Category: Resources

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Simple Organizing Tips & Tricks

Ready to tidy? Check out these simple organizing tips & tricks!

Focus on Joy:

Learn how to Joy Check!

Closet Tips

  • Remove clothes from plastic! Mold and moths can be trapped inside plastic covering your clothes. I recommend reusable & washable cloth garment bags.
  • Create a beautiful closet with matching hangers: it’s a simple yet effective visual appeal when you open your closet daily

Simple Kitchen Organizing

  • Try to store everything out of sight, inside cabinets and drawers
  • Install a wall basket on the inside cabinet under the sink to store soap & sponges
  • Store less frequently used appliances in low, easy to reach cabinets
  • Toss less joyful items like disposable silverware and chopsticks
  • Store food in air tight containers to preserve quality and for a lovely visual
  • Store loose dry items in bins
    • Snack bin: popcorn, chips, nuts, crackers
    • Canned: soup, beans, chicken broth
    • Sauces: ketchup, soy sauce, hot sauce
    • Health foods: protein powder, supplements
    • Back stock: backup cereal, energy bars, coffee
  • Keep joyful tools and organizers: high level of function, easy to wash/clean, and aesthetically pleasing

Atmosphere

  • Dedicate a “to-do” area.
    • Place a “pending” box for all incoming mail you want to open
    • Hang a calendar for all chores, appointments, reminders
    • Designate a work area for projects you’re working on
  • Create a drop-zone: this is usually near the front door where you can leave a pair shoes, jacket, mask, and wallet. It’s important to only leave one or time items of each category to avoid visual clutter.
  • Areas for daily rituals need to be easy to access: drop-zone, coffee & tea station, pet zone, workout zone, and more!

Storage Tricks

  • BINS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND! Kitchen, Bathroom, Closet, Garage – no matter what space you are trying to organize try to CONTAIN all Like-items together!
  • Labels, labels, labels! Label’s help everyone in the home know where items belong and where to put them back.
  • Utilize all storage areas efficiently
    • Store large items first, place smaller items around
    • Install shelves on empty wall spaces
  • Store items of the same category together and label the shelf and/or box

What simple organizing tips & tricks do you want?

For more tips see Marie Kondo’s Website

Tell Nicole

Organize your space around your daily habits.

Organize Books

How to organize books successfully

The guide to success:

Always keep your ideal lifestyle in mind! As you prepare to organize books we need to refrain from reading. When we read books it distracts us from focusing on our emotions.

  • Rule 1: Take every book off the shelf
  • Rule 2: Do not open and read the books
  • Rule 3: Book trilogies can be held at the same time

Marie Kondo’s Tidy Order

  • General (books for pleasure)
  • Practical (instructional, cookbooks, etc.)
  • Visual (coffee table, photography etc.)
  • Magazines

How to Joy Check

  • Step 1: Pile all books in the entire home
  • Step 2: Pick a book that Sparks Joy – use this as an inspirational marker
  • Step 3: Pick up a book one at a time. Focus on the feeling it gives you. Think of its purpose. Ask yourself a few of the joy checking questions to make a decision.
  • Step 4: Place book in keep or donate pile
  • Step 5: Store books to keep on shelves temporarily

Joy Checking Questions

  • Do you want this information to stay by you and support you as your life changes?
  • Is the potential future use of the book equal to the value of the space it will take up?
  • Do you want this book in your ideal lifestyle environment?
  • What emotions and feelings will you enhance by having this book in your life?

Why is it hard to discard books?

  • “I might read it again.”
    • Ask yourself honestly, have you read your favorite books more than once?
  • Books are meant to be read. If you’ve read it, then the knowledge is inside of you.
  • We always have the best intentions. Have the courage to ask yourself honestly if you will read it or accept that this book has served its purpose in teaching you what you don’t like to read.
  • If you can’t commit to reading it today, most likely someday will not happen.
    • Let it go.
  • If you let go of a book and are still thinking about it, you learned that you’re passionate enough to buy another copy and read it.

What books Spark Joy for you?

Contact Nicole

“What I really wanted to keep was not the book but certain information or specific words contained.”

– The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo

Organize Clothing

How to organize clothing efficiently

Why is my Closet Clutttered?

  • The closet is too full
  • Most individuals don’t know how to organize clothes

Marie Kondo’s Tidy Order

  1. Tops (shirts, sweaters, etc.)
  2. Bottoms (pants, skirts, etc.)
  3. Clothes to be hung (jackets, coats, suits, etc.)
  4. Socks
  5. Underwear
  6. Clothing for special events (swimwear, uniforms, seasonal, etc.)
  7. Bags (handbags, clutches, totes, etc.)
  8. Accessories (scarves, belts, hats, etc.)
  9. Shoes

Organize Clothing Process

  • Step 1: Pile all clothes in a subcategory
  • Step 2: Double & triple check all clothes in the subcategory are in the pile
  • Step 3: Joy Check
  • Step 4: Fold and test if it stands up right
  • Step 5: Organize by color
  • Step 6: Place vertically in temporary storage

Clothes Tips

  • Remove all tags
  • Take clothes out of package
  • Fold most clothes, hang less
  • See how to fold here
  • Donate clothes at the end

Storage

Once we Joy Check all clothes we will find a forever home for each category.

Hanging Clothes

Every person has a preference for how to display clothes

  • Organize by category: suits, dresses, coats, dress shirts, etc.
  • Organize from dark (left) to light (right)
  • Organize by length: longest (left) to shortest (right)
  • Organize by rainbow

Folded Clothes

Lightest items at the top and heaviest items at the bottom.

  • Top drawers: undergarments, socks, & accessories
  • Middle drawers: shirts, pants
  • Lower drawers: sweaters, jackets, seasonal
  • Organize from dark to light or by color

Bags

  • Store bags inside bags
  • Handles should be visible to identify bags inside
  • Cloth bags can be folded and stored vertically
  • Store bags near clothes, perhaps on the top shelf

Shoes

Store shoes with the lightest items on top and heaviest items on bottom.

  • Top shelf: sandals, flip flops
  • Second shelf: heels
  • Third shelf: running shoes, walking shoes
  • Bottom shelf: boots, rain shoes

Find more inspiration from Marie Kondo

Organizing Book Recommendations

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Check out these book recommendations to help you start organizing!

Marie Kondo Book Recommendations

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up: This is such a great book to inspire you! After reading this I just knew I had to hire Marie to help my parents with their hoarder home. Soon after I signed up for her Organizing Consultant Program to start organizing on my own! This is where my professional organizing journey began. In this book she describes the deep impact of how organizing can enhance our lives. After all, don’t we all want to live our best lives?!

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up: Such an amazing detailed guide on how to organize in each category. Marie includes pictures of how to fold items with TONS of tips and tricks. Take your organizing game to the NEXT LEVEL with this book!

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life: What I love most about this book is how she explains how to organize your digital life. I swear before I read this I had soooo many old photos, documents spread all over my desktop, and absolutely no order to all my files. She also goes into detail about how to maintain a tidy workspace.

Organizing Book Recommendations

The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals: Clea and Joanna transform spaces to be practical and aesthetically beautiful. They tidy for clients instead of with clients. They love purchasing organizing containers to display everything beautifully and in rainbow color.

The Personal Organizing Workbook: Solutions for a Simpler, Easier Life: This in amazing guide that really helps clients organize and learn how to maintain organized spaces. I really enjoyed this one!

Real Life Organizing: (Clutterbug Book)

Martha Stewart’s Organizing: The Manual for Bringing Order to Your Life, Home & Routines

Need more suggestions?

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How to Fold Clothes & More

The basics of how to fold clothes & more

Folding Guidelines:

  1. Check out the storage space for each category of clothing
  2. Fold clothes into a rectangle or square of the same sizes
  3. Adjust folds so everything can stand up right, side by side horizontally
  4. Display & Store by category
  5. Display & Store by color from light to dark or in rainbow order
  6. Place most frequently used clothes at arms reach
  7. Less used clothes can go higher, lower or towards the back
  8. Switch out clothing every season if you limited closet space

How to Videos

Need more help? Don’t hesitate to contact me!

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