As I continue my life’s work with clutter it is clear that people are being robbed of their joy. Joy is the deep peace within oneself that offer us our deepest connection to God and our relationships, including the one with ourselves. Joy is not being deliriously happy or happy all the time. Many people mistake joy for that type of outward expression. It is within oneself.

Clutter is really the devil in disguise. Any description of the devil you can think of fits in referring to clutter.

Suffocating-it sucks the life out of a room and the inhabitants

Distorted-tells us we are not worthy or that we don’t have a problem.

Liar- clutter hides and lies just like a cheating lover. It hides all of your secrets for a while anyway. Rationalizes the irrational.

Dark-hides the light in a room or in a soul

As one is caught up in clutter, it is easy to see why it’s so difficult to break from it. Emotions such as shame, guilt, sadness or doubt adhere a person to the clutter. When one is caught...

This may be a bit touchy for some. I have to address this because I care. I have been silent for far too long on this subject. The clutter I see in working with clients is debilitating emotionally, physically and spiritually. This is especially true when it comes from emotional shopping. 

What is emotional shopping? Shopping in response to emotion. This means it’s attached to a want more than an actual need. In addressing the clutter in people’s homes, I’ve heard the comment, “I don’t even know why I bought this.” I have found that to be a telling statement. The other comment is, “ I bought it on sale.” This is the justification behind the action. The thrill of the sale is a high not unlike one that someone taking drugs may get. So let’s look at where the emotional connection comes from so we can make some correction to curtail it.

Instant gratification- this is huge today especially with companies that can deliver to you within 24 hours and you don’t have to leave your house! Again,...

It happens to the best of us. We have the best intentions but cannot seem to move forward into the action phase. Old habits we tried to break have reared their ugly heads. The system of organizing that was making life better has gone haywire. It is time to regroup.

I like to think of regrouping as a chance to do over and do better. Recognizing the need to reset is critical to ensuring success. This is awareness! Awareness leads to action.

When you become aware then you can make adjustments. If you don’t know, you can’t do better. Awareness leads to action.

When you become aware you have a better chance of being proactive rather than reactive. It’s about knowing your triggers. What is it about your personality that can lead you back to bad habits or distract you? For me, it’s likely to happen when I am tired or busy. I am aware of it so I try to get the most important things done when I am fresh, earlier in the day. Awareness leads to action.

Becoming aware will make you less likely...

We all have those moments where our homes look like a bomb went off. We all have those things that throw us out of whack. These trigger the clutter bugs to come out in our homes and inside ourselves. We can quickly see how they lead to chaos and disorganization. In having awareness we can tame any situation to get back to organized. For me personally, having this awareness has been tremendously helpful in maintaining the organized systems in my home.

I’ve identified four of the bigger clutter triggers along with strategies on counteracting their effect. Certainly, there are plenty more ways we can let in the clutter bugs.

Tired

This for me is where it starts. Instead of putting things away, they lay where they fall. The clutter bug starts out as one and quickly multiplies into many things not put away. Sometimes, being tired can lead to “I’ll get to it later” and later comes several days or more later. Well, you can see what this looks like after a few days.

Strategy: Give yourself...

The calendar is telling me the holidays are going to be soon upon us. I don’t know about you but I certainly am in disbelief. Where did the rest of the year go? As I was coordinating some organizing projects, they are all holiday themed. It occurred to me that this might be creeping into your mind as well. So, let’s adjust our minds and get organized! I have decided to share three organizing must-haves to be better organized this holiday season.

Whether you are hosting the holidays or you are the guest, these organizing tools are something you can actually use the whole year. The kitchen is the area that people are always on the hunt to make it more functional. The holidays seem to bring out the greater desire to make some organizing changes. I believe it’s because we spend alot of time in there. If your family is like mine, we gather there to share a meal or chit chat.

One of my favorite organizers is for the refrigerator. This is the You copia roll out fridge caddy 6”.

What I lo...

We’ve all see the pictures on instagram or facebook of the perfectly organized spice cabinet with all of the labels on the spices facing the same direction in their uniformly sized containers. Maybe you’ve seen the craft room with every single element of crafting tucked away neatly in its adorably labeled bin? I am by no means mocking these examples of organized living but I do want to point out this does not work for everyone!

If the examples I shared above aren’t you in all areas or all the time then let me share with you the messy way to organize. By the way, this works if you have no organizing skills!

The whole purpose of the M.E.S.S.Y method is to have simple and easy to maintain organizing systems that make you happy and more productive. Notice I did not say they will make your friends happy or envious. I mean, they might become envious but that’s just not the point!

M.E.S.S.Y is my life-making everything simple and sustainable so it will be “yes” worthy when you’re done. It ...

The past three months have been highly unusual for me, probably for you as well. There is rarely a calendar in my possession with nothing on it. I’ve become better, more protective of my calendar over the years just not anything like this! Cancellations were the name of the game for the first month of the stay at home order. Shutting down a hands-on business such as mine and pivoting to virtual services helped occupy me and the calendar. However, there was so much else missing such as church, social gatherings with family and friends along with the holidays.After about a week, I figured out I was supposed to be doing something with this abundance of time. As the journey has continued now into the third month, I wanted to share a few takeaways.

My first takeaway is the fact that I become comfortable with silence and alot of it. I found that I began to look forward to it each day, it allowed me to deepen my prayer time and reflection. In the silence I felt peace and joy. I had this feel...

Each day bring a new set of challenges. It’s always been this way, regardless of the state the world is in. This includes the state your world is in right now. If you have been caught off guard in the latest challenge of your life, I am introducing to you a new concept to get you through this challenge, being organized enough.

First, you need to recognize whatever you are going through is temporary. Living organized has likely provided you with a solid framework to get through challenges. However, tweaking your system(s) may be necessary if your situation involves other people living with you. You may be sharing your home as your workspace with your spouse, significant other or children and this may be throwing you off your organizing game! Quite possibly you never imagined you would be working from home or having others do so too? Understand that you will not be able to weather this challenge without a change of attitude.

Secondly, this is no time to allow your system to be a battle...

The best laid plans…life can really throw us curve balls. It can be anything really that becomes our crisis. as it upsets our everyday life either for the short term or long term. It’s the broken washing machine, the flat tire, the sick child, chronic illness or an unexpected life or death situation. For even the most organized person, a crisis can cause alot of clutter, disorganization and chaos.The reason for this is an organized life is a balanced life, crisis brings along with it everything but balance.

How do we stay organized through a crisis?

1. Have systems already in place. Your systems should be the foundation to everything in your everyday life and in all areas of your life: spiritual, relationships, financial, mind, body and your home. For some of us, everything must have a place and be in its place. Others may need to have systems that allow them to have a more open approach easily laying eyes on things needed to feel balanced. Still others may be a combination of both. I
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We’ve been told that deep breathing is good for just about everything; the heart, the brain, digestion and the immune system. It’s kind of amazing that something as simple as slow, deep concentrated breathing can make this kind of difference. Well, I also believe that it can be an instrumental tool in getting organized.

In organizing, emotion can be a huge factor with the discernment of our stuff. For many, getting rid of things can bring about alot of angst.  When we get caught up in that part of our brain(the amygdala), it is rather difficult to make sound decisions or any decision! Deep breathing which most of us do not use as a regular practice is extremely helpful in this situation. One of the biggest reasons is the improved oxygen supply which every single cell in our body needs as fuel. The slow, deep breathing allows for calming our nerves which allows the muscles to naturally follow. Therapeutic breathing interrupts the stress response. Once that breath or two or three or mor...