You look around your house and think, ‘How did it get like this?’

Not messy. Not chaotic. Just… full. Everywhere you turn, there’s something that needs to be dealt with, moved out of the way, or stuffed into an already-full drawer. And you may be feeling like you somehow should have handled this already. 

Let me help you give yourself some grace. The problem is not you – it’s the season you’re in!

Midlife clutter is no joke. The clutter is multi-layered and there is no way you could have set aside a weekend to get through it all. You aren’t behind – you’re actually in the middle!

What am I talking about? Let’s dig into the three layers of midlife clutter that are making those of us in the sandwich generation feel so squeezed.

First Layer: Your Stuff

Congratulations, you’ve hit midlife! And that means you’ve had at least 3 decades to accumulate the many things you call your own. You’ve passed through multiple phases of past lives, interests and hobbies – each with an accompanying set of accoutrements. You may be finished with a lot of those hobbies – in fact some of them you may not even remember you were into. But the stuff that came with them is living in the back of a closet, in a box on a garage shelf, or buried somewhere in your basement.

And what about all the sentimental stuff you saved over the years? Your high school yearbooks, letters and birthday cards from a bygone era (an era when people still wrote letters!) or even ancient stuffed animals from your childhood. Life has been too busy to stop and think whether all this stuff still matters to you. So it has sat in boxes marked ‘memorabilia’ for years.

And then there’s the stuff that snuck into your home when you weren’t looking. The Gifts With Purchase you never used. The subscriptions you forgot to cancel. The duplicates you purchased, not realizing you already had one hiding somewhere in the house. You may have a desk full of office supplies that are mostly obsolete in a digital age (whiteout anyone?) Or a collection of golf tees that seemingly accumulates by a magnitude.

All of this is the stuff of life. We’ve all got some version of it, and yes, it’s time for a reset. If this was the only clutter we had to deal with, it would still be intimidating all on its own. But this is only the first layer of midlife clutter, there’s more, way more!

Second Layer: Your Kids’ Stuff

You may be in the process of emptying your nest…of the humans you raised, that is. Their stuff is another story. Most folks’ midlife clutter includes a healthy amount of things their children left behind. 

Some of it you were probably intentionally saving for them. (Whether they actually want everything you saved is another question!) Some of it they intentionally left because they don’t have room for it. But a lot of it is just leftover from the time they lived in your home. They had their own rooms that are still intact. They played sports and the equipment is still in your garage, gathering dust.

This layer is hard because there are some uncomfortable emotions involved. What things are yours vs. theirs? How long are they expecting you to keep the stuff they plan to take ‘someday’? Can you make decisions about what stays and goes when you don’t know their feelings or intentions? Ugh, and then there’s the nostalgia that accompanies all of this stuff. You miss the kids they used to be. You miss them living at home with you. It’s an era that hasn’t quite ended, leaving you feeling like you’re in limbo. The physical footprint of raising a family is a big one, no matter how many kids you raised. Yes, it’s probably time to make some decisions and set some boundaries with your children. But they aren’t your only clutter problem. Your parents are right behind them!

Third Layer: Your Parents’ Stuff

The last layer of midlife clutter is the most insidious because it’s arriving late to the party. Whether or not you anticipated a giant influx of stuff from your parents, you probably haven’t decluttered your own stuff to make room!

Our parents are downsizing, and some of them are passing away before they even have time to downsize. A lot of them are very attached to their things and expect you to take care of the ones they don’t have room for anymore. Sometimes, this happens with no notice because of a crisis or health event, leaving you with little choice but to fill your garage with their furniture, photo albums and ‘family heirlooms.’

Feelings of obligation and guilt accompany all of this stuff. There are probably things you would like to have, but I’m guessing there is a lot you have no need or use for. But it feels like a betrayal to voice that so instead you take it all in.

And P.S., all of this is arriving at a time when you literally do not have the physical space or mental capacity to deal with it. So you pack it away to be dealt with later.

So What Do We Do?

Y’all, this is the reality of the season of life we are all in. The problem is not personal to you, it’s situational. Instead of wallowing in the overwhelm of it all, let’s shift our perspective.

Because we are in midlife, we have the opportunity to edit and curate these items instead of managing them. Because we are in midlife, we are well-positioned to take our time in getting through it all instead of trying to attempt a huge purge of everything all at once. And friends, because we are in midlife, we have the wisdom to know what we truly care about keeping, and what is marginal or not important. We should trust that wisdom, gained from decades of life experience!

So take it small and slow. Curate instead of purge. Trust your inner knowing. You’ve got this. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you can’t do it. We are in midlife and we will not let our clutter defeat us!

The post The Midlife Clutter Squeeze: Caught In The Sandwich appeared first on Method Seattle.

I call May the Month of Maureen. My mom’s name was Maureen. Her birthday is May 3. Mother’s Day is a week later. And she died 8 years ago on May 20th. So May is an emotionally loaded month for me, and always gets me thinking about grief decluttering.

In my organizing practice I often see people struggle to let go of things that belonged to a person they lost. When we lose someone we love, the things they owned suddenly take on a new significance. It feels wrong somehow to get rid of them, like a small act of betrayal. But I invite you to consider how you felt about these things when your loved one was alive. Were they important to you? Did they make you smile? Did you even know they existed?

When you lose someone there are a hundred ways to honor them without keeping everything they owned. In fact, keeping all of their stuff isn’t really honoring them at all. Putting intention behind the act of keeping something special to you shows love and honor. Saving everything that was theirs just because they owned it doesn’t. Plus, keeping all that stuff is making it hard to see and appreciate the things that do matter.

In honor of the Month of Maureen, I’m sharing the ways I’ve found to remember and cherish my mom through grief decluttering that don’t involve keeping a bunch of clutter in my house. Maybe you’ll find an idea or two you can use yourself!

A Few Cherished Items

Just to be clear, I have kept some of my mom’s things for myself. Grief decluttering doesn’t mean getting rid of everything. I kept things that simultaneously remind me of her and serve some purpose in my life. It’s a pretty random assortment. I have a bunch of her Marimekko oilcloth tablecloths – I use them every summer when I entertain. I kept a purple glass measuring cup she had that was passed down from her mother. And I wear her favorite philodendron leaf necklace that was a gift from my dad.

And, there is a lot of stuff of hers that I didn’t keep. Her baby book, the plaques and awards she won over the course of her career in education. The memorabilia from her childhood. Her clothes. These are things I don’t have a personal connection to. I won’t use them or display them, so what is the point in keeping them?

I’m not saying that you should get rid of your mom’s baby book. If that item has special meaning for you, then keep it. What I am saying is to approach your loved one’s things with an intent to curate a small collection of items that are meaningful to you and remind you of the person you loved at the same time.Putting intention behind the act of keeping something special to you shows love and honor. Saving everything that was theirs just because they owned it doesn’t. Plus, keeping all that stuff is making it hard to see and appreciate the things that do matter.

I feel pride when I pull out those tablecloths. I smile as I pour out of the vintage measuring cup. And every day I finger the necklace at my throat and think of my mom. Aside from these things (and a few others), I choose to honor my mom’s memory in other ways.

Photo Memories

Y’all pictures are so much better than things for remembering! And they don’t take up nearly as much room (none at all if you digitize your prints!) So when you’re grief decluttering, focus in on the photos. Whenever I’m missing my mom (this whole month, for instance!) I pull out some pictures to bring her back to me.

Pictures are shareable. (Text one to your siblings – ‘remember the time…?’) They help imprint our memories. They capture moments we may have otherwise forgotten. If you are lucky enough to have photos of the person you lost, you can honor them by organizing those photos and making them accessible. Gen X, Boomers and even Millennials have photos – both digital and prints – scattered everywhere from boxes to albums to computers, phones and cloud services. Bringing them all together and organizing them means you can actually enjoy them.

Imagine bringing together all of your loved ones’ belongings so you can sit and stare at them. Not nearly as fun, right? (Maybe try this if the contents of your parents’ house are currently in residence in your garage – let me know how it goes!)Forget the stuff and focus on the person. It’s so much healthier and worthy of respect. But what’s another way to honor your person that doesn’t involve any physical objects at all?

Remembering Rituals

Every year on my mom’s birthday I make the Hipy Papy Bthuthduth Thuthda Bthuthdy cake from the Winnie the Pooh cookbook I got when I was eight. I made it for her birthday many times as a kid, and picked the habit back up when my parents moved up to Seattle after they retired. It is a lovely and delicious way to remember something we shared together, and takes up no room at all in my house!

Here’s another thing I like to do: blast Broadway musicals while I’m cooking. (I can’t do this one all the time because our house has an open floor plan and my husband objects but every once-in-a-while…) This was my mom’s practice and it was fun to join her in the kitchen and sing along. Due to open floor plans and husband’s aversion to loud music I did not keep the tradition going with my own kids, but when I’m missing her I’ll dial up Guys and Dolls on Spotify!

Rituals don’t have to be a big thing, they can be small and subtle like taking a walk in nature, keeping a team loyalty alive (got my lifetime devotion to the SF Giants from my mom!) or connecting with someone else who also loved your person and sharing stories.

The point is, none of these things involve keeping a bunch of belongings – and in my opinion are way more meaningful.

Okay to Let Go

Losing someone close to you like a parent is brutal. So is the thought of grief decluttering. It is reflexive to want to cling to their things. Or feel paralyzed with guilt at the thought of getting rid of them. But there are many ways to show love and keep a memory alive. You don’t have to keep their clutter – it’s okay to let it go.

The post Grief Decluttering: Why You Don’t Need to Keep Everything appeared first on Method Seattle.

Most people think decluttering requires a free weekend, a surge of motivation, and a huge mess. That’s exactly why they never follow through. When decluttering feels like a massive project (which it absolutely does when you’re in midlife!), it becomes something you’ll ‘get to later’ and you repeatedly kick it down the road. If this sounds familiar, I have a new approach for you to try. Stop dreading the huge decluttering project and start forming some small decluttering habits.

Small, repeatable actions done consistently over time will change your home faster than waiting for the perfect Saturday that never materializes.In this blog I’m making my case for decluttering as a habit vs. a project. I’ll be drawing on some strategies from two of my favorite books: Atomic Habits by James Clear and Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, PhD. By the way, if you are taking on midlife decluttering projects and having success, fantastic. Keep up the good work! I would still recommend reading through these suggestions. Most of them also work well for painless maintenance after you’ve tackled something big. Before I get to the actual strategies, a bit about why decluttering habits are so effective.

Decluttering Projects End. Decluttering Habits Maintain.

A big decluttering project has a finish line. That finish line feels far away and often out of reach. The prospect of the amount of work required to complete the project is too intimidating so most people never even start. Even when people make it 90% of the way through their decluttering project, they often never complete the last mile (getting the clutter out of the house.) It’s a very common scenario, and one I see a lot because many of those folks end up reaching out to someone like me for help!

Meanwhile, a habit becomes part of how you live. It doesn’t depend on motivation. It becomes ingrained in the daily fabric of your life. The effort required to ‘finish’ the action of a habit is deliberately small so as not to be intimidating. Which in turn means you are more likely to complete the action. It’s the opposite of a vicious cycle – more like a glorious snowball quietly gaining speed and momentum. And before you realize it, you’ve blown past the ‘finish line’ you had in your head.

The bottom line is, even if you do complete a giant decluttering spree, the clutter will creep back without good habits in place. Causing the need for another big, intimidating project.

Here are some easy examples of what I’m talking about.

• Sorting and disposing of mail  instead of adding it to the pile on the counter
• Taking 3 expired/uneaten items out of the fridge before grocery shopping
• Clearing clutter from one surface before heading to bed

None of these are dramatic. Nor are they intimidating. They won’t give you the dopamine-fueled high of a transformation. Rather, they are easy, therefore you will actually do them. And to be easy, you need to make them small.

Make Decluttering Habits Small Enough to Repeat

I often say that if something feels intimidating to start, the first step is too big. With a habits approach to decluttering, we make the efforts really small. That works because it makes the effort manageable. Think minutes, not marathon sessions. Or a single shelf instead of a whole room.

There are two ways to make decluttering efforts small. A small space or a small amount of time. In the context of building decluttering habits I like to focus on the time element. I call it time-boxing and I like to use an actual timer when I do it. This timer is my favorite (it has proven to have magic powers for some reason) but you can just use your phone timer! 

You can time-box a decluttering session from any room in your home where you happen to be spending time. All you need to do is simply put a critical lens on and find a few things in that space that you no longer need, want, or like. Some examples:

• Expired/old medications in your bathroom while you’re getting ready in the morning
• T-shirts you never wear while you’re getting dressed
• Mugs you don’t use when you’re getting your morning coffee

The possibilities are endless for this exercise. Put the discarded objects in a donation, box, or in  the trash if warranted. It’s not going to feel momentous in the moment. But the point is you actually did it. And when you did you sent a signal to your brain that it wasn’t painful. So then your brain gives you the green light to do it again. 

If you try to go deeper or get sucked down a rabbit-hole, your timer yanks you back into the present. If you like, make a note on your phone of the spot you’re going to hit next. But keep the effort small, because that’s how you build consistency.

Make Decluttering Habits Consistent

Small efforts won’t make a dent in your midlife clutter if you don’t perform them consistently. That’s the other key to a habits-based approach to decluttering: being consistent.You can absolutely commit to a ‘15 minutes a day’ strategy to accomplish this. But there are a couple of other hacks that make consistency even more achievable because they don’t require finding time to make them happen.

The first one is using what I call ‘dead time’ or ‘waiting time’ in your day. The few minutes you have while you’re waiting for the water to boil in the kitchen. The commercial break during the football game you’re watching. Or how about the 10 minutes left over when you finish a call/meeting/task early? That was already ‘planned’ to be productive time so why not declutter for a few minutes instead of scrolling on your phone?

Another very-effective tactic is to attach a decluttering habit to something you already do. James Clear calls this ‘habit-stacking’ and I love it! I use it all the time. Find a routine that is already happening and add decluttering to it. Here are some examples:

• While unloading groceries, clear a few pantry items
• While putting away laundry, remove one clothing item you no longer wear
• While cooking dinner, declutter one kitchen drawer

No extra schedule required! Just better use of moments that already exist. Pepper in some short, scheduled decluttering sessions and before you know it, your home will begin to feel lighter, calmer and more organized!

Small Consistent Efforts Yield Big Results

If you have been waiting for a big burst of motivation or free time to suddenly appear, you are never going to peel back the layers from multiple decades of clutter buildup. Success lies in small, consistent efforts. Keeping things small makes the efforts doable. Doing them consistently leads to progress. If you declutter in small ways regularly, your home starts changing almost automatically. And the great things about decluttering habits is they help prevent clutter from ever being a problem in your home. Ever again.

So stop waiting for a weekend project. Start becoming someone who cultivates small decluttering habits. And just watch what happens to your clutter!

The post Why Decluttering Habits Beat Big Decluttering Projects Every Time appeared first on Method Seattle.

Moving in midlife hits different. Actually, it hits harder – way harder. Because we’ve been living in our current homes for quite some time. And the clutter has accumulated. Decades of paperwork, mystery cords, ‘sentimental’ boxes, kids’ stuff, multiple generations of furniture, “good” serving platters, and enough junk drawer contents to stock a small store. It’s all there, waiting politely to accompany you to your new home!

This stuff has quietly built up over the years to the point where you barely even notice it anymore. Until it comes time to pack it up, that is! Ugh. Every client, family member and friend of mine who has ever moved will tell you – they had way more stuff than they thought they did.

It is definitely overwhelming, but a move can be one of the best motivators to finally declutter. Because nothing clarifies what matters like paying to pack, move, unpack, and store things you don’t need or even want.

Here is my advice on how to approach a move from a decluttering perspective. It applies whether you are moving to a bigger home or downsizing to something smaller. If you follow it, you will save a lot of precious time, energy and money on your move!

Start Earlier Than You Think

As soon as you even contemplate the thought of moving in midlife, you should begin decluttering. The earlier you start, the less painful it will be (because you can work in small, sustained efforts) and more smoothly things will go when it comes time to do the actual moving. When my mom had a stroke and had to move to Assisted Living, my dad thought he would be selling their house and moving into a place in her building. Sadly, she passed away before he put the house on the market and with her gone, he decided he would stay in the house a while longer.

We both knew he wasn’t ready to move yet, but we started decluttering anyway. Any time I was over at his house we spent 15-20 minutes decluttering a specific area. It was low-pressure, over quickly and allowed for reflection in between ‘sessions.’ By the time he decided to move, several years later, his house was in pretty good shape. There was still plenty left to do (especially since he was moving to a much smaller place) but we had both built up the decision-making muscle required to get through what was left without much drama.

What I often see is the opposite. People conflate decluttering and packing, thinking they will just declutter as they go. Huge mistake. Decluttering and packing should be mutually exclusive. Packing is logistics. Decluttering is decision-making. Those are two different jobs, and combining them is how people lose their minds during their move. In addition, everyone has more stuff than they think they do. You will be amazed at how much has been stuffed, boxed, hidden and neglected in all of the drawers, closets, storage spaces and cabinets in your home. Even if you are a very organized person who doesn’t tend to accumulate things (or so you thought!)

Sometimes starting early isn’t possible, but usually it is. In fact, you can begin the process of decluttering the buildup in your house before the question of moving out even comes up!

Be More Ruthless Than Usual

Moving in midlife is not the time to err on the side of caution. If in doubt, opt to let it go. Yes, it’s going to feel uncomfortable at first. I’m often reminded of this pearl of wisdom from my triathlon coach, who was re-teaching me the crawl stroke as I trained for my first event: “If it doesn’t feel uncomfortable, you aren’t doing it right.’ That advice applies here. It’s going to feel like a leap of faith at the beginning, but then you’ll get the hang of it. Trust me when I tell you, you won’t miss this stuff in your new home but you will love how clutter-free it feels.

Clutter to look out for as you go:

• Anything expired
• Anything broken
• Duplicates
• Old paperwork
• Clothes that no longer fit
• Unfinished projects
• Decor you don’t like
• Books you’ll never read again.
• Your grown kids’ stuff you’ve been storing for them (for how long?)
• Anything from a bygone era that no longer fits your lifestyle

If you get stuck – ask yourself the very relevant question: ‘Do I really want to pay to move this?’

More advice: make note of your clutter pain points as you go. Tons of re-usable tote bags? Random Tupperware coming out of your ears? Flower vases that could serve a large wedding? These are things to not only declutter, but mentally note so you don’t re-create the same clutter conditions in your new home.

Also: Don’t sweat the small stuff! Drawers full of office supplies, mystery keys of unknown origin, single socks. Don’t waste your precious energy trying to figure out a donation plan for this stuff – you have too much to do. Just get a big black trash bag and empty all that stuff into it. It will feel hard in the moment but I guarantee it will pass (usually in 90 seconds or so.)

Welcome Home, You’re Not Done

Welcome to your beautiful new home, here’s some more decluttering advice! Oh, you thought you were finished? Sorry, but if you are moving in midlife, the decluttering doesn’t end when everything is loaded on the truck. Here’s what to do as you are getting settled to set yourself up for clutter-free success.

As you unpack, look at your belongings with fresh eyes. I bet there will be at least a few things that you realize don’t fit,look good or work in your new place.

Is somebody else taking over holiday-hosting duties but you moved all of your platters, crystal and tablecloths?

Did you bring that file cabinet you’ve had forever, only to realize you don’t need it because you got rid of all the old paperwork living in it?

Five bedrooms worth of linens for a 3 bedroom place?

Keep a moving box or two for donations and fill them up with this stuff as you go. It’s normal to feel differently about certain things when they are in a new context. This last decluttering round is small and fairly painless but makes a huge difference in how your new home feels. 

Moving in midlife is stressful, I know. But, it is also a perfect opportunity to curate your belongings to serve the life you are living today. When you make space for the things that matter, you have more mental and physical room to enjoy them – and that makes for a happy home!

The post Moving in Midlife? Read This Before You Box Anything appeared first on Method Seattle.

I have a trick to help you move past the emotional moments of decluttering. It’s going to sound a little weird but stay with me…. it’s decluttering with self-talk.

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar. You’ve committed to cleaning out your doom closet and you’re cruising along when suddenly you come across something that:

• Was given to you by someone you love
• Cost a lot of money
• Could potentially be useful sometime in the future

Suddenly you’re stuck. You know you don’t have room for this stuff. You know you haven’t used it (or probably even seen it!) in years. Before you realize what’s happening you’ve shoved a bunch of stuff back into the closet and decided you’re done decluttering. Ugh. Too hard.

Here’s the simplest way I know to break that cycle: Talk to yourself out loud. I know. It sounds ridiculous. But it really works.Because the second you say the thought out loud, something shifts. And there’s actual science behind why. Since I’m sure your eyes are still rolling I’m going to explain why this trick works so well to get you over those emotional hurdles. Let’s dig in.

Interrupting the spiral: talk back to yourself

When negative thoughts intrude on your logic, they move quickly and tend to put you in a downward spiral. As long as those thoughts are swirling in your mind there is no counter-argument happening to offset them. That’s where talking out loud comes in.

Research in cognitive psychology shows that putting thoughts into words (called verbalization or self-talk) helps regulate emotions and improves decision-making. You know how writing something down helps you remember it later? That’s because the act of writing sends a signal to your brain that the thing you wrote down is important.Talking to yourself works in a similar way – it triggers the  part of your brain that’s in charge of reasoning & fires it into gear. 

So now you have a counter argument.

You think: “I spent so much money on it, it’s wasteful to give it away”

Now say: “I haven’t used it in years and the money I spent is already gone”

I know it feels weird to argue with yourself but spoken words have power! Decluttering with self-talk is actually you coaching yourself.

Using self-talk it to do the next right thing

Another way decluttering with self-talk works – it helps you slow down so you can focus on the next right step. The negative thought has essentially frozen you in your tracks. To get yourself back into action mode, give yourself verbal instructions and encouragement. There has been lots of research on this with professional athletes. Giving an instruction out loud improves your focus. Encouragement reinforces the action. Let’s get back to that expensive thing that feels hard to declutter. Keep the steps small:

• “I’m letting this go now.”
• “I’m just going to put this in the donation box.”
• “I can keep going”

I recognize this read a bit like one of those ‘See Jane Run’ books we read in first grade. It sounds a little silly, but you get used to it with some practice.

Saying Your Name For The Win

As if you aren’t feeling weird enough at this point, let’s take it one step further! Saying your name as part of the verbalized argument or instruction makes it even more powerful! There is strength in your name, so use it! Here’s another example of how I use decluttering with self-talk on a daily basis to keep me on track.

I use the Two Minute Rule almost daily to keep my to-do list short and my visual clutter at bay. The rule says essentially that if something takes two minutes or less to action, just do it now instead of putting it off. I use it to put things away, take care of small actions like online reservations or paying a bill or even for reaching out to a friend with a question.

Over time, I’ve learned that saying ‘Carrie, two-minute rule’ when I notice something that applies is really effective in moving to action to get the thing done. It works like a trigger!Here’s a specific example. I retrieve the pile of mail from our box and am rifling through it when I come across the garbage bill. It only comes every other month and is the only one of our utility bills that still comes in the mail. Instead of setting it aside as a visual reminder to do it later, I say ‘Carrie, two-minute rule’ to remind myself to just take the two minutes to pay it now. Now it’s one less thing to do later and one less thing sitting on my kitchen counter!

Bossing up to your feelings

The practice of self-talk is well-researched and grounded in neuro-science. Using it in decluttering is win-win. Sure it feels weird at first, but the more you do it, the less weird it feels. Plus y’all, we’re in midlife now and I don’t know about you but I care a lot less about doing weird things!

The words spoken out loud are ultimately more powerful than the feelings swirling in your head. Use them to get yourself past the emotional obstacles of decluttering and build momentum as you go instead of stalling out. You’ll be amazed at what an effective coach you can be to yourself!

The post Decluttering With Self Talk: The Awkward Trick That Works appeared first on Method Seattle.

I have been on a bit of a shopping kick lately. As each new purchase arrived I hastily stuck it in my closet, vowing to  make room for it later. Over the past couple of months it became clear that I needed to declutter my closet. My sweater stacks were more like piles. I used every nook and cranny to stash shoes. Oh, and it took more time than I cared to admit to rummage for  a bra. It wasn’t fun to shop in my closet, even for the cute new things I’d recently acquired!

So I decided to use my biannual closet swap to make some room for my new treasures. Every Spring I put the heavy winter sweaters and boots away and bring forward the lighter weight knits and sandals. This year I would add some radical honesty into the mix, employing a few tricks to make my closet shoppable again.

Everyone has a finite amount of closet space. I have a very nice walk-in closet that I share with my husband. Your closet may not be as big as mine (or maybe it’s bigger!) but we all have some mix of hanging, shelving and drawer space to work with. Here’s a run down of how I decluttered each of my spaces to make my closet feel fresh, Spring-forward and fun to shop in.

Hanging Space: The Hanger Trick

When I went to declutter my closet, the first challenge was hangers. My first instinct when I ran out was to buy some more. They aren’t that expensive (I use this velvet variety) and I can get a pack of 25 or 50 easily. But my better angels reminded me that more hangers take up more space. More space taken equals less shoppable hanging bars. So, instead of buying more hangers I decided to free some up! I needed to clear at least as many hangers as I had new purchases.

I targeted my knits and tops since they hadn’t been decluttered in awhile. Then I scanned visually for what no longer fit, was out of style, or was a bad purchase that I never actually wear. It takes some radical honesty to admit that my boobs are never going to shrink enough to wear the top I used to love. Or to face the fact that I threw some money away on something I don’t really like. I let the regret have its 90 seconds, then I removed the offending items into donation bags. No new hangers needed! But the bigger problem was my shelves.

Shelf Space: The Good Boxes

How to declutter my closet shelves? My shelf space houses my sweaters, denim and shoes. Most of the new things I’ve gotten lately are (you guessed it) sweaters, denim and shoes. A quick visual scan provided some decluttering candidates: A pair of Adidas high tops I routinely pass over in favor of Nikes. A couple of pairs of neglected skinny jeans. A sweater I love that unfortunately has a visible hole in it. Sadly, removing those few items did not give me the space I needed on my shelves. So I looked deeper and found…shoe boxes.

Is anyone else a sucker for a good box? I don’t keep my sneaker boxes but I have many pairs of designer shoes and for some reason find it so hard to part with the boxes! In my defense, I house my off-season shoes in their boxes on my highest shelves. They do serve a purpose. But what I discovered upon closer inspection is that I had a decent amount of shelf space taken up by boxes. Just boxes, with no shoes in them! There are shoes that never need to be in boxes because they are seasonless. They always stay on the shelves. If I end up donating or selling those shoes, the boxes will not be involved. So why exactly, was I keeping the boxes? 

I am embarrassed to say that it was very difficult for me to part with those boxes. There were 5 of them. Letting them go freed up an entire shelf! But it was hard – and I had to push through some major discomfort. Sometimes the gravitational pull of feelings defies the logical argument, but I eventually pulled through. Because I knew it was the right thing to do for my closet! 😂

Drawer Space: The Bygone Era

Maybe this is TMI but my boobs used to be much smaller. Somewhere in my menopausal journey they grew several cup sizes. Along the same journey I decided I don’t much care for underwire, and wireless bras began migrating into my drawers. I have to say, I don’t pay much attention to the drawers where I keep my intimates. I have never been into lingerie and don’t spend a lot of time agonizing about what I’m wearing underneath the clothes I do care about.

The short story is, I had a lot of bras (and bathing suits!) that were no longer relevant for my current body shape. I just simply hadn’t encountered them because they were at the bottom of the pile of bras in my drawer!

As I set out to declutter my closet,I found once I excavated them it was a completely different experience to open my bra drawer and select what I needed. Easy to open, no rummaging and everything clearly visible. It didn’t take a lot of time but boy, did it make a big difference in my closet!

The Closet Refreshed

At the end of this exercise (which took a couple of hours) I reveled in my newly shoppable closet. Everything neatly hung (with a few hangers to spare!), folded and contained in drawers. It only took a couple of hours because I didn’t take apart my whole closet/dressers. Rather, I used the Spring swap as a reset to help me make room for the things that mattered in my wardrobe today and focused on just a few space-offending categories.

Now I have 4 bags for Goodwill and one small pile of designer items I’ll consign through The RealReal. For me, parting with clothes takes a lot of mental energy so I like the step after that to be as easy as possible. And now my closet feels so refreshed!

Need more than just a closet refresh? My Bedroom & Closet Room Guide is one of my most popular guides. It takes you through the process of decluttering your whole closet – category by category, in the most efficient and painless way ❤️

The post I Decided to Declutter My Closet for Spring—Here’s What I Learned appeared first on Method Seattle.

The last subject in my Spring Decluttering series is a sleeper. It’s not as overwhelming as beauty products, not as obvious as the entryway and not as emotional as decluttering your books. The sleeper category to declutter this Spring is your giftwrap!  The reason it’s a sleeper? Well, when was the last time you thought to declutter your gift wrap? I’m guessing the answer is…you never have? Or it’s been at least a decade! Gift wrap is a sneaky-smart category to declutter because you don’t use it as often, it doesn’t take a lot of effort and (speaking as a Professional Organizer) it’s kind of fun to organize once you’re done. 

It’s somehow very satisfying to get your wrap supplies into a place where you can easily access them and feel inspired to wrap a gift vs. the desperate scramble of the wrapping experience that exists today. But before you can do that, you need to declutter!

The Great Gift Wrap Accumulation

Why is our giftwrap such a hot mess by the time we hit midlife? Let us count the reasons, shall we?

1. It’s a category no one really thinks to declutter. Unless you’re someone who is really into gift wrapping and dedicates space to it, you don’t interact with your giftwrap very often
2. You probably didn’t notice the buildup because giftwrap is living in multiple places in your home.
3. Giftwrap doesn’t go bad – so we all fall victim to the classic act of saving things with the intention of using them in the future, but never do.
4. Our gift wrap needs change over time. There was the wedding era, the baby shower era, the kids birthday party era. It was handy during those times to have specific paper and gift bags on hand for those occasions. Those eras have been over for awhile, but the giftwrap associated with them remains.

You may (like me) have gravitated away from using wrapping paper in favor of gift bags – but you still have the wrapping paper. Or you vowed to re-use some cool ribbon that came on a gift you received, but never did. Or you do most of your gift shopping online and never even see the gifts you purchase, let alone wrap them. There are a million reasons why this category has become such a mess. When you declutter your giftwrap in midlife, the buildup has been happening for quite some time.

The Clutter In Your Gift Wrap

It’s clear why you have so much gift wrap, now let’s identify the stuff that  can go and the useful bits you should keep. Time to declutter your giftwrap so you can have fun organizing what’s left! (You’ll probably want a trash bag for this exercise)

The first thing that can go immediately is all the little scraps you saved over the years, just in case you needed to wrap a tiny gift (you never did, did you?) Don’t overthink it, just gather them up and toss them into your handy trash bag.

Now for the many rolls of wrapping paper. Pull out any that are almost used up (it’s probably more than you think.) Now pull out the duds that, at some point in the past, you bought in desperation that you don’t really like and never used except that one time. Ditto for the massive collection of paper you bought from someone’s kid’s fundraiser. If you haven’t used it by now – it’s not gonna happen!

If you’re like me, you dutifully save every gift bag you get because you can reuse it! Except they never seem to be the right size, or denote the correct occasion, or they are just ugly. Those can go too.

Now take a critical eye to your ribbon options. Pull out the rolls that have plenty of ribbon left. Those are the ones to keep. The almost-finished rolls and leftover scraps you thought you’d re-use but haven’t can go.

Setting Up a Wrapping Hub

Now that you’ve put in the effort to declutter your gift wrap (goodbye, scraps and stray ribbon), it’s time to set yourself up for future gift wrap success. I often say that decluttering solves 80% of organizing problems – so you’ve only got 20% left to do. This is going to be a cake walk!

May I suggest a wrapping cart that you can stash in a closet? Carts are my favorite way to store wrapping supplies because it’s easy to roll out whenever (and wherever) you need it. Here are my two favorite options; one with a bigger footprint for serious gift wrappers and the other a slimmer profile with an attachment that you can easily tuck into most closets. The new rule is that all your wrapping supplies now live here in this cart. It’s your handy gift wrap hub.

Stock your hub with only what you actually use: scissors, tape, wrapping paper, gift bags, ribbon, and gift tags. That’s it. Here’s your gentle but firm storage boundary: if it doesn’t fit in your wrapping hub, you have too much. This is how you keep the clutter from quietly rebuilding itself over the next decade. And when everything is contained and easy to access, wrapping a gift becomes enjoyable. Or at the very least, no longer chaotic!

Wrapping It Up

Decluttering your gift wrap might not have been on your radar, but it’s one of those small resets that makes a surprisingly big difference. It clears physical clutter, yes—but it also removes a layer of low-grade stress you probably experience every time you need to wrap a gift.

And the next time you have need, instead of digging through a pile of semi-crumpled paper and mismatched bags, you’ll roll out your wrapping hub and feel prepared. Maybe even a little smug.

The post Declutter Your Gift Wrap After Years of Buildup (A Midlife Reset) appeared first on Method Seattle.

What is the low-key hardest category to declutter? It’s books, folks! Decluttering books doesn’t seem hard but most of us are pretty attached to our book collections. Books carry meaning in a way that many other possessions do not. In midlife, the books we’ve accumulated over time can represent the many phases of our lives. Ideas, interests, characters – they all stay with us. That’s why so many of us hold onto books that:

• We read many, many moons ago
• We never finished
• We still hope to read someday
• We will never read, but someone we love gifted to us

Over time, our shelves quietly fill up…and overflow with books that no longer serve us. As someone in midlife who loves to read (40+ every year!) and makes her living professionally organizing – I’m here to tell you that decluttering your book collection is worth your time. I’m not recommending a full purge, just a curation. It will take place in 3 rounds – and if your book collection is large and overwhelming you can go one round at a time.

Round 1: The For Sure Keeps

When you have so many of something the thought of pulling each one out and assessing its worth is overwhelming. The easiest way to declutter books is to move quickly. So for Decluttering Books Round 1 we are going to use the technique of inside-out decluttering to help speed things up. Inside Out Decluttering simply means that instead of assessing each and every book in your collection, you’re going to do a quick visual scan and pull out the books you for sure want to keep. How do you decide which ones make the cut? Here are 2 filters I use for my scan.

The Classics

By classics I mean your classics, the books that are the most meaningful to you. You’ve likely read them multiple times and maybe your copy is a bit beat up but never will they be absent from a collection of yours.

I have more than a few books that fall into this category, including my entire collection of Jane Austen, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I still reread these classics from time to time, and even though that now happens on a device – the actual physical books are like old friends I like to see on the daily. They are that important – the top tier if you will.

The Reference Books

These are books you like to reference on a regular basis. They are likely non-fiction and have impacted your life in a meaningful way. For me, books like Atomic Habits by James Clear, Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande and The Comfort Book by Matt Haig are all books I reference often in my work and life. I am pulling them off the shelf often, not to re-read the whole thing but to reference something specific.

Round 2: The Easy Edits

Decluttering Books Round 2 is a similar exercise to Round 1, but with an opposite intention. We are going to do another quick visual scan, but this time we are looking for easy edits. With easy edits, you’re looking for the books you can let go with little to no mental effort.

Here are filters I use for easy edits.

The Obsolete How-To Books

Doesn’t everyone go to YouTube or another video platform to learn how to do something? I’m wondering how the genre of ‘Dummies’ books is currently performing now that all of the knowledge-base is accessed so easily online. I had many in this category as well as Sunset Gardening reference books and finance books. They were easy to identify on my shelves and I wasn’t really attached to any of them.

The Gifted Books You Will Never Read

My friends and family love to gift books. Every year at my birthday in June and Christmas I receive a new batch of reads. Most of them I do end up reading but there are always a few I know I will never get to (or I’ve already read!) Last year my brother gifted me Fast Like  Girl because he knew I was trying intermittent fasting. Such a sweet sentiment but I was already far down the fasting road and already had my fasting bible (The Galveston Diet by Dr. Mary Claire Haver.)  As I was scanning my shelves a few months later for edits I recognized I was never going to read Fast Like a Girl and so it went into my donation box.

Two more popular categories of gifted books are coffee-table books and cookbooks. Take a visual spin through your collections of both and I’ll bet you find some easy edits!

The Books You Never Finished

It is a rare occasion that I do not finish a book I started. But every year there are a couple. If I didn’t like it enough to finish it, it isn’t hard to let it go. If you have been hanging on to books that you intended to finish but didn’t – maybe practice some radical honesty and cut the cord!

Round 3: Everything In Between

What you’re left with after the lightning rounds 1 and 2 is all the stuff in-between. There’s probably still a lot but it feels more manageable since you removed the easy keeps and edits. Decluttering Books Round 3 is going to take a bit more time. If you are still feeling overwhelmed, take it in smaller chunks.

For the books that are left, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is my reason for keeping this book? (‘Because I’ve had it forever’ is not a reason, FYI)
• Would I buy this book again today?
• Am I realistically going to read this in the next year?
• Do I truly love having this book on my shelf?

Remember that books are one of the easiest items to replace if you change your mind. Libraries, digital books, and used bookstores make access easier than ever so it’s not a huge risk to take if you’re in doubt!

Curating is Honoring

Curating your book collection is an act of honoring your reading life. Your book shelves should feel curated, not crowded. It is the books that make up your book collection (rather than the size of the collection itself) that says something about you. When every book on the shelf is one you love, plan to read, or return to often, the entire collection feels different. More meaningful and special.

The post Decluttering Books: Why It’s So Hard (and How to Do It Anyway) appeared first on Method Seattle.

We are well into March and it snowed here in Seattle yesterday – ugh. My brain badly needs a Spring reset and I’m going to find one through my favorite means; decluttering my entryway! The second entry in my Spring Decluttering series – here’s why an entryway reset  is such a game changer for your home and your mind.

Number one: it’s the first and last impression your brain experiences as you come and go from your home. All of those small impressions make a big difference over the course of a day or a week. We are (mostly) finished with Winter now, and our entryways have quietly collected detritus over the course of the season. Coats, jackets, shoes, bags, mail and various other items landed there and stayed, acting as a visual reminder of everything we haven’t dealt with yet.

Number 2: as far as decluttering goes, the entryway is low-commitment and high-impact. In other words, you get a lot of bang for your 20-30 minutes. It’s the decluttering equivalent of a cold plunge; it’s uncomfortable for a minute but doesn’t last long and leaves you feeling wonderfully refreshed. Let’s walk through the process of resetting and refreshing your entryway for Spring.

Step 1: Assess

The first step of the entryway reset is a visual assessment of the accumulation. Most entries feel chaotic because they are golding more volume than the space can reasonably handle. This is true whether you enter and exit through a spacious mudroom or a small foyer. Most entryway clutter falls into four categories.

Seasonal Overflow

Boots, coats, hats, gloves and anything else that stuck around after the winter weather subsided.

Package Central

New arrivals, intended returns, eventual dontaions and things you borrowed have all piled up.

Paper Accumulation

In a mostly-digital world, we all continue to receive an alarming amount of paper mail. Not much of it is important, but it represents a visual to-do list that accosts you every time you come or go from the house.

Way Too Many

Shoes, shoppping bags, sunglasses, leashes, caps. These are things that should live in the entry for convenience, but over time the number has multiplied.

Take a few minutes to scan your entry and mentally place your clutter into these categories. It will be helpful as you dive into Step 2.

Step 2: Declutter

Before the entryway can be reset we need to shed the clutter we just identified. Three quick rounds of decluttering executed in a aparticular order does the job efficiently.

Trash

Grab a trash/recycle bag and get going. Shoes/boots that have seen better days? In the bag. Extraneous package materials? In the bag. Junk mail? Toss it. Bonus points for any random broken items you were planning to fix but never will. They can also go in the bag.

Car

Let’s get the donations, store returns, items that need to go back to friends into your car. That takes a only a couple of minutes, tops. But (this is important) – don’t stop there. Take another couple of minutes to commit to a day/time (today, if possible!) that you will execute these errands. I know you’re busy, but if you come up with a plan now you won’t be staring at a pile in your trunk in 6 months. PRO TIP: I do all of my errands in one loop and reward myself at the end at the Starbucks drive-thru.

Re-Home

The winter stuff (or most of it, if winter is lingering where you live) can go back into off-season storage. Make sure you definitely still like and use everything you are packing away. There might be a jacket or two that should go with the donations in your car. Don’t waste time and effort packing away something you don’t need.

Also peel off the extra shoes, bags and random things that migrated to the entry and take them back to their regular homes. The key is to keep only a few necessary items in your entry for convenience. All the things that migrated from other parts of the house need to hurry back home.

Okay, that was the most time-consuming part of the process and I’m betting it didn’t take you long. It’s all downhill from here!

Step 3: Reset

I’m always saying that decluttering solves 80% of organizing problems. This holds true for your entryway reset. Now that you’ve stripped away all of the unneccesary and extraneous stuff it’s so easy to efficiently organize what’s left.

All you really need in an entry is a few hooks for jackets, leashes and caps. Maybe a basket or two for shoes and incoming/outgoing packages. And some sort of receptical for mail – keep it on the smaller side and commit to stripping out the junk mail as soon as it comes through the door.

In most cases, you don’t need any fancy organizing systems – less stuff does the trick!

Reset & Refresh

Your entryway sets the tone for your entire home. When it’s overrflowing (usually at the end of a season) the house feels chaotic before you even step inside. But after you’ve decluttered the difference is immediate and impactful. And now, with just a 30 minute effort, the smallest space in your home just delivered the biggest sense of relief. Congratulations, your home and your mind are now reset for Spring!

The post Why a Spring Entryway Reset Is the Easiest Decluttering Win appeared first on Method Seattle.

If your bathroom counter is crowded with half-used serums, forgotten lipsticks, and tiny sample bottles you keep meaning to try, you’re not alone. Many of us in midlife are quietly managing a small mountain of beauty products—most of which we don’t actually use.

March is here and it’s time for Spring Cleaning. Unless you are me and you’d much rather focus on Spring Decluttering! This month I’m doing a little Spring Decluttering series focused on categories you may have neglected over time. This week I’m focused on a midlife beauty purge! In my experience, most women in midlife own far more products than they actually need. How did this happen? Because we quietly accumulated free samples, impulse buys, subscriptions and aspirational purchases; only a small fraction of which we actually use.

So let’s slough off all of the products you don’t really need – because they are detracting from your beauty experience. I promise when you are done with this process you will feel confident. You will feel excited to use your products. And dare I say – you will feel more beautiful? At any rate – let’s dig in!

The Types of Beauty Clutter

Don’t be scared of the ‘purge’ part of Midlife Beauty Purge. You aren’t getting rid of everything. When you are a beauty minimalist (like me) or someone who loves to have fun and experiment with their beauty and skincare routine, we all have deadwood in our makeup and skincare collection that can most definitely be classified as clutter.

These types of beauty clutter are what you’re going to be looking for during your purge.

Expired products
Makeup and skincare do expire, I’m sorry to say.  It’s not like you can hurt yourself with an expired lotion but the fact that you didn’t use it up during the multiple years it was ‘good’ should be your sign that it’s time to let go. Mascaras in particular are only good for 6 months before they turn clumpy and gross.

Duplicates
Three mascaras, five moisturizers, six half-used lip balms. Duplicates of products you actually use are fine – you’ll eventually make your way through them. But duplicates in the same category are the ones to watch out for. Some are your go-tos, others serve the same function but will always fall to the back of the line. Those are the ones to toss.

‘Aspirational’ products
The bold lipstick or complicated skincare routine that seemed like a good idea at the time but then you never really picked it up. The beauty industry is really good at selling us hope that they will solve all of our many issues with our faces and skin. You should not feel bad that you got caught in their net. But should be really honest with yourself when confronted with a purchase that you never used. The discomfort is temporary.

Freebies and samples
This one was a killer for me. My many years at Nordstrom netted me so many beauty samples, which I tossed in my travel bag. I kept tossing them in there but hardly used any of them and eventually I couldn’t find the things I did need because they were buried under the samples!

Guilt purchases
Expensive products you feel obligated to finish. These are the ones that make you feel bad every time you see them sitting on your counter. I know – it feels crappy that you wasted your money. But it’s gone now and you aren’t getting it back. It’s time to move on – you’ll feel better when you do.

Separate Into Categories

Hundreds of small items can be overwhelming so before the midlife beauty purge we need to do some sorting. First, sort into the two larger categories – makeup and skincare. Maybe do skincare first because it’s usually less overwhelming. Then follow with the makeup sort.

Group your products into the following families:

Skincare

Lotions, creams, toners, oils, masks, makeup removers, tools.

Makeup

Eyes: liner, shadow, mascara, brushes)

Face: foundation, powder, concealer, blush, bronzer, brushes)

Lips: Lipstick, Lip Balm, Lip Liner, Lip Gloss, Plumper

Nails: Polish, remover, cuticle oil

Once you have the families together you will have a good visual of where you’re over-assorted (i.e. you have too much.) You will likely come across some other items that don’t fit into any of the beauty categories because they migrated from somewhere else. Set those to the side – you can either toss them or put them away later. Now it’s time for the purge!

Curate For Your Needs Today

Actually, the Great Midlife Beauty Purge is actually a Midlife Beauty Curation. You are editing your products down to an assortment that suits your lifestyle today. For instance,there are the products you use daily. Use inside-out decluttering to pluck those out first, those are your high-velocity products and they for sure should stay.

Do you travel? Next pull out the products that you use when you go on a trip. I like to keep a travel-sized/duplicate set of the things I use in a pouch that I can just toss in my bag when I’m packing. It has everything I need in it.

What about the occasions that demand something special? A dramatic lip. A smoky eye. A shimmery bronzer. False lashes. That’s your next layer to pull from the family groups. I like to keep my special occasion stuff separate from my everyday products. Because I don’t need to access it regularly.

Whatever is left likely falls into one of the 5 clutter categories we started with. It’s the stuff that isn’t serving your beauty needs today for whatever reason. You can go through and assess each product individually if you like. But if you have a lot that can be really painful and time consuming as you confront feelings of guilt, waste and shame. Sometimes the better strategy is to sweep it all into a black garbage bag and take it out to the trash (you shouldn’t donate used beauty products.)  It feels bad for a minute but if you push through you’ll find the discomfort is temporary.

A Fresh Start

Now that you’ve completed your midlife beauty purge you’ll notice how easy it is to organize the products you have left. Less clutter makes your everyday routines easier and faster. Beauty products should serve you in midlife, not overwhelm you every time you step to the mirror. You don’t need more products—you need the right ones. Let this purge be your permission slip to keep only what truly supports the kick-ass woman you are today: streamlined, confident, and of course, beautiful!

The post Too Many Beauty Products? How to Do a Simple Midlife Beauty Purge appeared first on Method Seattle.