Welcome!

Hi! I'm starting this blog to give some guidance and inspiration to those on the path to decluttering and reorganizing their lives and spaces. Hopefully you'll be inspired enough to share your experiences and stories about organizing too! And I'd be happy to answer your organizing questions.

My name is Debra and I am a professional home organizer in Chicago (also traveling to New York and San Francisco). My business is called "Spatial Solutions" because in addition to organzing, I help clients with space layout, closet design, and any other problem with space. The premise is that our space reflects our emotions and our state of mind. Dealing with the physical clutter clears the mental clutter as well.

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Organizing issues usually stem from one or more of the following problems:

* Not enough space

* Not enough time

* Some event -- illness, birth of a baby, etc., took the person off track

* Don't know how to organize

* Compulsive hoarding and collecting (the "pack-rat")

* Fear of letting go of the past

* Fear of poverty (This takes the form of "I can't get rid of it because I may need it someday")

We'll go through each one of these in greater depth later on.

If you are truly lacking in time, I highly suggest you hire someone to help you implement systems that will ultimately save you time. Most of us have some combination of all of the above to a certain degree, and I hope that by sharing with you my strategies developed over the years as a professional organizer you'll gain the tools to really change your life!


Getting Started : Journal Exercise

1. Connect with your motivation. Why do you want to get organized? Go to a place where you can really relax -- in this Chicago winter, the best place might be a hot bathtub, with pen and paper. I want you to visualize what you really want and expect out of organizing. Write down the following:

a. Why I dislike being disorganized. (One client came up with a list that was over a page long! See how many reasons you can come up with). Here are some examples: "I can't have friends over. The clutter stresses me out. I waste so much time trying to find things. I pay so much in late fees because I can never find my bills. I never have enough space. I feel unproductive and inefficient."

b. How would being organized improve my life? (Here I really want you to spend some time in fantasy. Write all of the fantasies down -- these will be powerful reminders when you are overwhelmed.)

c. What are my fears about being organized?


Step 2: Identify the Problem & Strategize

Here's how I like to start with clients. I ask them, "on a daily basis, what about being disorganized causes you the most stress?" Usually they know right away. "Too much clutter." "The kitchen -- I can't cook anymore." "The front entry closet." "Papers."

If the primary stress is overall clutter, then we'll need to conquer that in steps. If it's a particular part of the house, then that is where I suggest you begin your organizing work.

Is your issue clutter or space layout? For many, it's both. But for the moment, we're just going to focus on the layout of your space, and how that effects your ability to cope with all of the stuff.

I strongly suggest that you think of your home in "zones." The easiest way to conceptualize this as you are organizing is to look at the department store as the model for an organized home. Things are placed in a department store according to usage. Office supplies are in one area, recreation another, clothing another. Your home should be divided up in the same way.

Not sold on the idea yet? Sound too simple? Let me give you an example. At any given time, I might be working on anywhere between 10 and 20 homes. On occasion, a client will call me in despair asking "do you have any idea where my such and such is?" There are times when I've never seen the such and such to begin with, but I can guarantee you that if I put it away, I can tell you exactly where it is in your house. How can I keep track of all of these houses and all of their belongings inside? Because every item is placed according to usage! All of the holiday stuff is together, separated by holiday. Anything you'd typically buy in a hardware store is together. Gifts to give and wrapping supplies are all together on one shelf. Outdoor toys and games are separated by season. Excess office supplies are all together. And so on.

** There is one little caveat to this simple system. Sometimes you need two or more zones for the same category. For example: you might have some light bulbs, a small tool box, some batteries and flashlights, and a few other hardware doodads in a convenient closet near the kitchen, but most of your hardware-related belongings are stored in the garage. So here you have two activity zones for the same category for convenience. Entertainment items may be spread throughout the house according to usage and season. Off-season clothing may be stored away from your closet (and I recommend this if you are short on closet space). But overall, these are just little exceptions to an overall system you can follow: each category should have it's own zone in the house.

Creating zones in your house is the first, and most important step to becoming organized. Defining WHERE each zone should be can be tricky, especially if you are low on closet space.
More on that later...