How To Declutter Sustainably

So you want to get organized? Well, the first step is almost always going to be decluttering. But you also care about being sustainable and not wasteful - and perhaps you’re a little scared of how many things you might need to get rid of, and are overwhelmed by the work needed to let go of things responsibly. Well, today’s post is a guide on just that - how to declutter sustainably.

Now, when we declutter, there are generally two main categories of items that need to leave our space:

1. Things that have usable life left

2. Things that are at the end of their usable life.

Giving Items a Second Chance at Life

For things that have usable life left, there are generally two options -

1. Selling

2. Donating

P.S. (the third sneaky option is returning items that are still within their return window and are unused!)

Both options have their respective pros and cons. Obviously, selling can help to recoup some of the funds spent on the original item (although almost never the full amount). However selling has it’s drawbacks - it often takes a lot of time to manage the process. I often have my clients choose a monetary threshold for what they think is worth it to sell. That is a personal decision, but I have had clients range from $20 - $100, depending on their time available and how important it is for them to get the money out of the item. In terms of sustainability, I believe selling is actually one of the most sustainable options (provided the item actually sells) because it increases the odds dramatically that the item is going to continue to be used. So where to sell? For many things, the easiest way to sell is on platforms like Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp, especially for large items like furniture. Sometimes for specialty items that have high value and are easy to ship, like small electronics or collectibles, Ebay can be a great option. For people who are clearing out their closet and have clothing that is very gently worn and high value, online websites like Poshmark and theRealReal are some of the best ways to sell items.

What about items under that monetary threshold, but still have usability? This is often the majority of things that people declutter - donations. The first place people think of is often Goodwill. Goodwill is a fantastic option for so many items, and as a professional organizer, it is one of the primary places I send things. In terms of sustainability, Goodwill is a great option - for the items that actually get resold, which by some estimates is only around 30%.

“Customers purchase about 58% of the goods stocked in Evergreen stores, which is much higher than the 30% Minter estimates nationwide.”

Seattle Times Article

But how can we maximize the odds that our discarded items end up with people who use them? Well, we can think outside the blue Goodwill bin, and drill down a bit more to find locations that specialize in whatever we are discarding. Near me, in the Seattle area, our Goodwill will often be overflowing with furniture and not accept more furniture donations. For furniture I often skip Goodwill completely and head straight to Habitat for Humanity. I do the same with tools or home improvement items.

There are also many items that Goodwill won’t take, such as baby items, or personal care items - I often donate these items to local women’s shelters. Many of my clients have pets, so I often take pet items that are in good condition to the Seattle Humane society. In Seattle, we also have Seattle ReCreative, a dedicated store that takes gently used or unwanted art supplies. Finally, super specialty items are better off being donated more directly through things like Buy Nothing groups on Facebook (or listed for free on Facebook Marketplace). As a professional organizer, I will also look into schools or other dedicated charities to find homes for specialty items - one example was a fencing suit in good but used condition that I was able to donate to a local fencing school.

In order to donate responsibly, I find it invaluable to have a list of places to donate items and what each respective place will take, and then spend the time (and ideally sorting them during the decluttering process) to think about where each item will be most likely to get picked up by someone who will use it again. I personally help my clients sustainably declutter by working with dozens of different specialty places - sometimes all it takes is a little research to find the best place for an item to go. And if you don’t have the time or energy, I recommend reaching out to a professional organizer (look for one that specializes in eco organizing!) near you to help you through the process, or even to see if they would offer things like pickup for more unique items.

Responsible Disposal

A quick note about donating items - obviously, if we can, we’d like to donate everything we need to discard. But sometimes, items might technically still be usable, but they are very unlikely to be resold. (Think loose office supplies, or a set of used but still in good condition sheets) This is the time where recycling is actually far and away the more responsible and sustainable choice. A lot of the time, if we donate to Goodwill, these things do get recycled, but if we can take matters into our own hands, all the better, as Goodwill's are often overwhelmed.

“In 2019, Evergreen received about 143 million pounds of donated goods. Of that, only about 15% wound up at the landfill — but the costs are significant. As dumping fees and donations increased over the past decade, the organization’s annual garbage bill has nearly doubled to almost $3 million.”

Seattle Times Article

In the Seattle area (and starting up in other parts of the country!), we are lucky enough to have a company called Ridwell. Their main focus is offer the opportunity to recycle more of the household waste we create in the form of plastic packaging, but they have something called a “featured” category, which is a rotation of many different things that will pickup and recycle. In the past few months, that has included everything from metal keys, holiday decorations, jewelry (including broken costume jewelry!) and CDs/DVDs. They also offer recycling for items like batteries, lightbulbs, latex paint, tech items like cords and small devices, and textiles. Ridwell is an incredible service for keeping on top of decluttering in a sustainable way.

I love to use Ridwell as much as possible for tech items, but I also come across a lot of tech that Ridwell won’t take - things like specialty equipment, peripherals, or even whole TVs or Computers. There are tons of resources for tech recycling, as places such as Best Buy will take tech (sometimes for a fee for large items) - but there are often local companies that will take all tech items for free. The biggest concern with tech recycling is often secure data destruction, so when looking at local places make sure you check to see what their process is. In the Greater Seattle Area, I frequently drop off at Inter Connection.

There are also options for recycling things that are more challenging to get rid of, like mattresses - one option my clients have used with success is A Bedder World - they offer mattress pickup for recycling nationwide, for a fee. Goodwill, Value Village, Habitat for Humanity and any other furniture or consignment won’t take any form of used mattress (and often won’t even take new ones!).

Finally, there will be things that just need to go to the dump. Hopefully, having gone through this guide, the number of items that need to go to the dump has been lowered substantially - but it will almost never be zero. Things that are broken, damaged, mildewy - these things will have to be trashed. The one type of trash I would recommend separating out and discarding more carefully is hazardous waste - these items really should not go into your normal trash, as they can contaminate other items and can create toxic conditions at a landfill. Most cities/counties will have designated places to drop off these hazardous waste materials, and doing so is the most responsible and sustainable way to discard those items.

I’d love to hear any questions you might have about decluttering sustainably - please leave a comment below!

Review of How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis

As promised, here is my review of “How to Keep House While Drowning” by KC Davis.

Out of the gate, my takeaway from this book- it should be as popular (if not more so) than Marie Kondo’s “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up!”

Today, my goal is to explain to you why I think everyone who struggles with organizing and household maintenance should read this book.

KC Davis is a licensed professional therapist, and like all of us, struggled during the pandemic. She had the added layer of giving birth and dealing with the postpartum period right at the outset in March 2020. The way she describes this period of time in her life, which inspired the writing of this book, is a situation that almost everyone will find themself in at some point - survival mode. Her experience as a therapist lends itself to writing that integrates organizing and home maintenance strategies with a deep respect for mental health and well-being. Her main philosophy outlined in the book is:

“You don’t exist to serve your space, your space exists to serve you.”

First, let’s talk about how the book is written - at around 160 pages, it is a quick read. The author keeps each chapter super short and digestible, and even offers shortcuts for those who struggle with time or focus while reading. This makes the book incredibly approachable. In the print version, it is also printed with neurodivergent readers in mind - sans serif font and left angled o make reading text easier, with key points bolded, and literal interpretations of metaphors for clarity. The book is written with humor (a few curse words here and there, a poem about baskets) and perhaps most importantly, a tremendous dose of compassion. In fact, this book is the most compassionate guide regarding organization and household responsibilities I have ever read. The book overall flows well from one chapter to the next, although there is the occasional jump from topic to topic. I truly appreciated the personal anecdotes from KC’s life, which is helpful for readers (such as myself) who appreciate narrative storytelling. Perhaps even more importantly, the book offers specific, detailed strategies for different parts of your home that are designed to be extremely easy to both start and maintain. These additions are especially useful for those with executive function difficulties.

The parts of the book I was struck the most by were just the simple, clear acknowledgement of the work needed to maintain a home and care for yourself. There is so much shame associated for a lot of people regarding household responsibilities, especially for people who struggle with executive function. KC does an excellent job helping to reframe home maintenance tasks to be morally neutral. This book is truly the anti-perfectionism organization book, focusing instead on promoting strategies that are about progress and are truly based in real life, rather than an aspirational life. My favorite quote from the book that encapsulates this is

“You have full permission to do a little, do it with shortcuts, and do the bare minimum.”

Specifically regarding organization, there were two main things that resonated most with me, as a professional organizer.

1. You do not need to be tidy to be organized. Organization means having a home for everything, and a system to get items to their respective homes. Tidiness describes how quickly things go back to their homes - a tidy person might return things to their home right away, whereas a “messy” person might need to leave things out and put things away in larger “resets”. Sometimes people are messy because they are not organized (because things don’t have homes to return to, or the homes things have are not functioning properly) - and that’s where a professional like myself can come in to help get a space in shape. A messy but organized person will find their space less stressful and more functional - because they know exactly how to reset their space when it’s needed.

2. Organization does not need to be pretty. Basically, for 95% of people, organizational systems should be functional before anything else - and sometimes, the most functional system might not be the most aesthetically pleasing one. You will almost never find Pinterest-perfect photos of organization on my website or social media; that’s not real life. To me, having a system where things get put into their home where they can be found again is much much more important than having a system where all the containers match and everything is in rainbow order. Sometimes “pretty” organization actually complicates things and makes items harder to put away, which is the last thing anyone needs when in survival mode.

So as you know from the beginning of this post, I highly recommend this book to everyone. That being said, there is a subset of people that I think are particularly suited to this book.

1. People who are struggling with their mental health, whether that be anxiety, depression, or other issues.

2. People struggling with chronic illness, disabilities, or traumatic brain injuries, that affect their energy levels and/or mobility.

3. People who struggle with executive function, whether that be from a diagnosis like ADHD or autism, or any other reason.

4. People who are dealing with “survival mode” or challenging life circumstances - postpartum, grief and bereavement, job loss or financial stress, moving house, injury or illness, or any other crappy thing life throws our way.

I think most people could take away something from this book for their own lives, or if not for themselves, than for others in their life who might be struggling.

Stay tuned for my next review - Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism by Fumio Sasaki

Top 5 Organizing Books To Shift Your Mindset

Today I wanted to do a quick post on my favorite organization-related books that have personally changed my life and my approach to organizing. These are the books I would recommend to anyone who wants to get organized and change their mindset around their organizational habits. I have given a theme to each book, in case you might have a particular focus area that would be most impactful to you. I also have a couple of bonus books at the end for anyone who wants even more!

FOUNDATIONS

Organized From The Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern

The bible of professional organizing. I couldn’t make this list without this book. This lays the foundation of how most organizers work with clients, and gives guidance on how to prioritize your organization process. Goes over concepts like the S.P.A.C.E method (see my other blog post on my version), zoning, etc. 

PRODUCTIVITY

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

An information packed book on how to organize your thoughts and take action on what you want to spend your time doing. For anyone who’s biggest struggle is time management and productivity. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on some of my takeaways from this book!

EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF ORGANIZING

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

This book’s core concept for me was that we actually do have an emotional connection to our stuff, and we need to honor that in some way, and prioritize those items that have a positive influence. Do I agree with every little thing Marie Kondo says to do while organizing your home? No. But I do think she changed the game, and helped the everyday person think more about how our things affect our mind and emotions. 

MINIMALISM

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

A great baseline book about some of the core concepts of minimalism, that is approachable from wherever you’re at - no need to get rid of everything you own. I also think it has some great points about a minimalism (aka essentialism) mindset towards productivity and time management - something that I think is a key part of becoming more organized.

TIME ORGANIZATION

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

I loved this book for anyone who is creative and wants to be both more productive and create more balance in their life. This book has some extreme ideas in it in terms of shutting out the world around us, but I believe that the core concepts can be transformative to our productivity. It’s core concept is the idea of setting aside time for “deep work” - swaths of uninterrupted time to get stuff done. I’d be happy to write another post on how I have implemented this in my own life, if people are interested!

BONUS

Finally, last but not least, I will add three more books as bonuses for those who want to read more:

ADD-Friendly Ways To Organize Your Life by Judith Kolberg and Kathleen Nadeau

• for anyone who has ADD and wants more focused tips on managing your life

How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want To Be by Katy Milkman

• for anyone who struggles with trying to change/add habits

How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis

• my next organizing read! Stay tuned for a blog post reviewing this book.

Maybe you’re not a reader - that’s fine too! Sometimes things are just so overwhelming, and what you really need is help. That’s where I can come in - I have the knowledge from all these books, and I will help work with you to figure out what information is useful and what you don’t need. And I will work with you to actually implement those ideas and changes into your home! Book a call with me and we can go over your issues and I will walk you through how we will work together to transform your space.

*Please note that links on this post are affiliate links and I earn a small percentage if you purchase through these links

Why I Love Labels and how you can use them

Labels! They’re one of the number one tools of professional organizers… and I’m no exception.

The number one thing labels do for any organizational system is identify a home for any given item or category of thing. For example, I have all of my kitchen shelves and drawers, denoting where each kitchen item goes. On my silverware & kitchen knife drawer, there is a label saying “Knives” and one saying “Silverware”. 

The main reason I have done this is because I live in a multi-person household. I set up everything in our house when we moved in, because I was working from home while my husband went into the office right away. I did not want to spend the next few months/next year telling him where everything was when he was looking for something. Labels make it so that everyone is on the same page about where items live, and everyone can find things for themself. And then put them back where they belong! Let me tell you, it’s really hard mentally to put the scissors in a bin labeled “ice cream scoop”! Labels create harmony and make sure my family isn’t reliant on me being around for understanding how our organizational systems work. 

I’m also really quite forgetful. If I don’t use something frequently, I might forget where it is or where it belongs. Labels mean I can scan my space and immediately know where to put things back. I also tend to use my space, and therefore my labeling, to prompt me to remember what I’m out of and need to restock. It’s much more obvious to know you need more paper towels when you have an empty shelf labeled “paper towels” than just a blank space. I hate trying to keep everything in my brain - labels allow me to externalize that information. They also truly help to solidify a new system; a physical representation of your intentions to get more organized and have homes for everything. 

Now, some people really struggle with labels. I had a client who was very focused on aesthetics - he hated the look of labels around his space. We didn’t use them as liberally as I would have liked when organizing. Luckily, we were able to compromise - I never put labels on the exterior of anything. We focused first on zoning items, so he had an idea of where general categories of items were. Then, we did some minor, subtle labeling on the edges of shelves behind doors and the inside of drawers, and on baskets on shelves inside cabinets so he didn’t have to look at labels unless he was using them to find something. This worked really well for him, and also shows that labels are not the only thing to focus on - labels are a tool that are to be combined with other concepts such as decluttering, zoning, and containerizing. 

Finally, I wanted to go over the few different types of labels you might see being used by your professional organizer, or ones you might want to consider implementing in your own home. 

The first is one that I use with every client I have, most often for sorting, and that is sticky notes. Writing a quick label for a pile of a specific item (for example, a sticky note on a counter labeled “hair” with all your hair care items next to it) makes it much easier to figure out what you’re looking at and quantify it. I also will often use sticky notes as temporary labels when I’m trying to zone a space (labeling cabinets with “pantry items”, “spices”, “appliances”, etc) to help give the client a visual of how their space will be set up. The advantage of sticky notes is that they are easily movable and super easy to add more of to create more detail. But they are not a permanent solution. When a system is finalized, we move to the next stage of labels, which is the standard label maker label.

When I think of labels, they first thing that springs to mind is the standard white label with black text on it that you get from a label maker. This is my bread and butter; I love using these in the ways described in the first part of this post. These are what I like to finish all organizing projects with - on shelves, edges of drawers, bins, etc. They offer a clean, streamlined, easy to read look, and are the epitome of functional. However, I would be remiss to not mention the other two types of labels that I like to use for specialized cases. 

The next type of label is the aesthetic label. These take a bit more work than the standard label maker. They might be purchased in a pack (for example, spice labels off of Amazon or Etsy) or printed at home with a printer or made with a Cricut. These labels are wonderful for the person/client who really wants to take it to the next level, where aesthetics are really important and the Pinterest look is the desired end result. They can look amazing, but in reality, their function is the same as a label maker label. 

Finally, an upgrade to the aesthetic label that I think tends to be overlooked is the visual/picture label. I think these are so helpful for children who are not able or are still learning how to read, people who have dyslexia or other brain based conditions, or even people who are hyper-visual and prefer graphics to words. I would say these labels are aligned/similar to the use of clear containers. I think there is value in having both, especially for children with things like toys - a clear bin with a picture label makes selecting and then tidying up a specific type of toy super easy for a pre-literate child. And for those without the budget to buy all new clear containers, a picture label is a much cheaper option for making the items inside visible on the outside. 

I hope you enjoyed this love letter to labels - I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments on if you use labels or how you’d like to implement them in your own home!

How Can A Professional Organizer Help You?

When you think of a professional organizer, a number of things probably come to mind. Marie Kondo, The Home Edit, and any other number of HGTV or Netflix shows. Maybe you think about Pinterest-perfect rainbow pantries, huge bags of trash leaving the house, or the minimalist look.  

In reality, a professional organizer can help you in a host of different ways, and many of them don’t have to do with aesthetics. Absolutely, we can help you decide what to keep and what to get rid of. We can shuffle things around to make them look tidier. But ideally, we can teach you how to organize yourself and create lasting change.

One key way I will help you during the process is strategy. Getting organized is overwhelming; you wouldn’t be looking for help if it wasn’t. I have experience and expertise in looking at an overwhelming organizational problem and breaking it down into manageable pieces. I then come up with and explain what order those pieces need to be tackled in to create the systems you need and execute your vision for organization. 

I believe in giving my clients ownership over their own organization, and that means I generally work side-by-side with my clients during the process. I can and will be able to help you with decluttering. But you having ownership means I will never make you get rid of anything you’re not ready to part with! What I will do is help you work through the decision of whether or not to part with something by asking questions and helping to frame things in a new light, with a fresh set of eyes. I will (gently!) hold you accountable to the goals and vision we set together, support you through the feelings and thoughts that come up during the process, and then help you understand and decide how to responsibly part with your items. 

My goal as a professional organizer is to create lasting change for you. I want to help you create systems that work with the way that your brain works. I strongly believe that organizing is not a one-size-fits all approach, it must be tailored to those who use the systems that are developed. Everyone has different priorities, different forms of logic, different standards, and a different vision for what ‘organized’ looks like. My job, as your professional organizer, is to work with you to figure out what those priorities and that logic is, and then help you create systems that are in alignment. I will do the research needed, and come to you with new and innovative ideas that are tailored to your needs. 

My experience in architecture also helps me have a highly trained eye for spatial organization - I can make rooms look and function better through spatial planning and design. I have been trained to relate everything to the human body, which means I think about how you will use and access each item we organize in relation to how it is stored within your space. I will make sure that the things you need the most often are ready at hand, and the things that you need to store for longer periods of time are efficiently stored but still accessible.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I can coach you on your organizational mindset. My goal is to teach you how to organize yourself, so that in the future, as your life changes, you can keep up with those changes. My goal is to help you create systems of not only physical items but tidying routines and time management so that you can stay organized. When you are considering purchasing new items, you will be able to visualize how it will fit into your system at home, so that new things don’t become clutter. When you’re at home, you will start seeing things that are no longer serving you and have an easier time letting them go. I want you to have confidence in how you manage your life, so that you can focus on things that are the most important to you.