Spring Cleaning – Declutter Winter Gear

Spring is (almost) here. Let’s clear out winter clothes & gear!

Winter clothes, coats, hats, gloves, boots, shovels, sleds are just part of what can be either decluttered from your home or stored away until next winter.

When you go through your winter gloves make sure if you are going to keep them that:

1) They all have a match
2) They still fit your children and there are no holes in them.

If they are in good shape but are too small for your children, then put them in the donate bag.  If you only have one, then don’t keep it, and certainly don’t throw it in the donate bag (someone one other end of sorting will just be the one to have to get rid of it)

For your hats and coats and boots – Go through the same thing. For those items that will still fit next year and are in good shape, store them in a clear bin and label it.

For your snow shovel and sleds and skies.  Ski racks on your garage wall would be ideal.  The same for the snow shovel if you have the space.  Look UP in your garage. Use your wall space.  If you have rafters in your garage… use those for storage!

8 Easy Steps to Transferring The Clothes

1) Get your supplies ready. White (donate) and black (trash) trash bags, sharpie
marker, labels -sticky address labels work great, bins (clear are best).

2) Go through the drawers & closets. Pull out each piece of clothing and evaluate it quickly.

* Will it fit someone in the family in the future? (If not dontate)
*  Is it in any condition to save? (If not then throw away, don’t donate clothes
that are torn, stained or are better for rags)
* Will the next child wear it? Was it worn at all this season? (Do they like it?)

3) Make piles

* Save for next year
* Donate (white bag)
* Trash (black bag)

4) Get out the summer clothes from storage.

5) Go through the new season clothes and do the same thing as you put them away in
the kids drawers. Make sure they will fit your child this year and it is
something they will wear.

6) I prefer using clear bins if possible. Get ones that fit your space to store and latch closed. They will go from season to season. Now for really long clothing storage, you might want to look into another form (but I don’t suggest long term clothing store of any one item …usually)

7) Take the bins you have for next year and be sure to label them.  The labels don’t have to be fancy printed out labels!  Just get something you can see clearly and you can peel off or stick over for next season.
Put either sex or child’s name, season and size on each label. For instance, Boy – Summer – Size 10

8) Your donate bags can be taken to friends who can use them, sold at a garage sale or resale
shop or taken to a facility such as Good Will, but get them out of your house as soon as possible.

We have so much cold winter gear, that just putting it away or giving it away makes you feel less cluttered doesn’t it?

I’d love to see how you clear out your winter clutter!  Blog about them and then come back and

link it to my Organizing Mission Link party – Mission Spring Cleaning !!

I LOVE your comments!!

Teenage Rooms – Where to start?

Usually the first step is to find the floor!

Usually teens (like most of us) have too much “stuff”. There is more stuff than places to put the stuff – so it is easier to just throw it on the floor. Keep in mind this isn’t always the case. My oldest son (at home) has plenty of storage space…but stuff is still on the floor – but he could still stand to declutter again.

Starting at the Beginning means starting with Sorting

Be armed with Black trash bags (trash) and white trash bags (donate).

Then remember your sorting basics.  Don’t spend more time on each item than about 5-10 seconds.  You don’t want to start reminiscing or you will never get the job done.  If they still have all kinds of stuffed animals or toys from their childhood (and they are teens)..help them pick out a couple special ones to keep (if they want to keep any). Take pictures of others if they are having a hard time deciding or not sure about getting rid of things.

If there are clothes that you need to keep to pass down to other children in your family. I suggest clear bins (so you can see what is in them) and be sure to label them well.

Work with them and have them decide: Make paper sorting cards to help remember what to do with their things.

1) Keep – Do I LOVE it? Do I WEAR it? Do I USE it? Does it FIT?
2) Donate – I DON’T like it and will not wear it, It DOESN’T fit, I DON’T use it.
3) Move – It doesn’t BELONG in my Bedroom
4) Storage - This can be season sports supplies or things they need to keep but don’t use but once or twice a year.
5) Trash – It is trash, broken, torn or worn out

Let them just make piles (they love piles anyway right?)  on the floor for the different categories.  If there is not floor space to begin with. I suggest piling everything in one big pile and then going through it.

But that is Special…I can’t Throw it out!!

This is the statement I hear time and time again. I have to say that I am not immune to it either. There are always things that are special from our loved ones, that we do not want to part with. I am not saying you have to part with all of it either. But there needs to be a limit to what you keep.
The problem lies when people can’t get rid of any of it. If it isn’t something that you are able to have out and enjoy to remember those who gave it to us, owned it before us or made it…then why keep it?
I will tell you what my husband said to me just today as we were going through a box of his departed fathers belongings…(I posed the same question to him). He said,….”So that I can keep it packed in a box and every 10 years or so go through it and remember it.” But really…think about it. Is that really worth the space it may be taking up?
I suppose if you have the extra storage space for it…that would be fine, but many of us do not have the space.
It is the memories we want and cherish usually more than the actual item.

So what do you do?
1) Evaluate how important it REALLY is.
a) Do you love it? Or do you feel “obligated” to keep it?
b) Can you use it or display it?
c) Is it valuable?
d) Do you have room for it?

2) If you decide to keep it you need to decide:
a) How can I use it?
b) Do I have room to display it?
c) Do I have room to store it?
d) If I think its worth something, then how will I get that value out of it?

3) If you decide to store it you need to decide:
a) Where?
b) Why?
c) How will this benefit me in this box? (Limit yourself to 1 box per family member)
d) Does it bring a positive memory? Let go of things that bring a negative memory.

How can I keep the memories without keeping the item? Here are some ideas.
1) Take pictures of it. Works for artwork too, pose your child with their pictures & take a picture of them.
2) Take small items and use in a display or shadowbox or display cabinet.
3) Pictures can be made into jewelry. Here is an Etsy site that I think is great.
4) Make it into a quilt. (Watch for an upcoming review and giveaway of one of these!)
5) Make a memory notebook or album. You can use pictures or small items in it.

You do not have to have the item to have the memory.

Hoarders

Hoarding….What is it all About?

Did any of you watch the new show on A&E (Mondays at 10pm est).  It is called appropriately enough…”Hoarders”.
It gives the real life picture of what a hoarding house looks like….the thought process that the hoarders go through and their reasoning in why they “need” to keep their “stuff” and how they get rid of it…or do not get rid of it.  This is real life (from what I can tell) and shows the real emotions of these people. They get very anxious when people try to throw their things away if they have not made the decision themselves.

Hoarding. This is an Emotional Problem

This is an emotional problem.  There needs to be a psych. Dr. involved and helping to treat the person for the changes to stay in effect.

The picture above is a garage.  If you will notice that the boxes almost touch the garage door hardware on the ceiling….yes that is the ceiling! This is a woman I worked with last year. She is a hoarder…and knows it. She has books on organizing and is determined to get out of the mess she is in.  She has a very limited budget ….a disabled husband, and no real help.  She wants to move into a 600 sq ft house that her son (deceased) used to live in. Her house is a 4 bedroom home with basement and garage full. It would be cool for her to be on a show like that and get the physical help she needs.

But I love hearing what these people are saying….because I feel like I have heard most of it out of the mouth of my client.  They have a reason for each thing they have and have a hard time giving it up.

Hoarding is a serious emotional issue…it is not just lazy people.  Would love for you to see the Chaotic Kitten of Dehoarding Diary.  She is a hoarder who is decluttering her house and blogging on it. She has before and after photos. Love her and so proud of her.

You also might be interested in these pasts posts of mine:

What if I’m a Hoarder? What do I do?

Hoarding

Dehoarding Diary Works it Out

Office Make Over

Office Before and After

The dreaded “before” pictures of an office.

Then looking the other direction in this room you finally see the desk.

This client is a home builder and his business took off so fast several years ago that when he took over a bedroom in their home, they did not have time to clean it out first. Things just kept accumulating. He brought in pieces from a home (2 pantries and kitchen counter unit) thinking it would help him…but there was no organization in their use.

The AFTER Pictures:

This is the same space as in the very top photo. We took out all the kitchen counters and pantries. He still was going to frame the photos of the houses he built, he just put them up for an idea.
They painted the room once we got it cleared out. Looks wonderful.

This client built the table that sides up to his desk. He needed something to lay out house plans and be able to bring clients up to the other side to go over them with him. He had to use his dining room table before because he wouldn’t take anyone up to his office.

He wanted something for his house plans. He wanted to be able to lay out the house plans and not have them rolled up for the ones he was working on presently. This was kind of an unconventional use of these cubby units, but the actual house plan units were very expensive. I gave him the options and he loves this plan.

We also used the closet for storage. He needed house plans archived. We came up with the inexpensive idea to stack these boxes on top of one another to make up an economical solution to that problem.

Would love to see your “before” and “after” pictures of your offices.
Having problems with it? I am doing my live show tonight on office organization.

Zwaggle – It’s a Free, Green and Great way to Declutter!

Hey All – I think this is a wonderful service!! Kudos for those responsible.
I know that I use Good Will a lot for myself and my clients. I have some clients who will use E-bay. I think this is easier than a garage sale, you can benefit from it by then being able to turn around and purchase things you may need for your kids now – and it is all without money! Cool
*************************************************************************************
Do you have a bag of donate items you need to get rid of? Zwaggle It
Do you have clothes that do not fit your children anymore? Zwaggle it!
Do you have a nice purse you can’t use? Zwaggle it!

Do you need clothes that do fit your children? Find it on Zwaggle!
Looking for a stroller? Find it on Zwaggle!

But guess what????? You don’t have to use money for it…you buy and sell your items using Zwaggle Points or zoints (points you earn for joining Zwaggle, “selling” your items, referring friends to Zwaggle).
It cost nothing to join and nothing but zoints to “buy” items. The only money that is used is for shipping the item if it is not local.
This is a great way to be “green” and keep the items that you no longer need out of landfills.
For those of you who have a hard time decluttering, this is new incentive. Not only do you know that your items will go to people who can use them, but you can earn zoints for yourself and then go shopping for items that you truly need.

You can even donate your zoints to charities they have available and help others even more.
Go to the Zwaggle site and watch the video that is at the top of the home page right beside the picture. It explains it very simply.
Be sure to tell them I sent you when you join!!

Hoarding

Are You A Hoarder?

Hoarding is more than just a messy house. It is a real psychological problem. There are usually a few things that help define hoarding.

1) Buying or picking up free items and refusal to part with them or even move them. Many times they are of useless or have limited value and usually aren’t being used for what they are intended.
2)The person’s home is so cluttered that you can use the spaces as they are intended.
3) significant limitations in functioning and distress over their situation they are in because of the hoarding.

I recently saw a show on TV called “How Clean is Your House”. They had a contest looking for the messiest house. Most of the pictures if not all of the pictures they showed for contestants were that of hoarders. Not one time during the show (unless I missed it) did they mention hoarding. The “winners” of the contest were a mother and her two daughters that had a terrible hoarding problem. The entire house was packed full of junk. The mother was the worse and they showed many times her refusal to part with something and her stress over the situation. I am hoping that they also got them all some counseling along with their new house make over so that they will not fall back into their same patterns,but they never mentioned anything like that. It was very disturbing to me that they never mentioned hoarding on the show at all or talked about these people needing some real treatment.

Treatment

Treatment is key to making a change for these people. Counseling should be for sure and many times medication is also used in therapy. That along with help from a professional organizer can make dramatic changes in a hoarders life.
Hoarders want to change (most of the time)and many times try on their own and fail and then they fall into deeper depressions and give up even more and their situations can become life threatening.
When we work with clients who are hoarders we need to assess to what level their hoarding is. Is there a place to sit in their house? Are there pathways in the rooms to get to things? Are doorways blocked? Are there pets in the house and if there is, is there animal urine and feces? (Many times animals can’t get to a door to be let out)

Hoarding is a very big problem and should not be looked at as just a “messy house”.
If you think you are a hoarder you can go to this web site and look at the “clutter hoarding scale” and evaluate yourself. www.nsgcd.org (National Study Group for Chronic Disorganization)
Just as there is help for other problems, there is help for hoarders and they should be no means ever feel like their situation is hopeless.

Disclosure: I am not an expert on hoarding, nor do I claim to be. Please follow up with the NSGCD if you feel you have a problem or know someone who does.