For almost three decades, I’ve enthusiastically helped people edit and get organized. Recently, I’ve become my own client and leaned into some organizing self-help. My motivation to let go of the extraneous was partially influenced by this summer’s tiny house vacation. While I no longer am obsessed with moving into a tiny house, I want to live in our right-sized house, but with less stuff.

Our home isn’t disorganized or cluttered. Things have a place. My husband, Steve, and I can easily retrieve and return items to their designated ‘homes.’  However, there are belongings that have overstayed their welcome. Those are the things that have been stored for a long time and are no longer used, needed, or wanted. They are taking up physical and emotional space. Their time has come to move on.

After returning from vacation, I set a long-term goal to reduce the amount of stuff I own. My plan isn’t a detailed room-by-room-do-this-by-x-date proposition. It’s a low-pressure, loose plan. I added one simple daily repeat on my to-do list that says, “Edit & release some stuff.”  There is no expectation other than to do something. I spend 15-60 minutes editing what I feel like working on that day.

In the last two weeks, I edited and organized clothing, shoes, handbags, toiletries, cleaning products, paper goods, dishes, and glasses. Additional edits included candles, vases, office supplies, books, photos, cards, letters, memorabilia, personal and business files, and email inbox. These items were from the dining room, entryway, laundry room, kitchen, office, main bedroom, and bathrooms.

I let go of

• Five 13-gallon bags of trash

• Two 30-gallon bags of trash

• Two 30-gallon bags of clothing and home goods for donations

• One bag of books for donations

• One bag of paper for recycling

• One bag of paper for shredding

• One container of pens for a friend

Like with all experiments, come learning. My ‘edit & release some stuff’ plan is no exception. There will be more insights, but here are seven discoveries I made so far.

7 Best Organizing Self-Help Discoveries Made With My New Simple Plan

1. Track Your Progress

There are many ways to enjoy progress, but for me, tracking with a simple chart helps me review and acknowledge my accomplishments. I created a Word document with three columns- date, area worked on, and result. Taking photos or journaling can also be helpful.

2. Respect Random Approach

Typical organizing wisdom encourages us to organize one area before moving on to the next. I’ve shared that advice with many clients. However, as logical as that sounds, it’s not always possible or desirable. Clients sometimes get bored working in one area or encounter emotionally charged belongings they are not ready to organize. With my approach, I gifted myself the option for randomness. Instead of a specific plan of what to edit each day, I let myself choose more intuitively. Which area do I feel like working on today? It keeps the pressure low and the satisfaction high.

3. Honor Your Emotions

Is organizing emotional? It can be. While editing, I experienced a range of feelings like happiness, joy, sadness, ambivalence, resistance, frustration, annoyance, guilt, exhaustion, satisfaction, and love. I let my emotions have the space to surface. When editing my cards, I found a beautiful, love-filled note written by my mom for my 40th birthday. I felt sad that she is gone and simultaneously felt her love and encouragement. 

4. Trust the Exit

Honestly, if I wasn’t logging my progress and noting the stuff I said goodbye to, I wouldn’t remember what was gone. I have no regrets and don’t miss anything that I released. It feels good.

“It’s liberating to live with less.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

5. Live With Less

As each area or space is edited, I appreciate having less. For example, when I open the sticky note drawer, only my favorites are there, and the never-used ones are gone. When I get dressed, the clothes I like and wear most are in my closets and drawers. They have space to breathe, and it makes it easier for me to select what I’m going to wear. It’s liberating to live with less.

6. Rethink Your Space

One of the benefits of letting go is the opportunity to rethink your space. Having less visual and physical clutter makes it easier to improve flow and organization.  As I released stuff, I cleaned and asked a few questions. Is the space working as is? Or, could it use a slight tweak? Some areas were set. However, for others, I made improvements. For example, after the kitchen edit, I inserted freestanding cabinet shelves. This made use of wasted vertical space and also improved access to frequently used dishes.

7. Engage Self or Outside Help

While I’m making progress, I recognize the value of enlisting help. While I have released a lot, I’m pretty sure if someone supported and asked me questions as I edited, I’d let go of more. Help with facilitating decision-making is invaluable. For now, I continue to go it alone, coaching myself through the process. I will leave the door open to reach out for help if needed.

Have you been editing and organizing? Are you doing it on your own or did you get help? What did you learn? Did any of my discoveries resonate with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Matthew Hoffman, Artist

Are you ready to learn one of the best ways to facilitate letting go?

Parameters.

Set some boundaries or guidelines around your decision-making before you start the actual process of releasing things. Setting parameters in advance will allow you to move faster, decrease stress, and reduce decision fatigue.

Here's one way you might use this concept. Let’s say you have decades worth of health-related newsletters. Some you’ve read and others you haven’t. While you know there’s a lot of interesting information in those pages, the information isn’t current.

Instead of reading through every newsletter, you decide to activate a parameter. You choose that for any health newsletter over five years old, you'll recycle it immediately without looking through the pages. By setting this date parameter, you’ll save yourself hours of reading information that isn’t relevant. Instead, you can use your decision-making energy to make more important choices.

You can use the parameter concept for other areas, too. Let’s say your closet is overflowing. It’s a daily challenge to get dressed. There’s no space on the racks or shelves to move things around, so you can't see what’s there. You have an abundance of black pants and bulky sweaters, many of which you don't wear.

Instead of organizing the entire closet, you start with only those two categories. You opt to put some guidelines in place and decide that four pairs of black pants and six bulky sweaters are ‘enough.’ Now, it’s a matter of selecting your favorites. With your number parameters in place, letting go is more manageable.

It’s your turn to choose. Which parameters will make the letting go part of your organizing journey easier? Remember that the more parameters you establish in advance, the less decision fatigue you’ll experience, the faster you’ll reach your goals, and the less stress you’ll experience.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What has your experience been with creating letting go parameters? 

Our “stuff” can clutter our spaces, schedules, and minds. This can result in overwhelm or procrastination. Sometimes we need a boost to activate our letting go rhythm. Are you curious about how to feel less encumbered? I’ve put together a few ideas and resources to help you let go and move on.

Ways to Let Go

When we let go, we gain space, peace of mind, and focus. We also receive that feel good lift, when we donate, give, or recycle things that provide a benefit to others.

1. Clothing - Do you own any clothes that are too small, too big, or too unflattering? Do they include purchasing mistakes, items you’ve outgrown, or gifts received that don’t match your style? You won’t wear or use them, but someone else might. Get the donation bags ready.

2. Paper - Are your old telephone, utility bills, and other non-tax deductible receipts occupying valuable filing cabinet or surface space? Do you have scraps of paper with illegible notes written on them? Those papers can go. Shred ones that include your name, address, or account information. Check your county’s schedule for free shredding and recycling days.

3. Distractions - Are the dings and pop-ups on your digital devices and computers making it difficult to focus and be productive? Are you ready to let go of these hard to resist alerts? Consider using one of the many apps or programs that help control “ding management.”

4. Electronics - With changing technology and shorter product lifespans, you probably have a growing collection of outdated cell phones, chargers, TVs, computers, digital cameras, and other electronic gadgets. They’re occupying space, not being used, and collecting dust. Activate your recycling options.

5. Photos - I love photos as much as the next person. What about the images (digital or paper) you have that are duplicates, out of focus, or not meaningful? Make room for what’s significant, organize the keepers, and let go of the rest.

Ways to Move On

Once you’ve activated your decision-making skills and opted to let go, don’t stop there. Use these resources to complete the process and help you and your things move on.

6. Vietnam Veterans of America - Free pick up is available for donating clothing, toys, shoes, books, electronics, household & more.

7. Concentrate - This Mac App eliminates distractions and improves focus.

8. Earth911 - The site has resources searchable by location for recycling electronics such as game consoles, MP3players, computer peripherals, and digital cameras.

9. Best Buy - They offer both trade-ins and recycling for computers, peripherals, cell phones, digital cameras, TVs and more.

10. MyPublisher - This is an easy to use website helps you create high quality photo albums from your digital photos.

What letting go challenges or successes have you encountered? Do you have favorite “moving on” resources? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

The possibilities are tremendous when we help each other. Great accomplishments and changes can occur. Who knew that one pair of shoes could make such a difference? I am so excited to share an eco-friendly opportunity, which helps people in need and saves the environment by collecting, distributing, and recycling new or gently worn shoes. You can declutter and do some good at the same time.

Oh, So Organized! is participating in the NAPO Challenge, which is the result of a partnering effort with Soles4Souls (“S4S”), a Nashville-based charity that provides shoes to adults and children in need. Since 2005, S4S has given away over 14 million pairs of shoes to people in over 127 countries, including the United States. “With tragedies such as the earthquakes in countries like Haiti and Japan, on top of the enormous need elsewhere, we can use the estimated 1.5 billion shoes taking up space in closets of ordinary people to change the world one pair at a time,” said Wayne Elsey, Founder and CEO of Soles4Souls.

Oh, So Organized! is sponsoring a shoe drive to benefit Soles4Souls through November 11, 2011. We are collecting gently worn shoes. So far, several Oh, So Organized! clients have edited their shoe collections, increased their closet space, and felt good that they donated to this worthy cause. Tax-deductible receipts are available. Would you like to participate? There are several options below:

Shoe Donation Opportunities

• Oh, So Organized! Clients: Linda Samuels will pick-up shoes you want to donate during all organizing appointments and supply you with a tax-deductible receipt

• Westchester Residents: On Sunday, November 6, 2011 from 10am-2pm, you can drop off your shoes at 202 Cleveland Drive in Croton on Hudson, NY

• Special Arrangements: To make alternate arrangements, contact Linda Samuels at linda@ohsoorganized.com

Shoe Donation Update

• Oh, So Organized! has collected 537 pairs of shoes as of 11/11/11

Organizing Tip 101: Shoes

• Follow the link for helpful shoe organizing & decluttering tips from professional organizer, Linda Samuels

My deepest gratitude to all those that already have donated or will donate. Please join our conversation and leave a comment about shoes, donating or decluttering. What is your favorite organizing or donating story? 

Linda Samuels at shoe drive - November 6, 2011