When I first launched my company, LET’S MAKE ROOM, several social networking experts (still can’t believe there is such a thing) told me that by adding dynamic content to my website, aka a “blog,” it would improve my ranking in Google and thus, in theory, help people in need of my professional organizing services find me on the web.

My decision to start blogging was a business decision that I didn’t take to very willingly.

What I didn’t know at the time, was that websites themselves would soon be superseded by blogs.

The solid foundation that I thought would attract new clients to my website was fast becoming a kind of electronic fault line, something I know a little bit about living in Northern California.

It’s nothing short of ironic that I heard someone mention this recently on the very same day I finalized all the changes on my website. It reminded me of President Obama’s recent state of the Union speech in which he spoke about how innovation and technology has caused some of us to “feel like the rules have been changed in the middle of the game” or as the saying goes, “Just when you think you have all the answers, they change the question.”

Starting a small business in midlife in the 21st century has forced me to think about innovation and what role it plays in my business, even when it sometimes makes me feel like George Jetson on his out-of-control treadmill.  My blog is a perfect metaphor for this love/hate relationship to technology.

When I first started blogging, I thought it was dumb. Why would I want to spend my time reading some stranger’s  inner musings let alone expect someone to read mine? My husband has to listen to me on a a daily basis and it’s no day on the beach for him either.

It was marketing expert Cheryl Liquori, founder of the Breakfast Blogging Club who really changed my mind about blogging.

Every week for nearly a year, Liquori has done for beginning bloggers what Julia Child did for Julie Powell. (Powell’s blog, the Julie/Julia Project, documented her daily experiences cooking each of the 524 recipes in Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking which later inspired Nora Ephron’s acclaimed movie, Julie and Julia starring Meryl Streep.)

For the past 30 weeks, Liquori has been sending out engaging tips, hints and gentle nudges to aspiring bloggers everywhere. She gave me what four years of journalism school could never do. She got me writing every week (or almost).

Now, I have complete strangers from all over the world commenting on my blog (yes, Mr. Friedman,  the world is indeed flat, as you proclaimed) and this completely astounds me since it never occurred to me that anyone would.

The Breakfast Blogging Club is true to its mission. It offers a supportive, creative, productive and fun way for entrepreneurs to build awareness for their businesses. But more than that it has helped people like me feel connected to the world in a much bigger way.

So with more than six month’s worth of blogs behind me, I am dedicating this blog to Cheryl Liquori.

Now, if I could just learn to cook Julia Child’s recipe for Sole Meuniere.

“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.”
-Abraham Maslow, Psychologist

Several months ago some marketing experts told me that it would help people find my organizing business, LET’S MAKE ROOM,  on the internet more easily if I had content on my website that changed periodically.

One of the ways they suggested I do this was to create a blog that was viewable from my website. This, they said would make my website more “dynamic” which I guess is like superfood for Google and other search engines.

What they didn’t tell me was that it would necessitate a complete revision of my site design, not to mention, an overflowing fountain of brilliant ideas and stories to share on a regular basis.

Well the good news is I did revise my website. As for the brilliant inspirations that translate into daily blog posts…not so much. It’s more like biweekly (or is it bi-weekly?) Anyway, I don’t even think Hemingway could have lived up to today’s standards when it comes to opening our minds to the masses.

As a self-funded, small (but growing) business I have learned being an entrepreneur is as much about personal growth as it is about learning new skills.

One of the first decisions I made was to not run away from technology. I resolved to “feel the fear and do it anyway.”

If you’d told me then that in less than two years I would be saying things like search engine optimization, web strategy, hosted links and plug-ins, let alone have a clue about what they meant, I would have thought you were, in the words of Robin Williams, “one sandwich short of a picnic.”

The other day I was meeting with a group of Graduate Students in Marketing who are helping me by developing a public relations plan for LET’S MAKE ROOM.  They are all as comfortable in technology as somebody my age would expect. So imagine how flattered I was when they told me I had done a great job saturating the world of “Social Media.”  It wasn’t so hard really. I just linked my Facebook site to show my ‘tweets and ensure my Yelp reviews would translate to my Google analytics page and I was all set.

OMG, did I just say that?

I guess it’s never too late to be a student again.

Have you ever wondered why you can’t seem to get organized?

You’re an intelligent, productive, talented human being.

The truth is organization has less to do with your space and every thing to do with your mind.

What you believe?
What you feel?
What you assume is the correct way to live and work?

At LET’S MAKE ROOM, I work with you to understand what keeps you stuck and disorganized. We do this work together by talking about the beliefs and assumptions you hold onto about your living and working spaces and yourself.

I invite you to talk about how you feel about your disorganization and what you think would make a difference. Then I work with you to implement a system you can maintain because it reflects how YOU think and work.

A “one-size fits all” approach to organizing won’t work over the long term. It’s not just about putting things in pretty containers. If you’re feeling unproductive and unfocused, your space will reflect that. Just organizing a specific space alone may temporarily treat the symptoms of disorganization but not the cause. Before long you’ll find yourself back where you started.

My training is in Psychology, Behavioral Health and Human Development and my expertise and understanding can help you transform your personal beliefs and habits so you will feel motivated to finally get your life and space in order.

I can help you transform your space in a way that fits you.

Here’s a true story about one of my clients.

Julie, a Leadership and Organizational Consultant, helps other businesses become successful. But when it came to her own office, Julie was feeling overwhelmed and it was starting to impact her productivity.

Julie hired LET’S MAKE ROOM to help her organize her office. She had stacks of piles on a small desk that were creeping on to her floor. She was losing focus and worried about it impacting her business. Before consulting with LET’S MAKE ROOM, Julie considered investing in a bigger desk and possibly even an entire new “office system.”

I asked Julie about her space and how she liked to work. It turned out Julie did her best work standing up. She described the way she worked much like a modern artist paints; creating ideas across a wide canvas. It became obvious that a desk of any size was just not the right “canvas” for Julie’s creativity.

So I found a dry erase wall covering to fit the way Julie actually worked – in images, words and color. Our goal was to create a space that could both free her mind to create, as well as function as a professional space to conduct her business.

Julie’s previous “belief” was that she was not productive unless she was sitting at a desk. Yet, sitting at her desk she would find ways to get off-track and distracted by all her clutter.

Through her work with me and LET’S MAKE ROOM, Julie came to realize she was a creative person who felt better working another way. This “new belief” freed her up to think creatively again.

She told me, “working with you was truly a transformative experience. I had a huge “aha”about what I need and how I need to work to be productive and successful.”

“I could have moved my furniture or bought new furniture but I couldn’t have discovered how to be truly engaged and productive without you. Now I have a whole new framework for how I work now that frees up my spirit, my creativity and my productivity.”

Music to my ears.

Need some basic tips for organizing the most used rooms in your home?  Here is a room-by-room checklist that will help you get started.

Bedroom

☑ Decide what you want at your fingertips and what things can be stored

☑ Go through your closet and pull out everything you have not worn in the last year and donate those items

☑ Hang like items together—group shirts together, pants together, dresses, etc.

☑ Donate to local charities or friends and family items that are still in good condition but you no longer need. Schedule a donation pick up with DonationTown.org

Kitchen

☑ Determine the flow of activity in your kitchen before you decide where to place items

☑ Things that work together should be stored together, such as baking supplies, plastic containers (with lids), pots and pans with lids, and large platters and bowls

☑ Drawer dividers are a good way to keep smaller items separated

☑ Place glasses near the sink or the refrigerator for easy access to beverages

☑ Put healthy snacks for your kids in an easy-to-access drawer or cupboard

Home Office/Den

☑ Make sure you have a good chair, good lighting and ample workspace. Without them it’s harder to be organized and effective.

☑ Keep only supplies you need on a daily basis on your desktop

☑ Assign a contained space or “in-box” for your incoming documents and only use it for items that haven’t yet been reviewed such as paper mail, receipts, and catalogs.

☑ Make a decision about what action or task you need to take with each document (including recycling) and follow through during dedicated “admin” appointments

☑ Keep the most recent papers in the front of the file. Whenever you open it, the current information will be on top.

Garage/basement

☑ Sort, purge, and then decide the proper storage containers or fixtures for the treasures that you must keep

☑ Design a floor plan for storing items and stick to it

☑ Get rid of things that don’t work

☑ Clearly label both the tops and the sides of containers

☑ Consider floor-to-ceiling possibilities for shelving, racks, stack-able drawers, hooks and pegboards, and don’t forget the rafters

REMEMBER: When you are done organizing, make sure you donate clothes, books, furniture and other household items to a local charity.

One of my clients recently lost her mother after a long illness. I am helping her organize and declutter her basement. Among the items she chose to let go of was a supply of home health equipment her mother used to be mobile and comfortable including a folding walker, a shower seat and an orthopedic boot. It gave my client great pleasure to learn about a place where she could donate these items so they could be used by someone else who otherwise couldn’t afford to pay for them. It’s called Home CARES.

Home CARES is a small organization that makes a big impact.

Every week in the counties of  Marin, Oakland, Sonoma and San Francisco, in Northern California, volunteers gather at their sites to accept donations of durable medical equipment and supplies. The organization operates on a shoestring budget. No fancy storefront, the Oakland site for example is located in an underground parking lot and consists of a folding table a few chairs and a walk in closet stuffed, yet organized, to the rafters with everything from pill boxes to wheelchairs.

Items are made available at no cost to people who need them.  I know this for sure because when my husband had shoulder surgery last year he was in need of a device called an “Ice Man.”

Ice Man

Our insurance provider would not cover the cost of this simple device which looks like a small picnic cooler with a power cord.  When used correctly, it circulates ice-cold water through an attached tube and then up into a series of pads that are gently strapped to your body, in my husband’s case, his shoulder.

Having the Ice Man made a huge difference in his pain management as well as his recovery. What did it cost us to get it? Nothing.  We borrowed it for six months and when my husband was fully recovered, I brought it back.

When I told my client about Home CARES and how her mother’s medical equipment could benefit someone else, perhaps another senior, or someone with a disability, she was more than happy to donate them. Today I brought in those items, along with a three-tiered mesh document file I happened to have in my trunk, which went into use immediately to hold the few document clipboards the site keeps to track donations.

The cheerful volunteer nurse who staffs the Oakland site is often there with her teen age son and other volunteers, mostly seniors who, despite the chilly air of the unheated parking lot, really seem to enjoy their work. It is “grassroots” at its best.

When you visit the Home CARES website, be sure to read the article written by Dr. Kate Scannell, a physician and specialist in medical ethics who discovered Home CARES through a colleague.  (By coincidence I used to work with Dr. Scannell when I was a project manager for a large health care organization in Oakland.)

Dr. Scannell captures the essential goodness and relevancy of an organization like Home CARES.  She writes, “In these days of fractious and tedious debates about health care reform, it’s refreshing to see what can be joyfully accomplished by community visionaries trying to tackle some piece of the enormous American health care debacle. It is reinvigorating to witness the efficiency with which medical problems can be solved, lives are made better, health care costs are conserved, and the environment is protected. Sometimes a small closet contains an entire and amazing world.”

I could not have said it better.

If you live in Northern California or want to support Home CARES, a 501c3 tax deductible organization, visit their website at http://www.homecares.org/ or go to the resources page of my website at LET’S MAKE ROOM, to locate a link to Home CARES.

According to a recent survey conducted on behalf of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO):

• 71 percent of those polled said their quality of life would improve if they were better organized.
• 65 percent described their home as at least moderately disorganized.
• 27 percent said disorder keeps them from being effective at work.

As millions of people vow to get organized as part of their New Year’s resolutions, it is no surprise that January has been dubbed National “Get Organized” month, a 7- year-old event, sponsored by NAPO, an organization that represents well over 4,000 members in the U.S. and beyond.

Long after the celebratory confetti is swept up,  many people will once again make an all out effort to plow through their piles, manage their files, clear their clutter and make more room for themselves in an effort to feel happier at home and more productive at work.

And before the end of the year, as predictable as the sound of popping champagne corks, many will resign themselves to yet another year surrounded by clutter in their homes, on their desks and worst of all, in their heads.

Excepting New Year’s resolutions, the decision to get organized is usually precipitated by an event or changing life circumstance. Examples include moving, expecting a new baby, sending kids off to college, getting a new job or keeping up with the demands of an existing one. Even a loss of health, money or death of a loved one can be the deciding factor in getting organized “once and for all.”

Whatever the precipitating cause, it is wise first to assess whether or not you have the time, skill, and motivation to manage the resulting organizational tasks by yourself. If not, seeking the help and guidance of a professional organizer could mean being able to check  “Get Organized” off your to-do list.

Ultimately the question of whether or not you would benefit from the help of a professional, can best be answered by you.  Here are 11 questions that will help you decide if hiring a professional organizer is right for you:

1. Do I want to get organized but have no idea where to start?
2. Am I moving and need ideas on how to set up my new home or downsize from my old one?
3. Is my disorganization or lack of productivity holding me back from success or costing me money?
4. Is the clutter in my home or office weighing me down?
5. Is there someone in my family who messes up all my attempts to get organized?
6. Have I lost or misplaced documents that cost me late fees and unnecessary finance charges?
7. Do I frequently apologize for ‘the mess’ to guests who come to my home to visit?
8. Have I tried to get organized but never seem to make any progress then slip back to my old ways?
9. Am I feeling stuck because my living or work space makes me feel unfocused and distracted?
10. Do I want to be more organized but just can’t get motivated?
11. Am I feeling frustrated, overwhelmed or stressed by my mess?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you will most likely benefit from the services of a professional organizer.  To find one in your area check out the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) website or visit mine at www.letsmakeroom.com.

As a professional organizer, my goal is to come up with innovative ways to simplify the lives of my clients.  Innovation is not a new concept but these days innovative companies seem to be acting on our lives at warp speed and sometimes that speed has usurped their common sense, at least when it comes to the customer experience.  Case in point: blister packs.

The other day, I actually broke my scissors trying to open a new cell phone charger that was packaged like it was expecting an attack from an insurgency. Just when I thought I had finally broken through, I was foiled by a series of krypton-like twist-ties that never seemed to unwind.

It doesn’t just play out in packaging. It’s in product design as well.

Take those enormous toilet tissue dispensers in public bathrooms.   Can you ever find the end of the roll?  You just keep spinning and spinning.  Don’t even think about reaching in.  You may get in, but you’ll never get out.

And can someone tell me why we need light sensor paper towel dispensers? Are we really being kinder to the environment here or more innovative?  I still don’t know what was so wrong with the old, hand-cranked version.

When I have one of those days where everything simple becomes overly complicated, I start to wonder if I’m an unwilling actor in a 21st century version of George Kukor’s movie, Gaslight, pushing me, an otherwise sane person, into a state of borderline psychosis.  “There’s nothing wrong here. It must be you,” [close-up of face in look of terror, fade to black.]

Somewhere along the R&D cycle, it seems to me that many so-called innovative companies have forgotten about their customer’s experience.  They’ve got the development part down but what happened to the research?

Nobody has a stronger love/hate relationship to technology, than those of us born before 1980. I’m continually amazed at the level of communication, knowledge, entertainment and efficiency that technology has made possible.  Pandora. Itunes. Skype. Online Banking.  Yet with all its advantages, it only works if you know how to work it. I love what the Internet has brought me but it will never be able to pour me another cup of coffee.

I sing the praises of social networking sites. They’re great for reconnecting with old college friends but try to find actual help from them to solve a user problem? Good luck. It’s like sitting around the dinner table with my relatives. Every question is answered with a question. Whenever I find myself entering a “help” site, I feel like I’m driving on the LA freeway for the first time; going round and round and ending up nowhere.

The other day I was trying to find out how to adjust a setting for my Facebook business page. Each search took me to a new level of FAQs but no closer to resolution. At every dead end I was confronted with the site’s feeble attempt at gaining my trust.   “Did this answer your question? Thumbs Up Thumbs Down?” At that moment, what I was really feeling had more to do with another finger.

Perfection can indeed be the enemy of progress but what good is innovation if it only pisses you off?  How are we, the consumer, being served when companies seem more focused on being the first, the cutting edge, the latest and greatest, at the expense of the actual human beings using their products?

When it comes to providing real service, real help, real satisfaction, I wonder. Has innovation killed their humanity?

Recently I was listening to an interview of author Paul Reyes about his book Photojournalism and Foreclosure, which depicts the emotional toll of the economic crisis in his home state of Florida.

During the interview, he tells the radio interviewer a story behind one photograph that showed the interior of a home left practically intact following its being foreclosed on, as if the owners had just stepped out for a short time instead of the forever they never expected.

Reyes learns the homeowner, prior to abandoning his home, had taken the time to carefully remove the name plates from literally hundreds of his son’s Karate trophies. What remain are the statues themselves, in various shapes, all void of any personal reference save for their dusty fingerprints.

When I heard this, I pictured the homeowner cradling the trophies while gently removing their shiny plaques, each inscribed with his son’s name and the name of the event for which he had won, “First Place,” “Second Place,” and so on.

How did he decide among all his other possessions that these were the ones that held the most meaning for him? I also wondered whether the homeowner had much time to decide what it was that he most wanted?

For a brief moment, it occurs to me that on a continuum of tragedy, this father was a degree “luckier” than the victims of other tragedies like the San Bruno fire that occurred just across the bay from my home. He at least had some warning time to make a decision about what it was that was meaningful to him.

What is the essence of our lives?

What captures the profound love, connection, celebration, and transformation of what it means to be who we are? What object or item represents the sum total of our lives or at least our accomplishments and which of these things would we take with us if we had to make that choice quickly?

I am still pondering that question. The obvious items float to the top of course, photo albums and pictures… but what is the essence of my life?  Not an inconceivable thought considering one in five homeowners, according to one statistic I heard on public radio, are in some kind of financial trouble.

In my work as an organizing and productivity consultant, I often challenge my clients to look at the major “buckets” of their lives; to help them understand first and foremost if they are putting their time and their effort towards those activities, projects and tasks that best represent their intentions, their goals and their dreams.

Yet often our time will be spent on the ground level, literally, sifting through the meaningful from the less meaningful objects that have taken up residence in their homes and offices.

For some, the holes of their sieves are large; they can let go, especially when given the information they need to comfortably decide what items no longer hold meaning for them. For others the holes are much smaller because they have assigned meaning and value to more than they have the space for, or in some cases, because they have lost so much already.

I believe that part of the reason some people find it difficult to “get organized” is because it means having to come face to face with the deeper question of “What really and truly matters to me and if I identify it, can I lose it?”  Ten or twenty years ago this used to be a pretty abstract question, now, as they say, not so much.

In the midst of what feels like the worst crisis I have experienced outside of my own personal life in 50 years, answering the question of what is the essence of my life is no longer a compelling philosophical one. It could be the most important question of all.

I am a hotel geek. Always have been ever since I was kid.  My favorite book growing up was Eloise of course, the precocious, forgotten child of jet-setting parents who lived in the penthouse of New York’s famed Plaza Hotel and spoke french to her British Nanny while creating mischief throughout the hotel with her pet dog and pet turtle. I grew up in New York City, which made this book all the more appealing to me, and to this day I still own every book in the Eloise series.

As a child, instead of drawing little daisies or writing my name in curly cues in my book margins, I would sketch my imaginary hotel.  It looked like the Goodyear blimp on wheels with several floors and a set of M.C. Escher-like stairways leading from one floor to the next.  Each room was visible as if the entire outside was nothing more than a plate glass window.

My hotel had everything my nine year-old imagination could dream up.  A game room, bowling alley, swimming pools, a crystal-chandeliered ballroom, library, bedrooms with fireplaces, even a salon.

So whenever I have an opportunity to stay at a hotel, I jump at it. It need not be a 5-star hotel – although they sure do wonders for my hotel fantasies – a nice, clean, comfortable Marriott or Sheraton is just fine.

So this past weekend, when I had the chance to get away to the annual regional conference for the National Association of Professional Organizers, I couldn’t resist even though the hotel was only a little more than an hour away from my home.

There is something about the anonymity of a hotel room that appeals to me, and room service, of course.  I love the feeling of walking into a hotel lobby for the first time knowing from the moment I enter I am treated as a “guest.”  I suppose if I had to travel every day of my life like the character George Clooney plays in “Up In The Air” the novelty might wear off after a while, but luckily my hotel fantasy gets to be played out only occasionally.

While the rest of my colleagues were gathering for schmoozing and appetizers, I was out soaking, alone, in the outdoor hut-tub right next to the “climate controlled” heated pool. During a break I walked around the hotel to sneak a view of the other unoccupied “deluxe” rooms because I like to know what could be available to me.  I looked at every amenity, stopped in to every empty conference room, scanned the supply of junk food at the “snack shop”  and took a thrill as I opened the little bar soap in my over-sized bathroom,  never before to be new again.

When I started to write today, I thought briefly about writing about my insights from the sessions I attended or the connections I made with other professionals I met.  Instead I kept thinking, “wouldn’t it be nice to be back in that hot-tub again, looking at the stars and contemplating a cold beer brought to me by a nice waiter or better yet, dessert served under one of those aluminum trays from room service?  So instead I had Chinese food delivered to our house, took a hot bath in my own bathroom and wondered what ever happened to my drawings of the “Goodyear” Hotel?

Think about your home or where you live.  Does your home change from day to day? Do you live in a different place depending upon how you feel from moment to moment? Chances are you don’t. You come home to the same place most nights. The same is true for our stuff.

Imagine that everything you own has a “home.” Not a “for now” home, but a permanent home.  If you’re not sure where something “lives” then think about the way you use an item and that often will inform you about where it can live. If you use an item in multiple locations, then assign it a permanent home so you’ll always know where you can find it.

For years, I could never find my eyeglasses.  Now, I keep a pair in multiple locations around my home.  This is because I need a pair for cooking and reading recipes, a pair for office work and a pair for driving. They always live in the same spot.  My kitchen glasses live near the phone. My office glasses live in a small, decorative container on my desk and my driving glasses live in my purse, always available to me when I drive. (I could also leave them in my glove compartment but I also use those glasses for shopping.)

Next, determine what you really want, need or love.  What you don’t want, need or love should be donated or appropriately disposed of.

For the things left over, start thinking about where they will live.

Finally decide how best contain them. It wouldn’t make sense for example to go out and buy 30 containers to hold all your old magazines if in the end you decide to donate them to a local hospital or library.

Here’s how this looks in a typical organizing challenge.

You have clothes strewn all over your home that need organizing. They include, winter wear, summer wear, formal wear, sportswear, kids clothes, and more.  Some you (or your family) still wear, some you don’t. Where do these clothes live? Are they clothes worn occasionally or are they part of your everyday wardrobe? Would it make sense to have some items live in one part of your home (say a coat closet) while others live in your bedroom closet? If both are crammed full of stuff already, then your task is to assign a home for your clothes, place them as close to that area as you can, and begin the task of creating the space you need for them.

Sometimes we don’t have the information we need to make a decision about something. A typical example is paper we keep.

Let’s say you have a file stuffed with tax related documents because you’re not sure if you need them. There are many ways you can get the information you need to decide.

• Ask a financial or tax adviser if you have access to one.
• Look on line at places like Moneygirl (http://moneygirl.quickanddirtytips.com).
• In some cases, a professional organizer will be able to tell you as well.

The important thing is to get the information you need to make your decision and avoid keeping it “just in case.”

Another decision-making obstacle occurs when you keep something “for sentimental reasons.” This represents the emotional attachment to our things.

Try asking yourself, “Does this item bring me pleasure?” “Do I associate it with a good memory?” “Is it healing to me in some way?” If yes, keep it, if not, it’s time it found a new life somewhere else.

A typical example I see with some of my parent clients is they don’t know what to do with their child’s schoolwork, artwork and handmade cards.  Here’s what I suggest:

• First decide what you love about them and use these criteria to make decisions about each item.
• Then decide what your purpose is in keeping items you don’t love. For example you want to keep a record of your child’s progress.
• Next decide where these items will live — and make room for these items ahead of time.
• Finally, contain the items. I generally recommend using what you already have around the house before going out and purchasing a new container.

Here’s how it might look in the end:

You decide you love your child’s handmade cards (they say, “I love Mommy” on all of them).

You decide you want to keep some of the artwork but you realize you don’t need every class assignment your child did since 2nd grade.  You know you have room in your office closet for about two boxes because you just cleaned it out and there is some room on the top shelf.

You decide to photograph your favorite drawings and upload them to your computer or even to a site like Snapfish (http://www.snapfish.com) to create a photobook.

You decide you need a record of their school progress, and keep or scan their report cards and teacher notes, and recycle their individual assignments.

You decide to contain the art work in a scrap book, using paper protecting sheets available from a craft store such as Michael’s Arts & Crafts (www.michaels.com)  and the rest in a watertight box available from the Container Store (www.containerstore.com)

You decide to put the box or boxes in your office closet, where they will live.

It is a strangely modern phenomena that we’ve accumulated so much more than we truly need.  We’ve learned to measure our happiness, rightly or not, by how much we own.

Additionally, how we value our lives, our worth and ourselves is muddled in with the emotions we experience every day about our security and our future, especially now.  We find ourselves keeping this or that for a guy called, Justin as in “just in case.”

Some of what we keep is tied to the memory of someone else or some unrealized version of ourselves.  We get stuck in our clutter like an overstuffed drawer we can’t open. We deny giving life to those dreams we had, and instead keep them hidden in a box or a closet or right out in the open as just one of many piles on our floor.

I believe organizing is not only about the physical act of clearing clutter or arranging items in closets, it’s about creating the room in your life for other opportunities and unrealized needs to emerge.  If you want more information about how I work, contact me at LET’S MAKE ROOM (www.letsmakeroom.com)