We Have a Shoe Problem!

We have a shoe problem in my house. Let’s just say there are MANY more pairs owned than worn.

I’ll bet that sounds familiar to a lot of you.

But the real problem is not owning them – it’s storing them!

Some of you may be counted among those lucky people who have custom closets with space specifically allocated for shoes…but, sadly, many of us aren’t. So, what do we do with the growing number of pairs?

Right now, in my house, since we are settling into a new living situation there are shoes at the front and back doors, shoes in both closets and shoes in bins.

Of course, as an organizer, I bought racks to store the shoes neatly in the closets…but as of now they stand empty.

I’ve been struggling because I know some of the shoes will be given away (once we have time to really sort through them), but in the meantime what should we do?

I struggle at least once a week looking at them all!

Do we:

1.      Take all the shoes out of the bins and put them on the racks? If we do that, I’m afraid we will see them as taken care of and it will take even longer to sort through and donate.

2.      Leave them in the bins and stare at them guiltily until we sort them and put away only what we will use

.

What would you do?

It’s funny, we all know the shoes in those bins could probably ALL be donated. If they’ve been sitting there for months, they haven’t been worn and they haven’t been missed. RIGHT?

See…organizer or not, the psychology is still the same. It’s just hard to let go of things. 

Home Organizing Before Selling

This is a topic I truly believe in. It makes no sense to me to just pack everything and move it. It wastes time, money and manpower. When you organize before you move, you take only what you need, love and will use.

Apparently many other organizers agree with me.

I (and many other Professional Organizers) were recently interviewed about this topic, by the people at Inspection Support.

ENJOY THE ARTICLE HERE

Let's Entertain Neatening Things

It’s again that time of year when many people will give up some of their favorite things for Lent.  That is not something I practice but I often wonder what I would (or more specifically) could give up.

Then, as my mind always does, it started to wander onto how I could relate these thoughts to my work? And… it may be a stretch but I came up with this:

L.E.N.T. = Let’s Entertain Neatening Things   

This is something you can do for yourself at any time. Making things neater and tidier will help you feel more in control and grounded.

Here are ten ideas of places to begin:

1-      Junk drawer in your kitchen

2-      Medicine cabinet

3-      Home office drawers

4-      File drawers

5-      Pantry

6-      Bookshelves

7-      Toy boxes or shelves

8-      Garage cabinets

9-      Nightstand drawers

10-   Shed

Now, our main goal here is to tidy up, but while doing this you may take stock of everything in these areas.  If you don’t use them, need them or love them then give them up for your L.E.N.T.

I’d love to hear how it goes!