Even professional journals, how many of you read them over and over? Once you’re done with the papers, go through your pantry for expired cans and jars. Then closets, of course, the closets are the biggest challenge. Because most of them hold more than just clothes. Clear the non-clothing items first. Organizing clothing last as it takes the longest time and energy.

The most important lesson that we can learn is that how much we take in and how much we leave out. Boxes and more boxes. Boxes, containers, and shelves are the our best friends when it comes to organizing. When you come home from outside, whether school, work, grocery shopping, or any shopping trip. Put the stuff away immediately. Put them away even if you’re tired. Putting it off will cause trouble later on.

For kids’ closet, if your kids are young, then you’re in luck. Donate and outgrown ones and if you want to keep some cute outfits for sentimental reason, put them in a space saver bag or a plastic container. You can put them in the basement of attic for storage.

Once you figure out what to keep, get nice hangers and arrange them by colors and seasons. You don’t really need to invest a lot to get a custom closets for children’s rooms. But simple shelves in the closets do magic in space savings.

Put off season clothes in plastic containers and store them underneath the bed. It’s easy to get them and it saves closet space.

Start with your own closet and work to your husband’s if he has a separate one and the kids’. Keep in mind, anything you haven’t worn in 2 years need to be donated or tossed out if they’re not in good condition. Many people say donate cloths that you haven’t worn in 1 year. But I think it’s a little harder to toss out the pretty dress that you bought and never worn once. So try the 2 year rule. Put donations in one large garbage bag and thrown out ones in another. Throw out dry cleaner hangers and old plastic hangers. If you haven’t done so, buy some nice wooden or plastic hangers.

Remember, it’s a lot easier to declutter the closet on your own. If you show the clothes to your husband and ask for his opinion. Most likely he’ll like all of them and you end up keeping them all. It’s hard to donate the dress you worn on the first date with your husband. But if you didn’t wear for 15 years and it no longer fits, let it go. Someone can enjoy them as well as you did. The hardest part is to donate the nice piece that you bought on sale and never wore once because it probably isn’t your size. You can always try to sell it on ebay or consignment store. Just put such items in a separate bag.

Next step, go though your drawers in the kitchen, home office, and bedrooms. Toss out and keep. This will take you the rest of the day. Organize items by bins and mark them using the marker.

The most important part of the day is to clean and declutter. Remember the main reason the house is messy is because you saved too much stuff. So please don’t feel obligated to save. Don’t touch the paperwork such as bank statements, bills yet, just put them in a large plastic bin. You will sort them out later on.

Sometimes it’s harder to get started when there seems to be so much stuff to do. But you can do it! You don’t need to hire a professional organizer. That’s true, you can do it all yourself. Just make sure the children are not around and husband is at work. Give yourself 5 uninterrupted hours to clean, sort, dump, and organize. Then do the same the next day, and the next day…

Day one: this is not your cleaning day, but a day of preparation.

• Get yourself half dozen contractor sized garbage bags
• Markers
• 4-6 Plastic bins (large)
• Cleaning supplies
• Shoe organizers if you don’t already have them (plastic or metal)
• Nice hangers
• Storage bags

There may be cash in your clutter. You have heard the phrase “your trash is someone else’s treasure.” A garage sale is one way to put theory into practice. Attentive marketing of your goods by doing an organized set up of your garage sale is the key to receiving the highest prices.

Sort logically
Sort your discards into logical groupings such as toys, books, tools, seasonal decorations. If customers see a haphazard mix of items, they will quickly leave your garage sale. Garage sale aficionados usually have particular items in mind when they shop and do not want to spend time sifting through unrelated stuff.

Display well
Set up tables and clothing racks to display your wares. Shoppers do not like to bend over and pick through items lying on the ground. If you do not have a clothing rack, improvise by placing a pole between two stepladders. Box your books by subject, spine up, so it is easy for customers to flip through them without making a mess of your display. Label the boxes or use large cards to divide groupings of books.

Highlight Special Collections
Display the glass items separately from your books and craft things to make them more attractive and seem special. Perhaps cover the table with a tablecloth. Make sure glassware is clean. People will be more likely to buy and pay more for wares in pristine condition. Have a separate table for holiday items. Make the display festive and group items in calendar order-Valentine’s Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, etc.

Money Matters and Pricing
Use a fanny pack to hold your money. Unfortunately, dishonest people also frequent garage sales and look for opportunities to steal unattended cash. Have plenty of small bills and quarters to make change. You do not want to lose a sale just because you can’t make change. Price book categories consistently-e.g., paperbacks 50 cents, hardbacks $1. Do the same with DVDs. Sell craft items by the bagful. Label and sell the craft bags for a flat rate. Price everything clearly. Customers do not like to search for someone to ask prices.

Expect to Be Insulted
Expect people to give insulting offers for your things. That is the nature of garage sales. Decide on your goal for your garage sale ahead of time: Do you want to make money or get rid of stuff? You usually will get less for items you sell at a garage sale than you would at an online auction. But you also do not have to go through the hassle of listing, taking photos, and shipping items.

Free Attraction
The word “free” is magic. Have a box of free stuff out front with a large FREE sign on it to attract people to your sale. Include toys to keep children occupied while the parents shop.

Plan What Not to Do with the Leftovers
DO NOT bring anything back into the house. The stuff is in the garage sale because it is time to move on. If you do not get reasonable offers for your more expensive items, you may get more for them as a tax write off for a charitable donation than you would if you take a low ball offer. Call for a pick up by a charitable organization.

The keys to a successful garage sale are organization and a realistic attitude. If you set up your merchandise in an attractive way and greet customers with enthusiasm even when they offer you 10 cents for a $2 item, you will be counting cash instead of hauling away clutter at the end of the sale.

© Copyright 2009 Cheryl Harrell all rights reserved worldwide

Cheryl Harrell is a professional organizer for All Sorted Out, LLC. She sees every organizing project as a puzzle to be solved with simple solutions. You may sign up for her monthly organizing tips at her website, http://organizeatlanta.com/.

Tackle one area at a time: You will be able to get more done, more effectively by focusing on one room/area at a time. If you try to multitask during cleaning then it actually takes you longer to get your chores done. Also, try starting with the more difficult areas to clean such as the bathroom or kitchen, and then move to easier areas. Getting the more difficult rooms done in the beginning allows you to save some energy for the rest of the home.

Get Rid of Stuff!: Getting rid of items that just take up space in your home can make you feel better and can even earn a little money. Again, work on one room at a time. Start two piles in each room: a sell/donate pile for items that are in good shape and a trash pile for items that are in poor condition. Don’t be afraid to get rid of stuff! Chances are that if you have not used it in the past year, you will not miss it when it is gone. This is especially true for clothing, kids toys, kitchen accessories and old books. You will be amazed at the new space that you will have once you get rid of the old and unused.

Deep clean: After you have sorted, purged and organized it is time to clean. Again, tackle one room at a time. This is the perfect time to do those biannual cleaning chores such as cleaning the carpets and washing the inside of kitchen cabinets and drawers. Once those chores are done, you can move to daily/weekly tasks such as dusting and vacuuming.

Other helpful tips:

Sort your paper documents such as bill stubs, medical documentation, etc. Shred any unnecessary documents and neatly file away important documents in a filing cabinet or other storage container.

For out of control craft supplies, separate supplies into logical piles. Since I scrapbook and make hand made greeting cards, my piles were paper, rubber stamps, and miscellaneous craft tools. Consolidate into an easily accessible storage container such as a toolbox on wheels. Many craft stores sell craft storage containers that are perfect for keeping your items organized.

Sort through bathroom cabinets and get rid of any expired medicines, make up, and other toiletries. Using expired items can make you sick!

Keep a purge mentality all year long. This will make your job much easier when the time comes to clean and organize again.

After you have finished, kick up your feet and enjoy your freshly clean home.
About The Author

Amanda Pinkston is a writer for The Craft Cafe. Find card making, scrapbooking, free printables, recipes and more at http://www.thecraftcafe.com

1. Put things back after using them AKA: get rid of the evidence. This is an easy habit to get into and it will make a big difference in clutter control. Teach your family to put things back after using them. If you make a sandwich put everything away that you took out to make the sandwich before you sit down to eat it. Put the bread back, replace the perishables in the fridge, and put the utensils you used in the dishwasher and wipe off the counter. No evidence remains that you fixed a sandwich. This will help eliminate clutter around the home when you get in the habit of doing this in every room.

2. Don’t set something down to deal with later. Later usually means clutter is starting to creep and piles are being made. When you have something in your hands, go ahead and deal with it then and there. Put it where it belongs. You may think it is simpler at the moment to set something down and deal with it later, but it just creates more work later. Get in the habit now of putting it away the second you’re done with it. Teach your family members to do the same.

3. Every night plan on a nightly pick up that will take no more than 10 to 15 minutes. Things do get undone and left out and papers and magazines dropped where they were read and maybe the laundry is folded and sitting on the couch—you get the idea. Have family members help pick up before going to bed because then you won’t have a mess staring you in the face the next morning. This is doing clutter control a little at a time which makes the task easy.

4. Involve the family in learning to keep organized. The reality is that every member of the family plays an important role in maintaining an organized home. Hold a family meeting to decide as a family which responsibilities will be done by each family member.

5. When you are living with the things you love and use and that light you up keep it that way by making sure that everything you bring into your home has a purpose and that you need it or just can’t live without it. Clutter control can be possible if you can adopt the attitude of one in and one out. When you buy something, let something else go. This isn’t always possible to do if you are buying things you need and use but it is something to consider.

6. Keep a toolbox in a place where everyone knows not only where to go to get a tool, but where to go to put it back when they are finished with it. By keeping a toolbox handy, you’ll have the correct tool for the job. It is much easier to pound a nail with a hammer than a shoe, or screw in a screw with a screwdriver rather than a butter knife (which scratches and bends your good knife). Get into the habit of putting the tools back in the tool box as soon as you finish with them.

Clutter Control will be effortless when you use these timely organizing tips and you will be able to Keep organized.

About The Author

Marilyn is a professional organizer who works with women and seniors in clearing clutter and providing organizing tips. Clearing clutter helps those she works with to have less stress in their lives and feel more joy in living.

Marilyn invites you to visit her website http://www.marilynbohn.com where you can find organizing solutions. You will find fun stories and free organizing tips in her blogs, articles and videos.