Favorite Tips from Professional Organizers – TPW291

As a longtime organization nerd, I've gathered some great tips from professional organizers whose books, YouTube videos, podcasts, and articles I've learned from over the years.

Professional organizers can help us assert control over our space

We’ve talked recently about the challenges of the stay-at-home orders most of us have been living under over the past few weeks, including the emotional impact of feeling like everything’s out of our control. One way to address those emotional impacts is to assert a little control where you can--and organizing your home can help with that. Here are some of my favorite tips from 10 professional organizers I've followed for a while.

1. Marie Kondo (author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up)

Not everything Marie Kondo teaches resonates with me, but there are a couple of tips I've picked up from her that really make my home feel more organized.

* Folding your clothing the Marie Kondo way, which makes better use of space and allows you to see everything you have and get what you need without messing up the whole drawer.

Here's my t-shirts and leggings drawer, with items folded and filed Marie Kondo style

Here's a link to the tool I use to fold my clothes uniformly so they can be "filed" upright in my dresser drawers. (This isn't an affiliate link; I just like the tool and use it every week.)

* Intentionally assigning a place for every item you own. As Marie says, "The reason every item must have a designated place is because the existence of an item without a home multiplies the chances that your space will become cluttered again."

2. Alejandra Costello (Check out her YouTube channel!)

Alejandra offers tons of organization tips on her website and YouTube channel. One of my favorites that I've been using lately:

* Use a timer and break down overwhelming organization projects into 15-minute chunks. This method prevents projects from becoming too overwhelming and may help you to give up the idea of perfectionism. These things together give us permission to start, knowing that the commitment is small and all we’re going for is a little progress, not perfection (which is unattainable anyway).

3. Julie Morgenstern (author of Organizing from the Inside Out and a new book, Time to Parent: Organizing Your Life to Bring Out the Best in Your Child and You)

I first discovered Morgenstern's work many years ago and learned a lot from her books. Some of my favorite tips from her:

* "Julie’s Law of Visible, Dramatic Results." Attack what’s visible first. Instead of starting by organizing cupboards and drawers, start with the clutter you can see: what’s on the counters, open shelves, table-tops.

* Quick-sort for quick results--move through the piles quickly, just identify and categorize, rather than making time to agonize over what to do with it.