Monthly Archives: December 2018

This year while packing up Christmas, I decided to seriously sort and organize our decorations.  We enjoy a collection of beautiful glass blown ornaments, some which have sentimental value and others that are simply pretty on the tree.  As I carefully packed them away, I labeled the most precious boxes in which they sleep all year with the following:

~ Where or when we found the treasure

~ Which child gets this (you know, when they are cleaning out their parent’s belongings…)

Morbid thought?  No!  Organized preparation!  Our daughter loves to cook and we have several foodie ornaments.  Our son loves color and unique art and he gets the ornaments that fit his personality. 

Through the years, we will continue to adorn our tree with these baubles, but they are organized, labeled, and when the day comes, our kids will appreciate and continue to enjoy the same joy every Christmas.          

Those extra pounds creep up, especially around the holidays.  I’m not talking body fat.  I’m talking clutter.  Find those items you have stashed to “re-gift” and get them ready to wrap.  While you are wrapping, sort through your leftovers… no, not the food, the old recycled gift wrap and bows.  Are they crinkled and smooshed?  Look like recycled?  Then recycle them in that big bucket on the side of the house and start fresh.  No one wants a gift in an extra loved gift bag.  Sort through and organize ribbons, seriously?  A 5” ribbon is going to help you? 

This year while opening gifts, have a bag ready for the wrapping and if Aunt Betty wants to flatten, straighten and save every piece of tissue, wrap and ribbon, let her.  Then send it all home with her.

Ahhh… now that’s better.  You’ve lost the weight! 

I am talking adult kids.  We’ve either gone through it or are going through it.  This, from the voice of experience.  We downsized when we moved to Las Vegas, losing an attic and huge garage.  That was storage, valuable real estate.

As organized as I was, we still had quite a bit of the “kid stuff.”  Now adults, I flew my kids home for a weekend of sorting, throwing, and re-evaluation.  They got the idea of a garage sale (their idea – not mine) and had a blast of a time with it.  By the way, those old science fair experiments in the attic?  Ewwww.  Dioramas disintegrate through the years as well. 

Yes, there comes a time when it’s time.  Keep the treasured memories (yearbooks, a few earned trophies/ribbons, favorite toys), but the rest?  The comment I heard most was, “WHY did you keep THIS?”

Their decisions made it easy for me to pack and move only what was necessary.  Soon after, when my kids had homes of their own… we made a road trip with the saved items in tow, (I always come bearing gifts), which my kids gladly now store in their own real estate. 

Another example is a client I worked with recently.  She and her husband were moving to a new state and downsizing.  They phoned their daughter on the East Coast and said: “Come home and sort your things or we will donate all.”  They had moved her “treasures” three times and enough was enough.  This resulted in a late night urgent call for me to come the next morning and help the daughter, which I happily did.  Once faced with the cost of shipping “treasures” to the East Coast, daughter became realistic real fast and in just four hours we had the problem under control with happy parents.  If only they had done this three moves ago.

Movers charge by weight.  Stuff costs money.  Stuff takes up room.  Kids still little kids?  All the more reason to sort and choose what to keep through the years.  Keep the best of the best each school year… the first cursive project, the first reader, the best spelling test.  Treasure the memories in your heart and you will thank me in a few years. 

Your dapper duds are only as stylish as where and how you hang them, so why not opt for the best of the best?  A great beginning is an efficient, functional and beautiful closet space and storage solution.  If you have the typical “builder’s grade” closet with one shelf and one hanging rod, consider enlarging that area with double hang, shoe shelves and using the wall space all the way to the ceiling with storage shelves.

If your closet has an odd shape, a sloped ceiling, a “cubbie,” use those spaces for belts, hats, colognes… get creative here.  There’s no such thing as an awkward or unusable space inside your closet.  Even the smallest nook can become a go-to catchall or perfect hideaway for treasures.

Preserve your wardrobe by saying NO to wire hangers, avoid overcrowding, and fold – don’t suspend sweaters and they will remain shapely.  If you have the shelf space fold your jeans allowing more hang space for trousers and dress pants.

Walk out your door dapper and happy with a spring in your step!  Well dressed and ready to face world, your clothes will love you back.