When I start to work in any zone in my home, I start with a vision. Because I share this room with my husband, it needs to be a shared vision. We want this room to have a welcoming presence. We want a calming, relaxing feel and a place to feel happy. We like soft light but still have enough light available to read. My husband meditates here so the room should have an uncluttered, peaceful feel. I use the whole month to work on this zone and I divide the tasks into four sectio

Your mom or dad is now living alone in their own home. Each time you visit you see more and more clutter build up and less and less cleaning going on. You want to help but don’t want to embarrass or upset your parent. This has been the situation with a couple of my clients. The plan: If possible, invite someone to the home with you who can get a fresh look at the situation. Because this clutter has grown over an extended period of time, you are probably missing some key comp

November is a great time to organize and clean out your attic or basement zone. It is not so hot or yet too cold for comfort. Also, many of us store our seasonal decorations in this zone. As you prepare to organize this zone, make a list of all items you store here. The list might include: Seasonal decorations Seasonal house items like fans/heaters Extra furniture and household accessories Toys or items to pass on to children or grandchildren Out of season clothing Suitcases

Valentine’s Day is a day for romance. It is a chance to spice up the relationship and show the love. However, if you trip over piles of shoes while entering the front door or have papers cascading off the coffee table, and CDs and DVDs scattered on the floor, your living room is not ready for prime time romance. If your dining table has projects, bills, and used plates and silverware, along with stacks of clothes to fold and put away, you are not ready for that romantic meal.

Whenever I work in a zone, I start with my vision for the space. Since I share this room with my husband, we must form this vision together. Last year we decided that we wanted our room to have a soothing, calming, and supportive look. When we are in this space we want to feel secure, relaxed, and happy. We like soft light yet still have enough lighting for reading. In the past year we have painted this room a very soft yellow to help capture the light and changed some of our

I follow a zone plan for my home. My home is divided into 10 zones and every month (except July and December) I tackle one of these zones. March is the month that I organize my living room zone. Spring is around the corner and I want my living room fresh and ready. The first step in organizing the room is to review my vision for this zone. As this is a shared room it also needs to have a shared vision with my husband, Rob. At times we both use this room singly. I start my day

I use a zone plan to organize and declutter my home. In January, I tackled the office zone and in February, I follow up with the spare bedroom zone. This makes sense in my home because the spare bedroom is used as offsite storage for my office. While cleaning out files in my office, some of the files end up dumped on the dresser in that spare bedroom. Now this area looks cluttered to me and demands attention. My spare bedroom is also used as a place for guests to stay, a loca

If you are following my zone plan, this month is a good month to work on organizing your bathrooms. If you have a linen closet, you may wish to include it in this zone. Your bathroom is one of the smaller rooms in your home but it is also one that holds many items. A bathroom can get disorganized and cluttered quickly, so it is important to have a vision and a plan for how you want to use this space. Keep clutter to a minimum. Look at the storage space you have available. Do

The workshop or garage area often ends up as a dumping area. It is not in your main living area and it is sooo easy to walk in and dump something “just for now.” After a while it is very difficult to find things you think are there or even to freely move around. I suggest that once a year you schedule a time to really organize and clean out this zone. Start with deciding the purpose for this area. Do you plan to: park a car store extra household items like water/paper product

You’ve had enough of all the clutter lying around. You decide to take action – either by yourself, with a friend, or with a professional organizer. You start the sorting process. This box I keep. This box I donate. This box is for items that I plan to give to specific people. This I trash. This I will try to sell. You are on a roll. But time gets away from you and you need to stop for a while. You know that you still have a lot to do. So, you just stack up those sorted boxes

Laundry zones are located in many places. Some older homes have them in the basement. Some are located off the kitchen or even in a hall way. I have seen them at the top of the stairs and right off the master bedrooms. In many newer homes they are very centrally located which is a great if you keep up with the laundry and not so good if you let laundry stack up on the floor. Keeping up with the laundry becomes less of a chore with a well organized space and a plan for keeping

1. Excess paper– This paper can be computer printouts that you no longer need, copies of paid bills, unnecessary receipts, or even old newspapers and articles. Quickly sort through your mounds of paper stuck here and there and see how much can quickly go into the trash or recycle bin. Keep asking yourself, “Why do I need this?” and “What is the worst thing that can happen if I throw this away?” 2. Extra clothes hangers or speciality hangers you are not using. Open each closet

I have long prided myself that I only kept as many books as I had spaces to store them. My bookcases were my containers and if they got full, I got rid of less favored books. Then it was pointed out to me that it really wasn’t that great to have my bookcases so crowded. Spaces that are completely full block the flow of “chi” (vital energy). Full bookcases block the flow of new information and knowledge. You can believe in Feng Shui or not but I will tell you that declutterin

Spare bedrooms often have multiple functions. My spare bedroom stores offseason and less frequently used clothes, wrapping paper and gift accessories, memorabilia, household accessories, overflow storage for archival files and office supplies, and is a place for guests to enjoy. My zones are well defined in that room and everything is behind closed closet doors or in drawers. My challenge for this month is finding a home for all the extra office files that I have dumped into