A very popular New Year’s resolution is to become more organized. Coming home to a peaceful well-organized space is often the perfect counterpoint to a chaotic day at work.
In terms of “self-care,” it makes sense that a personal oasis would have a profound positive affect both physically and emotionally.
We checked in with Lisa Sharp, owner of Clear Calm Space to get the scoop on having a well-organized home.
Sharp believes that homes are sacred space and should be treated with love, kindness and respect.
She is a former librarian and social worker and has been coaching people through tricky situations her entire career.
Pulse: In terms of self care, what are the benefits (physical and emotional) of having a well organized home?
Sharp: There are many benefits to having a well organized home. When our homes run smoothly life can be so much more joyful and pleasant. Most of us have felt the oppressive stress of feeling behind the eight ball: chroni-cally late, feeling like we’re forgetting important things, doubling our efforts to complete simple tasks and generally feeling really overwhelmed with day to day life. It’s important to remember that getting organized is that it’s re-ally not about being perfect, or having a Pinterest-worthy home.
I think many of us believe that we’re the only ones who “don’t have it to-gether,” when in fact, I think we all feel that way. I love to normalize what it’s like to be a Professional Organizer—I forget things and goof up just like everyone else. I just know where all of my things are and how to run an effi-cient home so I’m not stressed out by it and that’s what I teach my clients. It’s not about perfection, It’s about making your life run more efficiently and effortlessly so you can enjoy life more!
Pulse: What are some simple tips that people can do on their own to streamline and declutter their daily life?
Sharp: I always start with the bottlenecks in the home. Those are the areas where things are chronically difficult to deal with. Each household has its’ own set of issues but the areas I see most often are closets, bathrooms and kitchens. So a few easy ways to get a handle on these two areas are to start with decluttering. It’s important to actually get stuff out of your home that you don’t love, use frequently or have too many of a particular item. Many people hang on to things because of the fear of regretting what they’ve dis-carded but they don’t take into account how the small inconveniences add up to a stressful daily life. It’s also important to remember that we were able to bring these items into our lives in the first place and that we could easily do so again if we need an item back. A functional space is far more valuable than too much stuff.
So take a look at the most often used areas of the home and begin by asking yourself a) do I love this item b) do I use this item frequently c) do I have negative associations with this item (don’t like it, reminds you of a hard time in your life, size doesn’t work for the space that you are in etc.) When asking yourself these questions, listen carefully to your gut reaction. If your first inclination is to declutter it, go with that decision. Otherwise our brains can come up with many reasons to keep it and we won’t make any progress in gaining our homes back.
Pulse: When should someone consider bringing in a professional?
Sharp: I think hiring a Professional Organizer is one of the smartest, best returns on investments you can make in life. If you think about it, our lives are made up of days and when our day to day lives feel chaotic and over-whelming it’s hard to feel joyous and energetic in our lives. There is always a little feeling of—I “should” be doing better, I “should” be on top of my house, I “should” be having people over but I’m too embarrassed to show them how I’m living.
There is a lot of mental baggage that comes with clutter and that’s some-thing that a good Professional Organizer can help you declutter. For some reason we have this common belief that if we had more time or energy that we can handle this on our own. We hire tax accountants to do our taxes, landscapers to help us with our yards, and hairstylists to do our hair and we don’t think a thing about it. Investing in the help of a Professional Organiz-er will save countless hours of your life and tons of money in the long run. Always trust your gut when hiring someone to help you with your clutter. If you are feeling pushed into discarding items you may not have the right person for you. A good Professional Organizer will help you navigate the decisions but will not make them for you.
Pulse: Once things are organized, what are some sound strategies for keeping it that way?
Sharp: It’s important to take care of your home in the same way you’d regu-larly brush your teeth or get a haircut. Some things require daily mainte-nance and some organizing and decluttering activities should be done less often. Since a lot of people struggle with this area I always suggest tying something fun to an activity that you may not otherwise want to do. So if cleaning up your kitchen in the evening or decluttering your sock drawer is something you avoid, listen to a podcast or an audio book to keep you com-pany.
I also really love using timers to help us stay focused on the task at hand. Timers give us a limit of how much time we have to work, and we often think tasks will take far longer than they do in reality. We often avoid tasks because we think they will take an hour and they only take us 10 minutes! The next time you do something you’ve been avoiding, time yourself and see how long it takes. I bet you’ll be surprised! For really big decluttering and organizing tasks I suggest setting a time limit on how long you will work. I like to have my clients work in 20 minute increments on those big, dreaded projects. Twenty minutes is definitely enough to make a big dent in a project and move your project forward.
Deal with the incoming paperwork every day. A really great habit to get into is to go through your mail over your recycling bin before you even bring it into the house. Ditch the flyers and non-sensitive mail before it can even get a chance to start piling up in your home. Just this one little habit change can have a big impact on the level of paper you have in your home.
Once you get it culled, have one area of your home for filing that paper-work. Keep your paperwork in a high traffic area of the home. While it might be lovely to having a filing system in the home office, if it’s not an ar-ea that gets used daily, the paperwork will likely start piling up in the kitch-en or dining room table. I teach my clients how to create both a “current” filing system and an “archive” filing system. The current system contains all of your bills, tax receipts, medical papers and everything else that you use or need to track regularly. Then at the end of each year those files are purged and anything that needs to be kept long term will go into the archive filing system which contains things such as older medical records, tax re-turns and insurance information.
Pulse: It seems getting rid of old paperwork would be part of the declutter process. Can you offer a “cheat sheet” for papers that are absolute-ly necessary to hang onto? For instance, how long do you have to keep tax returns, bank statements, etc.? What are some safe ways to eliminate non essential papers with personal information?
Monthly utility bills toss after a year
Bank deposit slips toss after your reconcile your statements
Credit card bills- after you reconcile them with your receipts unless they will support tax deduction filings
Household warranties/receipts: toss after you no longer own the item but most instruction booklets can be found online and are usually safe to toss
Insurance polices can be tossed after they have been renewed and you re-ceive the new policy
Shred or burn any papers with personal information on them. Most big chain office supply stores have shredding so if you have a big backlog of sensitive paperwork it can be a massive time saver to take it to be shredded or to hire a professional paper shredder company to come to your house to shred your papers.
