Home Organizing Challenges

Top 4 Organizational Challenges Most People Face

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Do you find it hard to keep your home organized? You’re definitely not alone. Each person faces different challenges when trying to organize or declutter spaces. The problem is when these obstacles have the power to discourage you and make you give up. If you fear that’s your case, you need to recognize your personal barrier in order to overcome it. To help you in this task, we made a list of the top challenges most people face when trying to organize their houses. Take a look and find out what’s preventing you from having a neat, organized home:

Lack of self-discipline

When it comes to accomplishing goals, one of the biggest problems people face is the lack of discipline. Having the willpower to keep a house organized and decluttered isn’t easy for anyone. But remember: it’s all a matter of attitude and dedication! It’s hard to organize your home if you put it off because you want to go out or watch TV. The same goes when you don’t resist the urge to purchase unnecessary things that will only clutter your house. To be successful, you have to be committed to your goal and try to take frequent steps.

Having too much stuff

It’s nearly impossible to get organized if you live in a one-bedroom home but own enough stuff to fill an entire mansion! But don’t feel bad about it – truth is, most of us have too much stuff that we don’t need or use. The solution here is quite evident: make a purge and get rid of the things you don’t need. You can start by emptying each room, assessing the items you own, and deciding whether you should keep them, toss them or donate them.

Little Spare Time To Home Organize

Little spare time

When your life is already busy, it can feel impossible to find time to clean and declutter. However, you can try to make some progress a few minutes at a time. Slowly build decluttering into your daily routine. For instance, when you check the mail and get an advertisement that doesn’t interest you, toss it immediately instead of leaving it on the counter. The more you declutter, the easier your home will be to maintain and manage!

Feeling overwhelmed

Feeling overwhelmed about decluttering is very common. The best way to deal with it is to stop looking at the amount of work ahead as a whole and break it down into small, bite-sized projects. Another great way to start decluttering when you’re feeling swamped is by starting at the door and working clockwise around the room. You can do as much or as little as feels comfortable at a time. Accept that the outcome doesn’t need to be perfect, and feel good about what you’ve accomplished!

No matter where you are on your decluttering journey, clearing the clutter will likely feel hard at one time or another. To make it even easier to break the work down into small, manageable tasks, you can hire the help of a professional. At ClutterBGone, we provide personalized organizing services to help you declutter and achieve a clean, organized, and peaceful environment. Get in touch with our team of experts, and we will be delighted to offer you a free consultation!

Storage Solutions for Small Homes

Storage Solutions for Small Homes

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Do you have a tiny house and don’t know how to make it functional? Creativity is the answer to many of life’s problems, and when it comes to smaller homes, it is absolutely key. When space is limited, it’s essential to be inventive and resourceful about what you do have by making the most of your square footage. Follow these tips and tricks to organize your space and make the most of it:

Hidden storage spaces

If you want your place to look clean (or even minimalist), you can use hidden storage that keeps things out of sight. Furniture tricks, like a sofa or bed with storage underneath, can stylishly disguise items you’d rather not display. These spaces are usually great to store blankets, pillows, sheets, and all your bedroom essentials.

Double duty furniture

Pieces that can work in a variety of ways are a wonderful fit for smaller houses. Home offices, for example, can be a bit tricky to assemble out of limited square footage. However, if you strategically place a bookshelf with desk space and a small stool, you can have a little office without taking up too much space.

Maximize the area above the cabinets

Put the dead space between the ceiling and cabinet top to good use! Buy some nice boxes and baskets and fill them with all sorts of items. But remember: don’t put too much stuff in there, as it can very easily veer into cluttered territory.

Use plenty of hooks

Hooks and hangers are the backbones of an organized tiny home. Super-strong magnetic hooks make a great solution for the kitchen, for example, as they don’t require tools or drilling holes in your walls. You can also grab space on the back of a door and place more hooks and hangers for coats, hats, umbrellas, and other small accessories.

Storage Solutions for Small Spaces

Open up storage

Cabinet doors take up square feet that may not be available in small spaces. If you get the opportunity to choose your furniture, opt for narrow open shelves to gain extra surfaces to store frequently used items, such as plates. To keep the shelves looking neat, be strategic about what you store and try to leave plenty of open space between stacks of items.

Vertical shoe storage

It might not be the most attractive solution, but over-the-door shoe racks get the job done and use dead space in an effective way. You don’t have to put one of these on every door – your closet doors are probably enough!

Key pieces of furniture to arrange the spaces

In small houses, often the living room is also the kitchen, dining room, or even bedroom. If you want to organize your spaces strategically, you can select block furniture and handy storage to divide them. For example, a freestanding island can be a great option to divide a kitchen and dining area. Placing units behind a sofa is another genius way to maximize your storage space.

If you have a small house and don’t know how to maximize its potential, we’re here to help! At ClutterBGone, we provide many levels of organizing services depending on your needs, lifestyle, and budget ranging from coaching to hands-on organizing and maintenance plans to help you achieve a clean, organized, and peaceful environment. Get in touch with our team of experts, and we will be delighted to offer you a free consultation!

Stacked Linens

Organize Your Linen Closet With These Tips!

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Who wouldn’t love to have a linen closet worthy of a home design magazine? Everyone! But let’s be honest, your linen closet is probably overflowing with years – or maybe even with decades worth of accumulated bedding, sheets, tablecloths, and towels.

Say goodbye to your teetering stacks of towels and piles of sheets. We will show you how to get your linen closet magazine-worthy with the following tips.

Take Everything Out

Most of the time, things like sheets and towels get shoved in a closet to be dealt with at a later date. So the best place to start when organizing a linen closet is to remove everything and start purging. The process is quite simple: get rid of the linens that haven’t been used or touched in years, but make sure you keep seasonal linen staples.

Sort Everything By Type

Once you’ve decided what to keep and toss, it’s time to sort the items into categories. There are many ways to do so, but we recommend storing linens by type and room. For example, put all the same size sheets together, and divide them by bedroom. Like matching your socks after a load of laundry, make as many towels and sheet sets as you can.

 Invest In Baskets And Bins

Use baskets, bins, and bags to store your linen and any related items. These recipients are a great choice for organizing your linen and making the closet look clean and clutter-free. Moreover, these recipients come in all sizes and can fit neatly on any shelf. If you want a low-cost option, you can also install adjustable shelf dividers to keep your sheets, towels, and other linens separate.

Organized Linen Closet

Find The Right Method To Fold Your Linen

Choosing how to fold and store linen can be tricky, and it really depends on how much room you have. Our advice? When it comes to towels, generally the best thing is to use the rolling method. As for sheets, the best way to store them is inside the matching pillowcase. For larger, bulkier bedding or thick sheets, you can try a vacuum-sealed, airtight storage bag to shrink them.

Donate The Things You Don’t Want

Rather than finding a spot for the hideous towel set your aunt gifted you ten years ago, donate it instead. And this also applies to towels and any sort of linen you don’t use anymore. Give it a good airing and wash if it needs a bit of a refresh, and find it a new home.

Having an organized linen closet is wonderful for many reasons – for starters, it helps relieve stress because everyone knows where to find what they need, and makes your home feel more organized, clean, and harmonious.

But if you reckon you need some extra help dealing with your clutter, you can always hire a professional service to assist you. At Clutter Be Gone, we offer you a free telephone consultation so that you can tell us all about your goals for a clean and comfortable environment. Get in touch with us and learn more about our services!

Organize Your Deep Freezer

5 Quick Tips to Help You Organize Your Deep Freezer

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Summer is finally here, with plenty of colorful berries, tomatoes, summer squashes, peas, peppers, and rhubarbs to liven up our meals. But if you know you’ll probably struggle to eat all of summer’s bounty, there’s an easy way to keep it for months to come: freeze it.

But before you engage in this labor, you need to make sure your freezer is properly clean and organized.

Organizing a deep freezer is not always easy, but if you neglect this task, you’ll soon begin to have to dig down in the abyss for your frozen berries, which can get very frustrating.

In this article, we’ve collected a series of fundamental tips to help you make the most of your freezer and keep it properly organized for the whole family. Take note:

Everything out!

When was the last time you took everything out of your freezer? Probably a long time ago, right? So this is the moment to do so. Take out all the items and open up every container to do a thorough inspection. If anything is freezer-burnt, spoiled, or just plain old, throw it away or compost it. Then, you should also clean it (we recommend using a mixture of warm water with baking soda or vinegar) and dry the interior with a clean dish cloth.

Organize your food into categories

Now that everything is out on the counter, here’s the first golden rule: always group your frozen food in categories. This way, it will make it easier for you to keep track of what you have and easily access the ingredients/meal you need on each occasion. You can, for example, use categories such as ground meats, frozen vegetables and fruit, prepped freezer meals, or homemade soups.

Frozen Fruit and Vegetables

Separate the items with containers

If you don’t use any type of storage container when organizing your deep freezer, you’ll quickly have a jumbled mess. To makes things more manageable, use a series of easy-to-move bags and containers to separate the food. Needless to say, you should avoid plastic containers as plastic is prone to cracking under freezing temperatures.

Label everything

So that everyone can easily access what they need, you should also label the containers and bags with tags. You can use freezer-safe sticky labels or a simple Sharpie marker, which works well on all kinds of packaging, including glass.

Keep track of your stash

And lastly, always keep track of your stash. You can do it with a whiteboard attached to the wall by the freezer, with an app on your phone, or simply by printing an inventory list template. Make sure that you take off the list anything you consume and that you add in it all the frozen food you buy and the items you freeze at home.

Whether you’re stocking up on seasonal fruits and vegetables, cooking in big batches, or making your own convenience foods to eat at busier times, one thing’s for sure: keeping your freezer clean and organized is key. If you need help with it don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’re here to help!

Organizing For Summer Vacation

Organize Your Summer Vacation With These 5 Tips

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Ah, the long-awaited summer vacation!

Whether you’re planning a major trip to another country, heading to the beach, or going on a family road trip, an organized approach to travel results in less stress and less wasted time. After all, you wouldn’t want to go and realize in the middle of the trip that you forgot to bring essentials! For a relaxed and fun-filled trip, you need to plan and organize your tasks in advance. In this article, we will share a few unmissable tips that will make the preparations run smoothly.

Research Your Destination

If you’re traveling to a place you’ve never been before, this is a mandatory step. Ask your friends and family for suggestions. Purchase a travel book and visit local websites to check out locations and snag great deals on travel, places to stay, dining, activities, and more. A few hours of planning are worth the effort if everything runs smoothly!

Set A Realistic Budget

Keeping your finances organized is also essential, and that’s why we recommend that you set a vacation budget and do your best to stick to it. This includes any money you will spend while you are on your trip and traveling to and from your trip. Finally, we also recommend you get informed on the refund policies of your airline, hotel, booking site, travel agent, and so on.

Prepare Your Itinerary

The next thing you’ll need to organize is the trip itineraries, which include transportation, lodging, and activities. To do so, you should start by defining the sites you want to visit and the must-do activities you want to try, and then book the transportation and accommodation accordingly. Many fantastic apps can help you with this step, such as Wanderlog or TripHobo.

Organize All Documents

Depending on where you are traveling and how you are traveling, you will need different documents and paperwork. From plane tickets to passports, you will need to prepare these beforehand. Don’t forget to check your passport (if it is about to expire, you need to renew it as soon as possible) and health insurance cards, as well as to purchase any tickets and passes you might need.

Packing For Summer Vacation

Start Packing – and be practical about it!

Whether you are going on a three-day getaway or a month-long vacation, the more things you pack, the more the chances of problems popping up. Keep it simple by making a checklist with the indispensable items for your trip, from bathing suits to medicine. Pick clothes that are easy to wash and combine, and avoid taking things you don’t usually use. And remember: the best way to pack is to roll up your clothes. This technique will avoid wrinkling, free up more space, and keep the bag organized.

Lastly, don’t forget that the best time to focus on summer organization is before everything gets too busy. Start planning your vacations at the very start of the summer – or even before that – and set realistic goals. Summer vacation can be pretty stressful, especially with kids, but with these tips, we’re sure everything will be much more relaxed and enjoyable!

Organized Kitchen Drawer

Top Organizing Tips From the Professionals

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When it’s time to declutter, it can be hard to know where to start and what to keep. Fortunately, professional organizers have developed strategies that can make the task less daunting. Read the following sections to learn organizing tips from the professionals.

 

Start Now and Start Small

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re thinking about organizing your entire home. When the task seems like more than you can handle, you’re more likely to put it off until later. A good strategy is to start small and start right away.

 

Instead of tackling the whole kitchen, for example, try this organizing tip – tackle one drawer at a time. Take everything out of that drawer and donate or give away items that you have not used in the last year. You’ll enjoy a sense of accomplishment and your kitchen will be organized and easier to use before you know it.

 

Declutter First

When you’re feeling inspired and ready to declutter, it’s tempting to shop for cute boxes, stylish baskets and a trendy label maker. However, professional organizers strongly recommend decluttering before you do anything else. Otherwise, you may just end up storing your clutter in cute containers. The best strategy is to finish sorting and purging first, so that you’ll know how much “stuff” you have and how many containers you really need.

 

Organize Paperwork

There are many tools available for reducing those stacks and boxes of paperwork. For example, you can scan receipts and other important documents and store them digitally on your computer or the cloud. Is unwanted mail piling up every day? A great way to cut down is to unsubscribe from print catalogs and opt for online versions.

 

You may want to keep some paper items, such as bank statements or tax records. Keep records from the past six years for these items and shred the rest.

storage container

Get Creative With Containers

When you’ve finished decluttering, it’s time to get creative. There are many affordable storage options that will help you stay organized. One professional tip is to repurpose boxes and bins that you already have. You won’t have to spend money on new containers or bring home more items. It’s also an environmentally friendly alternative to buying more containers.

 

If you prefer to buy new storage containers, look for baskets. Available in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colors, they can be a stylish, creative storage option.

 

Deal With Digital Clutter

While you’re at it, remember to declutter your digital life, too! Is your inbox full of emails that you’ll never read or reference? Now is the time to click that “unsubscribe” link and delete all those unwanted emails. Create folders and file only the emails that you plan to reference.

 

Could your bookmarks use some organizing and decluttering? Delete bookmarks to pages you haven’t visited in the past year, and organize the remaining bookmarks into folders.

 

Get Support

Does your decluttering project still seem like more than you can handle? The experts at ClutterBGone are here to support you with professional organizing experience. If you’d like a free consultation, get in touch today!

Professional Organizing vs Home Staging

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Although these two experts are useful when selling a home, home stagers and professional organizers have distinct differences. Understanding how they differ can help you to determine which one is the best for your needs.

Organizing vs. Showcasing Items

The main difference between the two involves their purpose. While an organizer declutters the living space to liberate the owner of too many possessions, a home stager rents furniture and decor to ultimately get the owner more money from the property sale.

To achieve their purpose, each expert goes about it differently. A professional organizer works with the individual to declutter and reimagine existing items, potentially giving them away or finding where to best store them at home.

On the other hand, a stager adds items to the house to improve its appearance in the eyes of a potential buyer. Furthermore, these things that the stager brings in are not typically unique to the house but could go in the interiors of numerous properties for sale.

The organizer, meanwhile, would help you determine what furniture and accessories flow well in your specific space, based on what you currently own. They will also suggest what needs packing away.

professional organizing vs home staging

Getting the Best of Both Worlds

Obviously, both professions have a great purpose. They are not mutually exclusive, either.

Many people work with both professional organizers and stagers to get their home on the market faster and sell it at a price they are satisfied with. Our Realtor’s Program focuses on providing real estate agents with the access to our organizing services at a discounted rate and includes a voucher for the future.

This partnership enables those who are selling their homes to get the expert help necessary for a smooth transition onto the market. Given the stress commonly involved in putting a home up for sale, the Realtor’s program provides support at the right time.

From compassionate guidance when organizing to helping sort and box, as well as coordinating pickup of donations and junk collection, our professional organizers provide a great help with a listing. We have the skill to overcome challenges and encourage new ways of looking at how to organize the home for the homeowner.

Also, after the sale, when the homeowner is ready to move, the ClutterBGone team can help another terrific way. We can pack up the home efficiently in as little as 1-3 days. This means that the homeowner won’t have to live around boxes for weeks.

Want us to help unpack and set up the new home too in an organized way? Yes, we can do that too!

Have an Easier, Better Process

Selling a house and moving is a lot for anyone. Rather than going it alone, reach out as a homeowner or realtor to ClutterBGone for an easier journey.

We have the experience and understanding to help you through the process, based on our insights and tips learned over the years. Reach out to our friendly organizing team today to find out more about how this experience can help you.

hiring professional organizer

How to Declutter Your Home for Summer in Toronto and the GTA

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Summer in the GTA is short. Between the first properly warm weekend in May and the cool evenings that arrive in September, there is a narrow window when the patio is usable, the bikes should be out, and weekends belong to the backyard or the cottage rather than the to-do list.

When a home is overloaded, that window closes quietly. Not through one dramatic moment, but through a hundred small frictions: the beach afternoon that starts forty minutes late, the garage too full to hold a car, the deck that has become storage. By August, a season you were looking forward to has largely been spent managing your belongings instead of enjoying your home.

It does not take a whole-home overhaul to change that. A handful of well-chosen spaces do most of the work, and summer happens to be one of the easier times of year to tackle them.

What Clutter Quietly Takes From the Season

Time you do not get back

A widely cited survey by the location app Pixie found that the average person spends roughly two and a half days a year searching for misplaced belongings, and that more than 60 per cent have been late to work or school as a result. Households were estimated to spend around $2.7 billion annually simply replacing things they could not find.

In summer, that cost lands directly on the moments you were most looking forward to. The swim goggles nobody can locate. The second sleeping bag bought because the first one is somewhere in the basement.

Rooms you have stopped using

Garages become storage and stop holding cars. Patios and decks fill with things that were only ever meant to sit there temporarily. Basements that could be the coolest, most comfortable room in the house become the room nobody wants to enter. It is square footage you pay for every month, quietly withdrawn from service.

The hesitation before saying yes

This one is harder to name. When a home feels overwhelming, spontaneous invitations get harder. The barbecue gets postponed. Friends get met somewhere else instead. It is rarely about how the house would look to anyone else — it is about the weight of knowing what is behind the door, and how much energy it would take to deal with before anyone arrived.

Seasonal gear that defeats you

Patio cushions, coolers, bikes, sports equipment, garden tools, camping gear. All of it needs to come out in May and go back in October. Without a system, each changeover swallows a weekend, and by the third year most households simply stop bothering — which is how garages end up holding four seasons at once.

Where to Start

You do not need to reorganize your entire home to get your summer back. These five spaces deliver most of the benefit.

  • One outdoor space first. Reclaim the patio, deck or balcony before anything indoors. It pays you back the same evening, and the visible progress makes the rest feel possible.
  • The entryway. Summer moves through the door constantly — sandals, towels, sunscreen, hats, sports gear. A landing zone with a defined home for each category prevents the pile that otherwise builds by mid-June.
  • The garage. The highest-impact space in most GTA homes, because it holds the things summer actually needs and it is where clutter accumulates fastest.
  • Seasonal storage. Give summer gear one clearly labelled home so next May takes an hour rather than a weekend.
  • The kids’ gear. Outgrown bikes, life jackets and sports equipment turn over faster than anything else in a household. A short annual pass keeps it manageable.

Why Summer Works Well for This

Longer daylight gives you more usable hours. Garages, sheds and outdoor areas are comfortable to work in rather than freezing. Donation centres see heavy seasonal turnover, so items move on quickly. And unlike a January decluttering push, you get to enjoy the result during the months it matters most.

There is also a practical rhythm to it. Summer sits between the spring changeover and the autumn one, which makes it a natural moment to set up systems that will still be working when the patio furniture goes back into storage.

How ClutterBGone Helps

Our team brings more than 25 years of combined professional organizing expertise to homes across Toronto and the GTA, and we are proud members of The Professional Organizers of Canada.

We work alongside you, at your pace, with no judgment about how a space reached its current state. Most homes we walk into belong to capable people who have been busy, or who have absorbed a move, a renovation, a new baby, or a parent downsizing. Clutter is usually the residue of a full life rather than a failure of character.

We help you decide what stays, we build practical systems suited to how your household actually runs, and we handle the physical work of sorting, containing and labelling. Where things are leaving, we can connect you with trusted donation and removal partners so nothing becomes another postponed decision. Because we design for maintenance rather than appearance, the systems tend to hold long after we have gone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is summer a good time to declutter, or should I wait until fall?

Summer is one of the better windows. The daylight is longer, garages and outdoor spaces are pleasant to work in, and donation centres are active. Most importantly, you get to enjoy the result during the season it affects. That said, the best time is whenever you have the energy — waiting for a perfect moment is one of the most common reasons a project never starts at all.

How long does it take to organize a garage?

Most residential garages can be sorted, systemized and organized in one to two sessions. The variable is rarely the size of the space. It is the number of decisions waiting inside, particularly where items connect to a move, an inheritance, or a project that never happened. We adjust the pace to suit, and there is no pressure to resolve everything in a single day.

Where can I donate household items in Toronto and the GTA?

There are good options across the region, including Habitat for Humanity ReStore for furniture and building materials, Diabetes Canada and the Canadian Red Cross for clothing and household goods, and Furniture Bank for gently used furniture that goes directly to families setting up a home. We can point you toward the right fit for what you are letting go, and coordinate pickups where they are available.

How do I get the rest of my family on board?

Start with shared spaces rather than anyone’s personal belongings, and start with a space where progress will be obvious — the entryway or the patio usually works. Momentum persuades far better than argument. It also helps enormously to have someone outside the household guiding the process, which is often why families call us in the first place.

Do you work throughout the GTA?

Yes. We work with homeowners, families, seniors and small business owners across Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, including Richmond Hill, Aurora, Markham, Vaughan, Thornhill and the surrounding communities.

Make the Most of the Season

Toronto summers are too short to spend looking for things. A home that supports the season rather than obstructing it is an achievable goal, and it usually takes far less than people expect.

Contact ClutterBGone to discuss your organizing needs. Let our experienced team help lift the weight off your shoulders and create a calmer, more organized space you can actually enjoy this summer.

organizing for summer

Organize Your Home Now and Enjoy Your Summer

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Rather than continually thinking how great it would be to finally clear away the clutter at home, make now the time when you decide to do so. Otherwise, you risk spending excess time stressing about disorganization rather than enjoying the summer in a home you love.

Set Your Priorities

While you likely have more than one project you want to do around the house, it’s best to pick one and see it through rather than risking feeling overwhelmed by doing multiple things. For example, if you want to organize the kitchen cupboards better and declutter your bedroom closet, pick the one you think is more pressing and see it through. After that, move onto the second project.

Do a Bit, and Do So Regularly

Rather than spending a beautiful summer day indoors, spend up to half an hour on the organizing project, and then enjoy the rest of your day. Plan to do this several times a week so that you get a bit done each time, slowly progressing toward your goal.

Taking this approach will help prevent you from feeling resentful of the clutter for taking away your summer fun. Even 10 minutes de-cluttering part of a room is a great use of time and won’t take away your time with family and friends this summer.

Take Time to Rest

After finishing that first home organizational project, don’t feel like you must move immediately onto the next one. Instead, relax and take time to enjoy the added space you have after clearing away clutter. When you are ready, move onto the next thing to tidy up. After all, summer is the time of year when you want to have moments or even entire days without an agenda.

organizing for summer

Get the Kids Involved

Your children are likely not doing schoolwork right now, which means that they’re more active around the house and creating more messes than usual. If so, include them in your efforts to maintain a tidy house over the summer months.

Ask them to pick up their toys after they’re done playing with them, for example. Explain to them that it would help you if they clean their bedroom and keep it that way too; they’re more likely to do so when they realize that it will help you.

Get the Patio Setup

If you’re not planning to spend a lot of time indoors because of the great weather ahead, then clean the patio and get the outdoor furniture set up on it right away. Then you’ll be able to enjoy it for the rest of the season.

Assess if anything needs replacing or if the furniture needs painting. As well, if you have a BBQ, then give a deep clean so that the grill is ready for use.

Taking that First Step

Probably the toughest part of organizing the home for summer or any other time of the year is figuring out how to get to the goal, whether it is downsizing a room, figuring out a better filing system for the home office, tidying a closet, or something else.

Our professional organizers at ClutterBGone are happy to help you identify an objective and create a plan to meet it, as well as working with you to achieve the goal in a way that you find comfortable. Contact us today to learn more.

decluttering minus overwhelm

5 Decluttering Tips Minus the Overwhelm

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If you have ever started to declutter your home or office, you might have quickly felt overwhelmed by the process. That feeling can be so strong that you procrastinate on the project, which only adds to the stress of it. As for what exactly is overwhelming you, it could be that you don’t feel you have the time to do so, that certain possessions bring up strong emotions or several other reasons.

To help you declutter a room, closet, or another physical space effectively without feeling overwhelmed, these five decluttering tips can be useful.

Decluttering Tip 1 Go Small

Start with a small area for your project. While you might like the idea of tackling the entire home interior in a day, that’s not a reasonable goal.

Instead, start with part of a room or even a shelf. Make that the goal for the day or even for the week. Why put exact pressure on yourself?

Decluttering Tip 2 Make as Clear Plan

Decide what you will declutter and when (day and time). Determine how long each day you will spend on this project if it extends more than a day.

Also, determine what you intend to do in the space and what you will do with the possessions you remove from there. By setting a plan, you are less likely to feel overcome with emotion that you lose motivation and stop midway.

Decluttering Tip 3 Deciding Where to Start

If you’re not sure where to declutter first in the home, begin with a spot that will likely have the most impact. It could be the entryway that people see as soon as you open the front door, for example, or the bedroom so that you can enjoy a calmer environment that is conducive to deep sleep.

When you use this approach, you are more likely to see a big difference right away. Having that positive result will uplift and encourage you to continue to tackle messes throughout the rest of the house.

decluttering tips

Decluttering Tip 4 Talk with Your Partner

If decluttering seems hard because your partner is not supportive of your decluttering efforts, then it is best to speak openly with them. It may be hurtful that you’re open to clearing out many of your possessions, yet they don’t want to part with any of theirs.

Recognize that just as you likely needed time to conclude that decluttering is in your best interests, your partner, too, will benefit from time. If they aren’t ready to part with something, respect that. Suggest other items you would appreciate them tossing and explain why.

Decluttering Tip 5 There’s No Need to Be Perfect

In fact, there’s no such thing as perfection. So, avoid overwhelming yourself by trying to create a room that looks like it would be pictured in a magazine.

Those photos feature staged interiors, which means they are not everyday living spaces. Be realistic about your family’s needs and recognize that you are making a positive difference by doing this project.

If You Still Feel Overwhelmed

While the tips above will help you feel less overwhelmed as you declutter the home, but you may still feel there are obstacles. Thankfully, you’re not alone. Our professional organizers provide experienced assistance in a comfortable, supportive way. Reach out today to learn more about the process.