Company’s Coming! Decluttering your home

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home organizing

 

Company’s coming! What a great way to make sure you are organized! These words strike fear and get you in gear.  It’s time to tackle the guest room and the dining room.  Decluttering your home before company comes creates an inviting and welcoming space for them.  Follow these 5 easy steps to declutter and be ready for visitors.

Guest rooms become storage.  Dining rooms become work areas.  Both are easy spots throughout the year just to drop off bags from the car or other purchases you have not found a home for yet.  Set aside time on your calendar in 2 hour segments for decluttering.  You can get these areas back to their original use easily and efficiently.

 

  • Reset and distribute.  Start by grouping items and then distributing to appropriate spots in your home.  Your kids can help by being runners. You can use a basket or plastic tote to help carry items to where they belong.

 

  • Organize room by room.  Next go room by room and incorporate those items.  This will require some editing and blending of new and already owned items.  Get ready to cast off and donate what you have replaced with newer items.

 

  • Create mobile storage.  If your dining room was used as a craft room, think about storing crafts in 3 drawer sterilite rolling cart. These can be rolled to the garage for storage while your room is being used for holiday dinners.

 

  • Power through paper clutter.  If paper was stashed in your guest room, consolidate it into bags.  Use 15 minute time pockets to power through what you are keeping and what you are discarding.  Once you have culled this down, set up 15 minute periods to file. Powering through paper helps you know what to keep and what to discard.

 

  • Fun and function.  Set your table for your holiday dinner early. It will keep your table from getting cluttered again.

 

  • Freshen up.  Freshen up your guest room with new linens, a small tray of toiletries and mints, and fresh flowers to keep your room ready for guests.

 

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5 Small Starts to Organizing

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getting started organizing with 5 small spots

 

 

I am often asked where to start organizing in a home or office. It just takes starting in a small spot. Here are 5 you can start in to feel successful and motivated.

  • Car glove box! You can easily clean out receipts, old insurance papers and other odds and ends.
  • Silverware drawer! It gets a little crazy sometimes getting utensils back in the right slot. Take a few minutes to sort and clean out.
  • Sock drawer! There are just too many socks sometimes. Match up the socks, and toss the rest. Be brutal!
  • Top drawer of your desk! We just slip papers in there, just too easily.  Spend a few minutes tossing what is old, unused or broken in there, decide what really belongs in this space, distribute the rest, and then you are more productive than ever.
  • Email inbox and processed folder. You don’t have to keep all the emails in your inbox.  Add a subfolder called “processed,” “read,” or whatever you what to name it, for the emails you have read and want to keep.  Keeping your inbox just for incoming mail will be more effective and efficient.

What small stuff do you do to get organized?

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Organizing Your Christmas Decorations

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The holidays have come and gone.   Getting organized for the holidays really depends on organizing your Christmas decorations the year before!  I wanted to share a few of my favorite products in organizing for after the holidays.  These are available at Target, WalMart, Container Store, Stacks and Stacks and more!