional organizer or call LET’S MAKE ROOM.

We can help you make a decision you can live with.

My friend and Yogini extraordinaire, Deborah Saliby, called me on Sunday asking for my advice.

Deborah Saliby, Yoga for Health

Deborah has been teaching Yoga for more than thirty years.  There are a lot of Yoga teachers out there but relatively few hold the special certification that she does in Iyengar training. The certification signifies that she has undergone extensive training as an instructor in a particular method of Hatha Yoga called Iyengar, named for B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the foremost Yoga teachers in the world.

Whenever I have a question about Yoga, I call Deborah.  The moment I feel like my body, mind and spirit are crying out for a little restoration, Deborah is the first person I think of.  On Sunday, however, after her class, Deborah’s mind and spirit were crying out for a different kind of restoration, in her home.  I am grateful she called me.

“I want to organize three closets in my house,” she told me,
“but I’m not sure where to start.” She asked if I would mind sharing some of my professional organizing tips.  “Of course,” I told her. I enjoy it when anyone calls me with a specific organizing question. To me if you are willing to ask the question, you are definitely in the mindset to get organized.

As a professional organizer,  the most common questions I get involve the how and where of organizing, as in “how do I do this?” or “where do I start?”  Typically this follows an extended period of gradual awareness which eventually transforms into “I really wish my (fill in the blank) was more organized. But it’s not until the defining moment when the thought, “today is the day I’m going to do something about it,” that change can occur.

For my friend Deborah that moment came after she got home from teaching one of the many Yoga classes she leads in Berkeley, California.

“So where do you want to start?” I asked. “I don’t know, she said. So I probed a little more. “Which of your closets bugs you the most, that is, which has the most impact on your daily life? “My bedroom closet where I keep all my clothes,” she said, with a little giggle, “you know how much I love to shop?”

“Okay,” I said. “So why do you want to do this at all?” She explained to me that she wanted to hold a sidewalk sale. “Yes,” I said, “that’s good, but why do you want to get organized?” I asked again. “Because I can’t stand looking at the mess in my closet anymore. I know I have a lot of nice things in there that I don’t want anymore and half the time I can’t find what I’m looking for. I’m wasting time and I want to be able to wear what I love.”

Deborah understood what was bothering her about her closet but even more she knew what organizing it would mean to her (not to anyone else) and she was motivated. Plus she had the added incentive of making a little extra money. I told her, “Yeah, you could sell all the clothes you don’t want anymore and with the money you make go out and buy new ones.”  We both laughed.

I offered Deborah a step-by-step plan to get all three of her closets organized.  I shared some strategies for how to overcome some predictable obstacles such as what to do with items that had more “emotional value” than “wear-value.”  I took her through exactly what I would do with her if I were physically doing the work with her and then I asked her if she had any questions. “Nope, I’ve got it.”

Before we hung up I told her to feel free to call me when she was done with the first closet.  Even though Deborah was doing this for herself, I wanted her to know that I was interested in hearing about her progress.

The next day, Deborah did call. She sounded really happy.  She told me how she had followed my plan including emptying the entire closet first, sorting items by category, parting with what she no longer used, wore, or loved and got rid of things that brought in bad “mojo.”  She reorganized the items she kept by type and color and put aside those things she plans to include in her sidewalk sale.  In total it took her two hours. I was impressed.

“How do you feel now?” I asked her, “Great! Just walking past my closet makes me happy.”

I offered Deborah some final tips about items she was still undecided about and suggested some ways to contain items on the shelves using what she already had around her house, before saying goodbye.

After we hung up I went in to my living room and took a big breath and stretched.  Thank you for that, Deborah.

Have a question about organizing? Getting ready to move or start a home renovation project and need to get things packed, donated and organized? Call or email me. I promise you’ll come away with something you can use.

As I told Deborah, I love to be a catalyst for change.

At 8:00 this morning, I had my own private celebration. It took place in my head.

An hour earlier I was driving and thinking about how terrifying it must be for some of my clients to do the one thing that scares them the most; To finally confront what’s kept them from moving forward in their lives because they feel overwhelmed and stuck and it’s showing up as piles of papers, boxes and who knows what else, on their desks, on the floor, in their drawers, everywhere.

I was thinking about what it means to do the one thing that scares you the most and to have the courage to do it anyway because you know you have to. Because you know not doing so will have far greater consequences.

For people who are chronically disorganized, the consequence of not facing their fears can be enormous.  For some it’s a loss of control over their lives. For others, it’s isolation. I know people who have lost their children, their spouses and their very security because of their inability to face their fears head on.  I also know people who have shown great courage and have discovered the meaning of making room in their lives.

My fears are about public speaking. And yet, as a small business person I know the value it brings to others in the form of information and sometimes even inspiration. But I do it quite frankly because I have to. Working with people in their homes and in their offices or helping them move is tactical but it’s also very personal. I know that if people see me and feel I am someone they can trust, and recognize I  have the expertise to help them, then they often will remember me when it comes time to organize their offices, or their bedrooms or help them plan and oversee their move to a new home.

This is what I was thinking at seven o’clock this morning, on my way to speak to a group of fifty small business owners and entrepreneurs about how to face their fears, specifically about how to confront their own Paper Monsters.  I did this presentation a few weeks earlier and it had not lived up to my expectations  – perfectionism, my monster, rearing it’s ugly head, yet again –  and now I was getting ready to face him again.  Was I scared? Petrified, which is why at that moment I started thinking about my clients.

“If  they can have the courage to hire me, then I can damn well find the courage to face my fears as well, ” I thought.  And so I did. And it went fine. It wasn’t perfect but it was good enough. And that’s good enough. But to be honest, I’m glad it’s over. At least for today I can celebrate.

Tomorrow, I do it again.

While I have lived in California for 25 years  I grew up in New York City and still consider myself a “New Yaw-ker.”

Like a lot of people, when I see the images of destruction in the wake of Hurricane Sandy that hit the coastal communities of New York and New Jersey and hear the cries from people who have lost everything, absolutely everything, I still can’t believe it.

As a child, my family lived in an apartment that faced the Hudson River separating Manhattan from New Jersey.  In the 60s and 70s we went through two blackouts and at least three blizzards but this storm was altogether something different.

Yet what strikes me most is the gratitude people express for just having survived, for having their loved ones near by, for having the fortitude to know they will start over.

As an organizing professional I am deeply aware of the nature of people’s attachments to their possessions. I see almost daily how people instill their possessions with meaning.  Yet when they no longer possess it or they leave it behind either by choice or by circumstance, I am always struck by the notion that those things, in and of themselves, have no meaning. They become merely objects that in most cases, have no value other than what they can fetch on an open market. Their meaning along with the memories they evoke are tied to the people who possessed them.

The other day I was emptying a storage closet that belonged to someone I never knew and who had long since abandoned it.  It seemed strange and sad that no one had taken responsibility for the items I found: photographs of family events and babies long since grown;  awards and commemorative plaques honoring the life and work of this person; books and files and several religious figurines.

I took most of the items to Goodwill. What couldn’t be donated was recycled.  Doing so made me think of the thousands upon thousands of items that end up unclaimed every year in rented storage spaces, abandoned homes, even people’s current homes and forgotten storage areas. They become the remnants of their lives.  Items that meant so much one day, and nothing the next.

If tragedy teaches us anything, it teaches us who we really are. When I organize someone’s home or office or help them get organized to move,  I often stress that in the scheme of things they come first, not their stuff.  I am not saying this to judge them or to minimize the value they place in their possessions, rather, I am encouraging them to be as conscious and thoughtful as possible about what they own.

Not everything has to have “meaning” but ideally if it takes up space it should have usefulness or add value to our lives in some way. It should give us joy or be pleasing or practical or purposeful. Just like our homes, that offer us a place of refuge or peace, the items we surround ourselves with offer us something real and tangible.  At the very least they should be a positive reflection of ourselves and something familiar to come home to.

To me that is the true lesson of Hurricane Sandy. That, in a matter of hours, all that was familiar to so many was lost.  They didn’t expect it. They couldn’t plan for it and yet they remain hopeful that their lives as they once knew them to be will one day return.  The rain and the winds and the water may have washed away their homes but it didn’t wash away their spirit.

Would you like to help people impacted by Hurricane Sandy?  Donate now

Is your stuff – paper, possessions, or supplies – out in the open where you can see it?
Do you forget, ignore or lose what you can’t see?
For you, is out of sight is out of mind?’

On the other hand do you prefer to have everything you own tucked away  – in a drawer, cabinet, or closet?
Do you feel unsettled, anxious or out-of-control when things are not stored, stowed or put away?
Do people always remark at how tidy your home looks?

If the first example sounds more like you, consider yourself a Piler.  On the other hand, if the second example resonates more strongly with you, you are probably a Hider.

The terms Hider and Piler represent two types on an organizing continuum. Generally people fall somewhere along the continuum preferring one kind of organizing habit over another. These are not absolutes. Understanding your – and others – preferred type can help you learn ways to be and stay organized as well as to help you better understand the habits of others. For couples, its common for one partner to be a Hider and the other a Piler. Understanding your partner’s style and how they think about organizing will help keep the peace at home.

The most important thing to know is that both Hiders and Pilers can be equally organized or disorganized.

Take a look at the pictures below:

The column on the left represents two versions of a Piler organizing style: An organized Piler, as represented by the store that sells beads and other jewelry making s

upplies and a disorganized Piler  as illustrated by the photo of the cluttered office.

The column on the right represents two versions of a Hider organizing stye – an organized Hider as  represented by the physician’s examination room and a disorganized Hider as exemplified by the cluttered drawer.

Organizing styles can be dictated by function – such as the need for safe and sanitary conditions as in a doctor’s office or the need for customers to find what they are looking for quickly and easily as in the bead store example. For most people, however, organizing styles emerge from our individual personalities, learned habits or in some cases, physical or emotional conditions.

It’s helpful to think of Hider and Piler as preferences, rather than extremes, with most people falling somewhere between them but leaning towards one or another at varying degrees.

While I have not conducted a scientific study about organizing preferences, in my experience as a professional organizer, I have found that Hiders and Pilers also share some other characteristics.

For example, Pilers, because they like items out where they can seem them, may not benefit as much from conventional organizing methods.  An example of this is a standard two-drawer file cabinet.  A better solution for a Piler is an open file drawer on wheels that allows them to see and file their papers and then stow them away as needed.

Many of my clients who I would consider Pilers are artists, creative types or visual learners. They are stimulated by various forms of color, design, objects, and words. A Piler who does not feel comfortable expressing himself in a particular environment may find substitutes for filling the space in other ways.

An example of this are artists who earn income in an office setting. To compensate for the design of a standard office cubicle – with things like closed, overhead bins – artists and other Pilers often fill their surfaces with paper, piles or other bulky supplies. When I notice a client doing this, once we’ve worked together on organizing the paper,  I often recommend they find objects, artwork or photographs to fill the space (in lieu of the paper) that inspire them.

Conversely, a Hider may feel torn between her need for order and the desire to consume, purchase or own items of perceived value.  From the outside, everything looks fine, even beautiful. Until you open a drawer, cabinet or closet.  Then suddenly everything spills out in a jumble.   This is what I call the “Jack-in-the-box” phenomenon.

Typically hiders call me when their clutter starts creeping out from the drawers, cabinets and closets because they’ve run out of room.  I often recommend to Hiders that they examine their beliefs about what they value so that they can begin to edit down what they have.  I also remind them that storage areas are valuable ‘real estate.’ If they want to cut down on the clutter-creep they are either going to have to maximize the real estate, through editing, or else be at risk of spending more to house thier stuff. The worst case scenario is when people buy bigger homes or invest in expensive storage units to accommodate items they don’t use, want or need.

A hider can also lean towards the other extreme, purging themselves of all but the minimum necessities, sometimes prematurely, maintaining a tidy space albeit a bit sterile or overly staged.

In the fall I will be conducting an online seminar about Hiders and Pilers. If you are interested or want more information, email me at Lis@letsmakeroom.com.

If you’ve lived in the same home for 10, 20, 30 or more years, and decided to move into a smaller space, there is a term professional organizers and others such as realtors have adopted from the business world. It’s called downsizing.

In business, downsizing has a negative connotation as it generally means that people will lose their jobs. In the world of organizing, however, downsizing refers to a conscious and deliberate process of reducing the contents of one’s home prior to a move to a smaller space. Although the use of the term in this context is thought of as neutral, people who undergo the process of downsizing may feel otherwise. This is particularly true if you are older, retired or living alone as you will probably need to make decisions about whether or not to keep literally hundreds of items before your actual move day.

Complicating this fact, is that as we get older the part of our brain that helps us with mental tasks such as organizing and prioritizing, otherwise known as the “executive function,” does not work as well as it used to. This isn’t our fault. It’s just a normal process of aging.

When preparing to downsize in preparation for a move, here are a few strategies I recommend to help minimize the stress and uncertainty you may experience.

1. Plan ahead. Start thinking about and planning for your move at least 6 months before you put your house on the market. This could include talking to family members about your plans, determining your needs and goals for your next home and perhaps even researching or visiting other communities you are potentially interested in moving to.

2. Take the time to survey your belongings. Make a point of sharing memories and stories they evoke with those who have offered to help you get ready to move. You may even wish to record those stories in writing or with the use of a tape recorder well before you start packing.

3. Don’t try to do it all yourself. Delegate physical tasks such as sorting, categorizing, packing, transporting and moving to professionals or trusted friends. Elicit ideas and suggestions so you can benefit from the expertise and experience of others who do this professionally or who are knowledgeable about the process.

4. Keep only what you need, love or can’t replace. Don’t become a hoarder. Hoarding is distinguished from collecting in that collecting generally involves objects considered by others to be both interesting and valuable. Hoarding, on the other hand, involves keeping large quantities of things that appear to be useless or of limited value so much so that it compromises your ability to use your home as it was intended. The decision about what to keep and what to sell, donate, or dispose of is yours but only keep what you truly love, will use again or can’t easily replace.

5. Make your wishes clear from the start. If you prefer to be consulted with on certain decisions let others know that in the beginning. Talk openly about how you appreciate help and be willing to accept it when offered. However if you are feeling anxious, say so and take a break. The less anxious you feel, the easier it will be to make decisions you can live with.

6. Conserve your energy. While you think you may be able to work for four or five hours at a time, in reality you may only be effective for two. Commit to doing a specific number of tasks such as packing three boxes, instead of a whole room. If you enjoy it, do so while watching your favorite TV show or listening to music.

7. Don’t hold back (or apologize for) your emotions. Moving is stressful for everyone at any age. As you prepare for your move, you may experience everything from the joy of remembering a happy event to the sadness of grieving the loss of a loved one. Give yourself permission to feel these emotions and recognize that they are a normal response to the circumstances. Your emotions won’t hurt you but suppressing them may. If possible, talk to someone you know and trust who can listen and empathize.

Lis Golden McKinley, M.A., is CEO of LET’S MAKE ROOM, a professional organizing company serving clients in all five counties of the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. For more information, visit their website at https://www.letsmakeroom.com or call them at 510-846-1976 to schedule a complimentary phone consultation.

Need an incentive to finally get organized? How about money? Of course getting organized will make you more productive at work or help you enjoy your life more at home but these days it’s all about “the Benjamins.” So because your time is money, here are just 10 simple ways you can make and save your money as you get out from under your clutter.

1. Sell your good quality, “gently” used and unwanted stuff. You can do this online such as on ebay, Amazon, Etsy, Craigslist or if you prefer a more personal approach, take it to a local consignment shop or hold a garage or yard sale.
2. Donate your stuff and get a tax deduction. Want to know how much your donated stuff is really worth? Check out Itsdeductible.com
3. Open your mail. You’ll be amazed when you find refund checks or other payments you overlooked. By doing so, you’ll avoid late fees or interest charges for unpaid or late bills.
4. Organize your paper piles.  By doing so you’ll probably find some unused gift cards or gift certificates. One client of mine discovered a stock certificate worth $5,000.
5. Organize your closet and find hidden money. It generally hides in places like your coat pockets, purses, between your sofa cushions and in those old pair of jeans you were planning to donate.
6. Organize your pantry and avoid wasting money on duplicate items.  This way you avoid having ten cans of diced tomatoes when you only need two.
7. Organize your kitchen so you can finally cook at home and avoid having to eat out or bring home expensive take-out food.
8. Host a swap party to give away things to friends and get things for free that you otherwise might have purchased.
9. Always ask yourself, “Do I really need this?”
10. Unpack that box! The one you’ve taken with you (and probably paid your movers for taking) each time you’ve moved.

Paper. No matter how much we hear about going paperless, it’s still a fact of life that paper in every form whether it be junk mail, supermarket coupons, business cards, magazine clippings, bills or receipts will continue to be part of our lives for the foreseeable future.

There are really only four ways you can manage the inflow of paper:

1. Stop it before it starts
2. Determine if you must act on it
3. Determine if you must or need to hold on to it (or really want to)
4. Toss it

Stopping it before it starts. This is akin to the prevention approach. Depending upon the type of paper you have, you may want to consider some of the following approaches
• Get off mailing lists. Contact the Direct Marketing Association at dmachoice.org
• Stop printing website pages from the Internet. Of if you must, only print those that are associated with a task or action you plan to take.
• Don’t take what you don’t need. Just because they hand it to you doesn’t mean you keep it. If your local supermarket hands you a coupon at the register, unless it’s an item you know you will buy don’t keep it and ask the cashier to dispose of it.
• Be a business card snob. Only take business cards for those people and organizations that you probably (not maybe) would do business with. If someone hands you their card that you know you will never refer to, politely decline by saying, “I know how valuable these are to you, please share it with someone who can benefit from your expertise.” Or a more direct approach, “Thank you for offering but in my effort to go paperless, please save this for someone else.”
• Stop clipping magazine and newspaper articles. Seriously, when was the last time you actually looked in that file and did something with that article? When you clip an article you are actually contracting for your own time. What is your time worth? With everything else you have to do, are you really going to make this recipe? Are you really going to going to invest in a marble countertop? It’s great to keep a single file or box of images that inspire you, but rather than keep every picture related to the hobby you think you plan to do “some day” – use the time instead to focus on ways you can actually do that hobby today!

For all other pieces of paper, you should ask yourself, “Is there a necessary action I need to take with this?” If so, then take the action and dispose of it or file it if you’ve been advised to when you’re done.

If there is no necessary action associated with that piece of paper, then you should be keeping it for one of the following reasons only:
1. You have been advised to by a financial professional. Examples would be your tax return or record of business expenses.
2. It would be difficult to replace such as a passport, birth certificate or deed.
3. It’s a record of where your money comes from and goes to such as an unpaid bill or a recent investment statement.
4. You know you will reference it again and probably more than once such as frequently called numbers, vendor information or mailing labels.
5. It has strong emotional value such as a cherished photograph or sentiment from a loved one AND would be dearly missed if lost.

Whatever is left over, according to to the National Association of Professional Organizers, there is an 80 percent chance you will probably never refer to it again except when you decide it’s time to purge your files.

This is the very definition of paper clutter. You keep it but it serves no purpose for you. If this is the case for you then ask yourself, “If this piece of paper were to disappear, what would it cost me in terms of lost time, money or information?” If the answer is nothing or probably nothing, then it’s time for the shred or recycle bin.

For more practical tips on organizing your life at home or at work, subscribe to Back On Track, the e-guide to organizing living from LET’S MAKE ROOM.

Spring. It’s that time of year when so many of us are inspired to clear out the old to make way for the new.  It’s more than just “Spring Cleaning.” It’s nesting!

Though the term is typically associated with preparing for childbirth, according to the World Dictionary,* nesting is defined as:

“The tendency to arrange one’s immediate surroundings, to create a place where one feels secure, comfortable, or in control”

There are several times in your life when you may find nesting helps express your personality and emotion:

• At the start of a new season
• When you’ve just moved to a new home
• When your (last) child living at home leaves for college
• In the weeks before undergoing a medical procedure
• During a career search
• While recovering from a loss, divorce or breakup
• Preparing for a loved one who is entering (or re-entering) your home

If you are feeling the urge to “nest,” here are a few simple tips to keep in mind that will help you achieve a greater sense of clarity and control.

1. Focus on one area at a time such as your office, cubicle or bedroom and resolve to finish the task even if it takes more than one session.
2. Start by clearing one surface space such as a desktop or even a bed. Having one clear space is a great motivator to keep you going and you’ll need it for the next step.
3. Sort like items into three piles Keep, Toss and Not Sure. The goal here is not to get stuck on the “Not Sures.”
4. Remove the items you no longer want or need by placing them in containers (bags or bins) for donating or recycling.
5. Identify the purpose of each “Not Sure” item and ask yourself, “Does this still serve me or enhance my life in some way?” If not, consider letting it go, donating it or re-purposing it as something you would probably use.
6. Assign a permanent home for the items you know you will keep and contain them with other like items especially if they are small to help you find them again.
7. Clean and/or dust areas as you go. Create a fresh space to resume the activity you do (or plan to do) in that space.
8. Enhance your newly organized space with something fresh or inspirational such as a vase of flowers, a piece of art work or a photograph you love to bring new life into the space.

When you’re done, go out and enjoy the beauty of Spring!