Picking Favorites

JULY 2017

“It’s not about making the right choice. It’s about making a choice and making it right.”

– J.R. Rim

Let’s review some strategies to encourage decision making, which will ultimately reduce clutter in your home:

SHOES

When you see piles of shoes across a room, in baskets, boxes, falling off racks… how do you decide which ones to part with? For many, the initial reaction is “I WEAR THOSE,” even if that’s not really accurate… your gut tells you that you NEED them.

Pause for a moment and ask yourself –

Do you wear each pair often enough to justify

the space that each pair of shoes uses?

A few ideas to help you in your decision making:

SORT the shoes by color, heel size, season.

Consider further separating them into work, dressy, exercise and casual. Least worn categories can go in less convenient places in your room or closet.

LET GO of the shoes that are broken, worn out, too high, too small, too big, out of style, uncomfortable

When in doubt, leave them out… remember the 80/20 rule. We wear 20% of our things, 80% of the time.

Bag the give aways and drop them at Goodwill, Savers or go go on line to www.purpleheartpickup.org or www.nccpickup.org to reserve a date for a front door pick up. The sooner you get them out of the house, the better for you and the better for the people who desperately need and appreciate your donations. Out of sight, out of mind!

PURSES

In a perfect world, one can use a purse organizer or have purses lined up on a shelf like books… sometimes people get creative and have them hanging by hooks from the ceiling. If a person has too many purses (yes, there is such a phenomenon as too many), it becomes nearly impossible to maintain order.

Pause for a moment and ask yourself –

Do you use each purse often enough to justify the space that they take up?

Try these steps:

Make a decision to have less purses because you crave more space.
Sort the purses by color, size and/or season. Having all your black purses grouped together can be the perfect reality check. A client was recently commenting that she loved red shoes and she needed her red shoes… after the 5th pair of red shoes, she was shocked that she had that many red shoes (and matching purses, of course).
LET GO of the purses that are broken, damaged, too uncomfortable to carry or out of style.

Add them to your donation collection OR if they’re really expensive bags, consider selling them (ask me how!)

CLOTHES

If your closet rods are sagging in the middle, that’s a really big clue that it may be time to lighten the load. Just like shoes and purses, too many clothes can cause a whole lot of stress.

Try these steps:

Start slow – pull out all of your tops and sort them by color/sleeve type and season. Feel free to pull dressy clothes and segregate them. If you have a variety of sizes in your closet, remove the ones that don’t fit now and either give them away or place them in a remote location. Pick your favorites based upon how often you wear them… not by cost or sentimental reasons. Let go of the unpopular items and gift them to your favorite charity.

Next, look at your pants….get them all out and sort them by color and season (remember to remove pants that no longer fit). You can also separate into categories of work, exercise, dress up and casual. Let go of the ones that are no longer your absolute favorites in your current life. One of my clients used to look at her clothes and call them ‘old friends’ as she realized she no longer wore them… she was able to say goodbye and move on (WIN!).

If you get through the tops and pants, don’t be afraid to tackle shorts, dresses, skirts, under garments, exercise clothes, bathing suits and pajamas/robes. You will be amazed at how much space you can recreate by letting go of the seldom/never worn items.

The suggestions above can work with anything in your life that accumulates…sports equipment, tools, kitchen utensils, games, office supplies… you name it! Just sort into categories, release the ones you never use, store the ones you rarely use in a remote location and place the most loved/used items in the easiest to reach spots.

If making a decision or staying focused is preventing you from making progress, consider contacting me for a Get Started Session.

Assignment for the brave and daring – Pick a category of something that feels cluttery to you and follow the suggested steps and see how far you get. I’d love to hear your successes and challenges… keep me posted by emailing me at cindy@aim4order.com.

Happy trails as you Aim 4 Order!

“Helping Baby Boomers and their Parents Lighten their Loads.”

If you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in your home, contact me. Together, we can transform your home into a happy, tidy place where you can feel at peace. We can also get you ready for your next move… more enjoyable, faster and easier!