April 2024 - Organization Pending Newsroom - Upper Arlington, Ohio
Welcome to Organization Pending's Newsroom, April 2024: Get Organized 2024 edition.
Celebrate Get Organized Day with Tabi's Top Five Home Organizing Tips, and podcast episode recommendations with discussions on our "stuff" personality types, hoarding, and impulse buying.
Don't miss two Upper Arlington Updates!
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Get Organized Day: Tip of the Month
Get Organized Day is April 26!
Are you trying to get through the spring cleaning, but you're exhausted by how much stuff there is to move and rearrange, or you've realized how many items were expired and unused throughout the household? For Get Organized Day 2024, commit to scheduling decluttering and organizing sessions for your household! Schedule with yourself or your household partner(s), or reach out to Tabi for one-on-one support to meet your home organizing goals - many couples find it helpful to have a professional working with them as an impartial party, and when one member of the couple works better with someone and the other alone, we can accomplish three times the amount of work!
Tabi's Top Five Home Organizing Tips
Find additional tips on ways to organize your home and life on Organization Pending's Decluttering and Organizing Tips page.
Declutter First: Before organizing and before buying storage products, declutter! Seeing what is able to be donated or recycled, or seeing what needs to be trash is the single best way to start your home organizing journey. By determining the items that are useful, you're able to better see the categories in the room before organizing them.
No Right Way: There is no one way to organize, it's dependent on the needs of you and your family. Consider the different heights of family members when organizing family spaces, entryways, and pantries. Think about the ways backstock is stored in the pantry and bathroom, in one common area or within the daily use zones. Does each family member need seasonal and sentimental storage zones designated?
Family-Friendly: Do the kids need quiet spaces for homework after school? Do they have instruments to practice? Do the pets have designated zones in the home for their belongings? Thinking about the needs of each family member in each space helps let you know when reorganization of furniture could be useful, in addition to organization.
Reuse, Reduce, Recycle: Before buying storage products, reuse items from around the home! Many clients find that we have plenty of leftover storage solutions after decluttering, and enjoy repurposing boxes for DIY drawer organizers.
Measure Twice: Before creating or buying storage products to help maintain organization, plan out the space and measure twice! Use spare boxes to try out new systems, giving you a chance to tweak them before buying permanent solutions. Take a look online at long-term options, and consider a budget before you shop. Don't forget to review the reviews for real-life experiences with the products!
Your "Stuff" Personality Type: Podcast Episode Recommendation
"The average American house has 300,000 items in it. [...] Do we have stuff, or does stuff have us?"
The We Can Do Hard Things podcast got together for Your "Stuff" Personality Type: What Being a Keeper or Clearer Says About You, to talk about stuff and their relationship to it, and how that relationship echoes into other parts of their lives. Glennon shares her experience as a "Clearer" (except for books), while her sister Amanda talks about her home as a "Keeper", and Abby shares her experience with a storage unit that changed her thoughts on stuff entirely -
"Just get rid of it, you guys. It's the best thing that will ever happen to you."
As many home organizers discuss with their clients, Glennon, Abby and Amanda talk about their stuff in the context of moving, as well as in the context of the next generation. The physical burden of stuff can mean needing a deep decluttering before moving, or leaving decisions ultimately to their children. If you're looking for a gentle way to start decluttering for the next generation's needs and wants, take a look at Margareta Magnusson's book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, or contact Organization Pending for compassionate one-on-one assistance and training for long-term results.
Hoarding: Podcast Episodes Recommendation
As a home organizer, I often have clients say their family calls them a hoarder, or clients themselves fear that they are hoarders. Many people are struggling with chronic disorganization, combined with stresses on their time and energy that don't allow them to maintain a decluttering and organizing schedule. Most people are not part of the 2-6% of the population affected by Hoarding Disorder, a "persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value, due to a perceived need to save the items and the distress associated with discarding them. This difficulty discarding possessions results in the accumulation of possessions that congest and clutter active living areas and substantially compromises their intended use, causing clinically significant distress or impairment." (National Center for Biotechnology Information)
The Struggle Care podcast sat down with two hoarding experts, "That Hoarder", host of the Overcome Compulsive Hoarding podcast (episode 57), and Dr. Leslie Hatch Gail, professional organizer, presenter, and hoarding consultant (episode 58).
A life-long struggle with disorganization snowballed into hoarding as an adult - now That Hoarder documents her journey with therapy and her real-life struggles with her "indoor landfill", sharing this sensitive journey that can come with social stigma. By staying anonymous, she's able to share openly about how it's not about the amount of stuff surrounding you -
"it's more about what your thoughts and feelings are doing. You're imbuing this stuff with almost magical powers - 'If I get rid of this, it means I didn't love my mom enough to keep it. Or if I get rid of this, I will never be able to get another one - my life will change and it will be awful. Or if I get rid of this, I might regret it for the rest of my life."
Dr. Leslie Hatch Gail joins the podcast in the next episode to help take a closer look at Hoarding Disorder in society and popular culture, with some historical background of psychology's understanding of it, including children growing up in hoarding environments, and the intersections of trauma, grief, and Hoarding Disorder. Through her work, she discusses the current ideas of Hoarding Disorder as a symptom of root causes; the concept of churning - moving items without making decisions; and how to discuss belongings with children - teaching them how to feel about belongings. "Is it a friend? Is it an acquaintance, or is it family? - helping to teach how to feel about the stuff, and how to prioritize it."
Impulse Buying: Podcast Episode Recommendation
The Frugal Friends sat down to talk about the science, psychology, and marketing research behind in-store impulse buying, including tips to create more intentional shopping habits in their Impulse Buying: What it is & How to Stop podcast episode.
Before diving into any of the below tips (check out the episode for their full list), the Frugal Friends recommend taking a deep dive at your last 90 days of spending, including how price conscious we are at the grocery store on the individual item level. Taking this deep dive lets us know our highest categories of spending, highlighting the number of unnecessary purchases we've been making.
Consider how to satisfy the itch or break the habit - is it the walk around the shop that you enjoy? Take a look at your local nature trails or parks!
Do you enjoy the "treat yourself" attitude more than once a year? Consider at-home or free ways to treat yourself, and examine emotions before stepping into the store - knowing you're vulnerable to a pick-me-up impulse purchase helps you make better informed decisions.
Do you have a habit of going to a place because it's on the way home? Go a different route for a few weeks to break the habit!
Cancel store cards that encourage higher spending, and unsubscribe to store emails - this will help you in your mission to buy when needed, lowering impulse shopping.
Looking for tips on Shopping with Kids?
Upper Arlington Updates
The Upper Arlington Farmers Market starts May 15, open every Wednesday, 3-6pm, until October 23 - check out their new location in front of Littleton's Market at Tremont Shopping Center!
Upper Arlington Parks and Recreation's Spring Fling is Saturday, May 20, 11am-2pm at the Sunny 95 Park! Stop by for a family friendly afternoon with the annual Touch-A-Truck and Fishing Derby events, live music, arts and crafts, face painting, and more!