Homes are being combed through. Drawers, closets, bookshelves, garages, basements, and attics are being emptied. The “stuff” of life that was once treasured or collected is getting ready to exit. Have you noticed? We’re in the season of decluttering and tag sales. The spring blooms have arrived along with the volume of tag sale announcements.

My family has been preparing for such an event, which will happen this weekend. It’s been a fascinating experience to go through my “stuff” having a specific deadline and goal. What’s most interesting is that I’ve got good, fun, and useful things. Here’s the bottom line: I don’t need or want all of it.

As I evaluated each item with a more critical eye than usual, I was faced with a yes/no decision. Does it stay or go? There were the obvious keepers, the obvious giveaways, and the not-so-obvious items. Making the decision for the first two categories was simple. The third category was trickier, and required more questions like:

• Is the space it occupies worth the real estate and emotional energy?

• Is it still relevant in my current life?

• When was the last time I needed, used, or wanted it?

• Is not using “x” for the last 5 years, 10 years, 15 years an indicator that it’s time to let go?

Something else which provided me with some comic relief and helped in the letting go and clutter releasing process were various sounds and action calls I said like:

“OUT!”

“It’s time!”

“Going...NOW!”

“Linda, come on. You know you don’t need that anymore.”

We’ve got temporary clutter, as the “going” items are being piled and prepared.  This purposeful clutter doesn’t bother me because I know it will exit soon. When it does, the space will open up, I’ll feel lighter, and a new, clearer chapter will begin. I can visualize how this will look and feel with less.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What helps you make decisions? What becomes possible when you let go of clutter? Come join the conversation.

9 Clutter Management TipsWhat is your favorite clutter management strategy? I asked several of my wonderful colleagues (Ellen Delap, Janice Simon, Jackie Hollywood Brown, Aby Garvey, Peggy Pardo, Ramona Creel, Janine Sarna-Jones, Sue West, Helena Alkhas ), many of which I recently had the pleasure of hanging out with at the NAPO conference in New Orleans, to share their best ideas with us. Their responses are creative, practical, and doable. My gratitude goes to each of them for taking the time to reflect, and give us their proven clutter management strategies. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by clutter, I encourage you to keep reading and try one of their fabulous ideas.

What is your favorite clutter management strategy? . . .

1. Shift Perspective

“My favorite clutter management strategy is to view decluttering work as a treasure hunt. Rather than sifting through, I help my clients prioritize and find what is most valuable first in their clutter. This focus helps them move forward and look toward what will be most useful, functional and beautiful to them as they create their vision of organization. ”

Ellen Delap, CPO^® – Certified Professional Organizer & Family Manager Coach

2. Decide Now

“Make a decision. Whether it's paper, emails or anything else, it's important to make a decision about what you want to keep in your office and life and what you need to let go. When you put off making a decision, things pile up, and it takes more of your time to clear the decks to move forward.”

Janice Marie Simon, MA, CPO^® – Professional Organizer

3. Evaluate Costs

“Although moving from one city to another isn't my favourite clutter management strategy, it is certainly effective. When the price to pack/load/move/unload/unpack an item costs somewhere between $3-$8 per pound, it is a little easier to make decisions about what to keep and what to toss! Anything that costs less to re-purchase than it does to move, doesn't get moved. Often when you get to your new home, you find out you really didn't need all the stuff you left behind after all.”

Jackie Hollywood Brown, M.Sc.  – Organizing & Productivity Consultant

4. Organize Thoughts

“We often associate clutter with the visible and tangible, however the most paralyzing form of clutter is the mental one. When we feel stuck and overwhelmed mentally, we allow clutter to accumulate in our spaces. To find relief, I practice both for myself and with my clients, what I call ‘mental dump’ time. I use a notepad to write down everything that's on my mind. After writing everything from the multiple ‘mental to-do lists,’ I categorize them into personal, professional, and family. My clients and I love clearing the ‘floor’ with this process. We feel great and are able to re-focus on getting organized.”

Helena Alkhas – Professional Organizer & Virtual Assistant

5. Be Proactive

“To help manage clutter, I like to attack it before it gets out of hand. For example, stacks of incoming mail could easily take over our house. When I bring the mail in, I sort through it right away. That which isn't shredded or recycled goes into the appropriate family member’s ‘in-box’. Taking a few minutes each day to handle small tasks like this helps keep the clutter under control.”

Peggy Pardo  – Interior Decorator, Professional Organizer, Author, & Blogger

6. Clarify Purpose

“What do you stand for? What gives you daily purpose? If we can tie motivation, reasons for managing clutter, and practical strategies to who the person IS, there’s greater chance for continued success. It’s the minister who elects to donate his things because this IS ministering; the mother who values making her mark and so passes along traditions, photos and heirlooms to family; and the business leader who listens to TED talks to improve his skills, while he manages paper and emails.“

Sue West, COC^®, CPO-CD^® – Organizing Coach & ADHD Specialist

7. Delegate Responsibilities

“A strategy that has worked great in my home has been to assign each family member a container called a clutter bin, which is stored in a centrally located area of the home, such as the laundry room, mudroom or family room. When you find small toys or other clutter strewn about, it gets tossed it into the appropriate person’s container. Then, once a week each family member is responsible for emptying their clutter bin by putting items away where they belong.”

Aby Garvey – Professional Organizer, Author, & Online Class Instructor 

8. Activate Plan

“When a client feels like they are drowning in clutter, I encourage them to think of using ‘buckets’ to bale themselves out—essentially, containing items in macro categories to clear some space and avoid getting bogged down in minutiae. When a client is frustrated by clutter, but not overwhelmed, I encourage them to create a set of criteria to manage clutter, e.g. recycle all reading materials ‘x’number of months old.  But my all time favorite clutter management strategy is helping clients identify the dynamics in their relationship with clutter.”

Janine Sarna-Jones, CPO ^® – Certified Professional Organizer, Blogger, & Change Agent

9. Increase Attention

“Clutter creeps up on you and takes over your space when you aren't paying attention to your stuff – so the trick to taming clutter is to pay better (and more frequent) attention! Every time you walk through a room and see something out of place, take a second to put it where it belongs. And if that item no longer seems to serve a purpose in your life, drop it in the ‘to donate,’ ‘to sell,’ ‘to give away’ (or otherwise ‘to get rid of’) bin – rather than sticking it back into storage.”

Ramona Creel – Professional Organizer, Simplicity Coach, Author, & Blogger

Do you have a favorite clutter management strategy? I love the variety in these fabulous responses, which include shifting perspectives, not delaying decisions, evaluating costs, and organizing mind clutter. I’d love to hear from you. Come join the conversation and share your thoughts about your favorite clutter strategies, success stories, or challenges. What are your thoughts?

Are you feeling frustrated or overwhelmed by mounting clutter and are not sure where to start? Would you like to activate your decluttering rhythm? If so, think mini projects. Each tiny step you take will help you feel lighter, less stressed, and happier. Using short, quick energy bursts, focused on easy projects, will result in the “voilà” factor.

Are you curious about the “voilà” factor? It’s that sense of satisfaction and positive energy surge we experience when a task is completed and we stop to appreciate the results.

I’ve identified five mini projects for areas that clutter collects. Try one and let me know what happens.

5 Quick Decluttering Tips

1. Pencil Cup – Is your pencil cup overflowing with writing utensils that don’t work or you don’t like? Time to declutter.

• Grab a piece of scrap paper.

• Empty the cup of pens and pencils. Test them.

• Let go of the ones that don’t work. Sharpen the pencils you like.

• Refill the cup with only your favorite and working pens and pencils

• Voilà! You’re pencil cup is functional and clutter free.

2. Magazine Bin – Do your magazines enter your home and rarely leave? Time to declutter.

• Set a date parameter for how many back months of magazines you will keep. For example, “I will only keep the last 3 months of magazines.”

• Empty the magazine bin.

• Separate the last 3 months of magazines into one pile.

• Recycle all the rest. Refill the magazine bin.

• Voilà! Your reading time will be more focused and your bin is now clutter free.

3. Handbag – Is your handbag so full that you can’t find what you need? Time to declutter. Empty the entire contents. 

• Gather the obvious tossables first, like used tissues and food wrappers. Release them. Set aside any items that you want to keep, but don’t belong in your bag. Route them elsewhere.

• Of the remaining items, group like things together (cosmetics with cosmetics, snacks with snacks) into pouches or an organizer such as the Purse Perfector.

• Arrange the keepers back into your bag.

• Voilà! Your bag is organized and clutter free.

4. Clothing Closet – Is your closet so full that it’s difficult to get dressed? Time to declutter. This might seem like a huge project to tackle. For now, just focus with the basics. At another time, continue to the next phase.

• Remove all extra hangers. Recycle, giveaway, or reroute hangers that don’t belong. Pickup your clothes from the closet floor. Hang them up or reroute to laundry, dry cleaners, or giveaway.

• Set the timer for 10 minutes and quickly remove clothes that you absolutely no longer want. Reroute them to giveaway.

• Voilà! This is a great beginning. Your closet feels more spacious and on its way to being clutter free.

5. Email Inbox – Are you inundated by incoming email? Time to declutter.

• Focus only on the “junk” email.

• Unsubscribe to as many as possible.

• After unsubscribing, delete them.

• Voilà! You are on your way to a clutter free inbox.

Come join the conversation. I’d love to hear about your “Voilà!” moment. What quick decluttering tips work for you?

Sheila Delson - "Ask the Expert" interview about Letting GoThe arrival of spring brings more dynamic, inspiring leaders with the “Ask the Expert” interview series. So far this year, we’ve spoken with Laura Berman Fortgang about next steps, Judith Kolberg about change, and Sue West about fresh starts. This month I’m excited to share with you an outstanding leader in the professional organizing industry, Sheila Delson, to share her insights and wisdom about letting go.

Sheila and I have been friends and colleagues for almost 20 years. The first time we met, she arrived at my house bringing a delicious loaf of lavender-infused bread that she had just baked. The lavender had been picked from her beautiful garden. We talked for hours about the organizing industry, her newly launched business, life, and family. Twenty years later, our conversations and friendship continue. A trusted confidant, I have great admiration for her compassion, intelligence, dedication, creativity, and integrity. I also want to congratulate Sheila for being given just this week, the most prestigious honor in our industry, the 2013 NAPO Founders' Award. My deepest thanks goes to Sheila for taking the time to join us. Before we begin, here’s more about her.

Sheila Delson, CPO-CD®, is owner and President of FREEDomain Concepts, LLC, founded in 1994.  She is a Certified Professional Organizer specializing in Chronic Disorganization, ADHD and compulsive hoarding. Sheila is a co-founder and Past President of the Institute for Challenging Organization (ICD), a co-developer of the group’s Certification Program, a Master Trainer, and an original co-author of the ICD Clutter-Hoarding Scale.  An active member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), Sheila currently serves on the NAPO-NY Chapter Board of Directors, and is an award recipient from both organizations for her contributions to the professional organizing industry. You can connect with Sheila on her website.

Linda Samuels:  You’re an expert that specializes in working with the chronically disorganized population? What makes letting go particularly challenging for this group?

Sheila Delson:  What is particularly difficult for this population is their extreme emotional attachment to things, which is frequently fear-based and sometimes caused by a false belief system. The added struggle is the incongruence between what a person intellectually understands to be normal and acceptable, and what she or he intuitively understands may not be.  This is a frustrating scenario for most of the chronically disorganized population.

Linda:  What are a few creative techniques you use to encourage the letting go process?

Sheila:  I try to desensitize and normalize the object by asking the client to describe the importance of an item. I write down the answer (making it concrete), then together we reality-check the response to both their intellectual and intuitive senses. To do this process I try to formulate questions avoiding language words like you, your, they, and them. For example, “Can you explain to me what is so important about this item?” and ”Can you tell me how this item supports the plan we just developed? Does your response match that plan or hinder it?”  I do use the word “we” because it brings the conversation into the present time…not of the past because ‘change’ happens in the present. Minimizing the personalization factor provides the client with a perspective advantage because it minimizes the emotional connection.

Linda:  What has been the most surprising discovery about letting go?

Sheila:  How is it both painful and liberating all at the same time, and the fact that the process is so different for everyone.  Similar to an anesthetic, a qualified Professional Organizer provides direction, council, and ultimately relief to the process.

Linda:  Do you have a letting go philosophy?

Sheila:  It’s about being more mindful of the choices we make and of the things that surround our environment and their meaning to our lives today.  Just because it was meaningful once doesn’t always mean it has that same benefit today.  In fact it may have the opposite effect!  I like to use a modified version of the Tony Robins’ mantra (brackets mine): “The past doesn’t [have to] equal the future,” – unless we choose to allow it to be - for better or worse!

Linda:  What has been your biggest personal challenge around letting go?

Sheila:  You know it’s really the same as it is for my clients. Hey…we’re human, right?  We all get so busy, and the months, years pass by so fast that we don’t pay attention to the things that have accumulated. We get overwhelmed by daily pressures and then procrastinate deciding on how we should feel about an item or what to do with it. Instead of mindful choosing we procrastinate and mindlessly shove it into a file drawer, or onto a pile, or into a closet, and slam the door!  For me, learning to become more ‘mindful’ has been my salvation and is what I try to impart to my clients. It is a deliberate, conscious activity that can be learned and developed.

Linda:  Is there anything you’d like to share about letting go that I haven’t asked?

Sheila:  Yes…”Downsizing.”  With all the ‘Boomers’ now coming of age, I think this term has negative implications for many.  The very word “down” makes people want to avoid, avoid, avoid! It’s an old term that doesn’t have the same relevancy today that it did 50 years ago. Today’s boomer age group are still working and are active contributors in their communities and families.  For today’s boomers, it’s not about “DOWN” anything, but more about “RIGHT making and LIGHT making,” mindfully reviewing a lifetime of accumulation of things and letting go of the things that hold us (down) back by carefully choosing the things that continue to support where we are today, going forward. 

Thank you, Sheila for sharing your thoughts about letting go. You’ve identified many ideas that resonate with me like using desensitization to minimize emotional attachments to our possessions, getting past our past, and engaging in mindfulness. All of these are essentials in the letting go process.

I invite all of you to join Sheila and me to continue the conversation. We’d love to hear your ideas about letting go. What letting go challenges or successes have you experienced recently?