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Letting go isn’t easy — but when you allow yourself to say goodbye to books you haven’t read, children’s toys that have been outgrown, and clothing that no longer suits your style — you get more than a tax receipt. When you give, you get…

SATISFACTION: Allowing someone else the pleasure of enjoying your stuff feels good (so does recycling).

SPACE: You will literally regain space…

• Whole drawers can be emptied

• Shelves will no longer bow under the weight of your old textbooks

• Closets will sigh with relief that they’re not overstuffed and cramped

Being able to see your belongings enables you to enjoy and appreciate what you have.

FREEDOM: We are privileged to live in a free society, but some of us are slaves to stuff and the need to acquire more. When you let something go, a wonderful emotional freedom grows.

As a professional organizer, I am privileged to witness people stand straighter, smile more freely, and breathe easier by letting go of things that were holding them back. Releasing physical items from our spaces gives us the freedom to decide what will take its place. Let it be positive memories and new opportunities.

February is the shortest month of the year, but it can also be the most depressing.  It’s cold outside, often gloomy, and really…who wants to get out of bed?!

It’s clear that a psychological tie connects people to the items that they hoard within their home.  Some people develop hoarding tendencies after experiencing a stressful life event that they had difficulty coping with, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, eviction or losing their possessions in a fire, according to The Mayo Clinic.  However, the psychology behind your home lies in how you choose to treat it with color.  Read below to see how colors can affect us both physically and mentally (via Squidoo.com):

Red – Increases enthusiasm, stimulates energy and action, and encourages confidence

Orange – Stimulates activity and appetite, and encourages socialization

Yellow – Mentally stimulating, activates the memory, and encourages communication

Green – Soothing, mentally and physically relaxing, and helps alleviate depression

Blue – Calming and sedate, cooling, and aids in intuition

Purple – Uplifting, calming to the mind and nerves, and encourages creativity

Brown – Stability, a connection with the earth, and offers a sense of orderliness

White – aids mental clarity, encourages us to clear clutter, and enables fresh beginnings

Gray – Unsettling and expectant

Black – Restful emptiness and mysterious, evoking a sense of potential and possibility

So, how do your favorite colors stack up?  What colors are your rooms painted currently? Let the colors be your guide to create an environment that suits your wants and needs.   Once you create the environment that you want, you may gain some new motivation to get organized.  You don’t need to totally redo your house to emit the same feelings; you can just use and/or reuse accent pieces from other areas in your home, like these:

Soft furnishings – Pillows and throws can add a great pop of color and keep you warm and cozy in the cold weather.

Lighting – Try some new lampshades or just switch out the light bulbs.  Soft white bulbs emit a warm yellow-toned light, while daylight bulbs like GE reveal® emit a more natural looking blue-toned light.  Hence, the color on your walls can be affected by whichever type of light bulb that you choose.

Artwork and Picture Frames – Find inexpensive prints from places like IKEA and even less expensive pictures, from your camera!  Put them into colorful frames or if you can’t find one of the right colors, consider spray painting a basic one!

Books – Head to a thrift shop to look for old hardcover books.  Peek under the flaps to see what color the cover is.  Pull together a grouping of books based on the colors you are looking for, it doesn’t matter what the subject matter is!  Organize some flat and some standing for variety on a bookshelf.

Candles – These come in a variety of colors, give off a pleasant scent and a bit of warmth on cold days!

As for me, my home is painted in blues, browns with white trim and I accessorize with those colors as well.  The blue offers me calmness, while the brown offers me a sense of orderliness and finally white encourages me to clear the clutter.  Pretty right-on for an organizer, huh?!