When I’m helping clients who are overwhelmed with books, we inevitably come across a collection of travel books on their shelves. In the days before you could easily find information about faraway places via the internet, we relied on glossy, fact-filled books by companies like Fodor’s, Frommer’s, and Baedeker. These books not only had listings of sights to see, they also had recommendations of hotels and restaurants. Many of my clients are reluctant to part with these books, even though…
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For several months, I have been working with a client who had moved into a new apartment and wanted to ensure that it was set up in an organized and maintainable fashion. As we unpacked boxes and put things away, we set aside two categories of items that I knew would be time-consuming to tackle: photos and memorabilia. When we were done with every room and every storage area in the apartment, it was time to tackle the photos and…
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It’s funny how my work with clients takes on certain patterns. I recently wrote about multiple clients with whom I worked on organizing their jewelry. Lately, I have been visiting storage units with my clients. As I’ve mentioned before, my very wise organizing colleague, Barbara Hemphill, declared that “Clutter is postponed decisions.®” When you decide to put items into storage, you are not only postponing the decision of what to do with that stuff, you are also paying handily for…
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When I got the idea to write a post entitled “Use What You Have”, I thought to myself that I certainly must have expressed that notion before. Well, I did, and more than once. In 2013, I wrote Use What You Have and in 2020 I wrote Use What You Already Have. Rather than come up with a creative title, I decided to just consider this one as part 3 of a series. Here is what happened to make me want to write…
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When my clients and I review their clothes, I advise them to get rid of any item they haven’t worn in an entire year. I make an exception with clothes that are only worn on special occasions, as we don’t always get a chance to wear those every year. I offer two guidelines for deciding whether to keep the special occasion clothes: they have to still fit, and they have to still be in style. If you have seen me…
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