Who's ready for a little organizing inspiration as we roll in to the New Year?  Marie Kondo's 8 episode series on Netflix delivers lots to think about, motivational stories, and a whole bunch of cuteness (as my friend Brenda would say : "I just want to put her in my pocket!")!

If you've read my previous blog post on the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, you know I think some of her methods might not be ideal for everyone - working by category, for example.  This show really does demonstrate the pros and cons of the all at once method: CON: they pile all the clothes on the bed, do a lesson on the feeling of sparked joy - CHING! - , a lesson on thanking your items for your service if they no longer spark joy, and a lesson on folding clothes, then she leaves them with the rest as homework and comes back in a week.  I wonder where a few of them (without guest bedrooms) are sleeping in the meantime!  But, PRO: you definitely see the impact of seeing ALL the clothes in one huge mountain!  

Here are  more things I appreciated about this show:

1.  The Timeline
These were not "knock it out in a weekend" fixes - most of the makeovers are averaging 30 days, and the homeowners appear to be really revolving all their spare time around this effort!  True decluttering takes time and I think they did a good job of demonstrating that while still creating some pretty great before and afters!

2.  A Variety of Life Transitions
From your first real place, the birth of a baby, the chaos of the toddler years, to moving on from the loss of a spouse, the episodes touched on many seasons of life and the changes that come with them - and the homeowners did a great job of knowing themselves and their motivations!  (That can be so hard!!)  They identified what they were moving INTO, and had great visions of what they were making ROOM FOR - it is so essential not to focus on what you are "losing"  and reasons you might want to hold on to each item.

​3.  The messes
I kind of loved that these were generally clean and tidy houses - adorably, sometimes Marie looked SO disappointed entering their front rooms! (And then so excited when she opened a difficult drawer or closet - "I love a mess" - I think if I was the homeowner I might feel differently, but as a viewer - SO CUTE, and as an organizer - I can actually relate - "Let's dig in!!" would be my tagline!)  With Hoarders as the starting mark, we all feel pretty good about our spaces (and I would NEVER want anyone feeling bad about their space!) but none of us want to wait for that level (an actual psychological illness) before reassessing, or calling in help and reinforcements!  Even the "tidy" among us still live in the land of excess and it will always want to creep in, even when it is successfully hidden in closets and drawers for a time - it still affects us!

4.  Is this something you'd like to keep as part of your life going forward?
In the Make Room For Baby Episode, I think we have my favorite breakthrough moment:  Mario is cleaning the garage and is holding the mailbox that came with the home when they bought it.  Marie asks her favorite question: Holding it in your hand right now, does it spark joy for you?  She really doesn't get anywhere (we all agree that not every practical item in our home is covered by the emotion of "joy", right?).  Mario gives a great description of the emotion behind the box - acknowledging it is not "joy", but it is clearly invoking a deep sense of pride in the history that brought his immigrant family to this point!  Then Marie follows up by asking "Is this something you'd like to keep as part of your life going forward?" and the lightbulb clicks!!

We all have those "museum" items - that tell the stories of our personal pasts - our lives, loves, and accomplishments.  But we don't have to travel into the future with each of those items that brought us to where we are - we can feel the gratitude for those experiences and let the object go (and we can ALWAYS take a picture first, if we think we need a visible trigger to bring us back to that memory!)

5.  Gratitude and Vision
I am not a real "Thank your stuff" or "I'm going to introduce myself to your house" kind of personality, but I really want to find my own twist on the introducing myself to your house moment.  For me "thanking your stuff for its service" is really about gratitude for your life experiences, and the "over"-abundance of blessings that has allowed us to own clothes we have never worn, or 50 pairs of sneakers, or a personal library of books.  I think it is so great to get in touch with those emotions through the process of decluttering! 

I see a huge value also in the minute she takes after the tour for quiet reflection ("introducing" herself to the house) - I think in that moment most people are picturing the space that is their HOME and what that space is to them - again, that sense of gratitude for the shelter, and the place of peace, rest, love and memories.  They are not focused on the fact that their bathroom is too small and not an actual spa, or that their master closet is not as large as my children's rooms, like in the magazines.  And that is the proper viewpoint to get started!  They look ahead to the work before them and know it is worth it to achieve those priorities within their home and let go of the clutter that is overwhelming them.  I think 5 big breaths to appreciate the blessing of the home, what it means to you, and to picture the peaceful, welcoming space you desire would be a great thing to do with clients between the tour of the problem areas and rolling up our sleeves to find the solutions!  I just don't know if I can pull it off!!

I do hope you enjoy this series and let it inspire you to dig in!  You don't have to follow the Konmari method to a T - make your organizing experience your own - but the best way to get something DONE, is to BEGIN!! 

​Best wishes on your organizing journey!

• Those who make Christmas cookies.  Dozens, because everyone has a different favorite that tastes like Christmas to them.  Those who make them with a toddler (that NEVER counts as “extra help”!) and those who make them alone.  Those who make them from scratch, those who create works of art, and those who use a tube of cookie dough. 

​

• Those who freeze their fingers off cutting down their own trees, and those who bought their artificial tree years ago.  Those who decorate Instagram-worthy trees with perfectly-spaced ornaments, those whose trees are heaviest on the lower limbs thanks to tiny decorators, those whose trees are heaviest at the top thanks to wagging tails and kitty claws, and those whose tiny tree creations are placed in the room of a patient at a hospital or nursing home.

​

• Those who shop thoughtfully for loved ones near and far, those who accept suggestions to be sure their gifts are perfect, and those who lovingly give cash.   Those who make sure the traditions (of Christmas pajamas, an annual commemorative ornament, or the stocking stuffer toothbrush) happen yet again.  Those who stay up past midnight on Christmas Eve putting together Christmas secrets, whether 1,000,000 pieces of a plastic kitchen or a 16 foot trampoline (in the cold with a neighbor’s shop light).  Those who demonstrate Christmas isn’t only for exchanging gifts with our loved ones, but an opportunity to give from our abundance to those in need.

​

• Those who host an enormous feast, those who pack up and travel, those who make a guilt-free agreement to spend the big day at home in their PJs, and those who gather to a simple meal of Chinese food just to enjoy each other. ​

 

• Those who put up lights, yard decorations, trains around a tree, or nativities.  Those who move a naughty elf around their house, take bites from cookies and carrots left for a jolly fat man and his reindeer, or make sure Santa’s presents show no sign of packaging or being made anywhere other than the Elves’ workshop.  Those who make handmade stockings, line their street with luminary candles, cuddle on a pew at Christmas Eve service, stir eggnog, read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to a child, or whisper “Happy Birthday Jesus” at dark o’clock in the morning because little ones are too excited to go back to sleep!!

 

• Those who know the True reason for the season, and because of Him spread Christmas cheer in their churches, communities, and workplaces.

• Those who take photos on Christmas Eve of stacks of perfectly wrapped presents amid a beautifully clean room,  and those who regret that they just didn’t get there this year, and turn out the lights on a bit of a mess.

​  

• Those whose magic will be missed due to distance, military service, illness, or death, and those whose magic is currently taken for granted year after year, THANK YOU for the magic. 

You make it look so effortless that your loved ones might not quite realize the effort that goes into making it all happen.  (If you enjoy the magic-making of someone in your life, please take time to appreciate what they add to your family with each special memory!)  If you feel like you are doing it all alone, know that your fellow magic-makers recognize you!! 

So accept a wink, a smile, a hug, and a thank you from me and someone around you who is in on the secret: 
It’s not magic, it’s LOVE!!
 

One of the places I consider myself to be "well-organized" is in my filing - I have always had a great system and kept good track of my paperwork.  HOWEVER, I began to realize it had become an overly onerous task - as society becomes more and more "paperless", my system needed to catch up and get with the times.  Although Generation X, I still receive most of my bills on paper when available - especially bills that vary month to month, that I want to read over and confirm everything is above board - credit card bills, bank statements, even my electric and gas bills where I compare month to month and usage compared to last year. 

So, two problems:  My "to file" box would pile up, and then, because the stack was looking fat, would pile up some more, until I would spend an hours-long marathon catching up and filing months of papers.  Secondly, the files themselves get FAT, and needed culled - another marathon job -  amid so many decisions (how many years of each item would I keep?  What could be disposed from each file?).  Although I LOVE creating order from chaos, this recurring, time-consuming task was no longer something I wanted to invest hours in!

Then I found Freedom Filer.  Freedom Filer markets itself as "self-purging", and once I truly embraced the system, I will say, no more marathon purging sessions! Their website www.Freedomfiler.com is a great resource for the "how to" of your system - and you absolutely could build your own with the information they provide!  But their color-coded, ready made tabs look great and were worth it to me!

Here are the basics:  Green tabs are for rotating, monthly files - There is a tab for each month "Even Year" and "Odd Year".  It is November 2018, so I have a big paperclip on that file right now, to make it even easier to locate, because every paper that needs temporarily retained drops straight in there this month - credit card bills, doctor visit paperwork, "silly" warranty info (to the under $70 items that, honestly, are not worth calling in the warranty terms unless they fail in the first few months), large receipts, maybe cards or other items that are not quite ready for the trash.  These will be retained until November 2020 when that file goes "live" again.  Then, I will discard it all (I peek through and get a little memory, personally - oh my, how hard November 2016 was with Jeremy's surgery and all that my dad was going through!).  In December, I will discard 2016 and start filling with this year.

Blue tabs are for taxes (I think Freedom Filer breaks this down a little too far) - we are up to 3 tax files now: Current Year Taxes, Business Income and Expense Receipts, and Medical (This comes and goes, as some years we have HSA/FSAs that in theory we have to have records for... if it would ever be questioned).  If you just have one Current Year Tax File, I think that is good enough for most families!!  And most years, it will sit empty until January save for an itemized Charitable Contribution here and there!   It also files by "Year ending" 0-9, so you are keeping one decade of tax forms.  I opted that when it is time to discard the 10 year old, I discard all of the supporting paperwork and just keep the actual IRS forms for reference - this is just about 5 sheets of paper most years, in a "Second Decade" file.  Anything older than TWENTY years, I am definitely free to discard each year!

Red is for permanent - Freedom Filer made me much more picky about what is "permanent" - IMPORTANT medical records, school and employment records, the most personal cards, "real" warranties (with receipts), etc.

Orange is for "current contracts" and these papers get swapped out when the new one comes in - so, your insurance documents for the current year (discard prior year), apartment rental agreement, your SS Statement, even your will might fit into this category - only keep the current version!

Purple is for resource references - use sparingly!  Maybe that vacation file or another file of accumulated research.  Your family's ancestry documents or DNA tests.  Most resource items anymore beg the question, "could you just look this up on the internet if you needed this information later?"  But we all have those items we want at our fingertips, physically written right there in front of us when we need it!

Freedom Filer recommends HANGING FILES - I can't tell you how HUGELY transformative this part was for me.  I was using the manila file folders.  You adjust the metal bracket to the size of your files, but at first there is sliding room, and the files are leaning a little.  As they fill up, you can't really stuff another page in without removing files or risking papercuts!  So, you move the bracket, and they are slipping and sliding again.  Hanging files hang straight and tall all the time!  They slide easily, always staying upright - you open them, slip in pages and slide the door closed.  If you already use hanging files you either understand my joy or are just thinking everyone knows it is the superior product.  If you don't use them, they are WELL worth your investment.  They can all be the cheapest green office color.  They do not need to be color coded, but spend $10 on a drawer worth and decide if I'm wrong!!  Seriously!

The combo of hanging file folders and rotating months means I do not have a to file box  - items that I might need in the next 2 years get EASILY tossed in the current month's file - no fuss, no muss, no sorting type of bill or date, no removing an entire file so that I can force one page into a tight drawer.  And it has eliminated the worst step: the purge step - bills and temporary items get discarded every 2 years.  Taxes are automatically downsized or discarded each year.  

Honestly, these are two items I recommend to every paperwork client who is struggling to keep up with filing or becoming overwhelmed!  I think there are few who would struggle with the system.  If you need help catching up on paperwork, or implementing a new system, reach out!  It is a small time investment that will remove a huge weight from your shoulders!

June, 2015:  The extended family has gathered at the Outer Banks for a great family vacation.  The usual ingredients: sun, sand, and a great beach read are all involved, including that "controversial" tome, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.  Discussion ensues.  Opinions become heated, shouts are heard, children scatter.

Don't worry, it ends okay, and it is super funny now, but that vacation will always be, in my mind, the one with the fight about Organizing.

Looking back, kind of an Aha moment for me - I feel passionately about... organizing!  I also feel passionately that there is no one size fits all answer to the process.  This is how I ended up both the one who started it (I questioned the requirement that you find EVERY. BOOK. IN. YOUR. HOUSE.  In a pile.  All at once.) AND the first one to turn tail and run when the whole discussion went south (I mean, if you can get through it in one go and that works for you, you do you, Marie Kondo!!).

So, what works for you?  As an organizer it is my job to figure out what clients want, need, and what works for them!
*One space at a time or one type of item at a time?
*Is considering the "feelings" of your belongings helpful? Or how an item or space makes you feel? (Those items that trigger feelings of GUILT are the most toxic, and letting them go is a HUGE WIN!!)  Maybe you are somewhere in the middle and use phrases like "That dishtowel looks tired."  Work with that!!
*Does it bring you joy?  This is my favorite question, because it drills past all the excuses and is often a pretty simple yes or no, but there are so many other questions out there and if nostalgia or fear of the possibility of future need are recurring hold ups, digging deeper into those concerns and getting to the root of those emotions is more important than flying past them to decide on each item!
*Folding vs. Hanging, Rainbow order, upward slope, etc.  I DO believe a tidy drawer can make you SMILE and an organized closet helps you make decisions, saving time and stress!  And maybe her shirts are "happier" folded... but maybe yours are "cooler" and like to "hang" out!  HA!  And if sorting color or length of clothes is the difference between laundry finding its home or staying in the basket, guess where I recommend sticking the rainbow?  Find what works for you!!
*Only tidy once or you'll be tidying forever?  (This does not mean you never "clean" again!!)  I think decluttering (tidying) breeds decluttering, so I think there is definitely momentum to keep up the system.  But I think most of us let go in stages (especially with emotional clutter) and are inspired with each purge to tidy more and to change our lifestyle to prevent our spaces from sliding back that direction!  I believe in baby steps, and if that is what you can do today, and tomorrow you find out you hadn't actually finished tidying... tidy some more!!  

And if you ever find an organizing guru causing strife on your family vacation, I recommend you all become professional organizers!!

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up is an easy read and is sure to provide "tidying" inspiration!  Available on Amazon
or as an Audiobook on Scribd.com.  I love the all you can read monthly membership on Scribd!  Click here for 2 months free!

​Katie McAllister, Professional Organizer is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

I saw this description of a professional organizer, laughed, and thought, "this IS me!"  

I totally embrace that nerdy side of me that loves to implement the rules and systems that make REAL life work!!  Not the airbrushed, staged, romantic photos with no televisions, bookcases full of décor but no books, and multiple vases of fresh cut flowers.  (There's nothing wrong with any of these, of COURSE, but it is not the way most of us realistically live day to day).

I'm also a firm believer that when we simplify and streamline, we allow space in our lives to bring out those beautiful items we treasure (you know, without the beautiful vases sitting with DEAD flowers for the month following their glorious introduction!).  

I am big picture and thorough, enjoy stability, order, and routine, and love to improve systems. 

BUT, I totally understand that perfectionist side so many of us have that makes it hard to GET STARTED (for me it is the geeky side saying "do ALL the research", "make the 20 year plan before you take the first step", "if I can't complete the entire project today it is not worth starting")!  No!!  Overcoming that debilitating mindset is often still a daily choice for me - setting a clock for 15 minutes, breaking down a project into doable chunks, being okay with BABY STEPS!!  There is so much productivity in the "Just Do It" mantra, and sometimes even more in "Just 10 minutes"!!

Find those personality traits and identify their strengths and weaknesses - and work through hurdles that slow you down or leave you frozen!  You've got this!

Love, The Nerdy (Big) Sister