Category Archives: Home Organization

Home Organization

Closet Clean Out and the KonMari Method

Leave a comment

Have you heard of the KonMari Method for closet organization? Marie Kondo developed an approach to decluttering using Japanese values. Many find this method to be far more than a way to tidy up. They claim it is life changing.

Have you heard of the KonMari Method for closet organization? Marie Kondo developed an approach to decluttering using Japanese values. Many find this method to be far more than a way to tidy up. They claim it is life changing.

What is the KonMari Method?

Marie Kondo shares the KonMari Method philosophy on her website.

The KonMari Method™ is a way of life and a state of mind that encourages cherishing the things that spark joy in people’s lives.

Belongings are acknowledged for their service and thanked before being let go of, if they no longer spark joy.

People are drawn to this philosophy not only due to its effectiveness, but also because it places great importance on being mindful, introspective, and optimistic.

Have you heard of the KonMari Method for closet organization? Marie Kondo developed an approach to decluttering using Japanese values. Many find this method to be far more than a way to tidy up. They claim it is life changing.

There are several steps to the KonMari Method of cleaning up. You can read all about it in her best selling book, or begin the process by downloading the app.

Follow the Steps

The app outlines these 4 steps in the KonMari Method that may look simple but aren’t really simple at all. The process begins by imagining the life you dream of. Think about what a life free of clutter would look like for you. More than just having a clean home, what do you truly want out of life? Does a tidy life mean more space for entertaining? Or the energy for a new hobby? Begin by imagining with the end in mind, as they say.

Have you heard of the KonMari Method for closet organization? Marie Kondo developed an approach to decluttering using Japanese values. Many find this method to be far more than a way to tidy up. They claim it is life changing.

 

Now it’s time to move through each category and get organizing! The KonMari Method divides your belongings into 5 categories: clothing, books, papers, konmono (or small things), and sentimental items. Begin with the first checklist and just start.

Have you heard of the KonMari Method for closet organization? Marie Kondo developed an approach to decluttering using Japanese values. Many find this method to be far more than a way to tidy up. They claim it is life changing.

Gather everything together. It is amazing to see all of your items in one place. Once you see all of your clothing, for example, in one place it helps you visualize how much you actually have. The next step is to pick up each item one by one and determine if that item brings you joy. A Martha Stewart editor gave the process a try. Here’s what she had to say.

What I realized was that I held onto these objects for all the wrong reasons. Instead, as I picked them up, I felt a creep of anxiety at the idea of letting them “go to waste” and the excuse bubbled up, “Well, what if I need it for…?” Yes, it’s good to be prepared, but at what cost? I barely noticed them in my home so obviously they weren’t desperately “needed.” I only felt anxiety at the idea of losing them. In fact, according to Kondo, possessions are stripped of their dignity when they go unused in the home. It is better to let them go.

How Long Does it Take?

For some the process is swift. They may be able to go through the KonMari Method in a matter of days. Others can take months to move through the steps in each category. I guess the lesson is, the process takes as long as it takes. As we mentioned before, many find the process to be life changing. Isn’t that worth a bit of your time? 🙂

Have you heard of the KonMari Method for closet organization? Marie Kondo developed an approach to decluttering using Japanese values. Many find this method to be far more than a way to tidy up. They claim it is life changing.

KonMari Your Life

Feeling the itch to begin to KonMari your life? You can begin the steps to declutter. Closet Envy can give you a beautiful space to house the items you decide to keep. Once we finish your redesign our professional organizers will help you store your belongings. Schedule your free consultation today!

Home Organization

How to Organize Your Holiday Decorations

Leave a comment

Are you loving your holiday decorations? Loving them so much that you wish you didn’t have to put them away? Or maybe it’s just the decoration disorganization that is getting you down. Here are our favorite tips for how to organize your holiday decorations. Put away the organization fear and fill up on holiday cheer!

Ornaments Galore

For most people ornaments are a mix of colorful decor and special memories. You want to take care of these special treasures. Divided ornament boxes are a great way to store those small remembrances on a hook.

Ask Anna has great tips for storing ornaments when you don’t have divided ornament boxes.

For large, glass ornaments I always save the boxes they come in to use for future storage purposes.  If it’s too late, and you’ve already thrown them out, you can  store them in apple containers.

For smaller, glass ornaments store them in egg cartons.  They are the perfect size and they are thick enough to protect ornaments.

Are you loving your holiday decorations? Loving them so much that you wish you didn't have to put them away? Or maybe it's just the decoration disorganization that is getting you down. Here are our favorite tips for how to organize your holiday decorations. Put away the organization fear and fill up on holiday cheer! #getorganized #happyholidays #holidaydecor

Have a few ornaments that are broken or simply aren’t your style any more? Santa won’t put you on the naughty list if you throw those balls and baubles away. It’s time to let go of decorations that don’t make you happy.

Wonderful Wreaths

Wreaths are quite festive and a lovely way to decorate your home for the holidays. However, wreaths can be bulky and difficult to store once you ring in the New Year.

Real Simple has a tip that would work wonderfully for your favorite wreaths. If you don’t have garment bags you could also use bags from the dry cleaner!

Save the zippered garment bags you get when you buy a new suit or dress, and use them to protect bulky decorations, suggests Hill. Then hang the bags in a closet or on a nail in your attic.

Are you loving your holiday decorations? Loving them so much that you wish you didn't have to put them away? Or maybe it's just the decoration disorganization that is getting you down. Here are our favorite tips for how to organize your holiday decorations. Put away the organization fear and fill up on holiday cheer! #getorganized #happyholidays #holidaydecor

Light it Up

There’s something special about the beautiful glow of holiday lights. You can appreciate it now, but a few weeks ago you may have been using a few expletives as you tried to untangle those ?#@*&! lights!

No one likes tangled strings of lights. Take Martha Stewart’s advice and be tangled no more.

Keep lights organized by winding each strand around a piece of cardboard cut to fit inside a plastic bin.

Are you loving your holiday decorations? Loving them so much that you wish you didn't have to put them away? Or maybe it's just the decoration disorganization that is getting you down. Here are our favorite tips for how to organize your holiday decorations. Put away the organization fear and fill up on holiday cheer! #getorganized #happyholidays #holidaydecor

Before you pack those lights away make sure each strand works. Throw away any light strands that are burnt out or broken.

Fabulous Displays

Clear plastic bins are a great way to store your favorite holiday decorations. The plastic keeps your favorite pieces free from dust and moisture. The clear sides allow you to see what is inside. If your bins are solid colors attach pictures of the decorations stored inside. That way next year you will know exactly what is stored where.

Do you have a display you adore and you don’t want to forget what went where? Better Homes & Gardens has these tips:

It’s important when storing decorations from a multiple-part display that you keep the parts together for easy reassembly next year. Wrap each component in bubble wrap (if it’s extremely delicate) or tissue paper (if it’s made from wood such as the letters) and store neatly in a box. If you used fresh pine or fir sprigs for a mantel display, make a note of that on the box so you’ll be able to recreate the same display year after year.

Are you loving your holiday decorations? Loving them so much that you wish you didn't have to put them away? Or maybe it's just the decoration disorganization that is getting you down. Here are our favorite tips for how to organize your holiday decorations. Put away the organization fear and fill up on holiday cheer! #getorganized #happyholidays #holidaydecor

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, it’s time to say good-bye to any decorations that don’t make you want to sing the Hallelujah Chorus. Do you find purging difficult to do? You can channel your inner Elsa from Frozen and sing, “Let it go…let it go!” as you toss those old decorations. It will help, we promise!

Don’t Envy the Organization

You don’t have to envy the organized diva you see on social media, or the neighborhood mom that has it all together. Closet Envy can help you become the organized person you’ve always dreamed of being! Schedule your free consultation and bring a bit more happy holiday cheer to your life this season.

Home Organization

How to Create a Gift Wrapping Station

Leave a comment

The holidays are just around the corner, which means you are about to turn into a gift wrapping fiend. Save yourself time and frustration by creating an organized gift wrapping station.

The holidays are just around the corner which means you are about to turn into a gift wrapping fiend. Save yourself time and frustration by creating an organized gift wrapping station. #santaiscoming #giftwrapping

You know the story, it’s Christmas Eve and you are frantically trying to find a pair of scissors or that last roll of tape. And where on earth are the red bows? You were sure you still had plenty on hand, which is why you didn’t buy any more when you were at the store picking up one last ingredient for your holiday breakfast. It’s enough to make anyone want to send up a Christmas wish for some gift wrap organization. Take some time now, before the holiday schedule gets too crazy, to get organized!

Assess Your Supplies

Before you create your gift wrapping station you will need to gather all of your supplies. Search every nook and cranny of your house and gather up all those rolls of wrapping paper, bags of bows, piles of tissue paper, and stacks of gift bags. Don’t forget to also grab wrapping tools like scissors, tape, and a few pens.

The holidays are just around the corner which means you are about to turn into a gift wrapping fiend. Save yourself time and frustration by creating an organized gift wrapping station. #santaiscoming #giftwrapping

Now it’s time to decide where your gift wrapping station will live. Better Homes & Gardens has several suggestions of where you can store your gift wrapping goodies.

A corner in your office, guest bedroom, or kids playroom can serve as gift wrapping central. Scoot in a table for a flat surface, or let an existing desk do double-duty.

Now that you have all the supplies gathered up, and you’ve decided on a location, it’s time to start getting organized.

Moving On Up

When wrapping gifts it’s really helpful to keep your table surface clear of supplies. That way your space can be used for the actual act of wrapping. Move those supplies up, up, up…up the wall that is! The Omni Track System is a great way to get your gift wrapping station organized. The Paper Organizer arms let you store roll after roll of wrapping paper. You can use the paper organizer to store tissue paper as well. All those beautiful papers actually make for a lovely display. Practical and pretty, that’s our kind of organization project!

The holidays are just around the corner which means you are about to turn into a gift wrapping fiend. Save yourself time and frustration by creating an organized gift wrapping station. #santaiscoming #giftwrapping

A Pliers Hook is perfect for storing your favorite gift wrapping scissors. Never again will you be turning in circles trying to find the scissors that were just in your hands!

A hanging basket is just the thing for storing bows or rolls of ribbon. Grab a Basket Hook and a basket to organize bows in every color of the rainbow. Particularly those darn red ones. You know you’re always going to need a few more! In addition, a small plastic bin is a great way to store your gift tags and rolls of tape.

When it comes to gift bags a Storage Box is a your storage solution. You can add a shelf to your wall, or stack your storage boxes under your gift wrapping table.

Give Yourself a Gift This Holiday Season

Have you been dreaming of an organized closet…or pantry…or office…or…or…or? Perhaps it’s time to give yourself an extra special gift! With five simple steps we can help take you from visions of sugar plums a beautifully organized space to no-this-isn’t-a-dream reality! This year is the year for the BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER!

Home Organization

How to Declutter Your Home

1 Comment

Do you have dreams of becoming a minimalist? Wish you could get rid of the clutter once and for all? We’re rounding up some of the best ideas to show you how to declutter your home!

Get Motivated

The first step in decluttering your home is to, well, start! Kim Cosentino, professional organizer and owner of The De-Clutter Box, told Today that you should schedule a time to begin.

Your first task is to schedule an appointment with your space. Most people never get around to clearing the clutter because their schedule is packed. So, just as you would schedule a regular checkup with your doctor, schedule an appointment with your home to begin organizing.

Pull out your calendar and choose a couple of hours to begin the task of decluttering. Go ahead, we’ll wait…

Do you have dreams of becoming a minimalist? Wish you could get rid of the clutter once and for all? We're rounding up some of the best ideas to show you how to declutter your home!

Got the date down? Now it’s time to visualize the decluttered home you desire. The more you think about how things could be, the more motivated you will be to actually get to work.

Get to Work

Let’s face it, making an appointment is the easy part. Doing the work is where things start to get overwhelming. There are lots of suggestions out there for how to tackle the clutter, but one recurring theme seems to stand out. Choose one small space to begin. You don’t have to declutter the whole house in one day. Simply choose one space to start.

Zen Habits has 18 five-minute tasks to help with the process.

So here’s my advice: start with just five minutes. Baby steps are important. Sure, five minutes won’t barely make a dent in your mountain, but it’s a start. Celebrate when you’ve made that start!

Then take another five minutes tomorrow. And another the next day. Before you know it, you’ll have cleared a whole closet or a room and then half your house and then … who knows?

Do you have dreams of becoming a minimalist? Wish you could get rid of the clutter once and for all? We're rounding up some of the best ideas to show you how to declutter your home!

What would the world be like if you had a clean counter? It could be life changing! With kids running around like mini tornadoes a clean counter would be a miracle.

Get it Sorted

The key to decluttering is deciding what to do with all of your stuff. Organized Home suggests using the Four Box Method.

The Four-Box method forces a decision, item by item. To apply it, gather three boxes and a large trash can. Label the boxes, “Put Away”, “Give Away/Sell” and “Storage.” Items to be thrown away belong in the trash can.

Take the four boxes to the declutter area. One at a time, pick up each piece of clutter. Ask yourself, “Do I want to put this away in another place, donate it (or sell it at a yard sale), store it, or throw it away?” You may not release your grip on the item until you have made a decision.

Do you have dreams of becoming a minimalist? Wish you could get rid of the clutter once and for all? We're rounding up some of the best ideas to show you how to declutter your home!

Go through every item in the room you are working on and decide which box it belongs in. Take some time at the end to empty those boxes. Put away what needs to be taken care of, take the storage items where they belong, move your donate items to the car so you won’t forget them, and place the trash in the trash!

When you are done maybe you could treat yourself to something from this box. We’ll join you in celebrating!

Do you have dreams of becoming a minimalist? Wish you could get rid of the clutter once and for all? We're rounding up some of the best ideas to show you how to declutter your home!

Get it Done

Repeat these steps as you move through your home room by room. The more rooms you declutter, the more motivated you will feel to get it all done! The Spruce has create a room by room guide to help you with your decluttering goal.

This room-by-room declutter guide will take you through your home and office with very specific instructions on what to declutter in each room or space in your home, and how to do it.

Do you have dreams of becoming a minimalist? Wish you could get rid of the clutter once and for all? We're rounding up some of the best ideas to show you how to declutter your home!

Closet Envy can help create organization solutions for any room in your home. Schedule your free consultation today!