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Happy New Year! Organizing ranks as the second most popular New Year’s resolution – second only to losing weight and getting in shape. Follow my simple suggestion to open up some space in your house for all the new items that came into your life during the holidays; organize your flower vases.

Start by deciding how many flower vases you actually need in your life and where you use them. It’s nice to have one casual vase for those bouquets you pick up at the grocery store (especially during the winter when we yearn for something bright). A beautiful crystal vase is wonderful on the dining room table and another in the family room where you spend so much time during the cold weather. A pretty vase for the guest bedroom is a lovely touch when you have company. And let’s use one in the master bedroom. A vase of flowers in your foyer is always a perk. Or, keep it simple and just put a vase in every room of your house. Sound extravagant? For a 4 bedroom house that’s probably about 7 or 8 vases.

Now gather all the vases you have all around your house (several of my clients found over 20!)Place them on the dining room table – now count. Surprised? Now sort them – beautiful crystal vase/s you received as wedding gifts, glass vases from florist shops you are holding on to, old vases that belonged to a relative, seasonal vases, etc. Select the best or favorite vase for each room you counted. Take a hard look at what’s left. I’m betting there are many more than you said you needed. There are so many ways you can use these other than having them take up valuable space in your storage areas where they go unloved and unused.

Arrange fresh flowers from the market or from your garden during the various seasons and give them to:
• a friend celebrating a birthday or anniversary
• a new neighbor
• a neighbor who has collected your mail while you were away
• someone who has just lost a loved one
• the host of the party you are attending
• someone who just had a baby
• someone whose feelings you (unintentionally, of course) bruised

The vases you’ve stored away, sometimes for years, could now bring people smiles and spread happiness. All it cost was a little time and a few flowers! Now you have a beautiful touch in each of your rooms and space to store things you really need to keep. Happy New Year!

Most of us remember this line from the movie “Mommy Dearest” along with the cruelty that accompanied it.

Most Professional Organizers cringe at the sight of a closet packed full of clothes and each piece on a wire hanger, twisting up, over and back. No wonder people say they have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear! You won’t wear what you don’t see. Most of us select clothes that reflect our personal style and if we’re appointing that task to our clothes, we need to respect them.

Proper care of your clothes will result in:
• longer wear
• neater appearance
• protection of your clothing investment
• easier outfit selection since you can clearly see what you have

The market is flush with many styles of hangers and it’s up to your priorities and budget to select what’s appropriate for your wardrobe. Here are some guidelines:

Padded hangers – Padded hangers are great for shirts, dresses, blouses, and of course, robes. Padded hangers with clips are a great choice for hanging outfits.  Amazon.com

Wooden hangers – If you can afford them, wooden hangers are the best choice for men’s and women’s suits.  The thick curved design provides support in your suits’ shoulders.  Some are made of cedar and protect precious fabrics and help maintain the shape of tailored pieces. It’s actually your most economic hanger purchase since they last for years and will most likely outlast your next 3 cars! HangerStore.com

Flock/Velvet hangers – These hangers work best for delicate tops, camisoles, and pashminas. Although they come in many colors, black is best, and can always be matched when you need to purchase more.   ContainerStore.com

Quality hangers are also available for belts and neckties. If space is tight, hang these on the back wall of your closet behind the clothing.

Below are some budget-wise choices:

Clear acrylic hangers — These hangers are the ones most likely seen in department stores. They’re inexpensive, available everywhere, sturdy, moisture-proof, don’t take up too much visual space. They can be used in the laundry room for hanging items right out of the dryer.

Plastic tubular hangers — These hangers last forever and are inexpensive. Also, they can be used in the laundry room for hanging drip dry items. Purchase the thicker versions which hold up better.

Suit hangers — These hangers can accommodate pants/slacks folded underneath the jacket skirt/pant hangers with clips at the waist avoid that mid-length crease.

Space-saving hangers — Typically hold 10 garments vertically and then fold down horizontally to save space. Tradeoffs are wrinkled clothes and hidden garments; remember — if you can’t see it, you won’t wear it. Use them for long term/out of season storage.

Speaking of out-of-season storage, it’s best to use canvas garment bags. Plastic garment bags trap moisture and the chemicals used in the dry cleaning process. Be sure to add some cedar chips or blocks before closing the bag(s). Another option is Cedar Fresh sachets which are cedar and lavender combined in one sachet on a string you can hang on a hanger. The fragrance is pleasant and not overwhelmingly strong.

Hopefully, these suggestions have inspired you to ‘take stock’ of your closet situation, and if need be, make the necessary changes. Remember, you can always ask a professional organizer for help.

Without a doubt, the biggest clutter problem that faces people these days is paper.  It comes in through snail mail every day, from the kids bringing forms home, from items we print from our computer, notes that we make to ourselves in our car or while sitting in the doctor’s office, and just about everywhere we go.

Out of frustration, sometimes people just put it in a pile on the counter or desk and then the next day add more and then the next day more, etc. until the pile can’t stand on its own anymore.  The “tipping point” is when the pile starts falling over.

When it gets to this point, most people start going through the paper and files from the bottom up worrying that the papers on the bottom would be the most urgent. Sounds logical enough until you realize that if there’s anything on the bottom that needed attention, you mostly likely would have had a call or crisis to bring it to your attention. Nine times out of ten, most things take care of themselves by just becoming obsolete.

The more efficient way to sort when you have larges piles of paper is to start at the top and by handling the most recent and to include each new day’s papers with the process.  That way when you do get to the bottom, most of which probably just needs to be filed or tossed, you’ll be on top of everything.  Starting at the bottom and continuing to pile new incoming papers on top just adds to the feeling that you’re never quite caught up.

To stay in control of paper, set up a system where you make decisions each day for 5 minutes.  It doesn’t matter what time of day as long as it becomes part of every day.  Paper can be divided into just a few categories:  Toss / shred / file / needs action.

If you want to spread it around more, you can also have a stack for someone else to review and handle (read as husband or significant other).  There’s no reason why all the paper in the house is exclusively your responsibility.  If your children are old enough, they might even be able to take responsibility for some of it.  With a little investment of your time, you could assign older children these tasks, helping take some stress from you and teaching them responsibility that will serve them well as they begin to deal with the same issue.

Don’t surrender to the battle that paper presents every day.  Divide and conquer!

Even the most organized of us will get to a point after years in the same home where we find ourselves somewhat overwhelmed by the things we’ve collected. Raising children will attract items that represent memories that make us smile, and some that will send us screaming from the attic and basement. Now that you’ve saved all those art projects, sports trophies, posters and various collections of Beanie Babies, Polly Pocket paraphernalia, Matchbox cars, baseball cards, etc. over the years, it’s time to reclaim your space and do some purging. One word of caution here: Don’t purge the baseball cards. You’ll never live it down – believe me!

Funny thing about kids, even after they’ve gone to college or married and moved to another city, they still often feel like your home should serve as a storage locker for the items they no longer need and don’t want to sort through. As a result, 18 years multiplied by the number of children you’ve raised results in – well, you do the math on the clutter.

Sooner or later when you can no longer get into your attic or basement because it’s become a warehouse of memorabilia, it’s time to take control. You might want to use the space to create an office, craft room, exercise room or an organized storage room for other items that are sure to arrive at your doorstep in the coming years. At some point you’ll probably inherit your parents’ furniture and important files and begin to start saving all those photographs, art projects, and hand-made gifts from your grandchildren. Having gone through this transition, I have some things to share in the way of processing what to keep, purge and move along to someone else.

ALLOW TIME

Be sure to allow plenty of time to complete this project. After all, it took many years to amass these things, so it’s probably going to take more than an afternoon.

SERVE NOTICE

A good way to start is to alert your family that you are taking on this project and ask if there’s anything in the storage area that they would like you to pack up and send to them. They may have a short list of things they want you to hold onto for them. You’ll probably find that they can’t remember what’s in the attic and aren’t interested in most of what’s stored up there. If, however, they want to do the sorting and purging themselves, you can agree to use part of the room to be organized as a staging area where you’ll hold the items up to an agreed upon date.

GET HELP

This is not for the faint-hearted, so instead of trying to take this on yourself, ask a friend to work with you who is emotionally detached from your possessions. This is where it’s prudent to engage a professional organizer who is trained in what questions to ask so that you can make good decisions on what to keep and what to do with those things that need to be moved out.

PREPARING THE ATTACK

Before you start, gather some materials to help you work more efficiently.

• trash bags – dark green for trash, so once something is placed in there you won’t need to see it again.
• trash bags – white for donations, whether to friends and family members, or charities.
• permanent black marker – for labeling the white donation bags.
• boxes/bins – one for each of your family members for items they want to keep.
• plenty of water and some snacks.

There’s some value in creating a place for items that you want to decide on later, but try to refrain from delaying decision and having to pick up the same item(s) multiple times.

THE PAYOFF

Completing a project like this will give you great satisfaction and probably inspire you to continue your organizing throughout your house. One additional benefit of this exercise is that it helps you to better identify what items are really of value and should be stored for posterity and what is probably not worth keeping as you move forward. That knowledge will help you to better maintain the area that just opened up for your craft room, or whatever purpose you decide for this reclaimed space.