Editor’s Note: This month I am pleased to publish the following article from, guest blogger and freelance writer, Jessica Kane.

How Clutter Affects Your Mood

Not only does clutter look bad, but it also negatively affects your mood, and even your health. Consider some of the ways that clutter impacts how you feel, and how it affects others as well.

It Can Make You Feel Depressed and Overwhelmed

Anyone who comes home after a fast-paced day at work to an untidy space will feel more overwhelmed than normal. If the clutter is allowed to pile up higher and higher, it may seem impossible to clear it up alone, which complicates the problem for the person who has to deal with it. Chaotic surroundings are also an eyesore that affects everyone, and it can even cause feelings of despondency and depression. A work zone in disarray can be very uncomfortable and bothersome to coworkers, managers, and customers, and those who live with you or come to visit may also develop a bad mood when exposed to clutter.

It Stresses You Out

According to Psychology Today, clutter is an uncommonly recognized cause of stress that has a significant impact on one’s life. In fact, a messy room constantly sends signals to your brain to take action, whether you act upon those feelings or not. If you leave clutter to gather, it creates a sense of anxiety, urgency, and the need to get something done. Ultimately, clutter creates psychological pressure and continually disrupts inner harmony.

It Breaks Your Concentration

If you are trying to focus on finishing a project or even cooking a meal, any mess can get in the way of your concentration. If you are too busy looking around an unkempt room or searching for tools you need, it will be a lot harder to focus on any task that you have to do. It is also more difficult to study or think creatively in a messy area. This simple science applies whether or not the clutter is in a room in your home, or right at your desk.

It Affects Your Health

In theory, clutter can be defined a tons of unorganized objects scattered in an area. If these objects are particularly dirty or hazardous, then the clutter can make you ill, and even become life-threatening. According to Web MD, dust, dirt, animal dander, mold and other allergens circulate in the air and can cause allergic and asthmatic reactions. If clutter is allowed to continually stress you out in various ways, you may develop psychological conditions that require treatment.

Clutter causes both mental and physical stress, but is an issue that can easily be fixed by taking the time to properly organize and clean the area in question. Don’t be tempted to allow the clutter to pile up and create a problem for you now, and in the future. Fight back by organizing every area that is unbalanced, one piece at a time.

Sometimes circumstances such as a remodel, a growing family, changes in your health or a job change, require you to move out of your home entirely or even partially. 

If one or more of the following scenarios matches your current situation, then it may make the most sense for you to move:

• You are planning to remodel a significant portion of your home.
• Your family has outgrown your existing home
• You have more home then you need and don’t or can’t keep up with regular maintenance
• You or your spouse just got a new job in a different state
• It would cost you more to invest in your home to meet your current needs then it would to move
• Property values in your neighborhood are on the decline
• You have decided your current home and lifestyle no longer suit you.
• You have ruled out a remodel for financial or other reasons
• You want, or need to resize, downsize or minimize your home and it’s contents

While moving is almost always stressful, at LET’S MAKE ROOM we make it easier.  We can get all your unwanted items sold, donated or hauled.  We arrange for and direct your movers on pack and move day (even if you can’t be there) and we will even unpack, organize and set up everything in your new home* after the movers leave. Contact us to learn more.
* SF/Bay Area only or elsewhere by request

When it comes to moving, the devil is in the details but so are the angels if you treat them right.

Imagine you’ve decided to sell your home  (or fully remodel it) which means you will also need to move.  The goal is set. Now comes the work. You’ll have to find a new home to buy or rent or if you’re lucky enough, move into another home you already own.

You’ll have to figure out what you’re moving, how you’re moving, where you’re moving and how much it’s all going to cost. You’ll have to make hundreds if not thousands of decisions and hopefully you’ll have help from people you can trust.

Along the way you’ll get guidance and advice (hopefully all good) from Real Estate Professionals, Design Professionals, General or Specialty Contractors, Professional Organizers, Moving and Storage Companies, Financial Advisors, Charitable organizations not to mention friends, family and your neighbors.

The people you hire or work with can be your guardian angel or the devil incarnate. The former will help you make decisions you’re thrilled with or at least, ones you can live with. The latter will force you to make decisions you’ll later regret.

They should understand and actively demonstrate their understanding of your concerns, priorities, goals, aesthetic, budget, vision, preferences, lifestyle, and what you value – both tangible and intangible. They should also respect your time.

I have found it’s much easier to bend over backwards for nice people than it is to be helpful to mean ones – but that doesn’t mean I don’t try. After all that’s what being  a professional is all about. Respect.

My grandmother used to always tell me, “You get back what you put in.”  In other words, treat others as you would want to be treated or better yet, as they themselves would wish to be treated.

Surround yourself with people who make your concerns, their concerns. Behind the scenes they are handling a thousand different details on your behalf. You’ll know the angels when you see them because they are getting things done.

If you were born between 1947 and 1964, when it comes to organizing your home, my guess is you are less Do-It-Yourselfer and more Do-It-For-ME.

Getting more organized is a common New Year’s resolution but I believe when people say they want to “get” organized, what they really mean, is they want to “be” organized.

When you live in your home for 20, 30 or more years, raising a family or even taking care of aging parents, you’re going to have a lot of stuff. This is just reality for most people in their 50s and 60s. This doesn’t mean you are a “hoarder” – you’re just like everyone else. It’s just the idea of finally dealing with all that accumulated stuff is overwhelming and chances are you would rather spend time doing something you enjoy and that’s worth a lot!

If you’re a homeowner in your 50s or 60s  at some point you’re going to  grapple with the problem of downsizing while you can still be involved. Otherwise you’ll end up passing off the problem to your children or even to friends if you don’t have family or family nearby.

Downsizing your home is like saving for retirement. The earlier you start thinking about it, the better.

I had a client tell me recently she didn’t know what she would do if she had to downsize her home by herself.  She recently decided to move to save money for her retirement. The problem was that in order to move to a new home she had to sell her current home but her realtor wouldn’t even consider listing it until she dealt with all her stuff.

It took a crew of four professional organizers and less than two weeks to get everything sorted, donated, hauled and ready for her movers, including long forgotten items belonging to her parents in her attic and garage. When we were almost done, she told her realtor she wanted to “test the waters” to see if there was any interest in her home. Much to her delight, it sold the first day it was listed.

If your roof needed replacing would you do it yourself?

Home improvement projects, especially large organizing projects that involve whole homes or highly cluttered spaces like garages, are no different in many ways from a home remodel. It takes a plan, skill and muscle. And whatever you do, don’t just move or store what you no longer want. This will only cost you more in moving or storage charges in the long run.

Get it done, done well and done fast and you can actually check this one off your list of New Year’s resolutions.

My client, Barbara (not her real name) is kind, generous and very, very busy.

Her calendar is packed full of appointments, events and meetings. Her cell phone rings, buzzes and beeps almost constantly with notifications that go unanswered. Her unopened emails go on for pages. Her enormous home is tidy, beautifully decorated and as warm as she is but every inch of her storage – closets, cabinets, cupboards, drawers –  are packed full. There isn’t an inch to spare.

Barbara is like the juggler who can keep ten plates spinning simultaneously at the top of ten poles without dropping them because each of them are equally important.

But when you treat everything in your life as equally important, spinning those 10 plates for days, weeks, months or even years (not just minutes) because you believe or behave as if everything is equally important, eventually one of two things happen. One or more of the plates break or you do.

It can be a quick break or a slow one but even the juggler knows when it’s time to stop.

When Barbara said to me recently that she’d turned down a number of invitations because she realized they weren’t worth her time, I felt a sense of relief for her because she was discovering that saying no meant she was finally saying yes… to herself. I also knew she had finally started to see the cost of making everything in her life equally important.

For every task, project, meeting, coffee date, or invitation you receive, before you do it, take it on or schedule it, before you say yes, ask yourself these 3 questions: 

1) Is it important to me?

Is this your priority or someone else’s?  Say yes to you before you say yes to someone else. If  you are the kind of person that likes to be helping others but find yourself doing so at your own expense, it’s okay to say, “thank you for thinking of me but I just don’t have the time right now.”

2) If I don’t do this will it cost me?

What would happen if you didn’t do it? If you’re not sure whether to take something on, imagine not doing it. You don’t want to end up spending a little effort on lot of things instead of a lot of effort on what’s truly important.

3) Is it worth my time?

Only you can answer this question. If it saves you from stress and doesn’t cost you something to say no, then say no. You’ll only be saying yes to what’s really worth your time.

The bottom line is don’t hold on to stuff, projects, even old beliefs about yourself when they are no longer useful to you. Be willing to be brave. Be willing to make hard choices for the bigger rewards. Make room in your life for what matters most!

Are you planning to go shopping this Friday, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving? Before you do, STOP and mull this thought over for a moment.

We are running out of room for what we don’t want!

It’s not just your home. It’s everywhere!  Charities are much pickier about what they will take because they have a glut of stuff already. Consignment stores are full. Selling items through online sites such as eBay and Craigslist is getting harder to do because everyone is trying to sell the same thing as you are. Even things with real value! And, worst of all, landfills are painfully overfilled causing many to simply dump their stuff on the side of a highway or some dimly lit street, a problem of blight that is growing larger every day.

So before you head out the door to the mall or sign on to your favorite online store because you’ve been bitten by the shopping bug, just this once ask yourself what are you really saving?

You may also want to take a quick inventory of your home by asking yourself these six questions:

1. Are my closets already overstuffed?
2. Do I have items I bought that I haven’t even taken out of their bags or still have tags on them?
3. Is my garage bursting at the seams?
4. Are there items left on my floor because I’ve run out of storage space?
5. Do I already have enough of what I need?
6. Am I using the excuse of Christmas or Holiday shopping to buy more stuff?

If you answered yes to even one of these questions, buying more will only exacerbate the situation.

Instead of shopping, why not spend that time doing other things you like such as:

1. Finish up one of the many creative projects you already started (and never finished) this year
2. Go outside, take a walk, even if its raining or snowing.
3. Take a friend or family member out for a meal or treat them to an experience instead of buying them something.
4. Remind yourself that one less thing now means one less thing to have to decide about when you finally get around to organizing and getting rid of all that stuff you no longer want, that is if there’s still room left.

Organized Garage. Photo by LET’S MAKE ROOM

What are you doing this weekend? Unless you are like my friend Jan who loves to organize her home, there are probably a lot of other things you’d rather be doing then, say, organizing your garage.  This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t want to be organized. Being organized is wonderful! It reaps great benefits, including but not limited to:

1. Quickly finding what you need when you need it. Something you take for granted until you can’t find it.
2. Feeling the sense of calm that comes when everything is clear in your space.
3. Knowing you haven’t overlooked something important like your mortgage bill or the date of your kid’s first recital.
4. More money to spend on things you want when you’re not spending money on duplicate items you can’t find and forgot you already had.
5. Having time to focus on what you are truly great at or on something that gives you real pleasure

The difference between being organized and getting organized is simple: One takes effort, in some cases an overwhelming amount of physical as well as mental effort. It also takes a plan and a good working system that can easily be sustained.

Being organized, takes much less effort, and as a result you have more freedom and time to spend doing what you want to do as opposed to what you should do.

To put it simply, being organized is a whole lot more fun than getting organized. I’m a professional and I’ve been doing this for years but even I don’t live to get organized. I get organized to live.

When you decide to get organized, with or without help, the first thing you should do is stop making your clutter a character flaw. Instead consider the clutter you’ve created as a reflection of the busy, productive (and hopefully) better life you’ve created for yourself.

If it’s paper clutter that’s driving you crazy, stop blaming yourself for all the paper you have.  Despite all the efforts at going “paperless,” paper is still a fact of life. Today, for example, the contents of my in-box grew by 2 documents, 5 receipts and 7 pieces of mail I personally did not generate.

So instead of beating yourself up, ask yourself, “What would I rather be doing this weekend?” If your answer is something fun, fulfilling or relaxing, go ahead and do it, without guilt. If, however, the clutter around you is causing an unacceptable level of stress or you finally want to tackle your garage, go ahead. The investment in your home and yourself will be worth it.

Remodel in progress. Photo credit: DMS Interiors

Remodel after. Photo credit: DMS Interiors

So you’ve finally decided to take the plunge. You’re going to do a remodel.

Before you pick up the phone to call your designer/contractor/architect, take a look around. What do you see?

Chances are you’re not seeing what your contractors will want to see the day they get started – an empty space.

More likely you’re looking at stuff – the good, the bad and the ugly: Furniture, household goods, artwork, paper, personal items and in all likelihood some amount of indistinguishable clutter on your floor and other surfaces.

It doesn’t matter if you are remodeling your whole house or just one room, before the first nail is in, you’ll need to think about how to organize and empty the room of all its contents. This is especially true if your remodel includes a new floor.

Before you pull the plug on the whole idea, consider this the first phase of your remodel. I call it the Pre-model – as in plan and prepare for the remodel.

Essentially, the Pre-model involves organizing, de-cluttering and emptying the project space before the remodel begins. It’s as necessary to the process as getting the right permits. Build this into your timeline and your project will start on time.

Delay or avoid the Pre-model and your project will come to a screeching halt before it has even started.

There are two ways to approach the Pre-model: The smart way and the hard way.

Here’s what the hard way looks like:

Your contractors are due to begin demolition tomorrow. You wake up at the crack of dawn and dump everything you own, wanted and unwanted, into boxes before stuffing them haphazardly into another area of your home – that is, if you’re lucky enough to have room. Otherwise you take it to an expensive self storage unit that is twice the size of what you need because that’s all they had available – and promise yourself you will deal with it later.

If you choose this method, don’t be surprised when you finally go to move all the stuff out of storage and you hear yourself say more than once, “I can’t believe I actually kept this!” (And paid all that money to store it!).

The smart way, on the other hand, looks more like this:

You are comfortably moved into a new, temporary home or area of your house and getting back to your routine. Your contractors congratulate you for making it possible for them to start on time and everyone is eager and excited to get started.

The smart way involves taking time to plan and prepare for your Pre-model.  If you do it yourself, this is what the Pre-model requires:

1. PLAN
   Determine if there are any items you will need access to during the remodel. This is particularly important in a kitchen remodel where you may be without a functioning kitchen for several months. Consider setting up a “temporary kitchen” in a less used area or room of your home with basic kitchen appliances such as a microwave, mini fridge, electric water kettle, plates, utensils, etc.
2. DECIDE
   Determine what household items you want to keep. Skipping this step will cost you in the long run so make it a priority to sort and organize these items by category.
3. PREPARE
   Just as your contractor would, make sure you have the right “tools” for your Pre-model. Use large plastic bags for trash and for items you want to donate; paper bags for recycling; packing boxes or bins and other moving supplies for things you want to keep; and, a 4’-6’ table or surface for working.
4. PURGE
   Make arrangements to sell or donate furniture items you no longer want. Take pictures of these items and email them to your preferred consignment store or charity. These services will review the items and decide whether or not they are interested in them.
5. PACK
   Pack what you’ve decided to keep in boxes, labeled by category. This will make the process of unpacking that much easier when your remodel is done. Pack heavy items like books in small boxes; fragile items like dish-ware, lamps and crystal in double weight “dish-packs” and small appliances and lighter items like linens and lamp shades in larger boxes.
6. STORE
   If you are lucky to have extra space in a garage or spare room to store the household items you retain, consider hiring a moving company that specializes in small moves to help you move those items for you.
7. MOVE
   If you are planning to remodel your entire home, it’s likely you will need to relocate for a period of months. Consider consulting with a professional organizer/move manager to help you plan for this type of temporary move. They can also recommend reputable moving and storage companies in your area as well as execute your Pre-model and get you unpacked and organized when it’s done.

Doing the Pre-model is what allows your remodel to happen. By following these simple steps, you’ll experience far less stress during your remodel and discover how quickly you can live in and enjoy your new kitchen, bath, bedroom or newly remodeled home, when it’s done.

A client told me today his son had so many toys in his room, it had become nothing more than a storage area where he sleeps.

For more than 100 years we’ve lived in a consumer culture. There is an article that ran in TIME Magazine last month (America’s Clutter Problem, March 2015) that does a great job summarizing why people, specifically American’s, tend to have more stuff than we used to.  One of the biggest reasons cited is the way buying itself has become so easy. Think “one-click” ordering. No time to ponder whether or not we need it – just click it and it’s yours. In a consumer culture that’s like sending a kid into a candy store with no restrictions and a pocketful of cash.

The culture of consumerism in 2015, just 7 years post-recession,  –  is showing signs of change. Some call it the new “shared economy,” others call it a movement towards “essentialism.” Think tiny homes and shared work spaces.

Technology is also changing the the way we use space in our homes.   We now have streamed media, digital tablets and flat screen TVs. In its wake, however, we’ve left old VHS tapes, worn books and magazines, and large TV cabinets – not to mention thousands of analog TVs and even cathode-tube versions left behind in our grandparents garages.

Transfer Station aka “The Dump”

We recycle but more often than not we dump. If you don’t believe me take a field trip, like I did recently, to your local “Transfer Station.” It looks like something from a post apocalyptic sci-fi thriller but it’s as real as the stench that hits you when you first drive in.

One of the most astounding statistics I read in the TIME article stated that while children in the U.S. make up only 3.1% of the world’s kid population, we Americans buy more than 40% of the world’s toys. Sure it’s great that you’re donating a few bags of clothing to Goodwill but the bigger issue is that we keep acquiring! Is this the legacy you want to leave your kids?

Our consumerism has become a zero-sum game.   Consider there is so much stuff in your life and so much space to contain it. If you have more space than stuff, you may feel a sense of emptiness or deprivation. As consumers, we fight off these feelings by filling the space we have.  If you have more stuff than space eventually you’ll feel stifled, stressed and stuck. In the latter example, you have two options: get more space; a bigger house, extra storage, which of course can cost a lot (the self-storage industry is a $24 billion business) or make the tough decision to purge what you no longer love, need or use. If you need help to physically sort and purge those things, consider hiring a professional organizer who can get you through the task.

In much the same way your doctors advise you to cut down on excess sugar, saturated fats or other unhealthy foods to reduce your risk of disease, you can also cut back on those “sweet deals” you see for items you don’t need in the first place. If your house has gotten fat from too much cheap, unwanted, unused or unusable stuff, then it’s time to make a change, and put yourself on a clutter diet. The first step: stop buying what don’t need.

Editor’s Note: I’m pleased to feature guest blogger, Janet Peischel of Top of Mind Marketing.  Janet and I met six years ago at a networking event when I was just launching LET’S MAKE ROOM. She is a writer and expert marketer for small businesses. Here she talks about how developing a marketing plan is a great way to organize your time and help you stay productive:

I have a client who loves advertising. This made him easy prey for ad reps that knew they could sucker him into those special one-off deals that aren’t deals at all, but a hopeless waste of his marketing dollars.

I did a cost-benefit analysis to prove he wasn’t getting enough conversions on those one-off efforts to justify the money he spent. Then I worked with him to create a marketing plan and a budget for the entire year.

This plan has been enormously helpful in reining in ad-hoc spending and keeping him on track. He still gets those “special” offers, but he’s not wasting time agonizing over them because he knows that if they’re not in his plan, he’s not going to spend money on them.

As a writer and marketing expert, I recommend developing a marketing plan and budget for at least a year at a time. For every line item, identify the cost and the person who’s responsible for executing the activity – strategies or tasks. Planning and organizing your marketing activity makes you accountable and increases productivity because you’re not second-guessing yourself or wasting time on efforts with no ROI. (Return on your investment).

It is worth your time to map out a marketing strategy. By doing so you can see what’s working and not—and conversely defer those activities that are not delivering on your investment of time and money. A well-thought out marketing plan is like giving your business tough love… it may be painful at first but it works!

For more information contact: Janet Peischel, Top of Mind Marketing http://top-mindmarketing.com/